Scientific Acceptance
Most working scientists came to accept the fact that evolution had occurred within 20 years of the publication of the Origin, although the acceptance of natural selection as its driving force took much longer. Textbooks themselves changed to reflect this change in thinking. An interesting case is Asa Gray, the preeminent American botanist of his generation and a friend of Darwin. Gray’s widely-used textbook, Lessons in Botany, was published for decades. Earlier editions, like that of 1857, used language like
"the Creator established a definite number of species at the beginning, which have continued by propagation, each after its kind."
The 1887 edition, however, reflected the new evolutionary attitude:
"…nearly related species probably came from a common stock in earlier times."
Still, Gray’s book incorporates his theistic evolutionary attitudes as well:
"(species) are all connected by resemblances or relationships, near and remote, which show that they are all parts of one system, realizations in nature, as we may affirm, of the conception of One Mind."
By 1900, almost all science textbooks in biology and geology had incorporated evolutionary thinking.
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