THE DARWINIAN THEORY 



545 



Chambers, entitled the " Vestiges of Creation " (1844), to which 

 due credit has not been given by historians of Evolution. 



Charles Darwin (1809-1882) thus began his work twenty years 

 before the pubhcation of his '' Origin of Species." The fact 

 that he was interested in determining whether species originated 

 by creation or by transmuta- 

 tion, that is, by evolution, 

 shows that the question was 

 then under discussion. The 

 idea of evolution seemed 

 new in 1859 only because 

 the evidence was so ably 

 presented by Darwin and so 

 rapidly accepted by scientists 

 and by others who had 

 previously known nothing of 

 such a doctrine. It is rather 

 discreditable to biologists 

 that they failed to recognize 

 at an earlier date evidence 

 which had been steadily 

 accumulating since the work 

 of Buffon (1749), and which 

 was quite adequate for 

 acceptance of evolution, 

 aside from its causes, as 

 early as 1840. Nevertheless, 

 Darwin deserves the place 

 he occupies, because he 

 brought about the accept- 

 ance of evolution by his 

 masterful summary and ex- 

 tension of the evidence. 



The publication of " The Origin of Species " was the beginning 

 of a new epoch, both in biological science and in human thought. 

 In 1900 the " Origin " ranked as one of the half-dozen most 

 important books of the century in the number printed. What is 

 less well understood, even at the present day, is the ramifica- 

 tions of evolution, as thus established by Darwin, in othe r 

 fields of thought and investigation. 



Fig. 300.— Charles Darwin (1809-1882), 

 first to establish the doctrine of organic 

 evolution upon a secure foundation, and 

 to propose Natural Selection as a cause 

 of such evolution. 



(From Pirsson and Schuchert, " Textbook of 

 Geology," John Wiley & Sons, copyright, 1924, 

 reprinted by permission.) 



