In this issue of ABT that focuses on ecology, I believe it should be of interest to reflect briefly on its history and development to provide a context for what ecology is at present. Much of what follows is derived from my previous publications ( Kormondy, 1965 , 1996 ).

Erasmus Darwin was a founding member of the Lunar Society of Birmingham, the members of which were referred to as “Lunaticks.” He is here described as a polymath, an 18th-century “natural philosopher” who was a physician, scientist (with interests in botany, zoology, meteorology, chemistry, among others), inventor, and poet who also advanced quite profound evolutionary ideas two generations prior to those of his grandson, Charles Robert Darwin.