Darwin als quioscos. La fàbula del goril·la i el cavall marí

Abstract

Darwin on Sale in the Kiosks. The Gorilla and the Seahorse.
A simple drawing and thirteen verses from the year 1861 are an example of scientifi c communication that enables us to assess certain events that will never take place again. The authors narrate the history of a dispute about anatomy that took place between two of the greatest specialists in Victorian
England: Owen and Huxley. This was an uninhibited, public argument, held before all the Londoners in the halls of Scientifi c Societies and Worker’s Unions, reported in popular magazines on sale in kiosks and those published by the Gentlemen’s Clubs, as well as in more prestigious scientifi c publications. Besides making a spectacle, this controversy of almost local scope brought about a deep change in our perception of the world and the place we humans hold in it.