Chapter XIII 
Darwin’s Claim to Descent with Modification 
R. ALLEN, in his ‘“‘ Charles Darwin,’ says that “ in 
the public mind Mr. Darwin is commonly regarded 
as the discoverer and founder of the evolution hypothesis,” 
and on p. 177 he says that to most men Darwinism and 
evolution mean one and the same thing. Mr. Allen declares 
misconception on this matter to be “ so extremely general ”’ 
as to be ‘‘ almost universal ; ’’ this is more true than credit- 
able to Mr. Darwin. 
Mr. Allen sayst that though Mr. Darwin gained “ far 
wider general acceptance ” for both the doctrine of descent 
in general, and for that of the descent of man from a simious 
or semi-simious ancestor in particular, “ he laid no sort of 
claim to originality or proprietorship in either theory.” 
This is not the case. No one can claim a theory more fre- 
quently and more effectually than Mr. Darwin claimed 
descent with modification, nor, as I have already said, is it 
likely that the misconception of which Mr. Allen complains 
would be general, if he had not so claimed it. The “‘ Origin 
of Species ’’ begins :— 
“When on board H.M.S. Beagle, as naturalist, I was 
much struck with certain facts in the distribution of the 
inhabitants of South America, and in the geological relation 
of the present to the past inhabitants of that continent. 
These facts seemed to me to throw some light on the origin 
of species—that mystery of mysteries, as it has been called 
by one of our greatest philosophers. On my return home it 
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