(The anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin) ’For anyone studying the symbols of our time,’ writes English biologist and thinker Thomas Huxley (1825-1895), ’the emergence of the philosophy of evolution, regarding its position at the throne of human thought, whereupon it came from the limbo of the despised, and as many hoped forgotten things, will represent the greatest landmark of the 19th century.’
Its creator, the author of the theory of evolution, English naturalist Charles Darwin (1809-1882), was born on 12 February, 214 years ago. For most of his life, completely lived in the 19th century, Darwin was exclusively known across England as the author of the book ‘The Voyage of the Beagle’, which made him famous, and brought him financial security, and it contained numerous exotic biological findings.
Whole four decades after his return from HMS Beagle, Darwin continuously resided in his home in Downe, having no wish whatsoever to travel anywhere again. However, although during this period the idea of the living world transmutations inspired him to collect and interpret evidence from palaeontology, embryology, geology, botany and zoology, Darwin kept his theory under wraps until 1859.
One of the reasons why he so tremulously voiced his ‘Descent with modification’ was the conditions in which transformism teaching had been in the mid-19th century. The biology of that time was heavily dominated by French anatomist, and the father of palaeontology, Georges Cuvier (1769–1832), and it seemed even to Darwin himself that transformism was understood as heresy in scientific circles.
The beginnings of transformism date back to the 17th century, while the teaching on transmutations in the living world gained strength in the research of Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778). In the late 18th century, along with the advancement of mathematics and more frequent discoveries of fossil remains, numerous naturalists turned to transformism. Charles Darwin’s grandfather Erasmus (1731–1802), who published ‘Zoonomia; or, The Laws of Organic Life’ in 1794, was one of them too.
His work did not have a crucial impact on his grandson. As stated in his ‘Autobiography’’, Charles Darwin read Zoonomia twice, but he reached a disappointing conclusion about a rather excessive use of speculations compared to facts. As Thomas Huxley suggested ‘Erasmus Darwin actually anticipated Lamarck, not Charles Darwin.’
Before Darwin, the first wholesome theory of evolution was put forth by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744–1829), in his book ‘’Philosophie Zoologique’ in 1809, however, it was he who was also responsible for the downfall of his theory. In a lengthy debate with Cuvier, he did not manage to defend transformist concepts, which naturalists subsequently abandoned.
Instead of individuals, Darwin began observing the behaviour of populations, giving an explanation of how transmutations occur in natural selection. Along with Lamarck, he was mostly influenced by the work of English geologist Charles Lyell (1797–1875) titled ‘Principles of Geology,’ which he read while on the voyage on the Beagle.
It turned out that he was not alone in exploring transformism. In the spring of 1857, Darwin received a letter from the Malay Archipelago by the researcher Alfred Russel Wallace (1823–1913), who explicated his vision of the struggle for survival, to which he had arrived independently and published in the previous year of 1856.
The emergence of Wallace’s alternative theory is considered a turning point that mostly spurred Darwin to finally come forth with his scientific teachings. It was revealed that Darwin’s work, after all, had not been a mystery among scientists, since in the following year, he received multiple letters encouraging him to publish his theory. This makes Darwin’s precedence as the evolution maker undisputable.
Nevertheless, in the upcoming year, Darwin accelerated his work on the book, and in 1859, his ‘Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection’ was published. The first edition saw an incredible success for a scientific book, probably one of the last ones written in a language easily understood by the general public, and whose first edition sold out in a week. For this reason, cynics are prone to telling that it took seven days for God to create the world, and for Darwin to introduce the theory of evolution.
S.B.
Illustration: Depositphotos/Snegok13