Inception of Darwin's Theory - Transmutation

Transmutation

Darwin was concerned to make sure that his theorising, whether published or private, fully complied with the accepted scientific methodology of his peers. John Herschel and William Whewell were recognised as the leading authorities on science, and were valuable connections for him.

Scientific circles were buzzing with ideas of natural theology. In a letter to Lyell, Herschel had written of “that mystery of mysteries, the replacement of extinct species by others”. This was circulated and widely discussed, with scientists sharing Herschel's approach of looking for an answer through laws of nature and rejecting ad hoc miracles as an explanation. Charles Babbage described God as a programmer of such laws. Darwin's freethinking brother Erasmus was part of this Whig circle and a close friend of the writer Harriet Martineau who promoted the Malthusianism underlying the controversial Whig Poor Law reforms to stop welfare from causing overpopulation and more poverty, which were then being implemented piecemeal in the face of opposition to the new poorhouses. As a Unitarian she welcomed the radical implications of transmutation of species, which was promoted by Grant and some medical men but anathema to Darwin's Anglican friends who saw it as a threat to the social order. Transmutation threatened the essential distinction between man and beast, and implied progressive improvement with the implication that the lower orders could aspire to the privileges of their aristocratic overlords.

The medical establishment controlling the London teaching hospitals, including the Royal College of Surgeons, was restricted to Anglicans and dominated by the aristocracy who saw perfect animal design as proof a natural theology supporting their ideas of God-given rank and privilege. Since the 1820s large numbers of private medical schools joined by the new had introduced the "philosophical anatomy" of Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire based on unity of plan compatible with the transmutation of species, implying ideas of progressive improvement and hence radical support for democracy. This anatomy had already spread from Paris to the medical schools of Edinburgh, and the new London schools attracted Scots including Grant. Numerous journals new promoted these radical ideas, including Thomas Wakley's The Lancet started in 1823 with support from William Cobbett and William Lawrence, whose 1819 publication of evolutionary ideas had been prosecuted for blasphemy. In response, the medical establishment gave support to the idealist biology of Joseph Henry Green and his younger protégé Richard Owen, based on the vitalism of German Naturphilosophie and Platonic idealism which held that anatomical forms were "archetypes" in the Divine mind, imposed through "descensive" powers of delegation of divine authority in accordance with traditional hierarchies.