The origin of species without Darwin and Wallace.

Charles Darwin is usually portrayed as the greatest naturalist of all time, a genius who originated the theory of natural selection to explain the theory of evolution or, transmutation, as it was often called in Victorian times. But did Darwin originate any of the ideas given in his famous book On the Origin of Species which first published in 1859? In this paper I wish to provide evidence that all of the ideas found in Darwin’s famous book were in print before 1857 that is two years before On the Origin of Species appeared. Except for the occasional linking word (underlined) nothing has been added to these quotes; the subheadings used, such as the “survival of the fittest” were in use at the time the associated quote was written; the italicised words and punctuation were also used by the authors. In some cases the authors quote ideas to demonstrate their opposition to transmutation, nevertheless in so doing, they put these ideas into the public domain, from where they could have been accessed by Darwin, or any other naturalist of the day. I have also capitalised “Man” throughout. From these quotes, it is clear that (a) had the Origin of Species not been written a theory of evolution by natural selection (approximating to that provided by Darwin and Wallace) could have been produced by any naturalist using the literature already published up to 1857, and (b) that neither Darwin, nor Alfred Russel Wallace, originated the ideas published in the Origin. When reading this paper it is important to bare in mind that Darwin, potentially, had access to all of the quotes it contains. In contrast, none of the authors of these quotes had access to any of Darwin’s notebooks.