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Evolution primary sources
- 1. CHARLES DARWIN Darwin was a British scientist who laid the foundations of the theory of evolution and transformed the way we think about the natural world.
- 2. SCIENTIFIC CAREER In 1831, he joined a five year scientific expedition on the survey ship HMS Beagle.
- 3. CREATIONIST BELIEFS At this time, most Europeans believed that the world was created by God in seven days as described in the bible.
- 4. RADICAL IDEAS FOSSIL EVIDENCE On the voyage, Darwin read Lyell’s ‘Principles of Geology’ which suggested that the fossils found in rocks were actually evidence of animals that had lived many thousands or millions of years ago.
- 5. RADICAL IDEAS SPECIES DIVERSITY Lyell’s argument was reinforced in Darwin’s own mind by the rich variety of animal life and the geological features he saw during his voyage.
- 6. THEORY OF EVOLUTION On his return to England in 1836, Darwin tried to solve the riddles of these observations and the puzzle of how species evolve. Influenced by the ideas of Malthus, he proposed a theory of evolution occurring by the process of natural selection.
- 7. SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST The animals (or plants) best suited to their environment are more likely to survive and reproduce, passing on the characteristics which helped them survive to their offspring. Gradually, the species changes over time.
- 8. ORIGIN OF THE SPECIES Darwin worked on his theory for 20 years. After learning that another naturalist, Alfred Russel Wallace, had developed similar ideas, the two made a joint announcement of their discovery in 1858. In 1859 Darwin published 'On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection'.
- 9. CONTROVERSY Darwin’s “Origin of the Species” book was extremely controversial, because the logical extension of Darwin's theory was that homo sapiens was simply another form of animal. It made it seem possible that even people might just have evolved - quite possibly from apes - and destroyed the prevailing orthodoxy on how the world was created.
- 10. CHURCH CRITICISM Darwin was vehemently attacked, particularly by the Church. However, his ideas soon gained currency and have become the new orthodoxy.
- 11. The Creation of Adam by Michelangelo c 1512
- 12. "Monkeyana" Punch London, May 18, 1861, p. 206. "Am I a Man and a Brother?" asks a gorilla, playing off the anti-slavery campaign, with a humorous verse commenting on the reaction to Darwin.
- 13. "A Venerable Orang-outang", a caricature of Charles Darwin as an ape published in The Hornet, a satirical magazine Editorial cartoon depicting Charles Darwin as an ape (1871)
- 14. Man is but a worm A satirical cartoon from 1882, parodying Darwin's theory of evolution, on the publication of The Formation of Vegetable Mould Through the Action of Worms
- 16. Merchant's Gargling Oil Songster Lockport, N.Y.: Merchant's Gargling Oil, [1887] DeGolyer, Pamphlet Collection, M1628 .M58
- 17. A Logical Refutation of Mr Darwin's Theory. Jack (who has been reading passages from the "Descent of Man" to the Wife whom he adores, but loves to tease). "So you see, Mary, Baby is descended from a hairy quadruped, with pointed ears and a tail. We ALL are!" Mary. "Speak for yourself, Jack! I'm not descended from anything of the kind, I beg to say; and Baby takes after me. So, there!“ Punch London April 1 1871 p130.
Editor's Notes
- God is depicted as an elderly white-bearded man wrapped in a swirling cloak while Adam, on the lower left, is completely nude. God's right arm is outstretched to impart the spark of life from his own finger into that of Adam, whose left arm is extended in a pose mirroring God's, a reminder that man is created in the image and likeness of God (Gen 1:26). Another point is that Adam's finger and God's finger are not touching. It gives the impression that God, the giver of life, is reaching out to Adam who receives it; they are not on "the same level" as would be two humans shaking hands, for instance. Popular theories Several hypotheses have been put forward about the meaning of The Creation of Adam's highly original composition, many of them taking Michelangelo's well-documented expertise in human anatomy as their starting point. In 1990, an Anderson, Indiana physician named Frank Meshberger, M.D. noted in the medical publication the Journal of the American Medical Association that the background figures and shapes portrayed behind the figure of God appeared to be an anatomically accurate picture of the human brain.[8] Dr. Meshberger's interpretation has been discussed by Dr. Mark Lee Appler.[9] On close examination, borders in the painting correlate with major sulci of the cerebrum in the inner and outer surface of the brain, the brain stem, the frontal lobe, the basilar artery, the pituitary gland and the optic chiasm.[8] Alternatively, it has been observed that the red cloth around God has the shape of a human uterus (one art historian has called it a "uterine mantle"[10]), and that the scarf hanging out, coloured green, could be a newly cut umbilical cord.[11] "This is an interesting hypothesis that presents the Creation scene as an idealised representation of the physical birth of man. It explains the navel that appears on Adam, which is at first perplexing because he was created, not born of a woman."[12]
- Natural selection brought up the controversy that humans were once animals. Many people disagreed with this and thought that the idea than man was once beast was absurd; man was supposed to stay superior to animals. It also went against Catholic religion because Catholicism taught that humans were made in God’s image and thus have not changes through time.
- This cartoon shows a worm emerging from "Chaos" and evolving into various animals, culminating in a Victorian dandy bowing to Darwin, who strikes a pose much like God in Michelangelo's famous painting in the Sistine Chapel. It is a satire on Darwin's most recent book, The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms, With Observations on Their Habits.
- This cartoon was published in Harper’s Weekly in 1871, the year Darwin’s The Descent of Man was first published. The “Mr. Bergh” being referred to is Henry Bergh, who founded the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in 1866. As for the gorilla, the great ape prominently featured in political cartoons and satire as the public was fascinated with them, and some naturalists placed them closer to humans than chimpanzees. (Although they had been known to be real creatures since 1847, it wasn’t until Paul du Chaillu brought specimens of gorillas back to England in 1861 that the popularity of the ape really took off.) Not everyone was so sure just how closely the gorilla was related to Homo sapiens, though, especially since chimpanzees seemed to be equally good candidates. In Man’s Place in Nature, for instance, T.H. Huxley used the gorilla to exemplify the similarities between great apes and our species, but this was primarily due to the popularity of the gorilla at the time. Indeed, Huxley remained agnostic as to whether chimpanzees or gorillas were closer to us, a question that would not concretely be resolved until the molecular studies of the late 20th century (i.e. King’s 1973 dissertation “Protein polymorphisms in chimpanzee and human evolution,” Sibley & Ahlquist’s “The phylogeny of hominoid primates, as indicated by DNA-DNA hybridization” published in 1984).