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6 INTRODUCTORY NOTE
arrived at entirely independently. On the advice of Lyell, the
geologist, and Hooker, the botanist, Wallace's paper and a letter
of Darivin's of the previous year, in ivhich he had outlined his
theory to Asa Gray, zvere read together on July I, 1858, and
published by the Linncean Society. In November of the follow-
ing year "The Origin of Species" was published, and the great
battle was begun between the old science and the new. This
work was followed in 1868 by his "Variation of Animals and
Plants under Domestication," that in turn by the "Descent of
Man" in i8yi, and that again by "The Expression of the Emo-
tions in Man and Animals." Each of these books was the elabo-
ration or complement of a section of its predecessor. The later
years of Darwin's life were chieAy devoted to botanical research,
and resulted in a series of treatises of the highest scientific value.
He died atDown on April ig, 1882, and is buried in Westminster
Abbey.
The idea of the evolution of organisms, so far from originating
with Darwin, is a very old one. Glimpses of it appear in the
ancient Greek philosophers, especially Empedocles and Aristotle;
modern philosophy from Bacon onward shows an increasing
definiteness in its grasp of the conception; and in the age pre-
ceding Darivin's, Buffon, Erasmus Darwin, and Lamarck had
given it a fairly concrete expression. As we approach the date
of the publication of "The Origin of Species" adherence to the
doctrine not only by naturalists but by poets, such as Goethe,
becomes comparatively frequent; and in the six years before the
joint announcement of Darwin and Wallace, Herbert Spencer
had been supporting and applying it vigorously in the field of
psychology.
To these partial anticipations, however, Darwin oiued little.
When he became interested in the problem, the doctrine of the
fixity of species was still generally held; and his solution occurred
to him mainly as the result of his own observation and thinking.
Speaking of the voyage of the "Beagle," he says, "On my return
home in the autumn of 1836 I immediately began to prepare my
journal for publication, and then saw how many facts indicated
the common descent of species. ... In July (1837) I opened
my first note-book for facts in relation to the Origin of Species,
about which I had long reflected, and never ceased working for
the next twenty years. . . . Had been greatly struck from about
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Buch The Origin of Species"
The Origin of Species
- Titel
- The Origin of Species
- Autor
- Charles Darwin
- Verlag
- P. F. Collier & Son
- Ort
- New York
- Datum
- 1909
- Sprache
- englisch
- Lizenz
- PD
- Abmessungen
- 10.5 x 16.4 cm
- Seiten
- 568
- Schlagwörter
- Evolutionstheorie, Evolution, Theory of Evolution, Naturwissenschaft, Natural Sciences
- Kategorien
- International
- Naturwissenschaften Biologie
Inhaltsverzeichnis
- 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