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_Oman t1_j808r8j wrote

Reply to comment by NakoL1 in What did Darwin mean by "genetic connection"? by DisgruntledBrDev

I would say that they didn't understand what the mechanism or exact rules were that influence inheritance, but they certainly understood the basics. There have been texts about parentage and selectively breeding livestock well before Darwin. Darwin helped to put the micro-generation scope in line with the macro-generation scope.

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DisgruntledBrDev OP t1_j811qd9 wrote

A bit later in the same chapter he says "[...] but it serves to aknowledge plainly our ignorance of the cause of each particular variation", and "The evidence that accidental mutilations can be inherited is at present not decisive". Oh, and the first two chapters are dedicated to breeding and human selection, and he legit says "if you went to a breeder and explain our theory about extinct variants being the ancestors of their cattle, they'll laugh at your face".

It seems to me that he understood the basics, but the scientific community was still divided and colecting evidence was quite hard at the time.

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babar90 t1_j8z4q22 wrote

Darwin's book is about inheritance as a broad concept, and the whole point of the book is to refine it a lot and use it to explain the evolution of species.

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