The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection or The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life

Contents: Introduction. 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. 13. Mutual affinities of organic beings: morphology embryology: rudimentary organs. 14. Recapitulation and conclusion. Glossary. Born on February12, 1809 to a wealthy country physician. He took interest as a child collecting beetles. Participated in a five year voyage of the survey ship H.M.S. Beagle to South America soon after his graduation. He collected specimens of living animals and plants as well as fossils. He was intrigued that some marine fossils were found in cliffs far above sea level and that some of the fossils of land animals he found represented animals that no longer lived in the areas where he found them. It was only in 1844 that he confided his theories to another sympathetic colleague, Joseph Dalton Hooker. For eight years starting in 1846. Darwin focused his research on barnacles, believing this would help establish himself as an expert in species variation. He finally went public with his ideas on evolution at the meeting of the Linnean Society in 1858. Darwin worked on his theory for 20 years. After learning that another naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace, had developed similar ideas, the two made a joint announcement of their discoveries in 1858. His book outlining his theories origin of species by Means of Natural Selection was published in 1859.