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The transformation is part of the original work, to start with. Assuming that the story was meant to be plausible, remember that the Victorian understanding of biology was a little odd. Sometime in the same era, a Sherlock Holmes story was written that involved a man becoming ape-like due to injections of monkey gland extracts. It's stretching to assume that the story was supposed to be totally plausible, though.
The potion doesn't just change his personality, though. It apparently operates on a metaphysical level too, separating the best parts of Jekyll's mind, body and soul from the worst. It's kind of like a werewolf story, that way.
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