On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or, The preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life / by Charles Darwin.

  • Charles Darwin
Date:
1860
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or, The preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life / by Charles Darwin. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    on Debrretricrations some bird had given birth to a woodpecker, and some plant to the missletoe, and that these had oe been produced perfect as we now see them; but this A fr assumption seems to me to be no explanation, for it .~. ap leaves the case of the coadaptations of organic beings to ce’ a each other and to their physical conditions of life, un- touched and unexplained. It is, therefore, of the highest importance to gain a clear insight into the means of modification and co- adaptation. At the commencement of my observations it seemed to me probable that a careful study of domes- ticated animals and of cultivated plants would offer the best chance of making out this obscure problem. Nor have I been disappointed; in this and in all other perplexing cases I have invariably found that our knowledge, imperfect though it be, of variation under . domestication, afforded the best and safest clue. I may . venture to express my conviction of the high value of | such studies, although they have been very commonly neglected by naturalists. From these considerations, I .shall devote the first | yo Neer mn of this Abstract to Variation under Domestication. | We shall thus see that a large amount of hereditary par modification is at least possible ; and, what is equally or more important, we shall see how great is the power of man In accumulating by his Selection successive slight variations. I will then pass on to the variability of species in a state of nature; but I shall, unfortunately, ; be compelled to treat this subject far too briefly, as it can be treated properly only by giving long catalogues of facts. We shall, however, be enabled to discuss : what circumstances are most favourable to variation. In the next chapter the Struggle for Existence amongst ) all organic beings throughout the world, which inevi- tably follows from the high geometrical ratio of their , * ——
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