In June 1860, the Oxford Natural History Museum hosted an open plenary session on a new book, The Origin of Species. Two thousand people turned up, a prizefighters’ crowd. The discussion period got seriously out of hand. The aftershocks of that day are with us still.
In physician and medical historian Howard Markel portrays the two years surrounding the publication of Darwin’s dangerous text. The vital close-up is an oratorical duel between Bishop Samuel Wilberforce of the Church of England, defending Creation-based natural history, and Darwin’s stand-in, London biologist Thomas Huxley, who advocated for fact-led
