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Zusatztext “Next to the Bible no work has been quite as influential! in virtually every aspect of human thought! as The Origin of Species .”—Ashley Montagu “Darwin was one of history’s towering geniuses and ranks with the greatest heroes of man’s intellectual progress.”—George Gaylord Simpson in The Meaning of Evolution “It is clear that here is one of the most important contributions ever made to philosophic science; and it is at least behooving on scientists! in the light of the accumulation of evidence which the author has summoned in support of his theory! to reconsider the grounds on which their present doctrine of the origin of species is based.”— The New York Times “Amazingly! 150 years after the publication of The Origin of Species ! Darwin's seminal work on the theory of evolution remains the authoritative tract on the subject.”— Library Journal Informationen zum Autor Charles Darwin Klappentext Charles Darwin's classic that exploded into public controversy, revolutionized the course of science, and continues to transform our views of the world. Few other books have created such a lasting storm of controversy as The Origin of Species. Darwin's theory that species derive from other species by a gradual evolutionary process and that the average level of each species is heightened by the "survival of the fittest" stirred up popular debate to fever pitch. Its acceptance revolutionized the course of science. As Sir Julian Huxley, the noted biologist, points out in his illuminating introduction, the importance of Darwin's contribution to modern scientific knowledge is almost impossible to evaluate: "a truly great book, one which can still be read with profit by professional biologist." Includes an Introduction by Sir Julian Huxley Leseprobe Chapter One Variation Under Domestication Causes of Variability—Effects of Habit—Correlation of Growth—Inheritance—Character of Domestic Varieties—Difficulty of distinguishing between Varieties and Species—Origin of Domestic Varieties from one or more Species—Domestic Pigeons, their Differences and Origin—Principle of Selection anciently followed, its Effects—Methodical and Unconscious Selection—Unknown Origin of our Domestic Productions—Circumstances favourable to Man's power of Selection WHEN WE look to the individuals of the same variety or sub-variety of our older cultivated plants and animals, one of the first points which strikes us, is, that they generally differ much more from each other, than do the individuals of any one species or variety in a state of nature. When we reflect on the vast diversity of the plants and animals which have been cultivated, and which have varied during all ages under the most different climates and treatment, I think we are driven to conclude that this greater variability is simply due to our domestic productions having been raised under conditions of life not so uniform as, and somewhat different from, those to which the parent species have been exposed under nature. There is, also, I think, some probability in the view propounded by Andrew Knight, that this variability may be partly connected with excess of food. It seems pretty clear that organic beings must be exposed during several generations to the new conditions of life to cause any appreciable amount of variation; and that when the organisation has once begun to vary, it generally continues to vary for many generations. No case is on record of a variable being ceasing to be variable under cultivation. Our oldest cultivated plants, such as wheat, still often yield new varieties: our oldest domesticated animals are still capable of rapid improvement or modification. It has been disputed at what period of life the causes of variability, whatever they may be, generally act; whether during the early or late period of developmen...
