few of the additions given in the third; and a third American edition has been printed from the fifth English edition. The Italian is from the third, the Dutch and three Russian editions from the second English edition, and the Swedish from the fifth English edition. Fifth Sixth Edition. Edition. Chief Additions and Corrections. Page Page vol. i. Influence of fortuitous destruction on natural selection. Account of the Ground-Woodpecker of La Plata On the modification of the eye. Transitions through the acceleration or retardation of the period of reproduction. The account of the electric organ of fishes added to. Analogical resemblance between the eyes of Cephalopods and Vertebrates. Claparède on the analogical resemblance of the hairclaspers of the Acarida. The probable use of the rattle to the Rattle-snake. Helmholtz on the imperfection of the human eye. The first part of this new chapter consists of portions, in a much modified state, taken from chap. iv. of the former editions. The latter and larger part is new, and relates chiefly to the supposed incompetency of natural selection to account for the incipient stages of useful structures. There is also a discussion on the causes which prevent in many cases the acquisition through natural selection of useful structures. Lastly, reasons given for disbelieving in great and sudden modifications. Gradations of character, often accompanied by changes of function, are likewise here incidentally considered. are The statement with respect to young cuckoos ejecting their foster-brothers confirmed. On the cuckoo-like habits of the Molothrus. On fertile hybrid moths. The discussion on the fertility of hybrids not having been acquired through natural selection condensed and modified. Fifth Sixth Edition. Edition. Chief Additions and Corrections. 28 On the causes of sterility of hybrids, added to and corrected. 326 377 81 402 107 440 148 463 172 505 516 232 518 236 218 520 237 521 240 541 262 262 275 547 552 568 293 572 Pyrgoma found in the chalk. Extinct forms serving to connect existing groups. Discussion on analogical resemblances, enlarged and Homological structure of the feet of certain marsupial animals. On serial homologies, corrected. Mr. E. Ray Lankester on morphology. On the asexual reproduction of Chironomus. Natural selection not the exclusive agency in the 297 The belief in the separate creation of species generally held by naturalists, until a recent period. AN HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE PROGRESS OF OPINION ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES, PREVIOUSLY TO THE PUBLICATION OF THE FIRST EDITION I WILL here give a brief sketch of the progress of opinion on the Origin of Species. Until recently the great majority of naturalists believed that species were immutable productions, and had been separately created. This view has been ably maintained by many authors. Some few naturalists, on the other hand, have believed that species undergo modification, and that the existing forms of life are the descendants by true generation of pre-existing forms. Passing over allusions to the subject in the classical writers,* the first author who in * Aristotle, in his 'Physicæ Auscultationes' (lib. 2, cap. 8, s. 2), after remarking that rain does not fall in order to make the corn grow, any more than it falls to spoil the farmer's corn when threshed out of doors, applies the same argument to organisation; and adds (as translated by Mr. Clair Grece, who first pointed out the passage to me), "So what hinders the different parts [of the body] from having this merely accidental relation in nature? as the teeth, for example, grow by necessity, the front ones sharp, adapted for dividing, and the grinders flat, and serviceable for masticating the food; since they were not made for the sake of this, but it was the result of accident. And in like manner as to the other parts in which there appears to exist an adaptation to an end. Wheresoever, therefore, all things together (that is all the parts of one whole) happened like as if they were made for the sake of something, these were preserved, having been appropriately constituted modern times has treated it in a scientific spirit was Buffon. But as his opinions fluctuated greatly at different periods, and as he does not enter on the causes or means of the transformation of species, I need not here enter on details. Lamarck was the first man whose conclusions on the subject excited much attention. This justly-celebrated naturalist first published his views in 1801; he much enlarged them in 1809 in his 'Philosophie Zoologique,' and subsequently, in 1815, in the Introduction to his 'Hist. Nat. des Animaux sans Vertébres.' In these works he upholds the doctrine that all species, including man, are descended from other species. He first did the eminent service of arousing attention to the probability of all change in the organic, as well as in the inorganic world, being the result of law, and not of miraculous interposition. Lamarck seems to have been chiefly led to his conclusion on the gradual change of species, by the difficulty of distinguishing species and varieties, by the almost perfect gradation of forms in certain groups, and by the analogy of domestic productions. With respect to the means of modification, he attributed something to the direct action of the physical conditions of life, something to the crossing of already existing forms, and much to use and disuse, that is, to the effects of habit. To this latter agency he seems to attribute all the beautiful adaptations in nature;—such as the long neck of the giraffe for browsing on the by an internal spontaneity; and whatsoever things were not thus constituted, perished, and still perish." We here see the principle of natural selection shadowed forth, but how little Aristotle fully comprehended the principle, is shown by his remarks on the formation of the teeth. |