On the Origin of Species that nature and human society were governed by natural laws. The "Origin of Species" as a book of wide general interest became associated with ideas of social reform. Its proponents made full use of a surge in the publication of review journals, and it was given more popular attention than almost any other scientific work, though it failed to match the continuing sales of "Vestiges". Darwin's book legitimised scientific discussion of evolutionary mechanisms, and the newly coined term "Darwinism" was used to cover the whole range of evolutionism, not just his own ideas. By the mid-1870s, evolutionism was triumphant. While
On the Origin of Species correspondence with Joseph Dalton Hooker affirmed that he did not want to expose his ideas to review by an editor as would have been required to publish in an academic journal. He began a "sketch" account on 14 May 1856, and by July had decided to produce a full technical treatise on species as his "big book" on "Natural Selection". His theory including the principle of divergence was complete by 5 September 1857 when he sent Asa Gray a brief but detailed abstract of his ideas. Darwin was hard at work on the manuscript for his "big book" on "Natural