Chapter Ussher-ing in Evolution of The Origin of Species - Study Guide by Charles Darwin

Weismann (1834 - 1914), though it remained credible long enough to plague Darwin and his theories. (see The Spectre of Lamarck).

Lamarck was not the only scientist to conceive of a system of evolution, or a connection between mankind and the animals. At the end of the eighteenth century Lord James Burnett Monboddo in Of the Origin and Progress of Language, (1773-92) had insisted (to much mockery) that the orang-utan was a brother to Homo sapiens at an earlier point in his development. 1844 saw the anonymous publication (it was later revealed to be the publisher Robert Chambers) of Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation, which maintained that the fossil record was evidence of the continuous transformation of God's original creation. And in 1852, Herbert Spencer, who was later to take up the Darwinian baton for political purposes (see Natural Selection and 'The Survival of the Fittest'), had proposed a general theory of evolution.

But, any evolutionary theory, however credible, would only be possible given a sufficient time-span for it to operate in, and it was not until the late eighteenth century that geologists began to recognise the true age of the earth. Not only this, but the evidence of geological change was crucial for the notion of concomitant biological change. The doctrine of Uniformitarianism, that held that the Earth had undergone gradual change over millions of years through the processes that were still evident - wind, rain, erosion, subsidence, volcanic activity and so on - was first proposed in 1788 by geologist James Hutton (1726 - 97). Though largely overlooked at the time, these ideas were taken up and popularised by Charles Lyell (1797 - 1875). Though Lyell had trouble accepting the broadening of his theories of geological change to biological evolution, he was to prove a crucial influence on Darwin who had Lyell's Principles of Geology with him during the voyage of the Beagle. Origin contains no less than fifteen references to the work of Lyell, and Huxley later wrote, "I cannot but believe that Lyell was for others, as for me, the chief agent in smoothing the road for Darwin."