Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection was a
synthesis of ideas that had been brewing for centuries, indeed
millennia, about the origins of and relationships between the
organisms inhabiting the planet. That its time had come is
evidenced by the nearly identical theory of Alfred Wallace that
almost scooped Darwin’s publication. In what follows, I will
briefly outline Rebecca Stott’s book “Darwin’s Ghosts,” which
provides an excellent sketch of the people and ideas before
Darwin. In the third and subsequent editions of “The Origin of
Species,” Darwin added a preface called “An Historical Sketch”.
This is a list, along with some brief notes, of some 30 men who
had made significant contributions to understanding the
relatedness of all organisms, living and extinct. The list
begins in the fourth century BC with perhaps the first natural
philosopher, Aristotle. Three books, “Parts of Animals,” “The
History of Animals” and “On the Generation of Animals” represent
the first systematic, empirical a