���On 5 October 2009 Mike Palij provided a link to the forthcoming TV programme "Darwin's Darkest Hour", the blurb for which includes the following:
"Charles Darwin’s greatest personal crisis: the anguishing decision over whether to "go public"with his theory of evolution. Darwin, portrayed by Henry Ian Cusick (Lost), spent years refining his ideas and penning his book the Origin of Species. Yet, daunted by looming conflict with the orthodox religious values of his day, he resisted publishing — until a letter from naturalist Alfred Wallace forced his hand. In 1858, Darwin learned that Wallace was ready to publish ideas very similar to his own. In a sickened panic, Darwin grasped his dilemma: To delay publishing any longer would be to condemn all of his work to obscurity — his voyage on the Beagle, his adventures in the Andes, the gauchos and bizarre fossils of Patagonia, the finches and giant tortoises of the Galapagos. But to come forward with his ideas risked the fury of the Church and perhaps a rift with his own devoted wife, Emma…" I fear this programme will further propagate common myths about Darwin. To save my expanding on this, may I suggest those interested read the following article: "Mind the gap: Did Darwin avoid publishing his theory for many years? http://tinyurl.com/cobvtn It is by John van Whye, historian of science at=2 0Cambridge University, and Director of The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online. http://darwin-online.org.uk/people/van_wyhe.html A brief (though inadequate) summary of Whye's views is given here: "Contrary to the beliefs of many Darwin scholars, the great evolutionist did not delay publishing his theory for fear of professional ridicule or social shame. According to a new analysis of Charles Darwin's correspondence, the real reason was much more prosaic - he was snowed under with work." http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2007/mar/28/uk.books Re one well-known notion, the supposedly psychosomatic origins of Darwin's chronic illnesses, I had reason earlier this year to check Darwin's letters and diaries to see if there was any correlation between his more severe bouts of sickness and his working on his transmutation of species (evolution) theory as is frequently claimed, and found none. (There were even a couple of occasions that Darwin turned away from writing up one of the many books and articles on which he laboured in the two decades immediately following the Beagle voyage to *follow up* his notes on his transformation theory because he was feeling so ill and hard work on his other writings exacerbated his sickness.) Because he was ill so much of the time, there is no problem for an author to (selectively) 'find' that illness coincided with specific events, both within and without Darwin's personal life. For instance, John Bowlby, in his otherwise excellent biography, is able to 'find' evidence for life events evoking separation anxiety to explain Darwin's bouts of illness (largely on the basis of Darwin's mother having died when he was eight.) Reference "Darwin's illness: a final diagnosis" Fernando Orrego and Carlos Quintana Notes and Records of the Royal Society 2007: 61, 23-29 http://rsnr.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/61/1/23.full.pdf+html Allen Esterson Former lecturer, Science Department Southwark College, London http://www.esterson.org --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected])
