Comparison of the Mental Powers of and the Lower Animals

Comparison of the Mental Powers of and the Lower Animals

The idea of evolution the gradual change of species through some kind of modification of varieties had been in the air for many years when Darwin began his work. Alfred Russell Wallace (1823-1913), a younger English scientist, revealed in 1858 that he was about to propose the same theory of evolution as was Darwin. They joined and published their theories together, and the next year Darwin rushed his Origin of Species. As father of evolutionary theory, Darwin because the nineteenth century's most influential scientist.

Darwin does not mention human beings as part of the evolutionary process in the Origin of Species. Because he was particularly concerned with the likelihood of adverse reactions of the part of theologians, he merely promised later discussion of that subject. It came in The Descent of Man (1871), the companion to The Origin of Species (1859).