Description
On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin was first published in 1859. The full title of the book is 'On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life'. Darwin's book, which shows evidence of life arising by common descent, and progressing and evolving over generations through natural selection, became the foundation of evolutionary biology. At the time the book was published, there was already growing support for the concept of evolution, but that also conflicted with the Church which at the time was very intertwined with the scientific establishment in England. One of the reasons the book was so popular was because Darwin wrote it not for scientists, but for general readers.The book was delayed from 1839, and whilst various theories have been put forth for this (including Darwin's fears of religious persecution), it would seem that it was more a case of him wanting to get everything right. But in 1855, Alfred Russell Wallace published a paper which had claims regarding fossil species that seemed very close to the theories that Darwin was about to propose in On the Origin of Species. The Scottish geologist Charles Lyell urged Darwin to publish his book so as to establish priority. Within two decades of the publication of On the Origin of Species, evolutionism was a mainstream scientific theory and the term Darwinism entered the English language.
No. 3 in Neil deGrasse Tyson's Essential Book List.
Part of Anne Haight's List of Banned Books.
Part of the Encyclopaedia Britannica’s Great Books of the Western World set.
Part of the Harvard Classics set.
This book has 201,497 words, and was originally published in 1859. This text is from the 6th edition, first published in 1872.
Production notes: This ebook of On the Origin of Species was published by Global Grey on the 2nd September 2018 and updated on the 5th August 2021. The artwork used for the cover is 'A Macaque' by Charles Verlat.

On the Origin of Species

I have taken the date of the first publication of Lamarck from Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire’s (“Hist. Nat. Générale”, tom. ii. page 405, 1859) excellent history of opinion on this subject. In this work a full account is given of Buffon’s conclusions on the same subject. It is curious how largely my grandfather, Dr. Erasmus Darwin, anticipated the views and erroneous grounds of opinion of Lamarck in his “Zoonomia” (vol. i. pages 500-510), published in 1794. According to Isid. Geoffroy there is no doubt that Goethe was an extreme partisan of similar views, as shown in the introduction to a work written in 1794 and 1795, but not published till long afterward; he has pointedly remarked (“Goethe als Naturforscher”, von Dr. Karl Meding, s. 34) that the future question for naturalists will be how, for instance, cattle got their horns and not for what they are used. It is rather a singular instance of the manner in which similar views arise at about the same time, that Goethe in Germany, Dr. Darwin in England, and Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (as we shall immediately see) in France, came to the same conclusion on the origin of species, in the years 1794-5.

Chapter 5 Introduction

Chapter 4

Chapter 6 An Historical Sketch

Chapter 1. Variation Under Domestication

Chapter 2. Variation Under Nature

Chapter 3. Struggle For Existence

Chapter 4. Natural Selection; Or The Survival Of The Fittest

Chapter 5. Laws Of Variation

Chapter 6. Difficulties Of The Theory

Chapter 7. Miscellaneous Objections To The Theory Of Natural Selection

Chapter 8. Instinct

Chapter 9. Hybridism

Chapter 10. On The Imperfection Of The Geological Record

Chapter 11. On The Geological Succession Of Organic Beings

Chapter 12. Geographical Distribution

Chapter 13. Geographical Distribution, Continued

Chapter 14. Mutual Affinities Of Organic Beings: Morphology: Embryology: Rudimentary Organs

Chapter 15. Recapitulation And Conclusion

Glossary

charles.darwin

On the Origin of Species

Chapter 5

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