Title
The origin of species by means of natural selection, or, The preservation of favored races in the struggle for life / Charles Darwin.
Uniform Title
On the origin of species
ISBN
0553214632 paperback
9780553214635 paperback
Publication Details
New York : Bantam Books, 1999.
Language
English
Description
ix, 416 p. ; 18 cm.
Call Number
QH365 .O21 1999
Dewey Decimal Classification
575.1062
Summary
The publication of Darwin's The Origin of Species in 1859 marked a dramatic turning point in scientific thought. The volume had taken Darwin more than twenty years to publish, in part because he envisioned the storm of controversy it was certain to unleash. Indeed, selling out its first edition on its first day, The Origin of Species revolutionized science, philosophy, and theology. Darwin's reasoned, documented arguments carefully advance his theory of natural selection and assertion that species were not created all at once by a divine hand but started with a few simple forms that mutated and adapted over time. Whether commenting on his own ill health, discussing his experiments to test instinct in bees, or relating a conversation about a South American burrowing rodent, Darwin's monumental achievement is surprisingly personal and delightfully readable. Its ideas remain extremely profound even today, making it the most influential book in the natural sciences ever written -- a work not just important to its time, but to the history of humankind.
Note
includes glossary.
1. Variation Under Domestication
2. Variation under Nature
3. Struggle for Existence
4. Natural Selection
5. Laws of Variation
6. Difficulties on Theory
7. Instinct
8. Hybridism
9. On the Imperfection of the Geological Record
10. On the Geological Succession of Organic Beings
11. Geographical Distribution
12. Geographical Distribution (continued)
13. Mutual Affinities of Organic Beings: Morphology: Embryology: Rudimentary Organs
14. Recapitulation and Conclusion.
