[From The Origin of Species to Artenes Oprindelse]

The Origin of Species, Charles Darwin's most important work, was published in London in 1859. The first presentation in Norway, by P. Chr. Asbjørnsen, appeared in the journal Budstikken. About 30 years passed before it was translated into Norwegian, and it took some time before Darwin's theories were debated in Norway. The zoologist Michael Sars introduced them in the Scientific Society in Christiania (i.e., Oslo) in 1869, but he was not met with a great deal of interest. However, a new generation of scientist saw this differently, mainly the botanist Axel Blytt, the zoologist G.O. Sars and the geologist W.C. Brøgger. Two prominent professors of medicine were also involved in the debate, on different sides. The Darwinist Gerhard Henrik Armauer Hansen, who discovered the lepra bacillus, wrote several books and articles about Darwinism, while Professor Ernst Ferdinand Lochmann, though admiring Darwin as a prominent naturalist, strongly rejected Darwinism as a scientific theory.