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Primary Documents Relating to Darwin and Darwinism Darwin did not deserve any admiration for doing this, particularly because these ideas had been dismissed by prominent naturalists. In the opening paragraph of the historical sketch, Darwin explains succinctly his revolutionary idea and the difference between it and orthodox thinking about the origin of species. 137 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. Source: The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, 6th edition (London: John Murray, 1872), xii. Document 9: The Origin of Species: Artificial Selection The main components of Darwin’s theory about the origin of species and the evolution of organic life are in the first five chapters of The Origin of Species. (Darwin did not address the origin of life explicitly in the first edition of The Origin of Species.) Each of the chapters after the first contains an idea that is built on the ideas in the previous chapter. As the prevailing theory among naturalists was that the species were fixed, Darwin dealt with this first. In the first chapter of The Origin of Species, Darwin proposed two important ideas: first, that the demarcation of species was not as definitive as some naturalists suggested; second, that humans were able to make significant alterations in species by choosing particular animals to breed or plants to cross. If different naturalists could not agree whether a particular plant was a species or a variety of a species, and if humans could breed animals so different from the original parents that an unknowing observer would not think the parents and the progeny were related, then the species were not fixed or immutable, Darwin argued. In this excerpt, Darwin explains the power of selection. Later in the chapter, Darwin uses the term ‘‘unconscious’’ to describe selection that results in unintended changes in a species. Conversely, conscious selection or artificial selection is the deliberate action taken by humans to create varieties of animals and plants by breeding. If the process is continued over a long period of time, humans can
138 Primary Documents Relating to Darwin and Darwinism create new species. Thus, Darwin argued, the wide variety of domestic animals and plants demonstrates that selection is the most powerful force in producing change in the natural world. One of the most remarkable features in our domesticated races is that we see in them adaptation, not indeed to the animal’s or plant’s own good, but to man’s use or fancy. Some variations useful to him have probably arisen suddenly, or by one step; many botanists, for instance, believe that the fuller’s teazle, with its hooks, which cannot be rivalled by any mechanical contrivance, is only a variety of the wild Dipsacus; 2 and this amount of change may have suddenly arisen in a seedling. So it has probably been with the turnspit dog; 3 and this is known to have been the case with ancon sheep. 4 But when we compare the dray-horse and race-horse, the dromedary and camel, the various breeds of sheep fitted either for cultivated land or mountain pasture, with the wool of one breed good for one purpose, and that of another breed for another purpose; when we compare the many breeds of dogs, each good for man in very different ways; when we compare the game-cock, so pertinacious in battle, with other breeds so little quarrelsome, with ‘‘everlasting layers’’ which never desire to sit, and with the bantam so small and elegant; when we compare the host of agricultural, culinary, orchard, and flower-garden races of plants, most useful to man at different seasons and for different purposes, or so beautiful in his eyes, we must, I think, look further than to mere variability. We cannot suppose that all the breeds were suddenly produced as perfect and as useful as we now see them; indeed, in several cases, we know that this has not been their history. The key is man’s power of accumulative selection: nature gives successive variations; man adds them up in certain directions useful to him. In this sense he may be said to make for himself useful breeds. The great power of this principle of selection is not hypothetical. It is certain that several of our eminent breeders have, even within a single lifetime, modified to a large extent some breeds of cattle and sheep. In order to fully realise what they have done, it is almost necessary to read several of the many treatises devoted to this subject, and to inspect the animals. Breeders habitually speak of an animal’s organisation as something quite plastic, which they can model almost as they please. The same principles are followed by horticulturists; but the variations are here often more abrupt. No one supposes that our choicest productions have been produced by a single variation from the aboriginal stock. We have proofs that this is not so in some cases, in which exact records have been kept; thus, to give a very trifling instance, the steadily-increasing size of the common gooseberry may be quoted. We see an astonishing improvement in many florists’ flowers, when the flowers of the present day are compared with drawings made only twenty or
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Charles Darwin and The Origin of Sp
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Charles Darwin and The Origin of Sp
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CONTENTS Series Foreword by Linda S
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viii Series Foreword Atlantic slave
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PREFACE In 1985, the Italian scient
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Preface always right. As one of Dar
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xvi Chronology 27 December: HMS Bea
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xviii September: A Monograph on the
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xx 8 March: Gregor Mendel presents
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xxii 1909 William Bateson coins the
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CHAPTER 1 OVERVIEW: THE IMPACT OF C
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Overview Egerton, the Earl of Bridg
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Overview important to remember. Dar
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Overview of America. Columbus was n
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Overview in a way that humans can e
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Overview human institutions progres
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Overview 9. The elimination of a di
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16 CHARLES DARWIN AND THE ORIGIN OF
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CHAPTER 4 THE RECEPTION OF DARWIN
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The Reception of Darwin’s Theorie
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Page 185 and 186: 160 Glossary of Selected Terms up b
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Page 192 and 193: ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY Darwin’s M
Page 194 and 195: Annotated Bibliography ———. A
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Page 198 and 199: Annotated Bibliography Keynes, Rich
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Page 202 and 203: Annotated Bibliography Lamarck, Jea
Page 204 and 205: Annotated Bibliography Dawkins, Ric
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Page 208 and 209: Annotated Bibliography Quammen, Dav
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INDEX Academie des sciences, France
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Index The Descent of Man, 4; delay
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Index The Origin of Species: argume
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About the Author KEITH A. FRANCIS i
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