Transmutation of Species - Terminology

Terminology

Transmutation was one of the names commonly used for evolutionary ideas in the 19th century before Charles Darwin published On The Origin of Species (1859). Transmutation had previously been used as a term in alchemy to describe the transformation of base metals into gold. Other names for evolutionary ideas used in this period include the development hypothesis (one of the terms used by Darwin) and the theory of regular gradation, used by William Chilton in the periodical press such as The Oracle of Reason. Transformation is another word used quite as often as transmutation in this context. These early 19th century evolutionary ideas played an important role in the history of evolutionary thought.

The proto-evolutionary thinkers of the 18th and early 19th century had to invent terms to label their ideas, and the terminology did not settle down until some time after the publication of the Origin of Species. The word evolution was quite a late-comer: it can be seen in Herbert Spencer's Social Statics of 1851, and there is at least one earlier example, but it was not in general use until about 1865-70.