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The Origin of Species

Name: The Origin of Species
Author: Charles Darwin

by Charles Darwin

Non Fiction

789 pages

16h 27m read

The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin must rank as one of the most influential and consequential books ever published, initiating scientific, social and religious ferment ever since its first publication in 1859. Its full title is The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, in some editions prefaced by the word “On.” Darwin describes the book as simply an “abstract” of his ideas, which are more fully fleshed out and supported with detailed examples in his other, more scholarly works (for example, he wrote several long treatises entirely about barnacles). The Origin of Species itself was intended to reach a wider audience and is written in such a way that any reasonably educated and thoughtful reader can follow Darwin’s argument that species of animals and plants are not independent creations, fixed for all time, but mutable. Species have been shaped in response to the effects of natural selection, which Darwin compares to the directed or manual selection by human breeders of domesticated animals. The Origin of Species was eagerly taken up by the reading public, and rapidly went through several editions. This Standard Ebooks edition is based on the sixth edition published by John Murray in 1872, generally considered to be the definitive edition with many amendments and updates by Darwin himself. The Origin of Species has never been out of print and continues to be an extremely popular work. Later scientific discoveries such as the breakthrough of DNA sequencing have refined our concept of some of Darwin’s ideas and given us a better understanding of issues he found puzzling, but the basic thrust of his theory remains unchallenged.

Chapters

Selected chapters for typing

	Causes of Variability	6 pgs
	Effects of Habit and of the Use or Disuse of Parts; Correlated Variation; Inheritance	7 pgs
	Character of Domestic Varieties; Difficulty of Distinguishing Between Varieties and Species; Origin of Domestic Varieties from One or More Species	7 pgs
	Breeds of the Domestic Pigeon, Their Differences and Origin	12 pgs
	Principles of Selection Anciently Followed, and Their Effects	7 pgs
	Unconscious Selection	8 pgs
	Circumstances Favourable to Man’s Power of Selection	6 pgs
	Individual Differences	4 pgs
	Doubtful Species	12 pgs
	Wide-Ranging, Much Diffused, and Common Species Vary Most	3 pgs
	Species of the Larger Genera in Each Country Vary More Frequently Than the Species of the Smaller Genera	4 pgs
	Many of the Species Included Within the Larger Genera Resemble Varieties in Being Very Closely, but Unequally, Related to Each Other, and in Having Restricted Ranges	3 pgs
	Summary	2 pgs
	The Term, Struggle for Existence, Used in a Large Sense	2 pgs
	Geometrical Ratio of Increase	5 pgs
	Nature of the Checks to Increase	6 pgs
	Complex Relations of All Animals and Plants to Each Other in the Struggle for Existence	8 pgs
	Struggle for Life Most Severe Between Individuals and Varieties of the Same Species	4 pgs
	Sexual Selection	4 pgs
	Illustrations of the Action of Natural Selection, or the Survival of the Fittest	11 pgs
	On the Intercrossing of Individuals	8 pgs
	Circumstances Favourable for the Production of New Forms Through Natural Selection	10 pgs
	Extinction Caused by Natural Selection	3 pgs
	Divergence of Character	7 pgs
	The Probable Effects of the Action of Natural Selection Through Divergence of Character and Extinction, on the Descendants of a Common Ancestor	13 pgs
	On the Degree to Which Organisation Tends to Advance	7 pgs
	Convergence of Character	4 pgs
	Summary of Chapter	5 pgs
	Effects of the Increased Use and Disuse of Parts, as Controlled by Natural Selection	8 pgs
	Acclimatisation	5 pgs
	Correlated Variation	5 pgs
	Compensation and Economy of Growth	3 pgs
	Multiple, Rudimentary, and Lowly-Organised Structures Are Variable	2 pgs
	A Part Developed in Any Species in an Extraordinary Degree or Manner, in Comparison with the Same Part in Allied Species, Tends to Be Highly Variable	6 pgs
	Specific Characters More Variable Than Generic Characters	3 pgs
	Secondary Sexual Characters Variable	4 pgs
	Distinct Species Present Analogous Variations, So That a Variety of One Species Often Assumes a Character Proper to an Allied Species, or Reverts to Some of the Characters of an Early Progenitor	12 pgs
	Summary	4 pgs
	On the Absence or Rarity of Transitional Varieties	9 pgs
	On the Origin and Transition of Organic Beings with Peculiar Habits and Structure	10 pgs
	Organs of Extreme Perfection and Complication	6 pgs
	Modes of Transition	6 pgs
	Special Difficulties of the Theory of Natural Selection	13 pgs
	Organs of Little Apparent Importance, as Affected by Natural Selection	6 pgs
	Utilitarian Doctrine, How Far True: Beauty, How Acquired	9 pgs
	Summary: The Law of Unity of Type and of the Conditions of Existence Embraced by the Theory of Natural Selection	5 pgs
	VII: Miscellaneous Objections to the Theory of Natural Selection	67 pgs
	Inherited Changes of Habit or Instinct in Domesticated Animals	6 pgs
	Special Instincts	1 pgs
	Instincts of the Cuckoo	9 pgs
	Slave-Making Instinct	7 pgs
	Cell-Making Instinct of the Hive-Bee	16 pgs
	Objections to the Theory of Natural Selection as Applied to Instincts: Neuter and Sterile Insects	11 pgs
	Summary	2 pgs
	Degrees of Sterility	10 pgs
	Laws Governing the Sterility of First Crosses and of Hybrids	11 pgs
	Origin and Causes of the Sterility of First Crosses and of Hybrids	10 pgs
	Reciprocal Dimorphism and Trimorphism	6 pgs
	Fertility of Varieties When Crossed, and of Their Mongrel Offspring, Not Universal	7 pgs
	Hybrids and Mongrels Compared, Independently of Their Fertility	5 pgs
	Summary of Chapter	4 pgs
	On the Lapse of Time, as Inferred from the Rate of Deposition and Extent of Denudation	8 pgs
	On the Poorness of Palaeontological Collections	10 pgs
	On the Absence of Numerous Intermediate Varieties in Any Single Formation	13 pgs
	On the Sudden Appearance of Whole Groups of Allied Species	7 pgs
	On the Sudden Appearance of Groups of Allied Species in the Lowest Known Fossiliferous Strata	8 pgs
	On Extinction	8 pgs
	On the Forms of Life Changing Almost Simultaneously Throughout the World	7 pgs
	On the Affinities of Extinct Species to Each Other, and to Living Forms	11 pgs
	On the State of Development of Ancient Compared with Living Forms	6 pgs
	On the Succession of the Same Types Within the Same Areas, During the Later Tertiary Periods	4 pgs
	Summary of the Preceding and Present Chapters	6 pgs
	Single Centres of Supposed Creation	6 pgs
	Means of Dispersal	14 pgs
	Dispersal During the Glacial Period	9 pgs
	Alternate Glacial Periods in the North and South	14 pgs
	Freshwater Productions	7 pgs
	On the Inhabitants of Oceanic Islands	6 pgs
	Absence of Batrachians and Terrestrial Mammals on Oceanic Islands	7 pgs
	On the Relations of the Inhabitants of Islands to Those of the Nearest Mainland	11 pgs
	Summary of the Last and Present Chapters	6 pgs
	Analogical Resemblances	8 pgs
	On the Nature of the Affinities Connecting Organic Beings	7 pgs
	Morphology	9 pgs
	Development and Embryology	20 pgs
	Rudimentary, Atrophied, and Aborted Organs	11 pgs
	Summary	3 pgs
	XV: Recapitulation and Conclusion	46 pgs