Debt Discharged

By Peter Stoler

DARWIN AND THE MYSTERIOUS MR. X by Loren Eiseley

Dutton; 278 pages; $12.95

How did Charles Darwin arrive at his epochmaking theory of evolution? Tradition has it that he first got the idea while returning to England aboard the Beagle, refined his thinking in his study in Kent, and then elucidated it in the works he began publishing in 1859. But did Darwin reach this intellectual, not to say biological, milestone on his own?

Not according to Loren Eiseley. For decades prior to his death in 1977, the distinguished anthropologist and writer (The Immense Journey) tried to trace the origins of the ideas credited to Darwin. Now, in this collection of posthumously published essays, he reveals his findings. "There will always be an ineluctable mystery concerning the origin of the theory of natural selection, just as there will always be a shadowy web surrounding the real Charles Darwin," writes Eiseley. But as anyone who reads his book will realize, Eiseley has come closer than anyone else to solving that mystery and breaking that web. In graceful, occasionally poetic prose, he shows how Darwin, who was initially timid about advancing his theory, was almost beaten into print by Alfred Russel Wallace, a younger, all but unknown researcher. After discussion, the two agreed to announce their theory simultaneously. Eiseley also outlines Darwin's relationship with Charles Lyell, whose research established modern geology and laid the foundation for his colleague's achievements, but who was himself uneasy about the idea of evolution.

Eiseley's most significant accomplishment, though, is to rediscover another English naturalist named Edward Blyth, who as early as 1835 set forth the tenets of what later became known as the the ory of natural selection. Darwin, Eiseley argues persuasively, was more than just a little familiar with Blyth's work, and even quoted from one of his papers. But Darwin never publicly acknowledged, let alone discharged, his debt to Blyth, and history has been no kinder. Eiseley's ex pose in no way diminishes Charles Dar win's importance, but it does help ex plain his achievement. Like other scientists who were also able to see great distances, he was standing on the shoulders of giants. --Peter Stoler

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