Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- INSTRUCTION TO BINDER
- ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS, TO THE SIXTH EDITION
- HISTORICAL SKETCH
- INTRODUCTION
- CHAPTER I VARIATION UNDER DOMESTICATION
- CHAPTER II VARIATION UNDER NATURE
- CHAPTER III STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE
- CHAPTER IV NATURAL SELECTION; OR THE SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST
- CHAPTER V LAWS OF VARIATION
- CHAPTER VI DIFFICULTIES OF THE THEORY
- CHAPTER VII MISCELLANEOUS OBJECTIONS TO THE THEORY OF NATURAL SELECTION
- CHAPTER VIII INSTINCT
- CHAPTER IX HYBRIDISM
- CHAPTER X ON THE IMPERFECTION OF THE GEOLOGICAL RECORD
- CHAPTER XI ON THE GEOLOGICAL SUCCESSION OF ORGANIC BEINGS
- CHAPTER XII GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION
- CHAPTER XIII GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION—continued
- CHAPTER XIV MUTUAL AFFINITIES OF ORGANIC BEINGS: MORPHOLOGY: EMBRYOLOGY: RUDIMENTARY ORGANS
- CHAPTER XV RECAPITULATION AND CONCLUSION
- GLOSSARY OF SCIENTIFIC TERMS
- INDEX
- Plate section
CHAPTER VII - MISCELLANEOUS OBJECTIONS TO THE THEORY OF NATURAL SELECTION
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 August 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- INSTRUCTION TO BINDER
- ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS, TO THE SIXTH EDITION
- HISTORICAL SKETCH
- INTRODUCTION
- CHAPTER I VARIATION UNDER DOMESTICATION
- CHAPTER II VARIATION UNDER NATURE
- CHAPTER III STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE
- CHAPTER IV NATURAL SELECTION; OR THE SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST
- CHAPTER V LAWS OF VARIATION
- CHAPTER VI DIFFICULTIES OF THE THEORY
- CHAPTER VII MISCELLANEOUS OBJECTIONS TO THE THEORY OF NATURAL SELECTION
- CHAPTER VIII INSTINCT
- CHAPTER IX HYBRIDISM
- CHAPTER X ON THE IMPERFECTION OF THE GEOLOGICAL RECORD
- CHAPTER XI ON THE GEOLOGICAL SUCCESSION OF ORGANIC BEINGS
- CHAPTER XII GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION
- CHAPTER XIII GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION—continued
- CHAPTER XIV MUTUAL AFFINITIES OF ORGANIC BEINGS: MORPHOLOGY: EMBRYOLOGY: RUDIMENTARY ORGANS
- CHAPTER XV RECAPITULATION AND CONCLUSION
- GLOSSARY OF SCIENTIFIC TERMS
- INDEX
- Plate section
Summary
I will devote this chapter to the consideration of various miscellaneous objections which have been advanced against my views, as some of the previous discussions may thus be made clearer; but it would be useless to discuss all of them, as many have been made by writers who have not taken the trouble to understand the subject. Thus a distinguished German naturalist has asserted that the weakest part of my theory is, that I consider all organic beings as imperfect: what I have really said is, that all are not as perfect as they might have been in relation to their conditions; and this is shown to be the case by so many native forms in many quarters of the world having yielded their places to intruding foreigners. Nor can organic beings, even if they were at any one time perfectly adapted to their conditions of life, have remained so, when their conditions changed, unless they themselves likewise changed; and no one will dispute that the physical conditions of each country, as well as the numbers and kinds of its inhabitants, have undergone many mutations.
A critic has lately insisted, with some parade of mathematical accuracy, that longevity is a great advantage to all species, so that he who believes in natural selection “must arrange his genealogical tree” in such a manner that all the descendants have longer lives than their progenitors!
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- Chapter
- Information
- The Origin of SpeciesBy Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, pp. 168 - 204Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009First published in: 1859