[The year 2009 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin and the 150th anniversary of the publication of “On The Origin of Species.” The University of Cincinnati is marking these anniversaries with a year-long celebration of Darwin’s life and work. This series on the life of Charles Darwin is part of the celebration.]By mid-June, 1858, Charles Darwin had been developing his theory of evolution through natural selection for more than 20 years. He had already shared his ideas with several colleagues and written two papers, but had purposely avoided publication. On June 18, 1858, Darwin received a package from Alfred Russel Wallace, a naturalist working in the Malay Archipelago. The package contained a draft manuscript that succinctly described natural selection as an explanatory mechanism for evolution. Darwin’s heart sank as he realized that Wallace could preempt him in publication of his idea. His own book, tentatively titled “Natural Selection”, was about half finished, with no possibility of completion before Wallace published his paper. Darwin’s close colleagues, Joseph Hooker and Charles Lyell, eager to see his 20-year effort recognized, arranged for a reading of Darwin’s and Wallace’s papers jointly at the July 1, 1858, meeting of the Linnean Society. By all accounts, the papers made little impact on the attendees.
Over the next 10 months, Darwin worked feverishly to complete and finalize his book. He sent the completed draft to publisher John Murray in early May, 1859, under the title “An Abstract of an Essay on the Origin of Species and Varieties through Natural Selection.” Murray returned the draft with several suggested changes, including a more marketable title. Darwin’s work was ultimately published on November 24, 1859, under the title “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life.” Unlike the largely ignored Linnean Society papers, “The Origin of Species” sparked immediate reaction. Some, including Herbert Spencer and Thomas Henry Huxley, aggressively supported Darwin’s argument. Others, like Richard Owen and Adam Sedgwick, were equally aggressive in criticizing the book as deeply flawed.
“The Origin of Species” generated such varied and vocal response partially because both scientists and non-scientists easily understood the theory that it proposed. According to Darwin, current species are not the product of independent creation events. Instead, current species evolved from (are the modified descendants of) preceding species. Further, Darwin argued, evolution is driven primarily by a continually operating process he called natural selection. Given unlimited resources, like food or hiding places, populations are capable of rapid growth. But resources are not unlimited, so individuals in the population must compete with each other for those scarce resources. Individuals who, through natural variation, are better at obtaining resources will have an advantage in this “struggle for existence.” Over time, Darwin reasoned, the heritable features of the better adapted competitors would spread through the population and modify it. The population (or species) would evolve.
Charles Darwin was not the first to suggest evolution. Several earlier naturalists, notably Georges Louis Buffon, Erasmus Darwin, and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, either proposed that species were not fixed or offered possible mechanisms by which species evolved. Darwin was also not the first to describe natural selection as a biological phenomenon. Geologist James Hutton, physician Charles Wells, agriculturalist Patrick Matthew, and zoologist/pharmacist Edward Blythe all described selection, or selection-like processes, before Darwin. Given these predecessors, why was “The Origin of Species” so momentous? Social and scientific developments in the 1840-1860 period, the accessibility of the book, and Darwin’s reputation all played a role. In short, it was the right book at the right time by the right author.
[There are several outstanding biographies of Charles Darwin readily available to the public. The definitive biography is a two volume work by E. Janet Browne titled “Charles Darwin: Voyaging” and “Charles Darwin: The Power of Place.” “Darwin: the Life of a Tormented Evolutionist,” by Adrian Desmond and James Moore is also highly regarded. For a shorter biography of Darwin try “The Reluctant Mr. Darwin,” by David Quammen.]