Reactions to On the Origin of Species Catholic discussion of evolution, which has remained almost exclusively concerned with human evolution. On 10 February 1860 Huxley gave a lecture titled "On Species and Races, and their Origin" at the Royal Institution, reviewing Darwin's theory with fancy pigeons on hand to demonstrate artificial selection, as well as using the occasion to confront the clergy with his aim of wresting science from ecclesiastical control. He referred to Galileo's persecution by the church, "the little Canutes of the hour enthroned in solemn state, bidding that great wave to stay, and threatening to check its beneficent progress." He hailed the "Origin" as
Reactions to On the Origin of Species example and Ramsay's data in chapter 9 of "On the Origin of Species" to estimate that erosion of the Weald's layered dome of Lower Cretaceous rocks “must have required 306,662,400 years; or say three hundred million years“. The "necessary corrections" Darwin made to his drafts for the second edition of the "Origin" were based on comments from others, particularly Lyell, and added a caveat suggesting a faster rate of erosion of the Weald: "perhaps it would be safer to allow two or three inches per century, and this would reduce the number of years to one hundred and fifty or