The _Origin of Species_ in 1859 was issued after Miller's death, but the leading doctrines of Darwin were not unknown before that time to the public through the appearance of Robert Chambers's _Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation_ in 1844, and a subsequent volume of 'Explanations' in 1846. This book caused almost as considerable a stir as that of Darwin himself, and the greatest care was taken by Chambers to conceal the authorship. The proof-sheets sent to Mr. Ireland in Manchester, were returned to the writer, who reforwarded them to Ireland, who in his turn despatched them to London. The guesses at the author ranged from Sir Charles Lyell up to the Prince Consort; and so strong were the feelings aroused that they defeated a proposal to bring in Chambers as Lord Provost of Edinburgh in 1848, and the secret was not formally divulged till the issue by Ireland in 1884 of a twelfth edition. The book is written in a 'powerful and brilliant style,' as Darwin says; and, though long out of print, its re-issue by Routledge and Son in their Universal Library has again drawn attention to its views, which in Scotland caused something of the stir produced by the appearance in England of _Essays and Reviews_. Chambers, indeed, regarded his book as 'the first attempt to connect the natural sciences into a history of creation. As such, it must necessarily be crude and unsatisfactory, yet I have thought the time was come for attempting to weave a great generalisation out of established natural truths.' Much of the popular ideas or misconceptions about the geological record is due to the _Vestiges_. It is not very strong in logic nor exact in individual branches of science, yet its influence fully merited the detailed reply by Miller, in 1847, in the _Footprints of the Creator_, which he appropriately dedicated to Sir Philip Egerton, the highest authority on fossil fishes.