A truly very impressive quote, given what was available to Darwin in 1871. At that time many scientists didn't want to accept that atoms exist: Adolf Wilhelm H

A truly very impressive quote, given what was available to Darwin in 1871. At that time many scientists didn't want to accept that atoms exist: Adolf Wilhelm Hermann Kolbe "(1818-1884), a German organic chemist described as one of the greatest of that time" denied that molecules as we know them today existed. "The French chemist Pierre-Eugéne Marcellin Berthelot (1827-1907)" "exerted his considerable power as a government official to prohibit the teaching of atomic theory." "Austrian physicist Ernst Mach (1838-1916), and German physical chemist Friedrich Wilhelm Ostwald (1853-1932)" "preferred the consideration of perceived data to that of hypothetical atoms." Only much later "in 1908 Ostwald became convinced that experiments had finally given proofs of the discrete or particulate nature of matter. In 1912 Poincaré declared that "[A]toms are no longer a useful fiction … The atom of the chemist is now a reality."" Sources: https://www.encyclopedia.com/science/science-magazines/historic-dispute-are-atoms-real https://www.encyclopedia.com/science/science-magazines/histo...