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Alfred Russel Wallace’s essay on varieties
Summary
The original manuscript about varieties that Wallace composed on the island of Gilolo and sent to Darwin from the neighbouring island of Ternate (Brooks 1984) has not been found. It was sent to Darwin as an enclosure in a letter (itself missing), and was…
Matches: 23 hits
- … varieties that Wallace composed on the island of Gilolo and sent to Darwin from the neighbouring …
- … sent to Darwin as an enclosure in a letter (itself missing), and was subsequently sent by Darwin to …
- … of the Linnean Society (Zoology) 3 (1859): 45–62, and this text is reprinted below. Wallace …
- … I was suffering from a sharp attack of intermittent fever, and every day during the cold and …
- … positive checks to increase”—disease, accidents, war, and famine—which keep down the population of …
- … are continually acting in the case of animals also; and as animals usually breed much more rapidly …
- … that breed most quickly. Vaguely thinking over the enormous and constant destruction which this …
- … every generation the inferior would inevitably be killed off and the superior would remain—that is, …
- … I thought over the deficiencies in the theories of Lamarck and of the author of the “Vestiges,” and …
- … on the subject. The same evening I did this pretty fully, and on the two succeeding evenings wrote …
- … I hoped the idea would be as new to him as it was to me, and that it would supply the missing factor …
- … arguments which have been adduced to prove the original and permanent distinctness of species is, …
- … of those occurring among wild animals in a state of nature, and to constitute a provision for …
- … the attacks of their most dangerous enemies, are the primary conditions which determine the …
- … very extensive region, offering such differences of soil and climate, that in one part or another of …
- … to regions possessing a milder, or at least a different climate, though, as these migrating birds …
- … therefore fall into two classes—those which under the same conditions would never reach the …
- … numerical superiority. Now, let some alteration of physical conditions occur in the district—a long …
- … in numbers, and with a recurrence of similar unfavourable conditions might also become extinct. The …
- … remain preponderant in numbers, and under adverse physical conditions again alone survive . But …
- … that this result would be invariable; a change of physical conditions in the district might at times …
- … the most capable of supporting existence under the former conditions now the least so, and even …
- … directions, but always checked and balanced by the necessary conditions, subject to which alone …
Review: The Origin of Species
Summary
- by Asa Gray THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES BY MEANS OF NATURAL SELECTION (American Journal of Science and Arts, March, 1860) This book is already exciting much attention. Two American editions are announced, through which it will become familiar to many…
Matches: 26 hits
- … OF NATURAL SELECTION (American Journal of Science and Arts, March, 1860) This book is …
- … as the author states—is unnecessary in such a case; and it would be difficult to give by detached …
- … upon which the author has been laboring for twenty years, and which ‘will take two or three more …
- … enough for its purpose. It will be far more widely read, and perhaps will make deeper impression, …
- … of the life of a most able naturalist have been devoted? And who among those naturalists who hold a …
- … to divest himself for the nonce of the influence of received and favorite systems? In fact, the …
- … which the views most favored by facts will be developed and tested by ‘Natural Selection,’ the …
- … devolve upon the principal editor,’ whose wide observation and profound knowledge of various …
- … really) from unknown constitutional causes which altered conditions favor rather than originate. But …
- … less their forms; but that every adaptation of species to climate, and of species to species, is as …
- … to our hand. In domestication we vary some of the natural conditions of a species, and thus learn …
- … be more susceptible than any other to the action of changed conditions of life. The tendency to vary …
- … than we do why it usually resembles it. Though the laws and conditions governing variation are known …
- … In this way races arise, which under favorable conditions may be as hereditary as species. In …
- … cannot be perpetuated indefinitely even by keeping up the conditions under which they were fixed; …
- … such mere variations as may be directly referred to physical conditions (like the depauperation of …
- … in any sensible degree. The obvious explanation is, that the conditions of life have been very …
- … average numbers of species.’—(p. 68.) ‘Climate plays an important part in determining …
- … severe mortality from epidemics with man. The action of climate seems at first sight to be quite …
- … species, which subsist on the same kind of food, Even when climate, for instance extreme cold, acts …
- … and rarer, and finally disappearing; and, the change of climate being conspicuous, we are tempted to …
- … be in the least degree favored by any slight change of climate, they will increase in numbers, and, …
- … stunted forms, due to the directly injurious action of climate, than we do in proceeding …
- … almost exclusively with the elements. ‘That climate acts in main part indirectly by …
- … of plants in our gardens which can perfectly well endure our climate, but which never become …
- … which had been exposed for many years to exactly the same conditions, supported twenty species of …
Race, Civilization, and Progress
Summary
Darwin's first reflections on human progress were prompted by his experiences in the slave-owning colony of Brazil, and by his encounters with the Yahgan peoples of Tierra del Fuego. Harsh conditions, privation, poor climate, bondage and servitude,…
Matches: 11 hits
- … by his experiences in the slave-owning colony of Brazil, and by his encounters with the Yahgan …
- … 1833 ). They represented both the yawning gap between wild and domesticated humans, and the …
- … branched " ( Notebooks , B21 ), rather than linear, and with numerous dead ends. Fitness …
- … , B74 ). The tendency toward increased complexity and variety, he suggested, was a bi-product of …
- … or directed by design, while others such as Charles Lyell and Alfred Russel Wallace placed limits on …
- … Another major point of controversy was the origins and unity of the human species, with researchers …
- … species, remarking that the dispute between monogenists and polygenists will "die a silent and …
- … of civilization with its implied ranking of peoples, past and present, regarding their political, …
- … implications of Darwinian theory for progressive, racial, and racist theories of human nature would …
- … structure profitable to it under its excessively simple conditions of life occurred, might …
- … of organisation; though in beings fitted for very simple conditions it would be slight & slow. …
New material added to the American edition of Origin
Summary
A ‘revised and augmented’ American edition of Origin came on the market in July 1860, and was the only authorised edition available in the US until 1873. It incorporated many of the changes Darwin made to the second English edition, but still contained…
Matches: 23 hits
- … Asa Gray offering to arrange an American reprint of the book and to secure the author a share in …
- … Gray had contacted the Boston publishing firm of Ticknor and Fields about this prospect, he …
- … Origin in type—taken from the first English edition— and were preparing for distribution. Acting …
- … letters from Asa Gray, [10 January 1860], [17 January 1860], and 23 January 1860). Although D …
- … of stereotyping (see letter from Asa Gray, 23 January [1860] and n. 2). The firm agreed, however, to …
- … or 9 February 1860]. He had earlier sent Gray some additions and corrections that he hoped could be …
- … to make in the American edition in the letter to Lyell, 18 [and 19 February 1860]. Darwin suggested …
- … of Origin (see letter to Asa Gray, 22 May [1860] and enclosure) and were preparing to produce …
- … that were received too late to be incorporated into the text and were printed in a ‘Supplement’ …
- … it also included a number of significant alterations and additions that were only later added, in a …
- … have believed that species were immutable productions and have been separately created: this view …
- … forms. Passing over authors of the classical period, and likewise Demaillet and Buffon, with whose …
- … he attributed something to the action of external conditions, something to the crossing of already …
- … of all things. Geoffroy seems to have relied chiefly on the conditions of life, or the ‘‘monde …
- … by sudden leaps; but that the effects produced by the conditions of life are gradual. The author …
- … number of specific forms. As far as mere inorganic conditions are concerned, it seems probable that …
- … of species in any country goes on increasing, the organic conditions of life will become more and …
- … have a limit, depending so largely as it does on physical conditions: therefore where very many …
- … which are beneficial under the organic and inorganic conditions of life to which each creature is at …
- … tend to become more and more improved in relation to its conditions of life. This improvement will, …
- … main cause lies in the circumstance, that under very simple conditions of life, a high organisation …
- … it may, and will, leave many creatures fitted for simple conditions of life with simple and …
- … over other and preceding forms. If, under a nearly similar climate, the eocene inhabitants of one …
Darwin’s reading notebooks
Summary
In April 1838, Darwin began recording the titles of books he had read and the books he wished to read in Notebook C (Notebooks, pp. 319–28). In 1839, these lists were copied and continued in separate notebooks. The first of these reading notebooks (DAR 119…
Matches: 25 hits
- … 1838, Darwin began recording the titles of books he had read and the books he wished to read in …
- … consist of two different sections, headed ‘Books Read’ and ‘Books to be Read’, begun at opposite …
- … have used these notebooks extensively in dating and annotating Darwin’s letters; the full …
- … by the manuscript number being preceded by an asterisk (*119 and *128). For clarity, the …
- … such as the publisher or series in which it was included, and often he listed the libraries which he …
- … read from 1838 through 1846, but it was not kept up-to-date and contains only a small number of the …
- … on the left-hand pages (labelled ‘a’ in the transcript) and the non-scientific on the right …
- … pages of DAR 119, the odd-numbered pages of DAR *128, and the even-numbered pages of DAR 128. …
- … editions, we have given only the date of the first edition and indicated in the bibliography that …
- … are given on which the references to the journal appear, and the location of abstracts in the Darwin …
- … is by no means a complete representation of the books and journals Darwin read. The Darwin archive …
- … (Royal Society of London 1839) has been heavily marked, and quite a few of the entries next to which …
- … of his father’s method of handling the scientific books and pamphlets he read explains how some …
- … shelf on which were piled up the books he had not yet read, and another to which they were …
- … in the ‘read’ heap until the shelves overflowed, and then, with much lamenting, a day was given up …
- … is nonetheless remarkable in indicating the number and the general orientation of the works upon …
- … ‘When I see the list of books of all kinds which I read and abstracted, including whole series of …
- … [Fleming 1822] Falconers remark on the influence of climate [W. Falconer 1781] [DAR …
- … facts showing gentle transition of forms——oscillation of climate——mammals in Scotland with reference …
- … Falconer, William. 1781. Remarks on the influence of climate, situation, nature of country, …
- … Henfrey, Arthur. 1852. The vegetation of Europe, its conditions and causes. London. *128: …
- … forms over the surface of the globe in connexion with climate and physical agents. Appendix to vol. …
- … Islands, containing an account of their situation, climate, and productions, together with …
- … 17a Wahlenberg, Göran. 1813. De vegetatione et climate in Helvetia Septentrionali …
- … account of the native tribes, and observations on the climate, geology, and natural history …
Origin: the lost changes for the second German edition
Summary
Darwin sent a list of changes made uniquely to the second German edition of Origin to its translator, Heinrich Georg Bronn. That lost list is recreated here.
Matches: 22 hits
- … asked whether a new English edition containing corrections and additions was imminent, or whether …
- … The original manuscript of these additions and corrections has not been found, although …
- … alterations sent by Darwin to Bronn. Many of these additions and corrections were noted in pencil by …
- … edition, which appeared in 1866. The changes and additions have been translated into …
- … will be how, for instance, cattle got their horns, and not for what they are used. Page …
- … Page xix, par. 1, line 2, insert after ‘and clearness.’: 5 …
- … ‘1860’: 6 and the third edition in April 1861. Page 12, par. …
- … ‘England’: 8 and Germany Page 19, par. 1, line 8, insert after …
- … as well as the specific distinction between the humped and common cattle, may indeed be looked at as …
- … kept nearly all the English kinds alive, having bred and crossed them, and examined their skeletons, …
- … between the two main kinds of flowers in certain campanula and violet species. Page 52, …
- … observations of mine on the sexual relations of the long- and short styled kinds of this genus, …
- … sits by an apparently unconcerned beholder of the struggle, and then retires with the conqueror. By …
- … In a far-fetched sense, however, the conditions of life may be said, not only to cause variability, …
- … natural selection; for it depends on the nature of the conditions whether this or that variety shall …
- … these two elements of change are essentially distinct; the conditions under domestication causing …
- … bred a foal from a bay mare (offspring of a Turcoman horse and a Flemish mare) by a bay English race …
- … Page 264, par. 1, lines 8–9, substitute for ‘and not’: 27 …
- … reason Page 275, par. 2, line 5, delete ‘and with P. versicolor’. 30 Page …
- … pleistocene equatorial flora and fauna, fitted for a hotter climate than any now existing, must not …
- … Glacial period great changes in the precise nature of the climate, in the degree of humidity, &c …
- … blended with those of the temperate. So that under certain conditions of climate it is certainly …
Abstract of Darwin’s theory
Summary
There are two extant versions of the abstract of Darwin’s theory of natural selection. One was sent to Asa Gray on 5 September 1857, enclosed with a letter of the same date (see Correspondence vol. 6, letter to Asa Gray, 5 September [1857] and enclosure).…
Matches: 15 hits
- … vol. 6, letter to Asa Gray, 5 September [1857] and enclosure). It is in the hand of Ebenezer …
- … (DAR 6). This version was subsequently sent to Charles Lyell and Joseph Dalton Hooker in June 1858 …
- … to Charles Lyell, 18 [June 1858] , [25 June 1858] , and 26 [June 1858] ; letters to J. D. …
- … here. The transcript does not record Darwin’s corrections and alterations except where they are …
- … very 7 slight or greater variations, caused by external conditions, or by the mere fact that in …
- … in all parts: & I think it can be shown that changed conditions of existence is the main cause …
- … be more 20 important to the life of each being than mere climate. Considering the infinitely …
- … increased by the accumulative action of natural selection; and the variety 24 thus formed will …
- … broken into 36 varieties or sub-species or true species. And it follows, I think, from the …
- … Boston, U.S., dated Down, September 5th, 1857.” (Darwin and Wallace 1858, p. 50). The text comprises …
- … 2 The printed version reads: ‘astounded’ (Darwin and Wallace 1858, p. 50). 3 The printed …
- … ‘good for carpets, of another for cloth, &c.’ (Darwin and Wallace 1858, p. 51). 10 The …
- … judge by mere external appearances, but who could’ (Darwin and Wallace 1858, p. 51). 11 The …
- … on selecting’. 12 The printed version reads: ‘and should go on selecting for one object’ …
- … open to immigration. Its inhabitants will be exposed to new conditions;’. 20 The printed …
Essay: Natural selection & natural theology
Summary
—by Asa Gray NATURAL SELECTION NOT INCONSISTENT WITH NATURAL THEOLOGY. Atlantic Monthly for July, August, and October, 1860, reprinted in 1861. I Novelties are enticing to most people; to us they are simply annoying. We cling to a long-accepted…
Matches: 24 hits
- … Atlantic Monthly for July , August , and October , 1860, reprinted in 1861. I …
- … it oppresses with a sense of general discomfort. New notions and new styles worry us, till we get …
- … although, when we had fairly recovered our composure, and had leisurely excogitated the matter, we …
- … left an uncomfortable impression, in spite of its plausible and winning ways. We were not wholly …
- … Investigations about the succession of species in time, and their actual geographical distribution …
- … dim as our conception must needs be as to what such oracular and grandiloquent phrases might really …
- … time of trouble, we still hoped that, with some repairs and makeshifts, the old views might last out …
- … theory is promulgated. We took it up, like our neighbors, and, as was natural, in a somewhat …
- … chapter. Here the author takes us directly to the barn-yard and the kitchen-garden. Like an …
- … proper ground that he had been ‘brought up among the pigs, and knew all about them’—so we were …
- … and better men than the present, and fit them better to the conditions of existence, why, let it …
- … to time his instruments or machines, as new circumstances or conditions may require and his wit …
- … more or less; that domesticated plants and animals, being in conditions favorable to the production …
- … its author ought now to claim. Such hypotheses as, from the conditions of the case, can neither be …
- … northern portion of the continents, answering to a warmer climate then than ours, such as allowed …
- … Their low organization, moderate sensibility, and the simple conditions of an existence in a medium …
- … case. That no part of the world now offers more suitable conditions for wild horses and cattle than …
- … of original and direct created adaptation of species to climate and other conditions, why were they …
- … could not reconcile them; namely, Adaptation to Purpose and Conditions of Existence, and Unity of …
- … branches or varieties which are best adapted to the existing conditions may be continued, while …
- … in their structure and in their adaptations to the conditions of existence, as valid and clear …
- … or resemblances than those which adaptation to similar conditions, which final causes in the …
- … origin of the different styles under different climates and conditions. Two considerations may …
- … and to provide as much enjoyment of life as can be under the conditions, is what Nature seems to aim …
Satire of FitzRoy's Narrative of the Voyages of the Adventure and Beagle, by John Clunies Ross. Transcription by Katharine Anderson
Summary
[f.146r Title page] Voyages of the Adventure and Beagle Supplement / to the 2nd 3rd and Appendix Volumes of the First / Edition Written / for and in the name of the Author of those / Volumes By J.C. Ross. / Sometime Master of a…
Matches: 16 hits
- … page ] Voyages of the Adventure and Beagle Supplement / to the 2 nd …
- … of all great Bibliophiles) prefers brevity to verbosity, and thinness to thickness – being aware of …
- … consist of not less than three Volumes – similar in size and print to those of the first – each to …
- … I was actuated whilst I was on my visit to those Isles – and – drawing up my report on them and him, …
- … [ vf.147v p.2 ] of considerably greater tonnage – and heavier [metal] than the Beagle …
- … the serving of my school, (or college) fag apprenticeship) and has official documents addressed to …
- … taken for what it is, an expression of gentlemanly courtesy and condescension – which cannot …
- … the super-interesting extracts from hitherto unknown ancient and modern writings in Latin, Spanish, …
- … to compress a large amount of information, indications, and insinuation into small compass – by …
- … readers of my first Edition) I now proceed to notice – and to some extent – or in some particulars …
- … all – it would be taking off the cream of my new work – and so perhaps cause that to spoil on Mr …
- … – Mr Ross has promised that if he can command the leisure and be enabled to enjoy the health of mind …
- … instance – especially in respect to the super-sublimity and deeply diving profundity of his “theory …
- … – a thoroughly convict colony – a healthy temperate climate – far removed from civilized countries …
- … and the people at the Andamans from the insalubrity of the climate and hostility of the Savages – …
- … p.87 ] receive a part.) I offer her on the following conditions that you give me a bond to pay …
Darwin in letters, 1864: Failing health
Summary
On receiving a photograph from Charles Darwin, the American botanist Asa Gray wrote on 11 July 1864: ‘the venerable beard gives the look of your having suffered, and … of having grown older’. Because of poor health, Because of poor health, Darwin…
Matches: 21 hits
- … venerable beard gives the look of your having suffered, and … of having grown older’. This portrait, …
- … first three months of 1864, dictating nearly all his letters and having scientific papers read to …
- … a selection of new climbing plants for his greenhouse and hothouse, and continued pursuing his …
- … of clinical medicine at University College, London, and physician-in-ordinary to Queen Victoria. …
- … seeds of Lythrum , crossing cowslips with polyanthuses, and searching for specimens of the …
- … Lythrum (‘Three forms of Lythrum salicaria ’) and sent it to the Linnean Society of London, …
- … on the genus in 1862. His varied botanical observations and hybridising experiments continued …
- … plants in mid-September, he noted in his ‘Journal’ and in letters to several friends that on the …
- … year, he again complained to correspondents of feeling weak and unusually unwell, and he received …
- … unwell’. The Copley medal at last November and December were also marked by the award …
- … The announcement of the award at the end of November, and the controversy that arose over the …
- … of his theory of transmutation remained paramount, and his botanical studies continued to be his …
- … organs, including the stem, flower-peduncle, petiole, leaf, and aerial roots. When his health …
- … keeper of the herbarium at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and professor of botany at University …
- … to his critical reading of the tendril literature, and to his developing research on the origin of …
- … 1864] ). Darwin’s excitement about his observations and findings is palpable in his description of …
- … Darwin had misunderstood some accepted botanical tenets, and that his query indicated ‘doubt upon …
- … morphology. Many of his other correspondents, such as Hooker and Gray, had grown accustomed to the …
- … Origin , but accepted natural selection only under certain conditions. Darwin also heard of a …
- … of lakes in Europe and New Zealand, and about the changes in climate over time, were not always …
- … Wallace had, endorsing a stronger influence of environmental conditions on various human racial …
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