Sir William Lawrence was a surgeon who wrote a few decades before Darwin developed his own theories. Lawrence's writings pretty much were the theory of evolution. It is known that Darwin had Lawrence's books. So the question here is- what did Darwin contribute beyond what Lawrence had already written?

The Quarterly Review wrote "We at the Quarterly Review, would ask what is is that Mr. Lawrence, who is generally in the habit of smiling at the credulity of the world, modestly requires us all to believe? That there is no difference between a man and an oyster, other than that one possesses bodily organs more fully developed than the other! That all the eminent powers of reason, reflexion, imagination and memory - the powers which distinguish a Milton, a Newton, and a Locke, - are merely the function of a few ounces of organized matter called the brain! ... Mr. Lawrence considers that man, in the most important characteristic of his nature, is nothing more than an orang-outang or an ape with 'more ample cerebral hemispheres'"

So here is both the most damning things that Darwin suggested- that there is a continuity of form from one organism to another, and that humanity itself fell into this rubric.

Lawrence wrote about how racial characteristics were inherited, and suggested how geographic separation was critical. He wrote specifically:

"The offspring inherit only their parents connate pecularities and not any of the acquired qualities". he wrote about how the races of man arose as by mutations as such as may be seen in a litter of kittens. he wrote about how sexual selection has improved the beauty of races. He wrote about how selection and exclusion were the means of change and adaptation. he observed selection in breeding and saw how that affected the overall change in species.

In short, I am wondering what if anything he left off?

He left out generalizing the notion of selection- he spoke of the abstraction of selection, and the specificity of artificial selection, sexual selection. He didn't speak of natural selection in those words- but really- did he need to invent that term to have the entire idea?

Did Darwin really just use his influence as a biologist to further Lawrences ideas, and put a meme on the general notion of selection to claim it as his own?

If you google "Lawrence" and "Natural History of Man" you can find the actual book scanned in by google. Here is an excerpt from the book written in 1848:

In endeavoring to account for the diversities of features, proportions, general form, stature, and the other particulars mentioned in the three preceding chapters, I must repeat an observation already made and exemplified in speaking of colour; namely, that the law of resemblance between parents and offspring, which preserves species, and maintains uniformity in the living part of creation, suffers occasional and rare exceptions, that, under certain circumstances, an offspring is produced with new properties, different from those of the progenitors; and that the most powerful o fhtese causes is that artificial mode of life which we call the state of domestication.

At present we can only note the fact, that the domestic condition produces in great abundance not only those deviations from the natural state of the organization, which constitute disease, but also those departures from the ordinary course of the generative functions, which lead to the production of new characters in the offspring, and thus lay the foundation of new breeds.

Individuals are occasionally produced with supernumerary members on the hands or feet, or on both; and from these, whether males or females, the organic peculiarity frequently passes to their children. This does not constantly happen, because they intermarry with persons of the ordinary form; but if the six fingered and six toed could be matched together, and the breed could be preserved pure by excluding all who had not these additional members, there is no doubt that a permanent race might be formed constantly possessing this number of fingers and toes.

[B]Sexual selection in his own words[\B]

Connections in marriage will generally be formed on the idea of human beauty in any country; an influences this, which will gradually approximate the countenance towards one common standard.

[B]Artificial selection in his own words[\B]

The formation of new varieties by breeding from individuals in whom the desirable properties exist in the greatest degree, is seen much more distinctly in our domestic animals than in our own species, since the former are entirely in our power.

[B]Selection in general[\B]

A .. breed of human beings could only be produced by selections and exclusions similar to those so successfully employed in rearing our .. animals.. they are prevented, .. from propagating their deformities.


He then goes on to discuss how languages also propagate in a similar way to physical form.. he had the idea of memes long before Dawkins.

This is the book which Darwin had on his night stand. I don't understand why this guy is forgotten about, when he had all the ideas.

TinyTree, You bring up some great points which inspired me to do some research.

wikipedia quote.

Perhaps you should have been replying to William Charles Wells?

QUOTE

Lawrence was one of three British medical men who wrote on evolution-related topics from 1813 to 1819. They would all have been familiar with Erasmus Darwin and Lamark at least; and probably also Malthus. Two (Prichard and Lawrence) dedicated their works to Blumenbach, the founder of physical anthropology. "The men who took up the challenge of Lamark were three English physicians, Wells, Lawrence and Prichard... All three men denied soft heredity (Lamarkism)"  Each (Wells, Lawrence and Prichard) grasped aspects of Darwin's theory, yet none saw the whole picture, and none developed the ideas any further.