Type of Work:
Natural history textFirst Published
1859
Complete Title
The Origin of Species by Means of natural selection , or the Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life
Book Historical Commentary
Charles Robert Darwin, the grandson of the English scientist Erasmus Darwin, studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh and prepared for the ministry at Cambridge. Following his abiding interest in natural history, however, he became a naturalist and sailed in this capacity on the H.M.S. Beagle from 1831 to 1838. The Beagle’s expedition took Darwin to various Southern Pacific islands and to the coasts of South America and Australia.
Returning to England, Darwin became the secretary of the Geological Society and, in 1840, published a treatise, “Zoology of the Voyage of the Beagle.” At this time he met Sir Charles Lyell, who encouraged him to write about his inbreeding experiments and to expound on his theory of evolution by natural selection.
Later, in 1844, Darwin received from a fellow naturalist, Alfred Wallace, notes outlining a theory – parallel to, but independent of, his own – on natural selection. Darwin carried on his research and, in 1858, published an essay delineating his own evolutionary theory along with Wallace’s findings. The following year, The Origin of Species appeared. The book’s first edition sold out in one day, stirring an immediate clamor of controversy. It is still recognized as one of the most disputed yet important works of biological study
The Essay on Charles Darwin’s Theory
Charles Darwin contributed to the field of evolutionary biology were: non-constancy of species, branching evolution, occurrence of gradual change in species, and natural selection. Each of his contribution became the foundation of evolutionary biology and can be seen in the wild very commonly. Non-constancy can be observed though variation in the offspring. For example, different sized beaks in ...
Darwin went on to publish The Movements and Habits of Climbing Plants (1865), The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication (1868), The Descent of Man (1871), and Selection in Relation to Sex (1871).
The Origin of Species has powerfully influenced nearly every contemporary field of scientific and philosophical study: biology, literature, law, psychology, sociology, theology, and other fields of intellectual pursuit.
Despite the length and weighty content of Darwin’s work, the text is remarkably easy reading. Unfortunately, through all the tempest and fanfare that have followed it for almost one and a half centuries, few have actually studied its pages.
Text Summary
Early on in Darwin’s first five-year voyage on the Beagle, he observed that, despite the distances between the remote areas he visited, the varieties of flora and fauna he found were similar in structure and function. This led him to develop his idea that species were not immutable, but were forced to adapt to their ever-changing environments. In his introduction to the first edition of The Origin of Species, Darwin noted: “I was much struck with certain facts in the distribution of the [plant and animal] inhabitants of South America, and in the geological relations of the present to the past inhabitants of that continent. These facts seemed to throw some light on the origin of the species – that mystery of mysteries, as it has been called by one of our greatest philosophers.” After over twenty years of further research, Darwin published his findings.
Like all scientists, Darwin built his theory upon those of his predecessors. However, scientific opinion was always and remains – somewhat divided as to what contribution the theory makes to the biological sciences. Throughout the book, Darwin openly admits to the possibility of error and the need for further investigation; he is careful to point out that the idea of evolution by natural selection is “one of long argument.”
To comprehend the vast amount of information contained in the work, one must examine it in its entirety. Still, this sampling of chapter headings and brief content summaries may provide some general information.
The Essay on Darwins Natural Selection
important so that we can understand our behavior, in other words, that way that we act. In this essay I will show that the majority of evidences supports the idea of evolution. The idea that Darwin had when he came up with his theory. I believe that Darwin's idea best describes how things evolved, and may still continue to evolve. In a scientific study of genes it was proven that evolution occurs. ...
Chapter II: Variation Under Nature
Variations within a species are indistinguishable at first, but gradually may develop into differences that can restrict one group’, range or ability to obtain food or escape predators … Thus, “varieties tend to become converted into new and distinct species … and throughout nature the forms of life which are now dominant tend to become still more dominant by leaving any modified and dominant descendants.”
Chapter III: Struggle for Existence
“… When a plant or animal is placed in a new country amongst new competitors, the conditions of its life will generally be changed in an essential manner……. If its average numbers are to increase…… we should have to give it some advantage over a different set of competitors or enemies.” Each organic being is striving to multiply to be vigorous, healthy, and to survive – often at the expense of members of its own species or those of a competing species.
Chapter IV: Natural Selection; or the Survival of the Fittest
The “fitness” of a species is modified by several different processes. For example, sexual selection may occur when males of a population must compete with other males to possess mates. Those possessing some advantage -better weapons, greater energy, or more beautiful song or plummage – are more apt to survive or attract a mate, likely to leave the most progeny. Over time, such gradual adaptation, along with changing conditions and outside competition, can cause “an infinite diversity in structure, constitution, and habits, advantageous to one set of offspring over another, or to one variety within a species over another. “This principle of preservation, or the survival of the fittest, I have called Natural Selection.. . “
As buds give rise by growth to fresh buds, and these, if vigorous, branch out and overtop on all sides many a feebler branch, so by generation I believe it has been with the great Tree of Life, which fills with its dead n d broken branches the crust of the earth, and covers the surface with its ever-branching and beautiful ramifications.
Chapter V: Laws of Variation
Reproductive “chance” creates variations. When the conditions of a species alter, those individuals that survive to reproduce may have beneficial modifications – organs or limbs that either become stronger or more useful, or else, when not needed for survival, weakened and diminished. This is not to say, however, that the formation of organs serving little purpose does not occur; it most certainly does. The human appendix may exemplify just such a process phenomenon. But any variation within a species is, inevitably, a long, slow process.
The Research paper on Need of a Strengthened Species Act
There lived a bird called Passenger Pigeon in North America. A century ago people could see them in thousands or even in millions. Sadly, there are very few of them left today. The species called passenger pigeons was becaming extinct like many other species. Obviously, there were no laws to protect endangered species, resulting in the large scale destruction of the native habitat. Providing ...
Chapter VIII: Instinct
Habitual instincts are inherited within each species. Ants and bees build their nests and hives with no previous experience. Birds migrate and build homes according to their unique inner senses. But instincts too may change over time as “consequences of one general law leading to the advancement of all organic beings … multiply, vary, let the strongest live and the weakest die.”
Other chapters deal with related topics: hybridism; living species compared to those of ancient geological periods; extinction; geographical distribution of organisms; relationships between species; and the classification of organisms. Objections to the general theory of evolution are presented in both Darwin’s conclusion and glossary of terms.
Darwin’s observations led him to believe that species did adapt to their changing surroundings. Furthermore, he was led to defend as a logical, observable – and even religious – corollary of this conclusion, a theory advancing the probability of common descent for all living creatures.
Authors of the highest eminence seem to be fully satisfied with the view that each species has been independently created. To my mind it accords better with what we know of the laws impressed on matter by the Creator, that the production and extinction of the past and present inhabitants of the world should have been due to secondary causes, like those determining the birth and death of an individual. When I view all beings not as special creations, but as lineal descendants of some few beings which have lived long before the first bed of the Cambrian system was deposited, they seem to me to become ennobled.
The Essay on Darwin Beagles
... 1859, the day Charles Darwin published On The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. His book presented the first convincing case ... from the evidence that species were not specifically created in their present forms, but had evolved from ancestral species.Second, Darwin described a mechanism ...
The Origin of Species represents Darwin’s many years of personal and intellectual struggle. It is candidly argued and presented in a flowing, orderly manner, then left for each reader to weigh the evidence. As a text on natural history, its ideas are refreshingly comprehensible and insightful.
