The Origin of species by means of natural selection, or, The preservation of favored races in the struggle for life v. 1-2, Volumes 1-2

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D. Appleton and Company, 1912

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Page 227 - If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed, which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down.
Page 275 - 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 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...
Page 79 - Hence, as more individuals are produced than can possibly survive, there must in every case be a struggle for existence, either one individual with another of the same species, or with the individuals of distinct species, or with the physical conditions of life.
Page 251 - If it could be proved that any part of the structure of any one species had been formed for the exclusive good of another species, it would annihilate my theory, for such could not have been produced through natural selection.
Page 109 - Every species has come into existence coincident both in space and time with a pre-existing closely allied species.
Page 118 - acts by the preservation and accumulation of small inherited modifications, each profitable to the preserved being.
Page 99 - Several writers have misapprehended or objected to the term Natural Selection, Some have even imagined that natural selection induces variability, whereas it' implies only the. preservation of such variations as arise and are beneficial to the being under its conditions of * life.
Page xxiii - In the distant future I see open fields for far more important researches. Psychology will be based on a new foundation, that of the necessary acquirement of each mental power and capacity by gradation. Light will be thrown on the origin of man and his history.
Page 102 - ... pigeon on the same food; he does not exercise a long-backed or long-legged quadruped in any peculiar manner; he exposes sheep with long and short wool to the same climate. He does not allow the most vigorous males to struggle for the females. He does not rigidly destroy all inferior animals, but protects during each varying season, as far as lies in his power, all his productions. He often begins his selection by some halfmonstrous form ; or at least by some modification prominent enough to catch...
Page 109 - ... those who have attended to the subject, believe that there is the severest rivalry between the males of many species to attract, by singing, the females. The rock-thrush of Guiana, birds of paradise, and some others, congregate ; and successive males display with the most...

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