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394 ORIGIN OF SPECIES
The inhabitants of the world at each successive period in
its histor> have beaten their predecessors in the race for
life, and are, in so far, higher in the scale, and their struc-
ture has generally become more specialised; and this may
account foi the common belief lield by so many palaeontolo-
gists, that organisation on the whole has progressed. Extinct
and ancient animals resemble to a certain extent the embryos
of the more recent animals belonging to the same classes,
and this wonderful fact receives a simple explanation accord-
ing to our views. The succession of the same types of
structure within the same areas during the later geological
periods ceases to be mysterious, and is intelligible on the
principle of inheritance.
If then the geological record be as imperfect as many be-
lieve, and it may at least be asserted that the record cannot
be proved to be much more perfect, the main objections to
the theory of natural selection are greatly diminished or dis-
appear. On the other hand, all the chief laws of palaeontology
plainly proclaim, as it seems to me, that species have been
produced by ordinary generation : old forms having been sup-
planted by new and improved forms of life, the products of
Variation and the Survival of the Fittest.
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book The Origin of Species"
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
- EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION 5
- AN HISTORICAL SKETCH of the Progress of Opinion on the Origin of Species 9
- INTRODUCTION 21
- Variation under Domestication 25
- Variation under Nature 58
- Struggle for Existence 76
- Natural Selection; or the Survival of the Fittest 93
- Laws of Variation 145
- Difficulties of the Theory 178
- Miscellaneous Objections to the Theory of Natural Selection 219
- Instinct 262
- Hybridism 298
- On the Imperfection of the Geological Record 333
- On the Geological Succession of Organic Beinss 364
- Geographical Distribution 395
- Geographical Distribution - continued 427
- Mutual Affinities of Organic Beings: Morphology: Embryology: Rudimentary Organs 450
- Recapitulation and Conclusion 499
- GLOSSARY 531
- INDEX 541