The Origin of Species - Charles Darwin

- 6th Edition -

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Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface 5

Introduction 16

Chapter 1 - Variation Under Domestication 21

Chapter 2 - Variation Under Nature 52

Chapter 3 - Struggle For Existence 69

Chapter 4 - Natural Selection 85

Chapter 5 - Laws Of Variation 136

Chapter 6 - Difficulties Of The Theory 168

Chapter 7 - Miscellaneous Objections To The Theory Of Natural Selection 208

Chapter 8 - Instinct 251

Chapter 9 - Hybridism 286

Chapter 10 - On The Imperfection Of The Geological Record 320

Chapter 11 - On The Geological Succession Of Organic Beings 351

Chapter 12 - Geographical Distribution 381

Chapter 13 - Geographical Distribution--Continued 412

Chapter 14 - Mutual Affinities Of Organic Beings: Morphology -- Embryology --

Rudimentary Organs 434

Chapter 15 - Recapitulation And Conclusion 481

Glossary Of The Principal Scientific Terms Used In The Present Volume 511

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Preface

AN HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE PROGRESS OF OPINION ON THE

ORIGIN OF SPECIES, PREVIOUSLY TO THE PUBLICATION OF THE FIRST

EDITION OF THIS WORK.

I will here give a brief sketch of the progress of opinion on the Origin of Species. Until

recently the great majority of naturalists believed that species were immutable

productions, and had been separately created. This view has been ably maintained by

many authors. Some few naturalists, on the other hand, have believed that species

undergo modification, and that the existing forms of life are the descendants by true

generation of pre existing forms. Passing over allusions to the subject in the classical

writers (Aristotle, in his "Physicae Auscultationes" (lib.2, cap.8, s.2), after remarking that

rain does not fall in order to make the corn grow, any more than it falls to spoil the

farmer′s corn when threshed out of doors, applies the same argument to organisation;

and adds (as translated by Mr. Clair Grece, who first pointed out the passage to me), "So

what hinders the different parts (of the body) from having this merely accidental relation

in nature? as the teeth, for example, grow by necessity, the front ones sharp, adapted for

dividing, and the grinders flat, and serviceable for masticating the food; since they were

not made for the sake of this, but it was the result of accident. And in like manner as to

other parts in which there appears to exist an adaptation to an end. Wheresoever,

therefore, all things together (that is all the parts of one whole) happened like as if they

were made for the sake of something, these were preserved, having been appropriately

constituted by an internal spontaneity; and whatsoever things were not thus constituted,

perished and still perish." We here see the principle of natural selection shadowed forth,

but how little Aristotle fully comprehended the principle, is shown by his remarks on the

formation of the teeth.), the first author who in modern times has treated it in a

scientific spirit was Buffon. But as his opinions fluctuated greatly at different periods,

and as he does not enter on the causes or means of the transformation of species, I need

not here enter on details.

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Lamarck was the first man whose conclusions on the subject excited much attention.

This justly celebrated naturalist first published his views in 1801; he much enlarged them

in 1809 in his "Philosophie Zoologique", and subsequently, 1815, in the Introduction to

his "Hist. Nat. des Animaux sans Vertebres". In these works he up holds the doctrine

that all species, including man, are descended from other species. He first did the

eminent service of arousing attention to the probability of all change in the organic, as

well as in the inorganic world, being the result of law, and not of miraculous

interposition. Lamarck seems to have been chiefly led to his conclusion on the gradual

change of species, by the difficulty of distinguishing species and varieties, by the almost

perfect gradation of forms in certain groups, and by the analogy of domestic

productions. With respect to the means of modification, he attributed something to the

direct action of the physical conditions of life, something to the crossing of already

existing forms, and much to use and disuse, that is, to the effects of habit. To this latter

agency he seems to attribute all the beautiful adaptations in nature; such as the long neck

of the giraffe for browsing on the branches of trees. But he likewise believed in a law of

progressive development, and as all the forms of life thus tend to progress, in order to

account for the existence at the present day of simple productions, he maintains that

such forms are now spontaneously generated. (I have taken the date of the first

publication of Lamarck from Isidore Geoffroy Saint- Hilaire′s ("Hist. Nat. Generale",

tom. ii. page 405, 1859) excellent history of opinion on this subject. In this work a full

account is given of Buffon′s conclusions on the same subject. It is curious how largely

my grandfather, Dr. Erasmus Darwin, anticipated the views and erroneous grounds of

opinion of Lamarck in his "Zoonomia" (vol. i. pages 500-510), published in 1794.

According to Isid. Geoffroy there is no doubt that Goethe was an extreme partisan of

similar views, as shown in the introduction to a work written in 1794 and 1795, but not

published till long afterward; he has pointedly remarked ("Goethe als Naturforscher",

von Dr. Karl Meding, s. 34) that the future question for naturalists will be how, for

instance, cattle got their horns and not for what they are used. It is rather a singular

instance of the manner in which similar views arise at about the same time, that Goethe

in Germany, Dr. Darwin in England, and Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (as we shall

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immediately see) in France, came to the same conclusion on the origin of species, in the

years 1794-5.)

Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, as is stated in his "Life", written by his son, suspected, as early as

1795, that what we call species are various degenerations of the same type. It was not

until 1828 that he published his conviction that the same forms have not been

perpetuated since the origin of all things. Geoffroy seems to have relied chiefly on the

conditions of life, or the "monde ambiant" as the cause of change. He was cautious in

drawing conclusions, and did not believe that existing species are now undergoing

modification; and, as his son adds, "C′est donc un probleme a reserver entierement a

l′avenir, suppose meme que l′avenir doive avoir prise sur lui."

In 1813 Dr. W.C. Wells read before the Royal Society "An Account of a White Female,

part of whose skin resembles that of a Negro"; but his paper was not published until his

famous "Two Essays upon Dew and Single Vision" appeared in 1818. In this paper he

distinctly recognises the principle of natural selection, and this is the first recognition

which has been indicated; but he applies it only to the races of man, and to certain

characters alone. After remarking that negroes and mulattoes enjoy an immunity from

certain tropical diseases, he observes, firstly, that all animals tend to vary in some degree,

and, secondly, that agriculturists improve their domesticated animals by selection; and

then, he adds, but what is done in this latter case "by art, seems to be done with equal

efficacy, though more slowly, by nature, in the formation of varieties of mankind, fitted

for the country which they inhabit. Of the accidental varieties of man, which would

occur among the first few and scattered inhabitants of the middle regions of Africa,

some one would be better fitted than others to bear the diseases of the country. This

race would consequently multiply, while the others would decrease; not only from their

in ability to sustain the attacks of disease, but from their incapacity of contending with

their more vigorous neighbours. The colour of this vigorous race I take for granted,

from what has been already said, would be dark. But the same disposition to form

varieties still existing, a darker and a darker race would in the course of time occur: and

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as the darkest would be the best fitted for the climate, this would at length become the

most prevalent, if not the only race, in the particular country in which it had originated."

He then extends these same views to the white inhabitants of colder climates. I am

indebted to Mr. Rowley, of the United States, for having called my attention, through

Mr. Brace, to the above passage of Dr. Wells′ work.

The Hon. and Rev. W. Herbert, afterward Dean of Manchester, in the fourth volume of

the "Horticultural Transactions", 1822, and in his work on the "Amaryllidaceae" (1837,

pages 19, 339), declares that "horticultural experiments have established, beyond the

possibility of refutation, that botanical species are only a higher and more permanent

class of varieties." He extends the same view to animals. The dean believes that single

species of each genus were created in an originally highly plastic condition, and that

these have produced, chiefly by inter-crossing, but likewise by variation, all our existing

species.

In 1826 Professor Grant, in the concluding paragraph in his well-known paper

("Edinburgh Philosophical Journal", vol. XIV, page 283) on the Spongilla, clearly

declares his belief that species are descended from other species, and that they become

improved in the course of modification. This same view was given in his Fifty-fifth

Lecture, published in the "Lancet" in 1834.

In 1831 Mr. Patrick Matthew published his work on "Naval Timber and Arboriculture",

in which he gives precisely the same view on the origin of species as that (presently to be

alluded to) propounded by Mr. Wallace and myself in the "Linnean Journal", and as that

enlarged in the present volume. Unfortunately the view was given by Mr. Matthew very

briefly in scattered passages in an appendix to a work on a different subject, so that it

remained unnoticed until Mr. Matthew himself drew attention to it in the "Gardeners′

Chronicle", on April 7, 1860. The differences of Mr. Matthew′s views from mine are not

of much importance: he seems to consider that the world was nearly depopulated at

successive periods, and then restocked; and he gives as an alternative, that new forms

may be generated "without the presence of any mold or germ of former aggregates." I

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am not sure that I understand some passages; but it seems that he attributes much

influence to the direct action of the conditions of life. He clearly saw, however, the full

force of the principle of natural selection.

The celebrated geologist and naturalist, Von Buch, in his excellent "Description

Physique des Isles Canaries" (1836, page 147), clearly expresses his belief that varieties

slowly become changed into permanent species, which are no longer capable of

intercrossing.

Rafinesque, in his "New Flora of North America", published in 1836, wrote (page 6) as

follows: "All species might have been varieties once, and many varieties are gradually

becoming species by assuming constant and peculiar characters;" but further on (page

18) he adds, "except the original types or ancestors of the genus."

In 1843-44 Professor Haldeman ("Boston Journal of Nat. Hist. U. States", vol. iv, page

468) has ably given the arguments for and against the hypothesis of the development

and modification of species: he seems to lean toward the side of change.

The "Vestiges of Creation" appeared in 1844. In the tenth and much improved edition

(1853) the anonymous author says (page 155): "The proposition determined on after

much consideration is, that the several series of animated beings, from the simplest and

oldest up to the highest and most recent, are, under the providence of God, the results,

FIRST, of an impulse which has been imparted to the forms of life, advancing them, in

definite times, by generation, through grades of organisation terminating in the highest

dicotyledons and vertebrata, these grades being few in number, and generally marked by

intervals of organic character, which we find to be a practical difficulty in ascertaining

affinities; SECOND, of another impulse connected with the vital forces, tending, in the

course of generations, to modify organic structures in accordance with external

circumstances, as food, the nature of the habitat, and the meteoric agencies, these being

the ′adaptations′ of the natural theologian." The author apparently believes that

organisation progresses by sudden leaps, but that the effects produced by the conditions

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of life are gradual. He argues with much force on general grounds that species are not

immutable productions. But I cannot see how the two supposed "impulses" account in a

scientific sense for the numerous and beautiful coadaptations which we see throughout

nature; I cannot see that we thus gain any insight how, for instance, a woodpecker has

become adapted to its peculiar habits of life. The work, from its powerful and brilliant

style, though displaying in the early editions little accurate knowledge and a great want of

scientific caution, immediately had a very wide circulation. In my opinion it has done

excellent service in this country in calling attention to the subject, in removing prejudice,

and in thus preparing the ground for the reception of analogous views.

In 1846 the veteran geologist M.J. d′Omalius d′Halloy published in an excellent though

short paper ("Bulletins de l′Acad. Roy. Bruxelles", tom. xiii, page 581) his opinion that it

is more probable that new species have been produced by descent with modification

than that they have been separately created: the author first promulgated this opinion in

1831.

Professor Owen, in 1849 ("Nature of Limbs", page 86), wrote as follows: "The

archetypal idea was manifested in the flesh under diverse such modifications, upon this

planet, long prior to the existence of those animal species that actually exemplify it. To

what natural laws or secondary causes the orderly succession and progression of such

organic phenomena may have been committed, we, as yet, are ignorant." In his address

to the British Association, in 1858, he speaks (page li) of "the axiom of the continuous

operation of creative power, or of the ordained becoming of living things." Further on

(page xc), after referring to geographical distribution, he adds, "These phenomena shake

our confidence in the conclusion that the Apteryx of New Zealand and the Red Grouse

of England were distinct creations in and for those islands respectively. Always, also, it

may be well to bear in mind that by the word ′creation′ the zoologist means ′a process he

knows not what.′" He amplifies this idea by adding that when such cases as that of the

Red Grouse are "enumerated by the zoologist as evidence of distinct creation of the bird

in and for such islands, he chiefly expresses that he knows not how the Red Grouse

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