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Was Darwin Wrong? @ National Geographic Magazine
Was Darwin Wrong? Step into the world of writers and photographers
as they tell you about the best, worst, and quirkiest places and
adventures they encountered in the field.
Get the facts behind the frame in this online-only gallery. Pick an
image and see the photographer's technical notes.
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The work of the 19th-century English naturalist shocked society and
revolutionized science. How well has it withstood the test of
time?
Get a taste of what awaits you in print from this compelling
excerpt.
Evolution by natural selection, the central concept of the life's
work of Charles Darwin, is a theory. It's a theory about the origin
of adaptation, complexity, and diversity among Earth's living
creatures. If you are skeptical by nature, unfamiliar with the
terminology of science, and unaware of the overwhelming evidence,
you might even be tempted to say that it's "just" a theory. In the
same sense, relativity as described by Albert Einstein is "just" a
theory. The notion that Earth orbits around the sun rather than
vice versa, offered by Copernicus in 1543, is a theory. Continental
drift is a theory. The existence, structure, and dynamics of atoms?
Atomic theory. Even electricity is a theoretical construct,
involving electrons, which are tiny units of charged mass that no
one has ever seen. Each of these theories is an explanation
Maneuver through the series of images that kept photographer Robert
Clark organized in the field.
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that has been confirmed to such a degree, by observation and
experiment, that knowledgeable experts accept it as fact. That's
what scientists mean when they talk about a theory: not a dreamy
and unreliable speculation, but an explanatory statement that fits
the evidence. They embrace such an explanation confidently but
provisionally—taking it as their best available view of reality, at
least until some severely conflicting data or some better
explanation might come along. The rest of us generally agree. We
plug our televisions into little wall sockets, measure a year by
the length of Earth's orbit, and in many other ways live our lives
based on the trusted reality of those theories. Evolutionary
theory, though, is a bit different. It's such a dangerously
wonderful and far-reaching view of life that some people find it
unacceptable, despite the vast body of supporting evidence. As
applied to our own species, Homo sapiens, it can seem more
threatening still. Many fundamentalist Christians and
ultra-orthodox Jews take alarm at the thought that human descent
from earlier primates contradicts a strict reading of the Book of
Genesis. Their discomfort is paralleled by Islamic creationists
such as Harun Yahya, author of a recent volume titled The Evolution
Deceit, who points to the six-day creation story in the Koran as
literal truth and calls the theory of evolution "nothing but a
deception imposed on us by the dominators of the world system." The
late Srila Prabhupada, of the Hare Krishna movement, explained that
God created "the 8,400,000 species of life from the very
beginning," in order to establish multiple tiers of reincarnation
for rising souls. Although souls ascend, the species themselves
don't change, he insisted, dismissing "Darwin's nonsensical
theory." Other people too, not just scriptural literalists, remain
unpersuaded about evolution. According to a Gallup poll drawn from
more than a thousand telephone interviews conducted in February
2001, no less than 45 percent of responding U.S. adults agreed that
"God created human beings pretty much in their present form at one
time within the last 10,000 years or so." Evolution, by their
lights, played no role in shaping us. Only 37 percent of the polled
Americans were satisfied with allowing room for both God and
Darwin—that is, divine initiative to get things started, evolution
as the creative means. (This view, according to more than one papal
pronouncement, is compatible with Roman Catholic dogma.) Still
fewer Americans, only 12 percent, believed that humans evolved from
other life-forms without any involvement of a god. The most
startling thing about these poll numbers is not that so many
Americans reject evolution, but that the statistical breakdown
hasn't changed much in two decades. Gallup interviewers posed
exactly the same choices in 1982, 1993, 1997, and 1999. The
creationist conviction—that God alone, and not evolution, produced
humans—has never drawn less than 44 percent. In other words, nearly
half the American populace prefers to believe that Charles Darwin
was wrong where it mattered most.
Get the whole story in the pages of National Geographic
magazine.
Why is Darwin's theory of evolution so hard to accept for so many
people? What do you believe?
to the early 1900s when a prospector in Alaska dug up these woolly
mammoth tusks.
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Was Darwin Wrong? @ National Geographic Magazine
In More to Explore the National Geographic magazine team shares
some of its best sources and other information. Special thanks
to
the Research Division.
Where do you bury someone like Darwin, a man who admittedly had
lost his Christian faith and declared himself an agnostic? When he
died on April 19, 1882, his family planned to bury him in the local
churchyard beside the graves of his children. Some of Darwin's
countrymen, however, had other ideas and quickly began lobbying
leading scientists and members of government to come together and
ask the dean of Britain's Westminster Abbey to allow Darwin to be
buried there. The dean, Reverend George Granville Bradley,
responded that his "assent would be cheerfully given," and so
Darwin, the agnostic, was buried in Westminster Abbey on the
afternoon of April 26. Darwin's old friend, botanist Joseph Hooker,
was among the pallbearers, as were Alfred Russel Wallace, the young
naturalist whose writings had pushed Darwin into publishing his own
theory, and James Russell Lowell, the United States' ambassador to
Britain. In a part of the Abbey known as Scientists' Corner, Darwin
lies a few feet from the burial place of Sir Isaac Newton and next
to that of the astronomer Sir John Herschel. It was Herschel that
Darwin referred to in the introduction of The Origin of Species as
the great philosopher who coined the phrase "mystery of mysteries"
to describe the change of Earth's species through time. —Patricia
Kellogg
Evolution www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution This interactive and
entertaining website is a companion to the PBS series on evolution.
Explore Darwin's life and the theory he proposed, find resources
for teachers and students and a library of additional resources.
The Writing of Charles Darwin on the Web
pages.britishlibrary.net/charles.darwin This site claims to be the
most extensive collection of Darwin's writings ever published and
includes The Origin of Species and other books, volumes of letters,
and articles published in periodicals. Although the site appears to
come from the British Library, it is produced by a historian
affiliated with Cambridge University. Exploring Constitutional
Conflicts: The Evolution Controversy
www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/evolution.htm A
fascinating look at both sides of the issue from a University of
Missouri law professor. Includes links to websites supporting
evolutionist theory and creationism. AboutDarwin.com
http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0411/feature1/index.html (3
of 5)11/9/2004 3:56:23 AM
www.aboutdarwin.com More about Darwin himself than about evolution,
this entertaining site offers great detail about Darwin's life and
science in the late 1800s. It includes a long list of links. Center
for Science and Culture www.discovery.org/csc This website presents
the non-Darwinist and non-creationist point of view known as
intelligent design, which holds that the universe is the product of
intelligent thinking. Answers in Genesis www.answersingenesis.org A
very large young-Earth creationist website. Although most material
is in English, it includes pages in ten Asian and European
languages. The Talk.Origins Archive www.talkorigins.org This
website is built around essays and articles addressing the
evolution/creationism controversy from a mainstream science
viewpoint. Lots of links to websites on both sides of the issue.
National Center for Science Education www.ncseweb.org The NCSE is a
nonprofit organization dedicated to defending the teaching of
evolution in public schools.
Robert Clark www.robertclarkphoto.com Preview the diverse work of
this award-winning photographer at this site, which includes photo
galleries, a short biography, and more.
The National Academies www.nationalacademies.org This organization
provides a committee of experts in all areas of scientific and
technological endeavor and gives independent, objective advice on
critical international and national issues.
Top
Browne, Janet. Charles Darwin: Voyaging. Vol. 1. Alfred A. Knopf,
1995. Browne, Janet. Charles Darwin: The Power of Place. Vol. 2.
Alfred A. Knopf, 2002. Darwin, Charles. On the Origin of Species by
Means of Natural Selection or the Preservation of Favored Races in
the Struggle for Life. John Murray, 1859. (Modern editions are
available from many publishers.) Desmond, Adrian, and James Moore.
Darwin. Michael Joseph, 1991. Eldredge, Niles. The Pattern of
Evolution. W. H. Freeman and Company, 1999. Larson, Edward J.
Evolution: The Remarkable History of a Scientific Theory. Modern
Library, 2004.
Top
Chapman, Matthew. "Islands of the Fittest." National Geographic
Traveler (April 2003), 46-57. Lange, Karen E. "Wolf to Woof."
National Geographic (January 2002), 2-11.
Benchley, Peter. "Galápagos: Paradise in Peril." National
Geographic (April 1999), 2-31. Plage, Dieter, and Mary Plage. "A
Century After Darwin's Death, Galápagos Wildlife Under Pressure."
National Geographic (January 1988), 122-45. Gore, Rick. "Seven
Giants Who Led the Way." National Geographic (Sept. 1976), 400-7.
Villiers, Alan. "In the Wake of Darwin's Beagle." National
Geographic (October 1969), 449-95. Peterson, Roger Tory. "The
Galápagos, Eerie Cradle of New Species." National Geographic (April
1967), 540-85. Johnson, Electa, and Irving Johnson. "Lost World of
the Galápagos." National Geographic (May 1959), 680-703.
Top
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of 5)11/9/2004 3:56:23 AM
Field Notes From
Was Darwin Wrong?
David Quammen
Robert Clark
In most cases these accounts are edited versions of a spoken
interview. They have not been researched and may differ from the
printed article.
Photographs by Michael Nichols (top) and Alex Di Suvero
Was Darwin Wrong?
Field Notes From Author David Quammen
At the American Museum of Natural History in New York, I met with
paleontologists Niles Eldridge and Ian Tattersall. It was a
privilege to meet with them and discuss their respective studies.
Ian gave me a tour of the museum that included an explanation of
how the discovery of Lucy, a famous hominid find, differs from
other previously unearthed hominids.
I've spent 20 years doing field travel that helps me understand
evolutionary ideas, and there have been some scary moments in all
that time. But for this assignment I simply visited a few cities
and spent time with very civilized, very smart evolutionary
biologists in the comfort of their offices. Absolutely no suffering
involved.
Often scientists will surprise you with an interest or talent that
has nothing to do with the work that seems to consume most of their
lives. Niles Eldridge is an evolutionary paleontologist, famous for
developing an idea about the pacing of evolutionary change that he
and his colleague Stephen Jay Gould called punctuated equilibria.
But Niles is also fascinated by the cornet, a musical instrument
similar to a trumpet. His collection includes dozens and dozens of
them. He's written scholarly papers on the history of the
instrument, and he's a musician of some talent. That was a charming
and unexpected discovery.
Top
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3:57:32 AM
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Survival of the Weirdest Photograph by Robert Clark
If bones could speak, this skeleton of a bulldog at the American
Museum of Natural History would testify to unnatural selection
brought on by the breeder's whim. "Artificial selection allows
really weird characteristics, like this protruding lower jaw to be
fixed in a breed," says the museum's mammalogist Richard Monk. He
asserts that the body type of the bulldog would not develop
naturally. One need only look to the wolf for the form nature
prefers.
Camera: Sinar P2 4 x 5 Film Type: Fuji Provia 100F Lens: 180mm
Speed and F-Stop: 1/125 @ f/11
Weather Conditions: Indoors Time of Day: Noon Lighting Techniques:
Four lights at different rates to create a detailed look at the
skull.
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Beetles Fan Photograph by Robert Clark
Perfectly pinned and labeled, a batch of beetles resides at Down
House, Darwin's country home near London, revealing his interest in
species classification while he was still a student at Cambridge
University. The largest beetle shown, Euchirus longimanus, remains
a mystery. It may have come from Indonesia via naturalist Alfred
Russel Wallace or from dealer E. W. Janson, who supplied Darwin
with various horned specimens. "Darwin was fanatical about
beetles," says British entomologist Kenneth Smith. In Darwin's day,
"if you were a beetles man, it was considered manly. They're pretty
tough insects."
Camera: Sinar P2 4 x 5 Film Type: Fuji Provia 100F Lens: 180mm
Speed and F-Stop: 1/250 @ f/22
Weather Conditions: Indoors Time of Day: Unrecorded Lighting
Techniques: Soft lighting source over camera, hard lighting source
to the side to create depth.
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The Flower of an Idea Photograph by Robert Clark
A Disa uniflora orchid extends its petals like arms as if to
proclaim, Look at me. For the legendary 19th-century scientist,
orchids epitomized his theory of natural selection, the belief that
plants and animals evolve with traits favoring survival and
reproductive success. By this measure orchids are a sensational
success, with 24,000 species and 60,000 registered hybrids, far
more than any other flowering plant on Earth. Found on South
Africa's Table Mountain, Disa uniflora can endure frost, snow, and
high wind. Its fused male and female parts—the white column at
center—entice bees for pollination rather than relying on breezes
to carry pollen.
Camera: Sinar P2 4 x 5 Film Type: Fuji Provia 100F Lens: 180mm
Speed and F-Stop: 1/125 @ f/32
Weather Conditions: Indoors Time of Day: Afternoon Lighting
Techniques: All white backdrop and one large hard light source on
the flower
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Prickle Power Photograph by Robert Clark
A short-beaked echidna, or spiny anteater, calls for thick gloves
for a handler at the San Diego Zoo. "Spines are a good defense for
an animal that is close to the ground and can dig in so only the
spines are exposed," says Australian echidna researcher Stewart
Nicol. Along with the duck-billed platypus, the echidna is a
monotreme—a mammal that has retained some features of reptiles and
birds, such as laying eggs. The most widely distributed of
Australian mammals, the echidna is arguably the most
successful.
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Was Darwin Wrong? Zoom In @ National Geographic Magazine
Camera: Mamiya Rz 67 Film Type: Fuji Provia 100F Lens: 110mm Speed
and F-Stop: 1/250 @ f/22
Weather Conditions: Indoors Time of Day: Afternoon Lighting
Techniques: The plastic beneath the anteater was lit from below
while a hard light source from above lit the anteater.
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November 2004
Now more than a century of adventures and photographic memories
from the magazine's archives are just a click away.
WAS DARWIN WRONG? Digging It Finding mammoth tusks wasn't a mammoth
task in Alaska in the early 1900s. Though extinct for some 10,000
years, woolly mammoths left a lot of themselves behind. Often
ancient ivory was found poking from the snow, but this tusk hunter
probably had to dig for his. In another unpublished shot from our
archives, he stands between the tusks, gripping a shovel. Notes on
the image say the bottom of the pit where the tusks were found was
"covered with hair and small pieces of bones." Many tusk hunters in
Alaska and elsewhere sold their finds. A September 1907 Geographic
article reported that in Siberia "there has been a regular export
of mammoth ivory. More than 100 pairs of mammoth tusks have come
into the market yearly during the last 200 years." They're still
coming. Trade in mammoth ivory remains legal to this day.
—Margaret G. Zackowitz
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Edited by Dr John van Wyhe
The most complete collection of Darwin's work ever published- with
original page numbers, illustrations etc.
Darwin's writings
powered by FreeFind
A search tool for the entire site or individual works stored in
multiple files is provided above. To search a single file, or any
page you are viewing, push Ctrl f (control and f simultaneously)
and a find box will appear. To search an individual work select it
from the drop-down list above which currently reads 'Site'.
Most Darwin texts on the internet exclude essential bibliographical
information such as edition, publisher, place of publication, etc.
Page numbers are nowhere to be seen. These factors vastly reduce
the usefulness of these texts as they cannot be easily cited. It is
impossible to know if one is reading a first or sixth edition. An
example are the many online 'first editions' of Darwin's Origin of
Species. Often these cannot be correct as the text contains the
phrase 'survival of the fittest'—famously coined by Herbert Spencer
and first included in the 5th edition of 1869. Many other online
copies of the Origin purport to be the first edition yet contain
the 'Historical Sketch', first found in Britain in the 3rd edition
of 1861. Most historical texts on the internet contain silent
additions or omissions—footnotes are changed to endnotes or
formatting altered without informing readers where this has been
done. If scholars are to find digital texts more useful, it must be
perfectly clear which historical text is represented and the text
must be useable and citable in conventional ways. The texts
provided here are an attempt to do so for the writings of Darwin.
The site also provides many more Darwin texts than are available
anywhere else—in fact almost the complete works. View the list of
Darwin's works available: Darwin's writings. See also Related
texts.
More about the texts
For obvious reasons the most reliable digital texts are facsimile
reproductions. These, however, are very large files and hence slow
to download, browse through etc. Digitized or transcripted texts
are much smaller, faster, and possess the very great advantage of
being searchable for key words or phrases and the text can be
copied out and pasted into notes or other writings. Therefore this
site provides textual transcriptions in a standard xhtml format.
The transcriptions are meant to resemble the originals in every way
relevant to most scholarly uses, however they are not strictly
meant to imitate a facsimile image. Therefore the font and text
size are not intended to exactly reproduce the original appearance.
Instead the characters, formatting and page breaks are accurately
represented.
Only line breaks (or hyphenation at the ends of lines), which would
impede searching and which is irrelevant to quotations, are
removed. Page breaks, even when hyphenation occurs, are
scrupulously preserved because this is reflected in scholarly
quotations. Italics, bold and capitalization, which are retained
when quoting, are meticulously preserved here.
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4:03:49 AM
The writings of Charles Darwin on the web
Most of the works provided here are divided into several
files-usually one per chapter. Each file is headed with the name of
this website followed by the title and edition of the text and a
list of links to the entire work.
Page breaks are indicated thus:
[page] 5
In other instances, when no page number exists-as with end pages or
with inserted plates-page breaks are indicated thus:
[-page break-]
Some selected works, such as the first edition of The Origin of
Species, include the original running headers rather than bracketed
page break indicators. These page breaks appear, as in the original
volume, thus:
8 VARIATION CHAP. I.
where '8' is the page number and 'VARIATION CHAP. I.' is the
running title. This is exactly the string of characters used in the
original text.
All transcriptions are enclosed at the beginning and end of each
file within grey bars:
How were the editions of Darwin's work selected for transcription?
Many people have asked why nonstandard American editions, like
those from Appleton, or very late editions have been transcripted
here. This is because of expediency. Some editions were unavailable
for scanning. First editions are forthcoming with the eventual
expansion of this site.
Editorial remarks have been kept to a strict minimum and are always
clearly marked by the use of [red italic] script enclosed in square
brackets.
In some of the works provided here some of the text has been
rendered into a hyperlink to facilitate quickly jumping to another
passage or image. Obviously the colour and underlining which
indicate the hyperlink were not in the original text.
This site is best viewed with Internet Explorer 5.x
Future developments: This site will shortly undergo a major
metamorphosis when it is absorbed into the new research project at
Cambridge University organized by John van Wyhe and Janet Browne:
The complete work of Charles Darwin. The new project will provide
not only all of the texts and images provided here- but many many
more. Ultimately The complete work of Charles Darwin will provide
transcriptions and page images of every edition of Darwin's works
during his lifetime, and all of his extant manuscripts (excluding
only correspondence which is already being done by the Darwin
Correspondence Project).
Acknowledgements
A very great debt is owed to Sue Asscher for her indefatigable and
painstaking work in digitizing and proof reading many of the
writings of Darwin-some of them more than once. Many thanks are
also due to David Price and Derek Thompson. I am also grateful to
the National University of Singapore for funding part of this
project during 2001-2. Many thanks also to Jim Moore, Chris Haley,
Aileen Fyfe, David Clifford, Mike Hopkins, Pete Goldie, the staff
of the Darwin Correspondence Project, Greig Russell, Ulrich Heinen,
Jaromir Kopecek, Randal Keynes, Andrew Sclater, and Matt
McGill.
Note: the British Library is not connected with the content or
funding of this project.
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The writings of Charles Darwin on the web
Every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of these texts.
If you discover an error, please contact John van Wyhe.
Citation suggestion: John van Wyhe ed., The writings of Charles
Darwin on the web (http://pages.britishlibrary.net/charles.darwin/)
[date accessed].
The materials provided on this website may be freely cited and
distributed to classes but reposting on other websites, publishing,
or other reproductions, whole or in part, are subject to the
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Site copyright © John van Wyhe 2002-2004.
Last modified 26 September, 2004
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The writings of Charles Darwin on the web
by John van Wyhe
-Books
Books
-Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. 'Beagle.' Edited and superintended
by Charles Darwin. -Part I. Fossil Mammalia, by Richard Owen. With
a Geological Introduction, by Charles Darwin. London, 1840. -Part
II. Mammalia, by George R. Waterhouse. With a notice of their
habits and ranges, by Charles Darwin. London, 1839.
Darwin, Charles, The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs.
Being the First Part of the Geology of the Voyage of the 'Beagle.'
London, Smith, Elder & Co., 1842.
Darwin, Charles, Geological observations on Coral Reefs, Volcanic
Islands, and on South America: being the Geology of the Voyage of
the Beagle, under the Command of Capt. FitzRoy, during the Years
1832-36. London, Melbourne &
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Darwin's writings available at this website
Toronto, Ward Lock & Co., 1910. [first published London, Smith,
Elder & Co., 1842-6]. [-Coral Reefs - Volcanic Islands -
Geological Observations on South America-]
Darwin, Charles, Journal of Researches into the Natural History and
Geology of the countries visited during the Voyage of H.M.S.
'Beagle' round the world, under the command of Captain Fitz-Roy,
R.N. 2nd edition, corrected, with additions. London, 1845. 11th edn
London, John Murray, 1913.
Darwin, Charles, A Monograph of the Fossil Lepadidae; or,
Pedunculated Cirripedes of Great Britain. London,
Palaeontographical Society, 1851.
Darwin, Charles, A Monograph of the Sub-class Cirripedia, with
Figures of all the Species. The Lepadidae; or, Pedunculated
Cirripedes. London, Ray Society, 1851.
Darwin, Charles, A Monograph on the Fossil Balanidæ and Verrucidæ
of Great Britain. London, Palaeontographical Society, 1854.
Darwin, Charles, A Monograph of the Sub-class Cirripedia, with
Figures of all the Species. The Balanidae (or Sessile Cirripedes);
the Verrucidae, etc. London, Ray Society, 1854.
Darwin, Charles, On the origin of species by means of natural
selection. London, John Murray, 1859. [1st edn].
Darwin, Charles, On the various contrivances by which British and
foreign orchids are fertilised by insects. London, John Murray,
1862.
Darwin, Charles, The variation of animals and plants under
domestication. 2 vols, 2nd edn New York, D. Appleton & Co.
1883. [first published London, John Murray, 1868].
Darwin, Charles, The descent of man and selection in relation to
sex. 2nd edn revised and augmented, London, John Murray, 1882.
[first published London, John
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Murray, 1871].
Darwin, Charles, The origin of species by means of natural
selection. 6th edn London, John Murray, 1872.
Darwin, Charles, The expression of the emotions in man and animals.
London, John Murray, 1872.
Darwin, Charles, The movements and habits of climbing plants. 2nd
edn London, John Murray, 1875.
Darwin, Charles, Insectivorous plants. New York, D. Appleton &
Co., 1875. [first published London, John Murray, 1875].
Darwin, Charles, The effects of cross and self-fertilisation in the
vegetable kingdom. New York, D. Appleton & Co., 1892. [first
published London, John Murray, 1876].
Darwin, Charles, The different forms of flowers on plants of the
same species. New York, D. Appleton & Co., 1896. [first
published London, John Murray, 1877].
Darwin, Charles, The power of movement in plants. London, John
Murray, 1880.
Darwin, Charles, The formation of vegetable mould, through the
action of worms. Eighth thousand (corrected) London, John Murray,
1883. [first published London, John Murray, 1881].
Darwin, Charles, The foundations of the Origin of Species: Two
essays written in 1842 and 1844 by Charles Darwin, Francis Darwin
ed., Cambridge, 1909.
Contributions to books
Darwin's writings available at this website
Darwin, Charles, 'Geology', in John F.W. Herschel ed., A Manual of
scientific enquiry; prepared for the use of Her Majesty's Navy: and
adapted for travellers in general. London, 1849.
Darwin, Charles, 'On the Use of the Microscope on Board Ship', in
Richard Owen, 'Zoology' in John F.W. Herschel ed., A Manual of
scientific enquiry; prepared for the use of Her Majesty's Navy: and
adapted for travellers in general. London, 1849. pp. 389-395.
Darwin, Charles, 'Recollections by Charles Darwin', in Leonard
Jenyns, Memoir of the Rev. John Stevens Henslow. London, 1862, pp.
51-55.
Darwin, Charles, 'Prefatory notice', to A. Kerner, Flowers and
their unbidden guests. Translated, revised and edited by W. Ogle.
London, 1878.
Darwin, Charles, Preface and 'a preliminary notice' to Ernst
Krause, Erasmus Darwin. Translated from the German by W.S. Dallas.
London, John Murray, 1879.
Darwin, Charles, 'Prefatory notice' to Aug Weismann, Studies in the
Theory of Descent. Translated and edited by Raphael Meldola.
London, 1880.
Darwin, Charles, 'A letter (1876) on the 'Drift' near Southampton',
in James Geikie, Prehistoric Europe: a geological sketch. London,
1881.
Darwin, Charles, 'A posthumous essay on instinct' in George John
Romanes, Mental evolution in animals: with a posthumous essay on
instinct by Charles Darwin. London, Kegan Paul, Trench & Co.,
1883.
Darwin, Charles, 'Prefatory notice', to Hermann Müller, The
Fertilisation of Flowers. Translated and edited by D'Arcy W.
Thompson. London, 1883.
Darwin, Charles, 'Über die Wege der Hummelmännchen', trans. by
Ernst Krause in
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his, Gesammelte kleinere Schriften von Charles Darwin. Leipzig,
1886.
Correspondence
[note: letters in periodicals are not listed separately
here.]
Darwin, Francis ed., The life and letters of Charles Darwin. 2
vols. New York, D. Appleton & Co., 1905. [first published
London, John Murray, 1887].
Darwin, Francis & A.C. Seward eds., More letters of Charles
Darwin. 2 vols. London, John Murray, 1903.
Darwin, Charles, Letters to Professor Henslow, read by him at the
meeting of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, held Nov 16, 1835.
[Cambridge, Privately printed, 1835].
Darwin, Charles, 'A letter (1876) on the 'Drift' near Southampton',
in James Geikie, Prehistoric Europe: a geological sketch. London,
1881.
Contributions to periodicals
FitzRoy, Robert, and Darwin, Charles, 'A Letter, Containing Remarks
on the moral State of Tahiti, New Zealand, &c.', South African
Christian Recorder, 2, 1836, pp. 221-238.
Darwin, Charles, 'Notes upon the Rhea Americana', Proceedings of
the Zoological Society of London, (5) 1837, pp. 35-36.
Darwin, Charles, 'Remarks upon the habits of the genera Geospiza,
Camarhynchus, Cactornis, and Certhidea of Gould', Proceedings of
the Zoological
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Society of London, (5) 10 May 1837, p. 49.
Darwin, Charles, 'Observations of proofs of recent elevation on the
coast of Chili, made during the survey of His Majesty's ship
Beagle, commanded by Capt. Fitzroy', Proceedings of the Geological
Society of London, 2(48) 1837, pp. 446- 449.
Darwin, Charles, 'A sketch of the Deposits containing extinct
Mammalia in the neighbourhood of the Plata', Proceedings of the
Geological Society of London, 2 (51) 1837, pp. 542-544.
Darwin, Charles, 'On certain areas of elevation and subsidence in
the Pacific and Indian oceans, as deduced from the study of Coral
Formations', Proceedings of the Geological Society of London, 2(51)
1837, pp. 552-554.
Darwin, Charles, 'On the Formation of Mould', Proceedings of the
Geological Society of London, 2(52) 1838, pp. 574-576.
Darwin, Charles, 'Geological Notes made during a survey of the East
and West Coasts of South America in the years 1832, 1833, 1834, and
1835; with an account of a transverse section of the Cordilleras of
the Andes between Valparaiso and Mendoza' Proceedings of the
Geological Society of London, 2, 1838, pp. 210-212.
Darwin, Charles, 'On the connexion of certain volcanic phænomena,
and on the formation of mountain-chains and volcanos, as the
effects of continental elevations', Proceedings of the Geological
Society of London, 2(56) 1838, pp. 654- 660.
Darwin, Charles, 'Note on a Rock seen on an Iceberg in 61° South
Latitude', The Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London,
9, 1839, pp. 528-529.
Darwin, Charles, 'Observations on the Parallel Roads of Glen Roy,
and of other parts of Lochaber in Scotland, with an attempt to
prove that they are of marine
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origin', Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London,
1839, pp. 39- 81.
Darwin, Charles, 'On the Connexion of certain Volcanic Phenomena in
South America; and on the Formation of Mountain Chains and
Volcanos, as the Effect of the same Power by which Continents are
elevated.', Transactions of the Geological Society of London,(2)53,
1840, pp. 601-631.
Darwin, Charles, 'On the formation of mould', Transactions of the
Geological Society of London, 5(3), 1840, pp. 505-509.
Darwin, Charles, 'On the distribution of the erratic boulders and
on the contemporaneous unstratified deposits of South America',
Transactions of the Geological Society of London, (2)6(2) 1841, pp.
415-431.
Darwin, Charles, 'On a Remarkable Bar of Sandstone off Pernambuco,
on the Coast of Brazil', London, Edinburgh, and Dublin
Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science, 19, 1841, pp.
257-60.
Darwin, Charles, 'Humble-Bees', Gardeners' Chronicle, no. 34, 21
Aug 1841, p. 550.
Darwin, Charles, 'Notes on the Effects Produced by the Ancient
Glaciers of Caernarvonshire, and on the Boulders Transported by
Floating Ice', London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine
and Journal of Science 21, 1842, pp. 180-88.
Darwin, Charles, 'Double flowers—their origin', Gardeners'
Chronicle, 9 Sept 1843, p. 628.
Darwin, Charles, et al, 'Report of a committee appointed "to
consider of the rules by which the nomenclature of zoology may be
established on a uniform and permanent basis"', Report of the
British Association for the Advancement of
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Darwin's writings available at this website
Science for 1842, 1843, pp. 105-121.
Darwin, Charles, 'Remarks on the preceding paper, in a Letter from
Charles Darwin, Esq., to Mr. Maclaren', Edinburgh New Philosophical
Journal xxxiv. 1843, pp. 47-50. [The "preceding" paper is: 'On
Coral Islands and Reefs as described by Mr. Darwin. By Charles
Maclaren'].
Darwin, Charles, 'On the origin of mould', Gardeners' Chronicle, 6
Apr 1844, p. 218.
Darwin, Charles, 'Manures, and Steeping Seeds', Gardeners'
Chronicle, 8 June 1844, p. 380.
Darwin, Charles, 'Variegated Leaves', Gardeners' Chronicle, 14 Sept
1844, p. 621.
Darwin, Charles, 'What is the Action of Common Salt on Carbonate of
Lime?', Gardeners' Chronicle, 14 Sept 1844, pp. 628-29.
Darwin, Charles, 'Mr. Darwin's Memorandum' in Henslow, 'Rust in
wheat', Gardeners' Chronicle, 28 Sept 1844, p. 659.
Darwin, Charles, 'Observations on the Structure and Propagation of
the genus Sagitta', Annals and Magazine of Natural History, xiii.
1844, pp. 1-6.
Darwin, Charles, 'Brief descriptions of several Terrestrial
Planariae, and of some remarkable Marine Species, with an Account
of their Habits', Annals and Magazine of Natural History, xiv.
1844, pp. 241-251.
Darwin, Charles, 'An Account of the Fine Dust which Often Falls on
Vessels in the Atlantic Ocean', Quarterly Journal of the Geological
Society of London, pt. 1, 2, 1846, pp. 26-30.
Darwin, Charles, 'On the Geology of the Falkland Islands',
Quarterly Journal of
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the Geological Society of London, pt. 1, 2, 1846, pp. 267-74.
Darwin, Charles, 'Origin of Saliferous Deposits: Salt-Lakes of
Patagonia and La Plata', Quarterly Journal of the Geological
Society of London, pt. 2, 2, 1846, pp. 127-28.
Darwin, Charles, [review of] 'Waterhouse's 'Natural History of the
Mammalia', Annals and Magazine of Natural History, 1847, xix. pp.
53-6.
Darwin, Charles, 'Salt', Gardeners' Chronicle, 6 Mar 1847, pp.
157-58.
Darwin, Charles, 'On the Transportal of Erratic Boulders from a
Lower to a Higher Level', Quarterly Journal of the Geological
Society of London, 4, 1848, pp. 315-23.
Darwin, Charles, 'On British Fossil Lepadidæ', The Quarterly
Journal of the Geological Society of London, 6, 1850, pp.
439-440.
Darwin, Charles, 'Extracts from Letters to the General Secretary,
on the Analogy of the Structure of Some Volcanic Rocks with That of
Glaciers', Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 2, 1851,
pp. 17-18.
Darwin, Charles, 'Bucket Ropes for Wells', Gardeners' Chronicle, 10
Jan 1852, p. 22.
Darwin, Charles, 'On the power of Icebergs to make rectilinear,
uniformly-directed Grooves across a Submarine Undulatory Surface',
London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of
Science, x, 1855, pp. 96-98.
Darwin, Charles, 'Does Sea-Water Kill Seeds?', Gardeners'
Chronicle, 14 Apr 1855, p. 242.
Darwin, Charles, 'Does Sea-Water Kill Seeds?', Gardeners'
Chronicle, 26 May 1855, pp. 356-57.
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Darwin, Charles, 'Nectar-Secreting Organs of Plants', Gardeners'
Chronicle, 21 July 1855, p. 487.
Darwin, Charles, 'Shell Rain in the Isle of Wight', Gardeners'
Chronicle, 3 Nov 1855, pp. 726-27.
Darwin, Charles, 'Vitality of Seeds'. Gardeners' Chronicle, 17 Nov
1855, p. 758.
Darwin, Charles, 'Effect of Salt-Water on the Germination of
Seeds', Gardeners' Chronicle, 1 Dec 1855, p. 789.
Darwin, Charles, 'Longevity of Seeds', Gardeners' Chronicle, 29 Dec
1855, p. 854.
Darwin, Charles, 'Seedling Fruit Trees', Gardeners' Chronicle, 29
Dec 1855 p. 854.
Darwin, Charles, 'Effect of Salt-Water on the Germination of
Seeds', Gardeners' Chronicle, 24 Nov 1855, p. 773.
Darwin, Charles, 'Cross Breeding', Gardeners' Chronicle, no. 49, 6
Dec 1856, p. 806.
Darwin, Charles, 'Hybrid Dianths', Gardeners' Chronicle, no. 10, 7
Mar 1857, p. 155.
Darwin, Charles, 'Mouse-coloured Breed of Ponies', Gardeners'
Chronicle, no. 24, 13 June 1857 p. 427.
Darwin, Charles, 'The Subject of Deep Wells', Gardeners' Chronicle,
no. 30, 25 July 1857, p. 518.
Darwin, Charles, 'Bees and Fertilisation of Kidney Beans'.
Gardeners' Chronicle, 24 Oct 1857, p. 725.
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Darwin, Charles, 'Productiveness of Foreign Seed',
Gardeners'Chronicle, no. 46, 14 Nov 1857, p. 779.
Darwin, Charles, 'On the Action of Sea-Water on the Germination of
Seeds', Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society, Botany,
l, 1857, pp. 130-40.
Darwin, Charles, & Alfred Russel Wallace, 'On the Tendency of
Species to form Varieties; and on the Perpetuation of Varieties and
Species by Natural Means of Selection', Journal of the Proceedings
of the Linnean Society, Zoology, 20 Aug. 1858, 3, pp. 45-62.
Darwin, Charles, 'On the Agency of Bees in the Fertilisation of
Papilionaceous Flowers, and on the Crossing of Kidney Beans',
Annals and Magazine of Natural History, 3rd series ii. 1858, pp.
459-465.
Darwin, Charles, 'Public Natural History Collections', Gardeners'
Chronicle, no. 48, 27 Nov 1858 p. 861.
Darwin, Charles, 'Cross-bred Plants', Gardeners' Chronicle, no. 3,
21 Jan 1860 p. 49.
Darwin, Charles, 'Do the Tineina or other Small Moths Suck Flowers,
and if so what Flowers?', Entomologist's Weekly Intelligencer 8,
1860, p. 103.
Darwin, Charles, 'Natural Selection', Gardeners' Chronicle, no. 16,
21 Apr 1860, pp. 362-63.
Darwin, Charles, 'Fertilisation of British Orchids by Insect
Agency', Gardeners'Chronicle, no. 23, 9 June 1860, p. 528.
Darwin, Charles, 'Note on the achenia of Pumilio Argyrolepis',
Gardeners' Chronicle, 5 Jan 1861, p. 4.
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Darwin, Charles, 'Fertilisation of British Orchids by Insect
Agency', Gardeners' Chronicle, no. 6, 9 Feb 1861, p. 122.
Darwin, Charles, 'Phenomena in the Cross-breeding of Plants',
Journal of Horticulture and Cottage Gardener, 14 May 1861, 1, pp.
112.
Darwin, Charles, 'Cross-breeding in Plants: Fertilisation of
Leschenaultia formosa', Journal of Horticulture and Cottage
Gardener, 28 May 1861, 1, p. 151.
Darwin, Charles, 'Fertilisation of Vincas', Gardeners' Chronicle,
15 June 1861, pp. 552, 831, 832.
Darwin, Charles, 'Cause of the Variation of Flowers', Journal of
Horticulture and Cottage Gardener, 18 June 1861, 1, p. 211.
Darwin, Charles, 'Effects of different kinds of pollen', Journal of
Horticulture and Cottage Gardener, 8 Jul 1861, pp. 280-1.
Darwin, Charles, 'Parents of some gladioli', Journal of
Horticulture and Cottage Gardener, 9 Sep 1861, p. 453.
Darwin, Charles, 'Fertilization of Orchids', Gardeners' Chronicle,
no. 37, 14 Sept 1861, p. 831.
Darwin, Charles, 'Is the female bombus fertilised in the air?',
Journal of Horticulture and Cottage Gardener, 22 Oct 1861, p.
76.
Darwin, Charles, 'On the Two Forms, or Dimorphic Condition, in the
Species of Primula, and on their remarkable Sexual Relations',
Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society, Botany, 6, 1862,
pp. 77-96.
Darwin, Charles, 'On the Three remarkable Sexual Forms of Catasetum
tridentatum, an Orchid in the Possession of the Linnean Society',
Journal of the
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Proceedings of the Linnean Society, Botany, 6, 1862, pp.
151-57.
Darwin, Charles, 'Do bees vary in different parts of Great
Britain', Journal of Horticulture and Cottage Gardener, 9 June
1862, p. 207.
Darwin, Charles, 'Bees in Jamaica increase the size and substance
of their cells.', Journal of Horticulture and Cottage Gardener, 14
Jul 1862, p. 305.
Darwin, Charles, 'Bee-cells in Jamaica not larger than in England',
Journal of Horticulture and Cottage Gardener, 21 Jul 1862, p.
323.
Darwin, Charles, 'Peas', Gardeners' Chronicle, no. 45, 8 Nov 1862
p. 1052.
Darwin, Charles, 'Cross-breeds of Strawberries', Journal of
Horticulture and Cottage Gardener, 25 Nov 1862, 3, p. 672.
Darwin, Charles, 'Variations Effected by Cultivation', Journal of
Horticulture and Cottage Gardener, 2 Dec 1862, 3, p. 696.
Darwin, Charles, 'Penguin ducks', Journal of Horticulture and
Cottage Gardener, 26 Dec 1862, p. 797.
Darwin, Charles, 'Influence of pollen on the appeaeance of seed',
Journal of Horticulture and Cottage Gardener, 26 Jan 1863, p.
70.
Darwin, Charles, 'Vindication of Gärtner, effect of crossing-peas',
Journal of Horticulture and Cottage Gardener, 2 Feb 1863, p.
93.
Darwin, Charles, 'Fertilisation of Orchids', Journal of
Horticulture and Cottage Gardener, 31 Mar 1863, 4, p. 237.
Darwin, Charles, 'The Doctrine of Heterogeny and Modification of
Species', Athenaeum. Journal of Literature, Science, and the Fine
Arts, no. 1852, 25 Apr 1863, pp. 554-55.
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Darwin, Charles, 'Origin of Species', Athenaeum. Journal of
Literature, Science, and the Fine Arts, no. 1854, 9 May 1863, p.
617.
Darwin, Charles, 'On the Thickness of the Pampean Formation, Near
Buenos Ayres', Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of
London, 19, 1863, pp. 68- 71.
M.J.B, [Yellow Rain], Gardeners' Chronicle, no. 29, 18 July 1863,
p. 675 [With a quotation by Darwin].
Darwin, Charles, 'Appearance of a Plant in a Singular Place',
Gardeners' Chronicle, no. 33, 15 Aug 1863, p. 773.
Darwin, Charles, 'Vermin and Traps', Gardeners' Chronicle, no. 35,
29 Aug 1863, pp. 821-22.
Darwin, Charles, 'On the so-called "Auditory-sac" of Cirripedes',
Natural History Review, 1863, pp. 115-116.
Darwin, Charles, 'A review of Mr. Bates' paper on 'Mimetic
Butterflies.'', Natural History Review, 1863, pp. 219-224.
Darwin, Charles, 'On the Existence of Two Forms, and on Their
Reciprocal Sexual Relation, in Several Species of the Genus Linum',
Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society (Botany) 7, 1864,
pp. 69-83.
Darwin, Charles, 'Ancient Gardening', Gardeners' Chronicle, no. 41,
8 Oct 1864, p. 965.
Darwin, Charles, 'On the Sexual Relations of the Three Forms of
Lythrum salicaria', Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean
Society, Botany, 8, 1865, pp. 169-96.
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Darwin's writings available at this website
Darwin, Charles, 'On the Movement and Habits of Climbing Plants',
Journal of the Linnaean Society of London (Botany), 9, 1865, pp.
1-118. [Digitization forthcoming].
Darwin, Charles, 'Partial Change of Sex in Unisexual Flowers',
Gardeners' Chronicle, no. 6, 10 Feb 1866, p. 127.
Darwin, Charles, 'Oxalis Bowei', Gardeners' Chronicle, no. 32, 11
Aug 1866 p. 756.
Darwin, Charles, 'Cross-fertilising Papilionaceous Flowers',
Gardeners' Chronicle, no. 32, 11 Aug 1866, p. 756.
Darwin, Charles, 'Fertilisation of Cypripediums', Gardeners'
Chronicle, no. 14, 6 Apr 1867, p. 350.
Darwin, Charles, 'Note on the Common Broom', in George Henslow,
'Note on the Structure of Indigofera, as Apparently Offering
Facilities for the Intercrossing of Distinct Flowers,' Journal of
the Linnean Society, Botany, 9, 1867, p. 358.
Darwin, Charles, 'Hedgehogs', Hardwicke's Science-Gossip: An
Illustrated Medium of Interchange and Gossip for Students and
Lovers of Nature, 1 Dec. 1867. p. 280.
Darwin, Charles, '[Inquiry about Proportional Number of Males and
Females Born to Domestic Animals]', Gardeners' Chronicle, no. 7, 15
Feb 1868, p. 160.
Darwin, Charles, 'On the Character and Hybrid-like Nature of the
Offspring from the Illegitimate Unions of Dimorphic and Trimorphic
Plants', Journal of the Linnean Society, Botany, 10, 1868, pp.
393-437.
Darwin, Charles, 'On the Specific Difference between Primula veris,
Brit. F. (var. officinalis of Linn.), P. vulgaris, Brit. Fl. (var.
acaulis, Linn.), and P. elatior,
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Darwin's writings available at this website
Jacq.; and on the Hybrid Nature of the common Oxlip. With
Supplementary Remarks on naturally-produced Hybrids in the genus
Verbascum', Journal of the Linnean Society, Botany, 10, 1868, pp.
437-454.
Darwin, Charles, 'Queries about Expression for Anthropological
Inquiry', Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian
Institution . . . for the Year 1867. Senate Mis. doc. no. 86, 1868,
p. 324.
Darwin, Charles, 'The Formation of Mould by Worms', Gardeners'
Chronicle, no. 20, 15 May 1869 p. 530.
Darwin, Charles, 'Pangenesis: Mr. Darwin's Reply to Professor
Delpino', Scientific Opinion: A Weekly Record of Scientific
Progress at Home & Abroad, 2, 1869, p. 426.
Darwin, Charles, 'Origin of Species', Athenaeum. Journal of
Literature, Science, and the Fine Arts, no. 2174, 26 June 1869, p.
861.
Darwin, Charles, 'Origin of Species', Athenaeum. Journal of
Literature, Science, and the Fine Arts, no. 2177, 17 July 1869, p.
82.
Darwin, Charles, 'Notes on the Fertilization of Orchids', Annals
and Magazine of Natural History, 4th series, iv. 1869, pp.
141-159.
Darwin, Charles, 'The Fertilisation of Winter-flowering Plants',
Nature, 18 Nov 1869, vol. i. p. 85.
Darwin, Charles, 'Note on the Habits of the Pampas Woodpecker',
Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, 1870, pp.
705-706.
Darwin, Charles, 'Pangenesis', Nature, 27 Apr 1871, vol. iii. p.
502-3.
Darwin, Charles, 'A new view of Darwinism', Nature, 6 July 1871,
vol. iv. p. 180.
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Darwin, Charles, 'Fertilisation of Leschenaultia', Gardeners'
Chronicle, 9 Sept 1871, p. 1166.
Darwin, Charles, 'A Letter from Mr. Darwin', Index, vol. 2, 23 Dec
1871, p. 404.
Darwin, Charles, 'Bree on Darwinism', Nature, 8 Aug 1872, vol. vi.
p. 279.
Darwin, Charles, 'Inherited Instinct', Nature, 13 Feb 1873, vol.
vii. p. 281.
Darwin, Charles, 'Perception in the Lower Animals', Nature, 13 Mar
1873, vol. vii. p. 360.
Darwin, Charles, 'Origin of certain instincts', Nature, 3 Apr 1873,
vol. vii. p. 417.
Darwin, Charles, 'Habits of Ants', Nature, 24 July 1873, vol. viii.
p. 244.
Darwin, Charles, 'On the Males and Complemental Males of Certain
Cirripedes, and on Rudimentary Structures', Nature, 25 Sept 1873,
vol. viii. pp. 431-2.
Darwin, Charles, 'Recent researches on Termites and Honey-bees',
Nature, 19 Feb 1874, vol. ix. p. 308.
Darwin, Charles, 'Fertilisation of the Fumariaceae', Nature, 16 Apr
1874, vol. ix. p. 460.
Darwin, Charles, 'Flowers of the Primrose destroyed by Birds',
Nature, 23 Apr 1874, vol. ix. p. 482.
Darwin, Charles, 'Flowers of the Primrose destroyed by Birds',
Nature, 14 May 1874, vol. x. pp. 24-5.
Darwin, Charles, '[A Communication on Irritability of Pinguicula]',
Gardeners' Chronicle, vol. 2, 4 July 1874, p. 15.
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Darwin's writings available at this website
Darwin, Charles, 'Cherry Blossoms', Nature, 11 May 1876, vol. xiv.
p. 28.
Darwin, Charles, 'Sexual Selection in relation to Monkeys', Nature,
2 Nov 1876, vol. xv. p. 18. Reprinted as a supplement to the
Descent of Man, 1871.
Darwin, Charles, 'Fritz Müller on Flowers and Insects', Nature, Nov
29, 1876, vol. xvii. p. 78.
Darwin, Charles, 'Holly Berries', Gardeners' Chronicle, vol. 7, 6
Jan 1877, p. 19.
Darwin, Charles, 'The Scarcity of Holly Berries and Bees',
Gardeners' Chronicle, 20 Jan 1877, p. 83.
Darwin, Charles, 'Note on Fertilisation of Plants', Gardeners'
Chronicle, 24 Feb 1877, p. 246.
Darwin, Charles, 'Testimonial to Mr. Darwin-Evolution in the
Netherlands-with a letter by Darwin', Nature, 8 Mar 1877, vol. 15,
pp. 410-12.
Darwin, Charles, 'A biographical sketch of an infant', Mind, July
1877, pp. 285- 294.
Darwin, Charles, 'The Contractile Filaments of the Teasel', Nature,
23 Aug 1877, vol. 16. p. 339.
Darwin, Charles, 'Growth under Difficulties, Gardeners' Chronicle,
vol. 8, 29 Dec 1877, p. 805.
Darwin, Charles, 'Transplantation of Shells', Nature, 30 May 1878,
pp. 120-1.
Darwin, Charles, 'Fritz Müller on a Frog having Eggs on its back-on
the abortion of the hairs on the legs of certain Caddis-Flies,
etc.', Nature, 20 Mar 1879, vol. xix. pp. 462-3.
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Darwin's writings available at this website
Darwin, Charles, 'Rats and Water-Casks', Nature, 27 Mar vollume
xix. p. 481.
Darwin, Charles, 'Fertility of Hybrids from the common and Chinese
Goose', Nature, 1 Jan vol. xxi. p. 207.
Darwin, Charles, 'The Sexual Colours of certain Butterflies',
Nature, 8 Jan 1880, vol xxi. p. 237.
Darwin, Charles, 'The Omori Shell Mounds', Nature, 15 Apr 1880,
vol. xxi p. 561.
Darwin, Charles, 'Sir Wyville Thomson and Natural Selection',
Nature, 11 Nov 1880, vol. xxiii. p. 32.
Darwin, Charles, 'Black Sheep', Nature, 30 Dec 1880 vol. xxiii. p.
193.
Darwin, Charles, 'Movements of Plants', Nature, 3 Mar 1881 vol.
xxiii. p. 409.
Darwin, Charles, 'Mr. Darwin on Vivisection', British Medical
Journal, 1, 1881, p. 660.
Darwin, Charles, 'Mr. Darwin on Vivisection', Times, 22 Apr
1881.
Darwin, Charles, 'The Movements of Leaves', Nature, 28 Apr 1881,
vol. xxiii pp. 603-4.
Darwin, Charles, 'Inheritance', Nature, 21 July 1881 vol. xxiv. p.
257.
Darwin, Charles, 'Leaves injured at Night by Free Radiation',
Nature, 15 Sept 1881, vol. xxiv. p. 459.
Darwin, Charles, 'A Letter to Mrs. Emily Talbot on the Mental and
Bodily Development of Infants', Nature, 13 Oct 1881, vol. xxiv p.
565.
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Darwin's writings available at this website
Darwin, Charles, 'The Parasitic Habits of Molothrus', Nature, 17
Nov 1881, vol. xxv. pp. 51-2.
Darwin, Charles, 'Preliminary notice' in W. van Dyck, 'On the
Modification of a Race of Syrian Street-Dogs by Means of Sexual
Selection: With a Preliminary Notice by Charles Darwin',
Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, no. 25, 1882, pp.
367-70.
Darwin, Charles, 'On the Dispersal of Freshwater Bivalves', Nature,
6 Apr 1882, vol. xxv. pp. 529-530.
Darwin, Charles, 'The Action of Carbonate of Ammonia on the Roots
of Certain Plants', Journal of the Linnean Society (Botany) 19,
1882, pp. 239-61.
Darwin, Charles, 'The Action of Carbonate of Ammonia on
Chlorophyll-Bodies', Journal of the Linnean Society (Botany) 19,
1882, pp. 262-84.
See Also: Related texts
[Suggestions and contributions are welcomed.]
Many editions, translations and periodical articles will be added
until the entire Nachlass of Charles Darwin, apart from his
correspondence, has been digitized by the larger Darwin
digitization project being organized by John van Wyhe.
9 June, 2004
Return to homepage
The materials provided on this website may be freely cited and
distributed to classes but reposting on other websites, publishing,
or other reproductions are subject to the written permission of
John van Wyhe. Site copyright © John van Wyhe 2002-4.
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The writings of Charles Darwin on the web
by John van Wyhe
Charles Darwin (1809-1882) gentleman naturalist
Few Victorians are as well-remembered today as Charles Robert
Darwin. Born into a wealthy Shropshire gentry family, Darwin grew
up amidst wealth, comfort and country sports. An unimpressive
student, Darwin vacillated between the prospect of becoming a
country physician, like his father, or a clergyman. The advantage
to becoming a country parson, as Darwin saw it, would be the
freedom to pursue his growing interest in natural history. However,
an unforeseen opportunity precluded these early plans. After his
student days in Edinburgh and Christ's College Cambridge, Darwin's
connections in 1831 offered him the opportunity of travelling on a
survey ship, H.M.S. Beagle, as naturalist and the captain's
gentleman dining companion. The
round-the-world journey lasted almost five years. Darwin spent most
of these years investigating the geology and life of the lands he
visited, especially South America, the Galapagos islands, and
pacific coral islands.
Darwin also read the works of men of science like Alexander von
Humboldt and the geologist Charles Lyell. Lyell's new book,
Principles of Geology, was particularly influential for Darwin.
Lyell argued that the world had been shaped not by great
catastrophes like floods but by the gradual processes we see active
around us: wind, erosion, volcanoes, earthquakes etc. Lyell offered
not just a new geology but a new way of explaining the world. Slow
gradual cumulative change over a long period of time could produce
great effects. Visible non-miraculous causes should be preferred
when seeking explanations. Darwin had the opportunity to witness
all of these forces himself during the Beagle voyage and he became
convinced that something like Lyell's method was correct. Darwin
also collected organisms of all sorts, as well as unearthing many
fossils. Darwin wondered why the fossils he unearthed in South
America resembled the present inhabitants of that continent more
than any other life form known. Where had the
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new species come from? In fact, why was the world covered with so
many different kinds of living things? Why were some very similar
to one another and others vastly different? Why did some desert
species live in desserts in Africa, but quite different species in
the Americas? If species suited their environments, why were not
all jungle species the same in Asia, Africa and South America?
Instead each region had its own fauna and flora.
Darwin did not hit on a solution during the Beagle voyage, but
rather a few years later in London, while writing books on his
travels and studying the specimens he had collected. Experts in
London were able to tell him how many of the species of plants and
animals he had collected in the Galapagos Islands were unique
species, found nowhere else. Clearly they resembled species from
South America 500 miles away. It seemed as if migrants from South
America had come to the Galapagos and then changed.
Darwin began to speculate on how species could arise by means still
active around us. His idiosyncratic eclecticism led him to
investigate some unconventional bodies of evidence. He made
countless inquiries of animal breeders, both farmers and hobbyists
like pigeon fanciers, trying to understand how they made distinct
breeds of animals. Gradually Darwin decided that organisms were
infinitely variable, and that the supposed limits or barriers to
species were a myth. In modern terms we would say that Darwin came
to accept that life evolves. In other words that the kinds of
organisms in the world are not fixed kinds. The conventional view
of the time was that species had been created where they are now
found- in accordance with the environment.
Darwin then sought to explain how evolution works. Darwin was
familiar with the evolutionary theories earlier proposed by his
grandfather Erasmus Darwin and by the great French zoologist J.B.
Lamarck. In 1838 Darwin read the Rev. Thomas Malthus's Essay on the
Principle of Population (1798). Malthus had argued for a law-like
relationship between population growth and food production in order
to warn against what he feared was an immanent danger of human
overpopulation. Malthus was widely believed
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to have conclusively demonstrated that population growth would
necessarily outstrip food production unless population growth were
somehow checked. The focus of this argument inspired Darwin who saw
that in all of nature such checks are continuously present. Clearly
any species could breed enough to fill the earth in a few
generations—yet they did not. Many offspring did not survive long
enough to reproduce. Darwin, already concentrating on how new
varieties of life might be formed, now thought in terms of the
differences between those individuals who, for whatever reasons,
left offspring and those who did not.
As Darwin wrote in his autobiography in 1876: 'In October 1838,
that is, fifteen months after I had begun my systematic inquiry, I
happened to read for amusement Malthus on Population, and being
well prepared to appreciate the struggle for existence which
everywhere goes on from long-continued observation of the habits of
animals and plants, it at once struck me that under these
circumstances favourable variations would tend to be preserved, and
unfavourable ones to be destroyed. The results of this would be the
formation of a new species. Here, then I had at last got a theory
by which to work'. Below is the famous passage from Darwin's
personal notebook where these ideas were first recorded:
[Sept] 28th.[1838] Even the energetic language of Decandolle does
not convey the warring of the species as inference from
Malthus-increase of brutes must be prevented solely by positive
checks, excepting that famine may stop desire. —in nature
production does not increase, whilst no check prevail, but the
positive check of famine and consequently death. . .
...—The final cause of all this wedging, must be to sort out proper
structure, and adapt it to change.—to do that for form, which
Malthus shows is the final effect by means however of volition of
this populousness on the energy of man. One may say there is a
force like a hundred thousand wedges trying [to] force every kind
of adapted structure into the gaps in the economy of nature, or
rather forming gaps by thrusting out weaker ones.
Or, as Darwin later put it in the Origin of Species:
As many more individuals of each species are born than can possibly
survive; and as, consequently, there is a frequently recurring
struggle for existence, it follows that any being, if it vary
however slightly in any manner profitable to itself, under the
complex and sometimes varying conditions of life, will have a
better chance of surviving, and thus be naturally selected. From
the strong principle of inheritance, any selected variety will tend
to propagate its new and modified form.
Therefore if individuals did not live to reproduce and others did,
the survivors would pass on their own form and abilities. Their
characteristics would persist multiply whilst those that did not
live long enough to reproduce would decrease. Darwin did not know
precisely how inheritance worked—genes and DNA were totally
unknown. Nevertheless he realized the crucial point that
inheritance occurs. Offspring resemble their parents. Darwin
thought in terms of populations of diverse heritable things with
no
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essence—not representatives of ideal types as many earlier thinkers
had done. From his observations and experiments with domesticated
and wild plants and animals he could find no limits to the extent
organic forms could vary and change through generations. Thus the
existing species in the world were related not along a chain of
being or in statically separate species categories but were all
related on a genealogical family tree through 'descent with
modification'. Darwin called his primary mechanism natural
selection as it was the same principle by which breeders modified
their stock by selecting desirable forms in domesticated plants and
animals. Darwin also identified another means by which some
individuals would have descendants and others would not. He later
called this sexual selection. This theory explained why the male
sex in many species produce colourful displays or specialized body
parts to attract females or to compete against other males. Those
males who beat other males, or were selected for breeding by
females left more offspring and so subsequent generations would
resemble them more than those who succeeded less often to
reproduce. As Darwin pointed out, "A hornless stag or spurless cock
would have a poor chance of leaving offspring."
Darwin, deeply studied in the sciences of his time, yet living
somewhat removed from his colleagues as a closet theorist, was able
to think in new ways and to conceive of worlds quite unimaginable
to his orthodox friends. However, the legend of Darwin as a lone
genius discovering evolution by natural selection on the Galapagos
Islands is a legend whose fabrication we can reconstruct.
Nevertheless, it seems to be so widespread today that nothing
scholars say to the contrary can dislodge it. Perhaps the best
antidotes are the excellent biographies of Darwin by Janet Browne
(1995, 2002) and Desmond and Moore (1991).
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Many have argued that Darwin borrowed an idea of individual
struggle from laissez-faire social theory and applied it to the
natural world. Karl Marx was perhaps the first to observe that
Darwin's theories of individual struggle resembled
contemporary
British theories of political economy. The logic of these social
theories is powerful. Nevertheless, the specific causal connections
between these social factors and Darwin's thought remain unclear.
Although Darwin's theories were not isolated from the social
environments in which he lived, we should remain open- minded when
explaining Darwin's thought. Darwin spent most of his time thinking
about the properties of organisms, how they all varied to some
degree, how apparent lineages resembled one another, and how the
rigours of nature meant that a vast quantity of life was constantly
being snuffed out in a natural winnowing of forms. The important
point for Darwin was not the survival of an individual, or as
Herbert Spencer called it, the 'survival of the fittest', but
success in creating offspring—in the perpetuation of a stock. After
all, Darwin named his theory 'natural selection' not 'individual
competition' or 'survival of the ruthless'. Had he used an
alternative, he later wrote, it would have been "natural
preservation".
Darwin did not, at first, tell anyone about his secret
speculations. Perhaps the first colleague to be told was his
correspondent, the botanist J.D. Hooker on 14 January 1844: 'I am
almost convinced, (quite contrary to opinion I started with) that
species are not (it is like confessing a murder) immutable'. The
unorthodoxy and anathema attached to the idea that species might
not be fixed was a powerful force. Darwin told only a handful of
other friends of his ideas during the succeeding years. Meanwhile
Darwin married his cousin Emma Wedgwood in 1839 and continued to
study and publish on a variety of scientific subjects achieving a
great reputation as a naturalist and traveller. His eight years
grueling work on barnacles, published 1851-4 established Darwin's
reputation as an authority on taxonomy as well as geology and the
distribution of flora and fauna as in his earlier works.
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Darwin conducted breeding experiments with animals and plants and
corresponded and read widely for many years to refine and
substantiate his theories of evolution. In 1842 he prepared an
essay outlining his evolutionary theory but did not publish it.
After completing his work on barnacles Darwin turned to his theory
to explain species. He was interrupted in 1858 when a letter from
an English naturalist and collector, Alfred Russel Wallace, in the
Malay Archipelago arrived. In an essay enclosed with this now
famous letter Wallace described his ideas 'On the Tendency of
Varieties to Depart Indefinitely From the Original Type'. The
similarity to Darwin's theory of evolution was striking for Darwin.
He sent the letter on to Lyell and it was decided, to avoid
competition for priority, to publicize abstracts by both men as
soon as possible. The papers were read in the absence of Darwin and
Wallace at a meeting of the Linnean Society of London in 1858.
Darwin worked on creating an 'abstract' of his work in progress on
natural selection. This abstract became one of the most famous
books of modern times On the Origin of Species (1859).
Although Darwin's exposition was the most accurate and
well-supported explanation of the diversity of life, he was not the
first to propose that life evolves. Why is it that we consider
Darwin as the discoverer of evolution when so many others proposed
similar ideas before him? Why do many still believe that a
Darwinian revolution broke across the world like a thunderclap in
1859 when Darwin published the Origin of Species? A glance at
Darwin's 'An historical sketch of the progress of opinion on the
origin of species' shows that Darwin made no pretence to have
originated or discovered evolution by descent with modification. We
know that a wide popular literature such as George Combe's
Constitution of Man (1828) and the anonymous Vestiges of the
Natural History of Creation (1844) had already shocked and
converted vast popular audiences to belief in the power of natural
laws to control the development of nature and society. Historians
of science now believe that Darwin's effect was, as James Secord
put it, a 'palace coup' amongst elite men of science rather than a
revolution. Darwin, as an unquestionably respectable authority in
elite science, publicly threw his weight on the side of evolution,
and soon young allies like Hooker, T.H. Huxley, and John Tyndall
publicly threw their own weight towards the same position. Darwin's
name is so linked with evolution because he was the high-status
insider who made evolution acceptable, even respectable. Most of
his contemporaries did not particularly like Darwin's primary
mechanism of natural selection. Very often in subsequent years
evolution was accepted but natural selection was not. In fact, a
generation of biologists regarded Darwin as correct in uncovering
the evolution of life but mistaken in stressing natural selection.
Natural selection's canonization had to wait until the modern
synthesis of Darwinism with Mendelian genetics in the 1930s.
Like Combe, Babbage, Chambers, Spencer and countless other authors
before him, Darwin represented his doctrine as furthering the
domain of natural laws. We see this in the following epigraph
chosen by Darwin for the Origin of Species:
" But with regard to the material world, we can at least go so far
as this-we can perceive that events are brought about not by
insulated interpositions of Divine power, exerted in each
particular
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case, but by the establishment of general laws."
W. WHEWELL : Bridgewater Treatise.
Darwin even saw the power of his law of natural selection extending
beyond life to what we would call psychology, linguistics, and to
society and history (see for example Descent of Man chapter 3,
1871).
The Origin of Species
In the Origin of Species Darwin first tried to convince his readers
that organisms are utterly malleable and not fixed natural kinds.
He showed that domestic plants and animals were known to be highly
malleable and to have changed so much under domestication as to be
classified as different species by taxonomists. He then showed that
the existence and abundance of organisms was dependent on many
factors, many of which tended to hold their numbers in check such
as climate, food, predation, available space etc. Only then did
Darwin set about showing the effects of differential death and
survival on reproduction and the persistence and diversification of
forms—natural selection. In other words Darwin's theory of
evolution has three main elements or requirements: variation,
selection and descent or heredity. If all individual life forms are
unique, which no one denied, and these differences could make a
difference to which organisms lived to reproduce and which did not,
then, if these differences could be inherited by offspring,
subsequent generations would be descended more or solely from those
which were lucky enough to survive.
An illustrative example is seen in the recent work of biologists in
the Galapagos Islands. During a drought season when no new seeds
were produced for an island's finches to eat, the finches were
forced to hunt for remaining seeds on the ground. Soon all the
visible seeds had been devoured. It so happened that those with
slightly thicker bills than average could turn over stones a little
bit better than the rest to find the remaining seeds and so they
managed to survive the famine. The others perished. When the
drought ended and the birds again had young, this new generation
had slightly thicker bills. This is an example of Darwinian
evolution observed and measured in the field. (See Jonathan Weiner,
The Beak of the Finch. 1994.)
Darwin's theory of genealogical evolution (as opposed to earlier
theories by Lamarck or Chambers which entailed independent lineages
unfolding sequentially because of an innate tendency towards
progress) made sense of a host of diverse bodies of evidence such
as the succession of fossil forms in the geological record,
geographical distribution of life (biogeography), recapitulative
appearances in embryology, homologies, vestigial organs, the
taxonomic relationships observed throughout the world and so
forth.
The famous last paragraph of the Origin of Species is a concise and
eloquent précis of Darwin's vision:
It is interesting to contemplate an entangled bank, clothed with
many plants of many kinds, with birds singing on the bushes, with
various insects flitting about, and with
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worms crawling through the damp earth, and to reflect that these
elaborately constructed forms, so different from each other, and
dependent on each other in so complex a manner, have all been
produced by laws acting around us. These laws, taken in the largest
sense, being Growth with Reproduction; Inheritance which is almost
implied by reproduction; Variability from the indirect and direct
action of the external conditions of life, and from use and disuse;
a Ratio of Increase so high as to lead to a Struggle for Life, and
as a consequence to Natural Selection, entailing Divergence of
Character and the Extinction of less-improved forms. Thus, from the
war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which
we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of the higher
animals, directly follows. There is grandeur in this view of life,
with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few
forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on
according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning
endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are
being, evolved.
Modern commentators often misunderstand the meaning of the title of
Darwin's book. They take the origin of species to mean the origin
of life. Then it is pointed out that Darwin 'failed' to throw light
on the origin of life. But this was not Darwin's project. Darwin
argued that species—that is the different kinds of organisms we
observe—come not from multiple unique creation events on each
island or particular place—but instead that species are the
modified descendants of earlier forms. Darwin demonstrated that the
origination of species could be entirely explained by descent with
modification and not spontaneous creations according to
environmental circumstances or divine interventions.
The reactions to Darwin's evolutionary theories were varied and
pronounced. In zoology, taxonomy, botany, palaeontology,
philosophy, anthropology, psychology, literature and religion
Darwin's work engendered profound reactions—many of which are still
ongoing. Most disturbing of all, however, were the implications for
the cherished uniqueness of Man. Although Darwin cautiously
refrained from mentioning Man in the Origin except for his famous
cryptic sentence: 'Much light will be thrown on the origin of man
and his history' most people who read the book could think only
about what this genealogical view of life meant for Man. This is a
subject Darwin later took up in The Descent of Man (1871) and The
Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1872). In these
brilliantly original and seminal works Darwin showed that there is
no difference of kind between Man and other animals, but only of
degree. Rather than an unbridgeable gulf, Darwin showed there is a
gradation of change not only between Man and other animals, but
between all organic forms which is a consequence of the gradual
change continuously and cumulatively o