The Emergence of Darwinism

PERSPECTIVES IN BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE Volume III · Number 3 · Spring i960 THE EMERGENCE OF DAR WINISM* SIR JULIAN HUXLEY, F.R.S. Today we celebrate the centenary ofan outstanding event in the history ofscience—the birth ofDarwinism or evolutionary biology, initiated by thejoint contribution ofCharles Darwin and Alfred Russell Wallace to the Linnean Society ofLondon announcing their independent discovery ofthe principle ofnatural selection. I say Darwinism because not only did Darwin have priority in conceiving that evolution must have occurred, and could only have occurred through the mechanism ofnatural selection, but also he contributed far more than Wallace, or indeed than any other man, to the solution ofthe problem and the development ofthe subject. I shall therefore speak almost entirely about Darwin and Darwinism, endeavoring to bring out facts and ideas which illuminate Darwin's unique role in the history ofour science. Charles Darwin has rightly been described as the "Newton ofbiology": he did more than any single individual before or since to change man's attitude to the phenomena of life and to provide a coherent scientific framework ofideas for biology in place ofan approach in large part compounded of hearsay, myth, and superstition. He rendered evolution inescapable as a fact, comprehensible as a process, all-embracing as a concept. His industry was prodigious. His published books run to over eight thousand printed pages and contain, on my rough estimate, at least three million words. His scientific correspondence must have reached similar dimensions, and his contributions to scientificjournals comprise well over four hundred pages. * The Darwin-Wallace Memorial Lecture deliveredJuly 16, 1958, to the XVth International Congress ofZoology, reprinted by kind permission ofThe Linnean Society ofLondon. 32I The range ofsubjects with which he dealt, often as an initiator and always magisterially, was equally remarkable. Let us first recall that at the outset ofhis career he was more a geologist than a biologist, that his first scientific works—on coral reefs and on the geology ofSouth America— dealt with geological subjects, and that the only professional position he ever occupied was that of Secretary to the Geological Society. Later he dealt with the taxonomy and biology ofthat "difficult" group ofanimals, the barnacles or Cirripedes, in its entirety; with the principles and practice ofclassification; with the evidences for evolution; the theories ofnatural and sexual selection and their implications; the descent of man, including the evolution ofhis intellectual, moral, and aesthetic faculties; the emotions and their expression in men and animals; geographical distribution, domestication , variation in nature and under domestication, the effects ofselfand cross-fertilization (or, as we shouldnowsay, in-and out-breeding) and various remarkable adaptations for securing cross-fertilization; the movements ofplants, insectivorous plants, and the activities ofearthworms. Not only is he the acknowledged parent ofevolutionary biology, but he is also prominent among the founding fathers ofthe sciences we now call ecology and ethology. Above all, he was a great naturalist, in the proper sense that he was profoundly interested in observing and attempting to comprehend the phenomena ofnature, though at the same time he managed to keep abreast of pure scientific advance in the fields which concerned him, such as general botany, embryology, paleontology, biogeography, taxonomy, and comparative anatomy, as well as with the activities of both professionals and amateurs in what we should now call plant and animal breeding. His passion for natural history showed itself from early childhood. Later, like most true naturalists, besides being motivated by intellectual interest, he was deeply moved by the wonder and beauty ofnature. As a young man, he found an "exquisite delight in fine scenery,"1 and he enjoyed exploring wild and strange country. 1 Autobiography, L and L, I, ???. Note: In the biographical references, L. and L. denotes TAe Life and Letters ofCharles Darwin, ed. F. Darwin (3 vols.; 3d ed., 1887); Origin denotes The Origin ofSpecies, by Charles Darwin (reprint of 6th ed., 1872, with Preface by Sir Gavin de Beer, Oxford University Press, 1956); Descent ofMan denotes The Descent ofMan and Selection in Relation to Sex, by Charles Darwin (reprint of2d ed., 1874, John Murray, Ltd., 1922); "Nora Barlow" denotes The Autobiography ofCharles Darwin (ist complete version, edited and annotated by Nora Barlow [London: Collins, 1958]).' 322 SirJulian...