The origin of species by means of natural selection, or, The preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life / by Charles Darwin.

Date:
1895
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The origin of species by means of natural selection, or, The preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life / by Charles Darwin. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    Chap. I.] VARIATION UNDER DOMESTICATION. of. ^ tew ^ coii?! ^al '“I a-£; most deliberate study and dis- idi capable, that the view which ntertained, and ■which I formprfy ily convinced that species are not aging to what are called the same some other and generally extinct ie achoMged varieties of any )f that species, Furthermore, I 'on lias been tk most important, odi&atioa CHAPTER I. Variation under Domestication. Causes of variability—Effects of habit and the use or disuse of parts—Corre- lated variation—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—Principles of selection, anciently followed, their effects— Methodical and unconscious selection—Unknown origin of our domestic productions—Circumstances favourable to man’s power of selection. Causes of Variability. When we compare 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 more from each other than do the individuals of any one species or variety in a state of nature. And if 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 treat- ment, we are driven to conclude that this great variability is 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 had been exposed under nature. There is, also, some probability in the view propounded by Andrew Knight, that this variability may be partly connected with excess of food. It seems clear that organic beings must be exposed during several generations to new conditions to cause any great amount of variation; and that, when the organisation has once begun to vary, it generally continues varying for many generations. No case is on record of a variable organism ceasing to vary under cultivation. Our oldest cultivated plants, such as wheat, still yield new varieties: our oldest domesticated animals are still capable of rapid improvement or modification. As far as I am able to judge, after long attending to the subject, the conditions of life appear to act in two ways,—directly on the whole organisation or on certain parts alone, and indirectly by affecting the reproductive system. With respect to the direct action, we must bear in mind that in every case, as Professor Weismann has lately insisted, and as I have incidentally shown in my work on ‘Variation under Domestication,’ there are two