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The Origin of Species
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Page - 219 - in The Origin of Species

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CHAPTER VII Miscellaneous Objections to the Theory of Natural Selection Longevity—Modifications not necessarily simultaneous—Modifications apparently of no direct service—Progressive development— Characters of small functional importance, the most constant— Supposed incompetence of natural selection to account for the incipient stages of useful -structures—Causes which interfere with the acquisition through natural selection of useful structures— Gradations of structure with changed functions—Widely different organs in members of the same class, developed from one and the same source—Reasons for disbelieving in great and abrupt modifications. I WILL devote this chapter to the consideration of various miscellaneous objections which have been advanced against my views, as some of the previous discus- sions may thus be made clearer; but it would be useless to discuss all of them, as many have been made by writers who have not taken the trouble to understand the subject. Thus a distinguished German naturalist has asserted that the weakest part of my theory is, that I consider all organic beings as imperfect: what I have really said is, that all are not as perfect as they might have been in relation to their conditions; and this is shown to be the case by so many native forms in many quarters of the world having yielded their places to intruding foreigners. Nor can organic beings, even if they were at any one time perfectly adapted to their conditions of life, have remained so, when their conditions changed, unless they themselves likewise changed; and no one will dispute that the physical conditions of each country, as well as the numbers and kinds of its inhabitants, have undergone many mutations. A critic has lately insisted, with some parade of mathe- matical accuracy, that longevity is a great advantage to all species, so that he who believes in natural selection "must 219
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The Origin of Species
Title
The Origin of Species
Author
Charles Darwin
Publisher
P. F. Collier & Son
Location
New York
Date
1909
Language
English
License
PD
Size
10.5 x 16.4 cm
Pages
568
Keywords
Evolutionstheorie, Evolution, Theory of Evolution, Naturwissenschaft, Natural Sciences
Categories
International
Naturwissenschaften Biologie

Table of contents

  1. EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION 5
  2. AN HISTORICAL SKETCH of the Progress of Opinion on the Origin of Species 9
  3. INTRODUCTION 21
  4. Variation under Domestication 25
  5. Variation under Nature 58
  6. Struggle for Existence 76
  7. Natural Selection; or the Survival of the Fittest 93
  8. Laws of Variation 145
  9. Difficulties of the Theory 178
  10. Miscellaneous Objections to the Theory of Natural Selection 219
  11. Instinct 262
  12. Hybridism 298
  13. On the Imperfection of the Geological Record 333
  14. On the Geological Succession of Organic Beinss 364
  15. Geographical Distribution 395
  16. Geographical Distribution - continued 427
  17. Mutual Affinities of Organic Beings: Morphology: Embryology: Rudimentary Organs 450
  18. Recapitulation and Conclusion 499
  19. GLOSSARY 531
  20. INDEX 541
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