Darwin and modern science : essays in commemoration of the centenary of the birth of Charles Darwin and of the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of the Origin of species / edited for the Cambridge Philosophical society and the syndics of the University press, by A.C. Seward.

Date:
1909
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Darwin and modern science : essays in commemoration of the centenary of the birth of Charles Darwin and of the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of the Origin of species / edited for the Cambridge Philosophical society and the syndics of the University press, by A.C. Seward. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    1842 “In June 1842 I first allowed myself the satisfaction of writing a very brief abstract of my [species] theory in pencil in 35 pages; and this was enlarged during the summer of 1844 into one of 230 pages, which I had fairly copied out and still [1876] possess1.” Sept. 14. Settled at the village of Down in Kent. “ I think I was never in a more perfectly quiet country.” Publication of The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs ; being Part I. of the Geology of the Voyage of the Beagle. 1844 Publication of Geological Observations on the Volcanic Islands visited during the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle; being Part II. of the Geology of the Voyage of the Beagle. “ I think much more highly of my book on Volcanic Islands since Mr Judd, by far the best judge on the subject in England, has, as I hear, learnt much from it.” [Autobiography, 1876.] 1845 Publication of the Journal of Researches as a separate book. 1846 Publication of Geological Observations on South America ; being Part III. of the Geology of the Voyage of the Beagle. 1851 Publication of a Monograph of the Fossil Lepadidae and of a Monograph of the sub-class Cirripedia. “ I fear the study of the Cirripedia will ever remain ‘ wholly unapplied,’ and yet I feel that such study is better than castle-building.” 1854 Publication of Monographs of the Balanidae and Verrucidae. “1 worked steadily on this subject for...eight years, and ultimately published two thick volumes, describing all the known living species, and two thin quartos on the extinct species....My work was of considerable use to me, when I had to discuss in the Origin of Species the principles of a natural classification. Nevertheless, I doubt whether the work was worth the consumption of so much time.” “ From September 1854 I devoted my whole time to arranging my huge pile of notes, to observing, and to experimenting in relation to the transmutation of species.” 1856 “Early in 1856 Lyell advised me to write out my views pretty fully, and I began at once to do so on a scale three or four times as extensive as that which was afterwards followed in my Origin of Species.” 1858 Joint paper by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace “On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties; and on the perpetuation of Varieties and Species by Natural Means of Selection,” communicated to the Linnean Society by Sir Charles Lyell and Sir Joseph Hooker. “I was at first very unwilling to consent [to the communication of his MS. to the Society] as I thought Mr Wallace might consider my doing so unjustifi- able, for I did not then know how generous and noble was his disposition.” “July 20 to Aug. 12 at Sandown [Isle of Wight] began abstract of Species book.” 1859 Nov. 24. Publication of The Origin of Species (1250 copies). “Oh, good heavens, the relief to my head and body to banish the whole subject from my mind !...But, alas, how frequent, how almost universal it is in an author to persuade himself of the truth of his own dogmas. My only hope is that I certainly see many difficulties of gigantic stature.” 1 The first draft of The Origin of Species, edited by Mr Francis Darwin, will be published this year (1909) by the Syndics of the Cambridge University Press.