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Thomas Malthus and his Influence on Darwin

Thomas Malthus' theories on population growth were an influential factor in Darwin's theory of Natural Selection. Malthus studied and understood factors that limited human population growth. Thomas Malthus wrote about how more humans are born than can survive due to certain limitations of food and space. His theory on the relationship of population growth and the availability of food supply led Darwin to expand upon this idea of population growth and relate it to all species as a whole. Darwin expanded upon Thomas Malthus' theory and came to the conclusion that better adapted species would survive and weaker species would give way to the better adapted species. Darwin later theorized that the adapted species would pass on the survivable traits to their off springs.

Darwin's theory of Natural Selection could have been developed without the assistance from other scientists. He could have come up with his theory without help from anyone, just by his detailed work as a naturalist and his observations of other species and unusual adaptations to their environment. For example his friend and contemporary Alfred Russel Wallace came up with the same evolutionary theory that Darwin had, although Wallace called it "struggle for existence" and Darwin called it "Natural Selection," so in retrospect, Darwin need not have read the theory of Thomas Malthus, Alfred Russel Wallace or his other contemporaries.  The threat of ridicule by the church was a big impediment to Darwin as the church held sway during his time and so he published his book on The Origin of the Species only when he had carefully studied and fully researched his theory and could not come to any other conclusions.

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