Whitwell Elwin

Whitwell Elwin (26 February 1816 – 1 January 1900) was an English clergyman, critic and editor of the Quarterly Review.

As an editor he was extremely autocratic, and on all subjects had pronounced opinions, and often singular likes and dislikes.

[2] Elwin was initially opposed to publication of this book on evolution, but after consulting Darwin's colleague Charles Lyell, Elwin felt that for Darwin "to put forth the theory without the evidence would do grievous injustice to his views, & to his twenty years of observation & experiment.

He recommended Lyell's suggestion that, to gain public agreement, rather than "put forth the theory without the evidence", the book should focus on observations upon pigeons, briefly stating how these illustrated Darwin's general principles and preparing the way for Darwin's larger work Natural Selection which was expected to follow soon: "Every body is interested in pigeons.

"[3] Darwin responded that this was impractical, and his book retitled as On the Origin of Species was published on Thursday 24 November 1859.