The Coming of Evolution The Story of a Great Revolution in Science

About this book

A reprint of a classical work in the Cambridge Library Collection.

John Wesley Judd (1840–1916) had a distinguished career, serving as both President of the Geological Society and Dean of the Royal College of Science. Before his retirement as Professor of Geology from Imperial College, he wrote this concise and accessible review of the beginnings of evolutionary theory. Judd skilfully examined the roots of an idea that, already by 1910, had profoundly influenced every branch of science and permeated the work of historians, politicians and theologians. His lively narrative introduces the key individuals, including Darwin and Lyell, who brought about this intellectual revolution. Judd analyses the principal influences that worked upon these scientists as well as the factors that permitted them to remain open to radical new views. His appreciation of the vision, courage and far-reaching impact of the work of both Lyell and Darwin, and the interplay between their ideas, is persuasively and eloquently expressed.

Contents

1. Introductory
2. Origin of the idea of evolution
3. The development of the idea of evolution to the inorganic world
4. The triumph of catastrophism over evolution
5. The revolt of Scrope and Lyell against catastrophism
6. The Principles of Geology
7. The influence of Lyell's works
8. Early attempts to establish the doctrine of evolution for the organic world
9. Darwin and Wallace
10. The Origin of Species
11. The influence of Darwin's works
12. The place of Lyell and Darwin in history

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