>After you are both thus convinced that common descent was widely held by
>most scientists before Darwin, could you give me the exact references?
>I ever thought it was Darwin who brought the scientific community to drop
>the belief the constancy of species or a little higher category.
Erasmus Darwin, Charles grandfather had advanced a pretty serious theory of
evolution including the evolution of man, but It has been a while since I
read the material. THere were plenty of others.