The Other Darwin

This is a theory of how life developed:

'Would it be too bold to imagine, that in the great length of time, since the earth began to exist, perhaps millions of ages before the commencement of the history of mankind... that all warm-blooded animals have arisen from one living filament... with the power of acquiring new parts, attended with new propensities, directed by irritations, sensations, volitions, and associations; and thus possessing the faculty of continuing to improve by its own inherent activity, and of delivering down those improvements by generation to its posterity, world without end'

These were the words written by Erasmus Darwin - the grandfather of the famous Charles Darwin. He died in 1802, before his famous grandson was even born. His works were influential in how the theory of evolution would develop, and he was also a well-renowned doctor in his day. A man that history should perhaps pay a little more attention to.