When in the 19th century was Darwins transmutation thesis generally accepted, and why?
Darwin’s (and of course Wallace’s) theory of natural selection was first presented at a meeting of the Royal Society in London and was accepted at once by scientists with competence in the field. It accounted so neatly for a huge body of observed facts that there was no other option. To this day, though it has of course been developed and modified in the light of much further research, it has not been superseded. In the population at large it was not so immediately accepted. Some religious groups rejected it on the authority of the Bible. Many who were without fundamentalist faith also found it hard to accept that they were related to monkeys, camels and blackbeetles – not to mention nettles and elm trees! However it was being taught in schools as mainstream science by the first years of the 20thC and publicised by such popularising series as “The Thinkers’ Library” so I suppose widespread acknowledgement of its validity dates back (in round figures) about a century.
