Glutton Club (1820s)
Before Charles Darwin traveled to the Galapagos Islands and became a controversial figure for his theory of evolution, he developed a reputation for adventure as a member of Cambridge University’s Glutton Club, students who literally ate their research. They were infamous for seeking out “birds and beasts which were before unknown to human palate.”
His experience at the Glutton Club led to Darwin’s later taste-testing of other exotic meats such as Puma, iguana, armadillos, giant tortoise (and tried to drink their urine, but said it was “limpid,”, and had only a very slightly bitter taste”), the ostrich-like lesser rhea, and a rodent believed to be an agouti, meat Darwin declared as “the best I ever tasted.”
