On the Origin of Species By Means of Natural Selection

by Darwin, Charles

• ISBN13: 9780486450063
• ISBN10: 0486450066
• eBook ISBN(s): 9780486114828
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-06-23
• Publisher: Dover Publications
• More Book Details

Summary

Published amid a firestorm of controversy in 1859, this is a book that changed the world. Reasoned and well-documented in its arguments, it offers coherent views of natural selection, adaptation, the struggle for existence, survival of the fittest, and other concepts that form the foundation of evolutionary theory.

Author Biography

Charles Darwin was born in England in 1809 and attended the University of Edinburgh to study medicine. When he decided against that vocation, he enrolled at Cambridge where he earned a degree in theology. During an expedition to Africa and South America, Darwin continued his studies in natural science and began writing about his theories of natural selection. His work led to the publication of On the Origin of Species, a book that changed the world.

Charles Darwin: Original Thinking
Each generation of students comes to Darwin's epoch-making works, several of which are the basis of our publishing program in biology and related fields: The Essential Darwin, 2006; The Descent of Man, 2010; The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, 2006; and On the Origin of the Species, 2006.

In the Author's Own Words:

"A mathematician is a blind man in a dark room looking for a black cat which isn't there."

"I feel most deeply that this whole question of Creation is too profound for human intellect. A dog might as well speculate on the mind of Newton! Let each man hope and believe what he can."

"Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science."

"There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved."

"Man with all his noble qualities, with sympathy which feels for the most debased, with benevolence which extends not only to other men but to the humblest living creature, with his god-like intellect which has penetrated into the movements and constitution of the solar system — with all these exalted powers — Man still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin." — Charles Darwin

Table of Contents

Introduction to the Dover Edition	p. ix
Introduction	p. 1
Variation under Domestication	p. 5
Causes of Variability
Effects of Habit
Correlation of Growth
Inheritance
Character of Domestic Varieties
Difficulty of distinguishing between Varieties and Species
Origin of Domestic Varieties from one or more Species
Domestic Pigeons, their Differences and Origin
Principle of Selection anciently followed, its Effects
Methodical and Unconscious Selection
Unknown Origin of our Domestic Productions
Circumstances favourable to Man's power of Selection
Variation under Nature	p. 29
Variability
Individual Differences
Doubtful species
Wide ranging, much diffused, and common species vary most
Species of the larger genera in any country vary more than the species of the smaller genera
Many of the species of the larger genera resemble varieties in being very closely, but unequally, related to each other, and in having restricted ranges
Struggle for Existence	p. 39
Bears on natural selection
The term used in a wide sense
Geometrical powers of increase
Rapid increase of naturalised animals and plants
Nature of the checks to increase
Competition universal
Effects of climate
Protection from the number of individuals
Complex relations of all animals and plants throughout nature
Struggle for life most severe between individuals and varieties of the same species; often severe between species of the same genus
The relation of organism to organism the most important of all relations
Natural Selection	p. 51
Natural Selection
Its power compared with man's selection
Its power on characters of trifling importance
Its power at all ages and on both sexes
Sexual Selection
On the generality of intercrosses between individuals of the same species
Circumstances favourable and unfavourable to Natural Selection, namely, intercrossing, isolation, number of individuals
Slow action
Extinction caused by Natural Selection
Divergence of Character, related to the diversity of inhabitants of any small area, and to naturalisation
Action of Natural Selection, through Divergence of Character and Extinction, on the descendants from a common parent
Explains the Grouping of all organic beings
Laws of Variation	p. 83
Effects of external conditions
Use and disuse, combined with natural selection; organs of flight and of vision
Acclimatisation
Correlation of growth
Compensation and economy of growth
False correlations
Multiple, rudimentary, and lowly organised structures variable
Parts developed in an unusual manner are highly variable: specific characters more variable than generic: secondary sexual characters variable
Species of the same genus vary in an analogous manner
Reversions to long-lost characters
Summary
Difficulties on Theory	p. 108
Difficulties on the theory of descent with modification
Transitions
Absence or rarity of transitional varieties
Transitions in habits of life
Diversified habits in the same species
Species with habits widely different from those of their allies
Organs of extreme perfection
Means of transition
Cases of difficulty
Natura non facit saltum
Organs of small importance
Organs not in all cases absolutely perfect
The law of Unity of Type and of the Conditions of Existence embraced by the theory of Natural Selection
Instinct	p. 131
Instincts comparable with habits, but different in their origin
Instincts graduated
Aphides and ants
Instincts variable
Domestic instincts, their origin
Natural instincts of the cuckoo, ostrich, and parasitic bees
Slave-making ants
Hive-bee, its cell-making instinct
Difficulties on the theory of the Natural Selection of instincts
Neuter or sterile insects
Summary
Hybridism	p. 155
Distinction between the sterility of first crosses and of hybrids
Sterility various in degree, not universal, affected by close interbreeding, removed by domestication
Laws governing the sterility of hybrids
Sterility not a special endowment, but incidental on other differences
Causes of the sterility of first crosses and of hybrids
Parallelism between the effects of changed conditions of life and crossing
Fertility of varieties when crossed and of their mongrel offspring not universal
Hybrids and mongrels compared independently of their fertility
Summary
On the Imperfection of the Geological Record	p. 176
On the absence of intermediate varieties at the present day
On the nature of extinct intermediate varieties; on their number
On the vast lapse of time, as inferred from the rate of deposition and of denudation
On the poorness of our palaeontological collections
On the intermittence of geological formations
On the absence of intermediate varieties in any one formation
On the sudden appearance of groups of species
On their sudden appearance in the lowest known fossiliferous strata
On the Geological Succession of Organic Beings	p. 196
On the slow and successive appearance of new species
On their different rates of change
Species once lost do not reappear
Groups of species follow the same general rules in their appearance and disappearance as do single species
On Extinction
On simultaneous changes in the forms of life throughout the world
On the affinities of extinct species to each other and to living species
On the state of development of ancient forms
On the succession of the same types within the same areas
Summary of preceding and present chapters
Geographical Distribution	p. 217
Present distribution cannot be accounted for by differences in physical conditions
Importance of barriers
Affinity of the productions of the same continent
Centres of creation
Means of dispersal, by changes of climate and of the level of the land, and by occasional means
Dispersal during the Glacial period co-extensive with the world
Geographical Distribution-continued	p. 240
Distribution of fresh-water productions
On the inhabitants of oceanic islands
Absence of Batrachians and of terrestrial Mammals
On the relation of the inhabitants of islands to those of the nearest mainland
On colonisation from the nearest source with subsequent modification
Summary of the last and present chapters
Mutual Affinities of Organic Beings: Morphology: Embryology: Rudimentary Organs	p. 258
Classification, groups subordinate to groups
Natural system
Rules and difficulties in classification, explained on the theory of descent with modification
Classification of varieties
Descent always used in classification
Analogical or adaptive characters
Affinities, general, complex and radiating
Extinction separates and defines groups
Morphology, between members of the same class, between parts of the same individual
Embryology, laws of, explained by variations not supervening at an early age, and being inherited at a corresponding age
Rudimentary Organs; their origin explained
Summary
Recapitulation and Conclusion	p. 288
Recapitulation of the difficulties on the theory of Natural Selection
Recapitulation of the general and special circumstances in its favour
Causes of the general belief in the immutability of species
How far the theory of natural selection may be extended
Effects of its adoption on the study of Natural history
Concluding remarks
Index	p. 308
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