A significant decision
In 1858, Charles received a letter from Alfred Russel Wallace, a naturalist. By then Charles was a respectful scientist and Wallace wanted his help in order to help him publish a scientific paper. The paper must have been a shock for Charles because it had the same ideas that he himself had about natural selection. We don’t know if Charles wouldn’t have ever published his work if he hadn’t received that letter. But now it was obvious to him that at least one other person had similar ideas to his ideas and he could claim the scientific discovery for himself.
Also Charles was a honest man and didn’t want to pretend that he had never received that letter and publish his work first. He knew that he work for this for many years but he thought it would be unethical not to give a change to Wallace to present his ideas. So he spoke about that and about his ideas to his closest friends and scientists: Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker (a botanist), Thomas Henry Huxley (a biologist) and Sir Charles Lyell (a geologist). They decided to present the scientific works of Charles and Wallace in a scientific meeting in July 1, 1858. There, based on the date of writing, it was obvious that Charles was the…show more content… So he started writing the final text for a book. He finished in May 1859 and on November 24, 1859 his work was published. The title was On the Origins of Species by Means of Natural Selection or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. Today is more known only as The Origins of Species. The public’s interest was huge. Just two days before the official publication of the book his editor had already received 1500 orders. From this first publication the ideas in this book didn’t pass unnoticed. Some people believed that Charles was right in his theories while others believed he was wrong. But, most importantly, the other scientists began to accept his
