 As Darwin envisioned it, with the acceptance of his theory, “a grand untrodden field of inquiry will be opened” (Origin 1859: 486) in biology and natural history. The long-standing issues of species origins, if not the ultimate origins of life, as well as the causes of their extinction, had been brought within the domain of naturalistic explanation. It is in this context that he makes the sole reference in the text to the claim that “light will be thrown on the origin of man and his history” (Origin 1859: 488).