Seite - 150 - in The Origin of Species
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ISO ORIGIN OF SPECIES
than the mole; and I was assured by a Spaniard, who had
often caught them, that they were frequently blind. One
which I kept alive was certainly in this condition, the cause,
as appeared on dissection, having been inflammation of the
nictitating membrane. As frequent inflammations of the eyes
must be injurious to any animal, and as eyes are certainly
not necessary to animals having subterranean habits, a re-
duction in their size, with the adhesion of the eyelids and
growth of fur over them, might in such case be an advan-
tage; and if so, natural selection would aid the effects of
disuse.
It is well known that several animals, belonging to the
most different classes, which inhabit the caves of Carniola
and of Kentucky, are blind. In some of the crabs the foot-
stalk for the eye remains, though the eye is gone;—the
stand for the telescope is there, though the telescope with
its glasses has been lost. As it is difficult to imagine that
eyes, though useless, could be in any way injurious to ani-
mals living in darkness, their loss may be attributed to dis-
use. In one of the blind animals, namely, the cave-rat
(Neotoma), two of which were captured by Professor Silli-
raan at above half a mile distance from the mouth of the
cave, and therefore not in the profoundest depths, the eyes
were lustrous and of large size
; and these animals, as I am
informed by Professor Silliman, after having been exposed
for about a month to a graduated light, acquired a dim per-
ception of objects.
It is difficult to imagine conditions of life more similar
than deep limestone caverns under a nearly similar climate;
so that, in accordance with the old view of the blind ani-
mals having been separately created for the American and
European caverns, very close similarity in their organisation
and affinities might have been expected. This is certainly
not the case if we look at the two whole faunas; and with
respect to the insects alone, Schiodte has remarked, "We are
accordingly prevented from considering the entire phenome-
non in any other light than something purely local, and the
similarity which is exhibited in a few forms between the
Mammoth cave (in Kentucky) and the caves in Carniola,
otherwise than as a very plain expression of that analogy
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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