Charles Darwin
On the Origin of Species by Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favored Breeds in the Struggle for Life
Introduction
Traveling as a naturalist on Her Majesty's ship, the Beagle, I was struck by some of the facts about the distribution of organic beings in South America and the geological relations between former and modern inhabitants of this continent. These facts, as will be seen in later chapters of this book, seem to illuminate to some extent the origin of species—that mystery of mysteries, in the words of one of our greatest philosophers. On returning home, in 1837, I came to the idea that perhaps something could be done to settle this question by patiently collecting and pondering all sorts of facts that had anything to do with it. After five years of labour, I have allowed myself some general reflections on this subject, and have sketched them in the form of short notes; this sketch I expanded in 1844 into a general sketch of the conclusions which then seemed to me probable; from that time to the present day, I have stubbornly pursued this subject. I hope I will be forgiven for these purely personal details, as I cite them to show that I was not hasty in my conclusions.
My work is now (1858) almost finished; but since it will take me many more years to complete it, and my health is far from flourishing, I was persuaded to publish it summary. I was particularly moved to do this by the fact that Mr. Wallace, now a student of the natural history of the Malay Archipelago, came to almost exactly the same conclusions as I have reached on the origin of species. In 1858 he sent me an article on the subject with a request that it be forwarded to Sir Charles Lyell, who forwarded it to the Linnean Society; it is published in the third volume of the magazine of this Society. Sir C. Lyell and Dr. Hooker, who were aware of my work, the last to read my 1844 essay, did me the honor of advising me to publish, with Mr. Wallace's excellent paper, a brief excerpt from my manuscript.
The summary now published is necessarily imperfect. I cannot give here references or point to authorities in support of this or that proposition; I hope the reader will rely on my accuracy. No doubt errors have crept into my work, although I have constantly taken care to trust only good authorities. I can only state here the general conclusions I have arrived at, illustrating them with only a few facts; but I hope that in most cases they will be enough. No one more than I is aware of the need to present later in full detail the facts and references on which my conclusions are based, and I hope to do this in the future in my work. I am very well aware that there is almost not a single proposition in this book in relation to which it would not be possible to present facts leading, apparently, to conclusions directly opposite to mine. A satisfactory result can be obtained only after a full presentation and evaluation of the facts and arguments testifying for and against on each issue, and this, of course, is not possible here.
I am very sorry that lack of space deprives me of the pleasure of expressing my gratitude for the generous assistance rendered to me by many naturalists, partly even unknown to me personally. But I cannot, however, miss the opportunity to express how deeply I am indebted to Dr. Hooker, who over the past 15 years has helped me in every possible way with his vast knowledge and clear judgment.
Therefore, it is extremely important to have a clear understanding of the means of modification and co-adaptation. At the beginning of my research, it seemed likely to me that a careful study of domesticated animals and cultivated plants would provide the best opportunity to sort out this obscure problem. And I wasn't wrong; in this, as in all other perplexing cases, I have consistently found that our knowledge of variation in domestication, though incomplete, is always the best and surest clue. I may allow myself to express my conviction of the exceptional value of such studies, despite the fact that naturalists have usually neglected them.
On the basis of these considerations, I dedicate Chapter I of this brief Exposition of Variation in Domestication. We shall thus ascertain that hereditary modification on a large scale is at least possible, and we shall also learn, equally or more importantly, how great is man's capacity for cumulation by his Selection of successive slight variations. I will then move on to the variability of species in the state of nature; but, unfortunately, I shall be forced to deal with this question only in the most brief outline, since a proper presentation of it would require long lists of facts. We shall, however, be in a position to discuss what conditions are most favorable for variation. The next chapter will deal with the Struggle for Existence between all organic beings throughout the world, which inevitably results from the exponential growth of their numbers. This is the doctrine of Malthus, extended to both kingdoms - animals and plants. Since many more individuals of each species are born than can survive, and since, consequently, a struggle for existence often arises, it follows from this that any creature that, in the complex and often changing conditions of its life, although slightly varies in its advantageous direction, will be more likely to survive and thus be subject to natural selection. By virtue of the strict principle of heredity, the selected variety will tend to reproduce in its new and modified form.
This fundamental question of Natural Selection will be dealt with in detail in Chapter IV; and we shall then see how Natural Selection almost inevitably brings about the Extinction of many less perfect forms life and leads to what I have called Sign Divergence. In the next chapter, I will discuss the complex and obscure laws of variation. In the next five chapters, the most obvious and most essential difficulties encountered by theory will be analyzed, namely: firstly, the difficulties of transitions, i.e., how a simple being or a simple organ can be transformed and improved into a highly developed being or into a complexly constructed organ; secondly, the question of Instinct, or the mental faculties of animals; thirdly, Hybridization, or sterility, when crossing species, and fertility when crossing varieties; fourthly, the incompleteness of the Geological Chronicle. In Chapter XI I will consider the geological succession of organic beings in time; in XII and XIII - their geographical distribution in space; in XIV - their classification or mutual relationship both in the adult and in the embryonic state. AT last chapter I will present a brief recapitulation of what has been said throughout the work, and a few concluding remarks.
10 geniuses of science Fomin Alexander Vladimirovich
Darwin's evolutionary theory. "The Origin of Species»
As we wrote above, notes on the origin of species, Darwin began back in 1837. There were also paleontological finds discovered in South America, and observations of the modern fauna of the New World, and Galapagos studies, and data on domesticated species, embryological observations, and much more. All these facts convinced Darwin long ago that the species inhabiting the Earth were gradually changing. But meanwhile, the scientist saw the failure of existing evolutionary hypotheses. Neither the training of organs, nor the internal desire of organisms for improvement, according to Darwin, could lead to the emergence of many perfect and complex adaptations that are very often found in wildlife:
“However, it was equally obvious that neither the action of environmental conditions, nor the will of organisms (especially when it comes to plants) is not able to explain the countless cases of excellent adaptation of organisms of all kinds to their lifestyle, for example, the fitness of a woodpecker or tree frog to tree climbing or seed adaptation to dispersal by means of hooks or flyers.
Quite quickly, Darwin realized that selection plays an important role in the creation of new varieties of plants and animal breeds. But he could not immediately transfer this idea to the conditions of natural nature.
A significant role in the formation of the scientist's views was played by Malthus' book "On the Population", which he read back in 1838. Malthus in his book derives the law of population, according to which the rate of population growth far exceeds the rate of increase in the production of means of subsistence. Accordingly, there is a struggle between people for the distribution of these funds. Darwin saw a simple biological analogy: the ability species to reproduction exceeds the number of individuals that can survive. The next logical step was the idea of natural selection. Darwin realized that as a result of the struggle for existence, individuals with traits that are advantageous under given conditions survive. The result of the accumulation of such characters is the emergence of new species.
Darwin made the first draft of his theory in 1842. The notes were made in pencil and amounted to 35 pages. By 1844, the summary of the theory had expanded to 230 pages. The scientist highly appreciated his work and understood its significance. Fearing that his life might be unexpectedly interrupted due to illness, in the same 1844, he wrote something similar to a will for his wife, where he asked, in the event of his sudden death, to transfer records on the theory of species to some scientist who could bring them in order and publish. To the scientist who would undertake this work, Darwin bequeathed 400-500 pounds and all the income from the proposed publication.
As we already wrote, in 1846 our hero began to study barnacles, and the theory of species temporarily faded into the background. And so, in 1854, when the second volume of the Monograph of the Barnacles subclass was published, Darwin set about the main work of his life. He began work on his famous book On the Origin of Species. In the autumn of 1854, the scientist engaged in a long and painstaking work to put in order a huge number of his notes on this problem.
Darwin conceived a grandiose work:
“At the beginning of 1856, Lyell advised me to state my views in sufficient detail, and I immediately set about doing this on a scale three or four times the volume into which my Origin of Species subsequently poured out - and yet it was only an extract from the materials I have collected.
By 1858, Darwin had written 10 chapters, about half of his intended work. But then thunder struck: an event occurred that the scientist did not expect. The young and certainly talented scientist Alfred Wallace, who at that time was studying the nature of the Malay Archipelago and Southeast Asia, sent his small work “On the tendency of varieties to an unlimited deviation from the original type” for consideration by Darwin. Wallace's essay contained a summary of evolutionary ideas, which Darwin was engaged in a detailed and extensive description. Wallace asked a senior colleague to review his work and, if approved, forward it to Lyell. Thus, despite the fact that Darwin created his theory much earlier than Wallace, the priority of his discovery was threatened. Lyell and Hooker convinced Darwin that, along with Wallace's work, extracts from an 1844 paper and Darwin's letter to the American botanist Gray, in which he outlined the foundations of his theory, should be published. Here is what the scientist himself wrote about this:
“At first I really didn’t want to go for it: I thought that Mr. Wallace might consider my act completely unacceptable - I didn’t know then how much generosity and nobility in the character of this man. Neither the extract from my manuscript nor the letter to Asa Gray was intended for publication and was badly written. On the contrary, Mr. Wallace's essay was distinguished by excellent presentation and complete clarity.
Alfred Wallace really showed great nobility. He wrote:
“I don’t have that tireless patience when collecting numerous, most diverse facts, that amazing ability to draw conclusions, that exact and rich physiological knowledge, that wit in determining the plan of experiments and that dexterity in their implementation, finally - that incomparable style - clear and in at the same time convincing and precise - in a word, all those qualities that make Darwin a perfect and, perhaps, the most capable person for the enormous work that he undertook and completed.
Wallace not only recognized the priority of Darwin, but also became an active propagandist of his theory. Thus, after Darwin's death in 1889, Wallace published the book Darwinism, in which he reviewed the development of evolutionary theory since the publication of On the Origin of Species. However, Wallace did not agree with Darwin on everything. For example, he denied the importance of sexual selection and the inheritance of acquired traits. It must be said that he was right in the second objection. The relationship between Darwin and Wallace can be safely called the standard of nobility and scientific ethics. In addition to evolutionary ideas, Wallace made a great contribution to the study of the nature of South America, the Malay Archipelago and Southeast Asia. He is considered one of the founders of zoogeography.
But back to the events of 1858. Wallace's article and excerpts from Darwin's work did not resonate in scientific circles. The scientific world paid very little attention to the publications. On the advice of friends, Darwin began preparing for publication already finished materials about the origin of species. The work was interrupted by bouts of illness and hydropathic treatment. However, in November 1859 the first edition of The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of the Fit for the Struggle for Life, saw the light of day. According to some reports, by the time of publication, Lyell and Hooker had already made the book good advertising in the scientific environment. The first edition (1250 copies) sold out in one day. The second edition (3000 copies) also did not stale. Even during Darwin's lifetime, The Origin of Species was translated into almost all European languages and even into Japanese. Moreover, an article was published in Hebrew, which claimed that Darwin's theory was contained in the Old Testament. According to the scientist, in England by 1876 (the year Darwin completed his autobiography), 16,000 copies of The Origin of Species had been sold.
The success of the book was complete, which cannot be said about the theory presented in it. An extensive scientific controversy. At first, Darwin collected reviews of his book, but when the collection increased to 265 copies, he stopped adding to it. In studying critical reviews, Darwin divided them into two categories: “... I must say that my critics almost always treated me fairly, leaving aside those of them who did not have scientific knowledge, because they are not worth talking about. My views have often been grossly distorted, bitterly challenged and ridiculed, but I am convinced that for the most part all this was done without treachery.
Interestingly, various modern religious figures still seek to distort evolutionary theory in order to discredit it in the eyes of their potential followers. At the same time, serious modern theologians find it possible to combine the Christian faith and evolutionary teaching. This view was shared by both the leader of the Catholic Church, John Paul II, and the famous Orthodox priest and theologian Alexander Men.
But back to the events of the middle of the XIX century. As early as November 1859, a scathingly critical article appeared in the Ateneum magazine, the author of which argued that Darwin's theory of evolution was detrimental to the cause of faith. At the same time, some people dear to Darwin also joined in the criticism. So, his teacher, the geologist Sedgwick, met the theory with hostility. He did not want to acknowledge her materialism. Darwin was not very offended by the criticism, but he was greatly upset by the distortion of theory associated with it. He himself, due to illness, could not speak in face-to-face discussions about the validity of the theory, but we already know that even before the appearance of the first edition of On the Origin of Species, he had many followers and supporters who began to ardently defend Darwinism.
On June 30, 1860, a dispute took place in Oxford between supporters of Darwin's theory and creationists. The debate brought together more than 700 people. Officially, a scientific meeting was convened in order to hear a report by the American scientist Draper "The mental development of Europe, considered in connection with the views of Mr. Darwin." But in the scientific and pseudo-scientific world they knew that Bishop Wilberforce, an ardent opponent of Darwinism, would be present at the meeting. And no one doubted that the report would turn into a heated discussion. Darwin's theory was defended by Thomas Huxley and Joseph Hooker. The priest did not possess natural science knowledge, while his opponents were excellent scientists. Without going into details, it should be said that the evolutionists won. But this fight was not the last. There were many more clashes to come. And the supporters of Darwinism had to face much more prepared opponents than Bishop Wilberforce, who put forward much more serious arguments. We will tell about one of them.
In 1867, Darwin's theory of evolution received a very serious blow. This was done by the Scottish engineer Fleming Jenkin. Jenkin's argument went something like this: if some representative of a species becomes the owner of a useful trait, then this trait, when crossed with other individuals of the species, will disappear, dissolve in the swamp of the average. This objection was so serious that Darwin dubbed it "Jenkin's nightmare." The modern "synthetic theory of evolution" explains "Jenkin's nightmare" with the help of inheritance laws. A gene carrying a particular trait is preserved in the genotypes of the population. In individuals that possess this gene, it will manifest itself in full if the gene is dominant, or it will remain until the moment of meeting with the same gene if the gene is recessive. . In any case, it will remain in the population as a whole and sooner or later will be subjected to selection.
Interestingly, now scientists have returned to the “Jenkin nightmare” again. This objection is invalid if the trait is inherited by only one gene. But modern observations show that most of the important adaptive traits are realized through the combined action of a whole group of genes. And for such features, the explanation of the synthetic theory of evolution is not suitable. So the “Jenkin nightmare” passed through the entire 20th century and overtook the ideas of Darwin. But in our time, of course, this argument no longer casts doubt on the very fact of evolution. He does not refute the ideas of Darwin as a whole and does not diminish the merits of the scientist. "Jenkin's Nightmare" and some other considerations show that the modern synthetic theory of evolution is not complete and requires further development.
But back to Darwin's biography. Unable to participate in scientific disputes, the scientist continued to work hard.
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Charles Darwin (photo 1854)
K. A. Timiryazev
“My name is Charles Darwin. I was born in 1809, studied, pro-circumnavigation - and studied again. This is how the great scientist answered the importunate publisher, who sought to obtain biographical information from him. Fortunately, the life of this man, who amazed and charmed everyone with his almost incredible modesty, has been preserved in more abundant documentary information in the Autobiography printed after his death (intended exclusively for the family) and five volumes of correspondence, carefully collected and published by his son Francis and Professor Seward. On the basis of these sources, if possible, in the words of the author himself, on the occasion of the Cambridge commemoration of his memory, a brief, beautifully illustrated biographical sketch was compiled, which was distributed to all visitors and, it seems, did not go to print. This brief biography, supplemented in some places, formed the basis of the proposed essay.
Darwin was born on February 12, 1809 in Shrewsbury, in a house that has survived to this day and is picturesquely located on the banks of the Severn. His grandfather was known as a scientist, physician, poet and one of the early evolutionists. Darwin spoke of his father as "the very smart person what he knew”, from his qualities he was distinguished by a surprisingly sophisticated ability to observe and an ardent sympathy for people, “which I have never met in anyone.”
At school, Charles, according to his own opinion, learned absolutely nothing, but he himself amused himself with reading and chemical experiments, for which he received the nickname "Gas". In later years, to the polls of his cousin, the famous statistician Galton, he gave the following answer to the question: “Did the school develop the ability of observation in you or hindered its development?” - "I interfered because it was classical." To the question: “Did the school represent any merit”? - the answer was even more concise: "None." And in the general conclusion: "I believe that everything valuable that I have acquired, I learned by self-taught."
At the age of sixteen, he was already with his older brother at the University of Edinburgh, where he listened to lectures at the medical faculty. Two years later he moved to the University of Cambridge, where, at the request of his father, he moved to the theological faculty. He was seriously interested only in the "Natural Theology" of the famous Paley (which went through nineteen editions) 1
What was the content of this theology, and why it made such a strong impression on Darwin, can be judged by the following fact: about the same time, when compiling the zoological museum at Oxford, they were guided by the idea that it could serve as a visual aid in the study of the book of Paley.
Three people had an undoubted influence on him: they were Henslow, Sedgwick and Joel. The first as a botanist and, apparently, as a highly moral person; Darwin was also indebted to him for the fact that, by his own admission, "made possible everything else in my life", that is, the round-the-world trip on the Beagle. If with Henslow he made excursions to the neighboring marshes, which Cambridge is proud of, then with Sedgwick he climbed the uninhabited mountains of Wales and learned the ability to make geological surveys of unexplored places, which was especially useful to him on the journey. Finally, about Yuel (an astronomer and author of the well-known "History of the Inductive Sciences"), he spoke that he was one of those two people he met in his life who struck him with the fascination of their conversation on scientific topics. Nevertheless, he considered the time he spent in Cambridge to be almost lost, although “on the whole, the most cheerful in his happy life". With enthusiasm, he was engaged only in collecting beetles.
His real school was a five-year (from 1831 to 1836) circumnavigation. When he left, he took with him the newly published first volume of Lyell's Fundamentals of Geology. In supplying Darwin with this book, Henslow advised him to use its rich content, but not dwell on the too bold ideas of a geological reformer. Darwin followed the advice, carried it out only in reverse - he did not stop, but went ahead much further than his teacher, as Lyell always acknowledged with gratitude.
Four facts struck him the most and at the same time had the greatest influence on all his subsequent activities. First, the gradual change of organic forms as one moves from north to south along the eastern coast and from south to north along the western coast of South America. Secondly, the similarity between the fossil and modern fauna of the same country. And thirdly, the similarities and differences between the inhabitants of individual islands of the Galapagos archipelago, both among themselves and with the inhabitants of the neighboring continent. The fourth, undoubtedly deep impression, taken from this journey, which was reflected much later on his attitude to the question of the origin of man, was the first impression made on him by the natives of Tierra del Fuego; the recollection of him was expressed in the well-known words that it is easier for him to come to terms with the idea of a distant relationship with an ape than with the idea of a close origin from people like those whom he saw when he first landed on Tierra del Fuego.
A year after his return to England (in 1837), he begins his first notebook, in which he enters everything related to the question of the origin of species. The task is covered by him from all sides from the very first time, as can be seen even from one page of this notebook. But only two years later, in 1839, a guiding thread to this labyrinth, although consonant, but continuing to be incomprehensible, evidence in favor of the unity of origin of all organic beings, opens before him. Reading the book of Malthus and close acquaintance with practice lead him to the conclusion about the existence of "natural selection", that is, the process of eliminating everything that disagrees with it, pre-established, harmonious, expedient, as theologians and teleologists put it, useful, adapted, what will henceforth be called this fundamental feature of the organism. A brief outline of the whole theory, sketched in 1842 (on thirty-five pages) and first printed and distributed as a gift to all scientists who gathered to honor Darwin in Cambridge this year, leaves no doubt that twenty years before the appearance of the Origin species" the main idea of this work was already fully formed in the head of the author, and some of the provisions resulted in the same form in which they later became known to the whole world. 2
This finally eliminates any doubt about his priority over Wallace, who at that time was a twenty-year-old surveyor.
And yet it took these twenty years to bring into the system that colossal justifying material, without which he considered his theory insufficiently substantiated. However, two circumstances prevented him from fully concentrating on the main work of his life. Firstly, the processing of the huge material brought from the trip and special studies in geology and zoology. Among the first, the monograph “On the Coral Islands” brought him special fame, forcing Lyell to abandon his previous theories. Even more time was consumed by zoological research on barnacles, living and fossils. This work, in his own opinion and in the opinion of his competent friends, was a practical school for real acquaintance with what a species is. “More than once,” he writes himself, “I combined several forms into one form with its varieties, then I divided it into several types, repeating this operation until, with a curse, I was convinced of its complete futility.” This hard, harsh school brought on him the ridicule of Bulwer, who portrayed him in one of his novels as an eccentric, killing decades to study some kind of shells. More widely known than these special works, brought him the "Journal of the journey on the Beagle", which attracted the attention of Humboldt and in its easy, accessible form which became one of the favorite works of the English public willingly reading travel.
Another and still more important obstacle that prevented him from moving faster in his main work, the whole plan of which he had completely ready, was a constant incurable illness, which was the result of overwork from intensive studies in the first years after returning from travel. For the rest of his life, three hours of diligent study was enough to bring him to a state of complete exhaustion for the rest of the day. “No one but my mother,” Francis Darwin writes in his memoirs, “can imagine the extent of the suffering experienced and her amazing patience. She carefully protected him from everything that could cause him the slightest trouble, not missing anything that could save him from excessive fatigue and help him endure the burden of a constant painful state.
In the same 1842, he moved from London to a village in Kent, from where he wrote: "My life goes on like a wound clock, I am finally attached to the point where it is destined to end." These gloomy thoughts, inspired by a constant illness, reached the point that he left a will in which he asked his wife to take care of publishing the manuscript, which from thirty-five pages (1842) grew to two hundred and thirty pages, entrusting this care to his best friend - Hooker. Fortunately, his forebodings deceived him - there were still forty years of amazing active life ahead, crowned with unprecedented glory.
In 1856, at Lyell's urging, he set to work on his major work, conceived at a length three times the size of the final form of On the Origin of Species. In 1858 he received a famous letter from Wallace, which resulted in Hooker and Lyell presenting both of Darwin's and Wallace's notes to the Linnean Society.
A year later, on November 24, 1859, his book The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Selected Breeds in the Struggle for Life, was published. The entire edition sold out on the same day.
The following year, 1860, at Oxford, at a meeting of the British Association, a clash, famous in the history of evolutionary doctrine, took place between the opponents and defenders of Darwin, which, thanks to Huxley, ended in a brilliant victory for the latter. But nevertheless, according to the same writer, "an ecumenical council of scientists would undoubtedly condemn us by an overwhelming majority."
In 1870, he wrote that there was no branch of natural science that would not have been affected by the influence of The Origin of Species, and less than twenty years later he could declare that “if it were not for documentary evidence, he would have thought that his memory betrays him—so abrupt is the change in public opinion” in favor of Darwin’s views.
The edition followed the edition, and in 1868 the two-volume "Change in domesticated animals and cultivated plants" appeared, this is the most complete and deeply thought-out body of knowledge on the subject of the phenomena of variability and heredity, these two foundations of natural selection. It can be said that the noise generated by some of the later theories (of mutations, heterogenesis and Mendelism) is mainly due to the ignorance of the new generation of naturalists in relation to the content of that amazing work, which probably absorbed most of the time that elapsed between the first outline of the theory and the publication of On the Origin of Species. and for the decade that followed.
In 1871, his "Descent of Man" appeared, which served as a signal for a new outburst of indignation of hypocrites and reactionaries of all shades against the author, although, as he rightly notes, already in "The Origin of Species" he quite definitely expressed his view on this burning question "for so that no honest person can reproach him for hiding his real views.
Here is a review of this book by the German professor Schwalbe in the book “Darwin and Modern Science” published on the occasion of honoring the memory of Darwin in Cambridge: “Darwin's work on the origin of man has not yet been surpassed by anyone; the more we plunge into the study of the similarities in the structure of man and apes, the more our path is illuminated by the clear light radiated by his calm, judicious research, based on such a mass of material collected by him that no one has accumulated before or after him. The glory of Darwin will forever be connected with the study, free from any prejudice, of this question from questions - the origin of the human race.
These three main works comprise the foundations of the whole theory. The first contains the doctrine of natural selection and the evidence of its agreement with everything that we know about the organic world; the second gives the latest for his time exhaustive analysis of our knowledge about the two main properties of all organisms, on which the possibility of natural selection is based; the third represents the verification of the doctrine on the basis of its application to the most complex limiting case - to a person with his aesthetic, mental and moral development.
One chapter of the book about man has grown into a whole separate volume - "The Expression of Feelings in Man and Animals", one of the most ingenious developments of his general teaching on the unity of all living things on such seemingly insignificant facts as facial expressions, etc. with various mental movements.
A small essay on the psyche of the newborn gave impetus to a whole series of imitations, and German authors often quite unfairly attribute the first step in this area to the researcher Preyer.
After that, Darwin's attention turned to the other pole of the organic world - to the plant - in order to show the applicability of his teachings to beings deprived of that conscious volitional activity to which Lamarck attributed (in animals) the main role. His botanical works, where for the first time he had to cross from the field of descriptive science into the field of experimental science. Their main idea is to prove the existence of the most complex devices and explain their origin by their usefulness.
This basic idea, which makes them one coherent system, is usually overlooked by biographers in their bare enumeration.
AT "Insectivorous Plants" he showed in a number of plants organs for trapping and digesting animals, and proved that this is a really useful process for the plants that possess them. AT "Movements and habits climbing plants», having shown the wide distribution of this form of plants, he wondered how it could arise so often and independently in the most diverse groups of plants, and answered this with another study - "Ability of plants to move", in which he proved that the phenomenon that catches the eye in climbing plants is widespread in an imperceptible form throughout the entire vegetable kingdom, appearing sharply not only in climbing plants, but also in other phenomena of plant life, always beneficial to the organism that possesses them.
Even more remarkable is the group of monographs concerning the form and other features of the flower, which are in connection with the cross-pollination of flowers by insects ("On various devices with which orchids are fertilized by insects", "Different forms of flowers in plants", "The action of self-fertilization and cross-fertilization"). The first two reveal the most amazing adaptations of organisms belonging to two different kingdoms of nature, and since such harmony, on the basis of the doctrine of natural selection, is conceivable only on the condition of mutual benefit (the benefit for insects is obvious, they feed at the same time), the third volume is a detailed an experimental study that proves the benefits of cross-fertilization, since it always results in a stronger generation.
Thus, those who, unwilling to accept the theoretical basis of Darwin's teaching, try to divert attention by pointing to the talent of his special works, have to be constantly reminded that these were not fragmentary facts scattered throughout the entire field of biology from plant to man, but facts strictly interconnected by this particular theory and, therefore, testing and confirming it with an extensive system of research. These biological works gave impetus to incredible activity in this field, and now the literature they have called forth is expressed in more than one thousand volumes.
Having devoted almost twenty years to preparing himself for his main life task, to developing it, and almost as much to teaching how to use his theory as an instrument for the study of nature, a powerful mind, which for most of his life struggled with a weak body, already began to see new broad horizons in the sense of a deeper experimental study of the main factor that formed the basis of his teaching - the factor of variability. But his powers changed, and he could only work on a witty little research on "The formation of humus soil with the assistance of worms", success which, judging by its sales volatility, surpassed even the success of The Origin of Species.
He died on 19 April 1882 and is buried next to Newton in Westminster Abbey. His last words were: "I'm not at all afraid to die." And in the final lines of his autobiography, he summed up his life as follows: “As for myself, I am convinced that I did the right thing by devoting my whole life to the stubborn service of science. I do not feel any great sin behind me, but I have often regretted that I did not bring more immediate benefit to my brethren. 3
"my fellow creatures" - obviously, Darwin extends the principle of brotherhood not only to one person.
With regard to the material world, we can at least admit the following: we can See that phenomena are not caused by individual interventions of the divine power, exerting its influence in each individual case, but by the establishment of general laws.
William Whewell "The Bridgester Treatise"
“The only definite meaning of the word 'natural' is 'established', 'fixed' or 'ordered', for is not the natural that which requires or presupposes a rational agent which makes it so, i.e. is carried out by him constantly or in set time, just like the supernatural or miraculous - that which is carried out by him only once "
Joseph Butler "The Revealed Religion Analogy"
“We conclude, therefore, that no man, erroneously overestimating common sense or misunderstanding moderation, should think or maintain that a man can go too deep in his research or study of the book of the word of God or the book of God's creations, theology or philosophy; but let people strive more for endless improvement or success in both.
Francis Bacon "The Progress of Science"
I will give here a brief outline of the development of views on the origin of species. Until recently, the vast majority of naturalists were convinced that species represent something unchanging and were created independently of one another. This view has been skillfully supported by many authors. On the other hand, some naturalists believed that species are subject to change and that the existing forms of life have arisen by ordinary generation from forms that previously existed. Without dwelling on the vague allusions in this sense found in classical writers 5
Aristotle, in his "Physicae Auscultatories" (lib. 2, cap. 8, p. 2), remarking that the rain does not come to promote the harvest of corn, just as it does not to spoil the bread that is threshed in the yard, applies the same argument to organisms; he adds (as Clare Grace, who first drew my attention to it, translates this passage): “What then in nature prevents the various parts of the body from being in the same random relationship with each other? For example, the front teeth grow out of necessity - sharp and adapted to tearing food, and the molars - flat, suitable for grinding food, but they were not created for this, and this was a matter of chance. The same applies to other parts that seem to us adapted to some purpose. Thus, wherever objects taken as a whole (for example, parts of one whole) seem to us as if made for the sake of something, they only survived, because, thanks to some internal spontaneous inclination, they turned out to be accordingly built; yet things that did not turn out to be thus constructed perished and continue to perish. We see here, as it were, a glimpse of the future principle of natural selection, but how little Aristotle understood the essence of this principle is evident from his remarks on the formation of teeth.
It must be admitted that the first writer of modern times to discuss this subject in a truly scientific spirit was Buffon. But since his opinions varied greatly at different times, and since he did not deal with the causes or ways of the transformation of species, I need not go into details here.
Lamarck was the first whose conclusions on this subject attracted much attention. This, in fairness, famous naturalist first stated his views in 1801, he greatly expanded them in 1809, in his Philosophie Zoologique, and still later, in 1815, in the introduction to his Hist. Nat. des Animaux sans Vertebres. In these writings, he defends the view that all species, including humans, are descended from other species. The great merit belongs to him: he was the first to draw general attention to the likelihood of the assumption that all changes in the organic world, as in the inorganic, occurred on the basis of the laws of nature, and not as a result of miraculous intervention. Lamarck seems to have come to the conclusion of a gradual change of species on the basis of the difficulty experienced in distinguishing between species and variety, on the basis of the almost insensible transitions between members of certain groups, and on the basis of the analogy with domestic animals and cultivated plants. As for the causes of changes, he attributed them partly to the direct influence of the physical conditions of life, partly to crossing between already existing forms, but especially to the exercise or non-exercise of the organs, i.e., the results of habit. To this last factor he seems to have attributed all the beautiful adaptations found in nature, such as the long neck of the giraffe, which serves to devour the branches of trees. But he also believed in the existence of the law of progressive development, and since, by virtue of this law, all living beings strive for improvement, in order to explain the existence at the present time and the simplest forms, he assumed that they now appear by spontaneous generation. 6
I have borrowed the date of Lamarck's first work from Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, who has presented in his book (Hist. Nat. Generale, t. II, p. 405, 1859) an excellent historical sketch of the views on this subject. In this work one can also find a complete outline of Buffon's views. It is curious to what extent my grandfather, Dr. Erasmus Darwin, in his Zoonomy (vol. I, pp. 500-510), which appeared in 1794, anticipated the views and erroneous foundations of Lamarck's views. According to Isidore Geoffroy, there is no doubt that Goethe was an extreme supporter of similar views, as follows from the introduction to a work dating back to 1794 and 1795, but published much later: he quite definitely expresses the idea (“Goethe, als Naturforscher” d -ra Karl Meding, p. 34) that in the future the naturalist should be concerned with the question, for example, how cattle got their horns, and not what they need them for. A remarkable example of how similar ideas can arise at the same time is the fact that Goethe in Germany, Dr. Darwin in England, and Geoffroy St. Hilaire (as we shall see in a moment) in France came to the same conclusions about the origin of species during 1794-1795. years.
Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, as can be seen from his "Biography" written by his son, already in 1795 suspected that the so-called species are only different deviations from the same type. But it was only in 1828 that he expressed in print his conviction that forms had not remained unchanged from the very beginning of the world. Geoffroy seems to have seen the conditions of existence, or "monde ambiant" of the "surrounding world", as the main cause of change. He was careful in his conclusions not to assume that existing species continue to change even now, and, as his son adds: "C'est done un probleme a reserve entierement a l'avenir, suppose meme que l'avenir doive avoir prise sur lui" "So, this problem must be completely left to the future, if, of course, we assume that in the future they will want to deal with it."
In 1813, Dr. W. C. Welse read in the Royal Society "An Account of a White Female, part of whose skin resembles that of a Negro", but this article was not published until his famous "Two Essays upon Dew and Single Vision" appeared in 1818. In this work, he explicitly recognizes the principle of natural selection, and this is the first recognition of this principle by anyone; but Welz admits it only in relation to the human races, and then only in relation to certain characteristics. After pointing out that Negroes and mulattos are not subject to certain tropical diseases, he observes, firstly, that all animals tend to change to a certain extent, and, secondly, that farmers improve their livestock by selection; and then he adds that what in the latter case is achieved “by art seems to be carried out with equal success, though more slowly, by nature in the process of forming varieties of man adapted to the countries they inhabit. Of the random varieties of man that appeared among the first few and scattered inhabitants of the middle regions of Africa, one of them, perhaps, was better adapted than the rest to endure local diseases. This race could therefore increase in numbers, while others must decrease, not only because of their inability to resist disease, but because of their inability to compete with their stronger neighbors. The color of this stronger race, on the basis of what has been said, could be black. But since this tendency to form varieties still persists, a darker and darker race could be formed in the course of time, and since the darkest one could turn out to be best adapted to climatic conditions, then it finally became the predominant, if not the only, race in the country in which it originated. Then he extends his views to the white inhabitants of colder countries. I am indebted to Mr. Rowley of the United States for bringing to my attention, through Mr. Brass, the above passage from Dr. Welsh's writing.
The Rt Hon W. Herbert, later Dean of Manchester, in the fourth volume of Horticultural Transactions, 1822, and in his Amaryl lidaceae (1837, pp. 19, 339), states that "horticultural experiments have established beyond all doubt that botanical species are only varieties of a higher order, more permanent. He extends this view to animals. The dean believes that in each genus one species was created, originally distinguished by extreme plasticity, and already these species, mainly by crossing, but also by change, have produced all our present species.
In 1826, Professor Grant, in the concluding paragraph of his well-known study of Spongilla (Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, vol. XIV, p. 283), quite definitely expresses his conviction that species are descended from other species and that, as they change they are improving. He expressed the same view in his 55th lecture, published in the Lancet in 1834.
In 1831, Mr. Patrick Matthew published his Naval Timber and Arboriculture, in which he gives a view on the origin of species quite similar to that (as we shall now see) that was expressed by Mr. Wallace and myself in the Linnean Journal and developed in detail in this volume. Unfortunately, this view was expressed by Mr. Matthew very briefly, in the form of fragmentary remarks, in an appendix to a work on a completely different subject, so that it remained unnoticed until Mr. Matthew himself drew attention to it in "Gardeners' Chronicle" April 7, i860. The differences between Mr. Matthew's views and mine are not essential: he seems to think that the world, in successive periods, was almost depopulated and then repopulated, and, as one possibility, he admits that new forms could arise "in the absence of that or some other form or germ of already pre-existing aggregates. I'm not sure if I fully understood some of the passages in his book, but he seems to attach great importance to the direct action of the conditions of existence. In any case, he clearly saw the full significance of the principle of natural selection.
The famous geologist and naturalist von Buch, in his excellent book Physical Description canary islands” (“Description Physique des Is, les Canaries”, 1836, p. 147) clearly expresses his conviction that varieties are gradually turning into permanent species, no longer capable of crossing.
Rafinesque in his New Flora North America” (“New Flora of North America”), published in 1836, writes (p. 6): “All species may have once been varieties, and many varieties gradually become species, acquiring permanent and specific characters,” but adds further (p. 18): "with the exception of the original types or ancestors of a given genus."
In 1843-1844 Professor Holdman (Boston Journal of Nat. Hist. U. States, vol. IV, p. 468) skillfully compared the arguments for and against the hypothesis of development and change of species; he himself seems to lean in her favour.
In 1844 Vestiges of Creation appeared. In the tenth and greatly revised edition of this book (1853), the anonymous author says (p. 155): , the action of God's providence are the result, firstly, the impulse imparted to the life-forms, which prompted them at certain epochs to pass through certain stages of organization through reproduction, culminating in the higher dicotyledonous and vertebrates; these steps were not numerous and were usually marked by breaks in the signs of organization, presenting practical difficulties in establishing the mutual relationship of forms; and, Secondly, another impulse connected with the vital forces striving, over generations, to change organic structures in accordance with external conditions, such as food, habitat and meteorological factors; these last changes constitute what in natural theology is called "adaptation." The author seems to think that organization developed in sudden leaps, but that the effect produced by the conditions of existence was gradual. He makes a very strong general argument that species do not represent immutable forms. But I do not see how the two "impulses" which he proposes can provide a scientific explanation for the many and wonderful mutual adjustments which we find everywhere in nature; I do not think that in this way we can advance at least one step in understanding how, for example, a woodpecker turned out to be adapted to the peculiar character of his life. This book, thanks to its strong and brilliant style, at the very beginning acquired a wide circle of readers, despite some inaccuracy of the information reported in the first editions and the lack of scientific caution. It has, in my opinion, been of great service in England by drawing attention to the subject, removing prejudice, and thus preparing the ground for the adoption of analogous views.
In 1846, the venerable geologist M. J. d'Omalius d'Allois, in a small but excellent article (Bulletins de l'Acad. Roy. Bruxelles, t. XIII, p. 581), expressed the opinion that the origin of new species by changes in other forms are much more likely than the creation of each of them separately; This opinion was expressed by the author for the first time in 1831.
Professor Owen in 1849 (Nature of Limbs, p. 86) wrote the following: “The idea of the archetype has come to light in the flesh in the various modifications that have existed on this planet long before the species of animals in which it now appears. To what natural laws or secondary causes the correct sequence and development of these organic phenomena were assigned, we do not yet know. In his presidential speech, at the meeting of the British Association in 1858, he mentions (p. LI) "the axiom of the uninterrupted operation of the creative force or the pre-established fulfillment of living beings." Further (p. XC), referring to geographical distribution, he adds: “These phenomena make us doubt that the New Zealand apteryx and the English red grouse were created exclusively for and on these islands. And in general, one should never lose sight of the fact that, resorting to the expression "creation", the zoologist only designates by this "a process unknown to him." He develops this idea further, adding that in all examples, like the example of the red grouse, "listed by the zoologist as evidence of a separate creation of a bird on these islands and only for them, the zoologist wants mainly to express the idea that he does not understand how the red the black grouse found himself there, and exclusively where he lives; by this mode of expression, revealing his ignorance, the zoologist also expresses his conviction that both the bird and the island owe their origin to the same great Creative First Cause. If we try to interpret these two statements, expressed in the same speech, one by means of the other, we will come to the conclusion that the famous scientist in 1858 was no longer sure that apteryx and red grouse first appeared where they are now. , "it is not known how" or due to some "unknown to him" process.
Charles Darwin's book "The Origin of Species" became his main work, telling the world about the evolutionary theory of the development of life on Earth. Its influence on all science was colossal. With his publication, the British scientist marked the beginning of a new era in biology.
The Origin of Species was published by Darwin in 1859. The appearance of the book was preceded by many years of work of the researcher. The work was based on the notes that Darwin had kept since 1837. As a naturalist, he traveled around the world on the Beagle. Observations of the fauna of South America and tropical islands during this voyage made the British think about whether the church theory of the divine is true.
Darwin's predecessor was Charles Lyell. His ideas also inspired the traveler. Finally, after two decades of hard work, On the Origin of Species was born. The main message of the author was this: all types of plants and animals change over time. The main stimulus for these metamorphoses is the struggle for life. From generation to generation, a species acquires useful traits and gets rid of superfluous ones in order to adapt to existence in a changing environment.
Darwin's publication had the effect of an exploding bomb. On the Origin of Species sold out at a tremendous rate, and the more rumors spread about this book, the greater the demand. Within two or three years, translations into the main European languages appeared.
What surprised the progressive public so much? In the introduction to the book, Darwin summarized his main ideas. Further, the author gradually carefully argued each of his thesis. First, he considered the experience of horse breeding and breeding pigeons. The experience of breeders has become another source of inspiration for the scientist. He posed the question to readers: "Why do domestic animal breeds change and differ from their wild relatives?" With this example, Darwin briefly explained the origin of species on a larger, worldwide scale. Like domestic populations, they all gradually transformed due to environmental changes. But if in cattle breeding there is something undertaken by man, then in nature there is
In the era of Darwin, there was still no single and generally accepted species system. Scientists have proposed various theories and hypotheses of the grouping of living beings. The same attempt was made in the book On the Origin of Species. Charles Darwin proposed a gender classification. Each such unit includes several types. This principle is universal. For example, there are many types of horses. Some of them are larger, some are faster, some are found only in a certain region. Thus, species are only varieties of one common genus.
The palette of individual differences arose thanks to nature. The order established in it is a constant. In the course of it, the species change and are divided into subspecies, which, over time, are more and more different from each other. The most insignificant unique feature(for example, the shape of the beak in birds) can be a significant advantage in survival. An individual that manages to survive, unlike dissimilar neighbors, will pass on its characteristics by inheritance to offspring. And after a few generations, a unique feature will become feature already many individuals.
In the 6th and 7th chapters of his book, Charles Darwin responds to the criticism of the opponents of his theory. In the first publication, he rather intuitively guessed the claims of creationists, church officials and other scientists. In subsequent lifetime reprints, the author answered the objections of specific opponents, naming them by name.
It is known that Charles Darwin was not an eloquent orator in public. In the stands, his theory was best defended by Thomas Huxley. But in the silence of the office, Darwin formulated everything succinctly and accurately. He smashed his opponents one by one, which only drew more attention to the book.
It was not without reason that the British scientist wrote The Origin of Species for so long. Charles Darwin not only explained his theory in terms of biology, but also argued with the help of geographical distribution and paleontology. The scientist drew attention to the numerous finds of fossils that recorded traces of extinct life forms. Thanks to paleontology, it became possible to study extinct and intermediate species in detail.
It was the works of Darwin that made this science extremely popular, which is why it experienced a real flowering in the second half of the 19th century. The scientist was one of the first to describe the mechanism for preserving the remains. He noted that under normal environmental conditions, organic tissues die off and leave no traces. However, when they get into water, permafrost or amber, they remain for a long time.
Arguing about the migration and relocation of species, Darwin was able to build an organic system from the chaos of notes and facts, full of rules and patterns. The results of natural selection can cover entire climatic zones. The biologist, however, noted that there are natural barriers to the spread of animals and plants. Terrestrial species have such an insurmountable frontier - vast expanses of water between the New and Old Worlds.
Interestingly, in his reasoning, Darwin dismissed theories about the disappeared continents (for example, about Atlantis). Curious are his arguments about how plants spread from mainland to mainland. The scientist put forward a hypothesis that can be explained by the following example. The seeds can be swallowed by birds, which, when flying to the other side of the world, leave them there in excrement. This conclusion was not the only one. Seedlings could stick to the paws of birds along with mud and get to the new mainland with them. Further spread of the plant became a matter of time.
In Chapter 14, Darwin drew attention to the similarity of vestigial organs and embryonic development in plants and animals. From this observation, he concluded that the origin of all species is common. On the other hand, the scientist explained the similarity of some signs by the same habitat. For example, fish and whales actually have little in common, although outwardly they look approximately the same.
Darwin also emphasized that larvae of the same species, when exposed to different conditions, will behave in completely different ways. All the instincts of the embryos are connected with only one factor - the desire to survive in a changing environment. Speaking about the larvae, the scientist called them a kind of chronicle of the whole species to which they belong.
At the end of his work, Darwin summarized own discoveries. His book was a typical work of Victorian England, with all the diplomacy and roundness of the wording customary for that time. For example, although the author became the founder scientific explanation shaping life, he made several conciliatory gestures towards religion.
The results of natural selection and the theory of evolution immediately became a serious problem for the church. In the epilogue, Darwin recalled that Leibniz once criticized Newton's physical laws, but time showed that these attacks were erroneous. The author of the sensational work expressed the hope that his own book will also find recognition, despite the serious pressure of creationists and other skeptics. Today we can say with certainty that this is exactly what happened.
Charles Robert Darwin(1809 - 1882) - English naturalist and traveler, one of the first to realize and clearly demonstrate that all types of living organisms evolve in time from common ancestors. In his theory, the first detailed presentation of which was published in 1859 in the book "The Origin of Species" (full title: "The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favored Breeds in the Struggle for Life"), Darwin named natural selection as the main driving force of evolution and indefinite variability.
The existence of evolution was recognized by most scientists during the lifetime of Darwin, while his theory of natural selection as the main explanation for evolution became generally recognized only in the 30s of the XX century. The ideas and discoveries of Darwin in a revised form form the foundation of the modern synthetic theory of evolution and form the basis of biology, as providing a logical explanation for biodiversity.
The essence of evolutionary teaching lies in the following basic provisions:
1. All kinds of living beings inhabiting the Earth have never been created by someone.
2. Arising naturally, organic forms were slowly and gradually transformed and improved in accordance with the surrounding conditions.
3. The transformation of species in nature is based on such properties of organisms as heredity and variability, as well as natural selection constantly occurring in nature. Natural selection is carried out through the complex interaction of organisms with each other and with factors inanimate nature; this relationship Darwin called the struggle for existence.
4. The result of evolution is the adaptability of organisms to the conditions of their habitat and the diversity of species in nature.
In 1831, after graduating from university, Darwin, as a naturalist, went on a trip around the world on an expedition ship of the Royal Navy. The journey lasted almost five years (Fig. 1). He spends most of his time on the coast, studying geology and collecting natural history collections. Comparing the found remains of plants and animals with modern ones, Charles Darwin made an assumption about historical, evolutionary relationship.
On the Galapagos Islands, he found species of lizards, turtles, and birds that were not found anywhere else. The Galapagos are islands of volcanic origin, so C. Darwin suggested that these animals came to them from the mainland and gradually changed. In Australia, he became interested in marsupials and oviparous, which became extinct in other parts of the globe. So gradually the scientist became more convinced of the variability of species. After returning from a trip, Darwin worked hard for 20 years to create an evolutionary doctrine, collected additional facts about the breeding of new animal breeds and plant varieties in agriculture.
He considered artificial selection as a peculiar model of natural selection. Based on the material collected during the journey and proving the validity of his theory, as well as on scientific achievements (geology, chemistry, paleontology, comparative anatomy, etc.) and, above all, in the field of selection, Darwin for the first time began to consider evolutionary transformations not in individual organisms, and at the view.
Rice. 1 Journey on the Beagle (1831-1836)
Lyell and Malthus had a direct influence on Darwin in the process of creating the concept of his geometric progression of numbers from the demographic work "An Essay on the Law of Population" (1798). In this work, Malthus put forward the hypothesis that humanity reproduces many times faster compared to the increase food supplies. While the human population increases geometrically, food supplies, according to the author, can only increase arithmetically. The work of Malthus prompted Darwin to think about the possible paths of evolution.
A huge number of facts speak in favor of the theory of evolution of organisms. But Darwin understood that it was not enough just to show the existence of evolution. Gathering evidence, he worked primarily empirically. Darwin went further, developing a hypothesis that revealed the mechanism of the evolutionary process. In the very formulation of the hypothesis, Darwin, as a scientist, showed a truly creative approach.
1 . Darwin's first assumption was that the number of animals of each species tends to increase exponentially from generation to generation.
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2. Darwin then suggested that although the number of organisms tends to increase, the number of individuals of a particular species actually remains the same.
These two assumptions led Darwin to the conclusion that there must be a struggle for existence among all kinds of living beings. Why? If each next generation produces more offspring than the previous one, and if the number of individuals of the species remains unchanged, then, apparently, in nature there is a struggle for food, water, light and other environmental factors. Some organisms survive in this struggle, while others die. .
Darwin identified three forms of struggle for existence: intraspecific, interspecific and the fight against adverse environmental factors. The most acute intraspecific struggle between individuals of the same species due to the same food needs, habitat conditions, for example, the struggle between moose that feed on the bark of trees and shrubs.
Interspecies- between individuals of different species: between wolves and deer (predator-prey), between elks and hares (competition for food). Exposure of organisms to adverse conditions such as drought, severe frosts, is also an example of the struggle for existence. The survival or death of individuals in the struggle for existence are the results, the consequences of its manifestation.
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Ch. Darwin, unlike J. Lamarck, drew attention to the fact that although any creature changes during life, but individuals of the same species are born unequal.
3. Darwin's next suggestion was that each species has variability. Variability is the property of all organisms to acquire new traits. In other words, individuals of the same species differ from each other, even in the offspring of one pair of parents there are no identical individuals. He rejected as untenable the notion of "exercise" or "non-exercise" of organs and turned to the facts of breeding new breeds of animals and plant varieties by people - to artificial selection.
Darwin distinguished definite (group) and indefinite (individual) variability. A certain variability manifests itself in the whole group of living organisms in a similar way - if the whole herd of cows is well fed, then they will all increase milk yield and fat content of milk, but no more than the maximum possible for this breed. Group variability will not be inherited.
 4. Heredity - the property of all organisms to preserve and transmit characteristics from parents to offspring. Changes that are inherited from parents are called hereditary variability. Darwin showed that the indefinite (individual) variability of organisms is inherited and can become the beginning of a new breed or variety, if it is useful to man. Transferring these data to wild species, Darwin noted that only those changes that are beneficial to the species for successful competition can be preserved in nature. Giraffe - acquired a long neck not at all because he was constantly stretching it, taking out branches of tall trees, but simply because species gifted with a very long neck could find food above those branches that were already eaten by their counterparts with shorter neck, and as a result, they could survive during the famine. . |
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The result of natural selection is the formation of a large number of adaptations to specific conditions of existence. The material for natural selection is supplied by the hereditary variability of organisms. In 1842 Charles Darwin wrote the first essay on the origin of species. Under the influence of the English geologist and naturalist C. Lyell, in 1856 Darwin began to prepare an expanded version of the book. In June 1858, when the work was half done, he received a letter from the English naturalist A. R. Wallace with the manuscript of the latter's paper. In this article, Darwin discovered an abridged exposition of his own theory of natural selection. The two naturalists independently and simultaneously developed identical theories. Both were influenced by T. R. Malthus' work on population; both were aware of Lyell's views, both studied the fauna, flora and geological formations of the island groups and found significant differences between the species inhabiting them. Darwin sent Wallace's manuscript to Lyell along with his own essay, and on July 1, 1858, they together presented their papers to the Linnean Society in London. |
In 1859 Darwin's book was published " The origin of species by natural selection, or the preservation of favored breeds in the struggle for life, "in which he explained the mechanism of the evolutionary process. Constantly thinking about the driving causes of the evolutionary process, Charles Darwin came to the most important idea for the whole theory. Natural selection is the main driving force of evolution .
The process, as a result of which individuals with hereditary changes that are useful in given conditions, i.e., survive and leave offspring. survival and successful production of offspring by the fittest organisms. Based on facts, Charles Darwin was able to prove that natural selection is the driving factor of the evolutionary process in nature, and artificial selection plays the same important role in creating animal breeds and plant varieties.
Darwin also formulated the principle of divergence of characters, which is very important for understanding the process of formation of new species. As a result of natural selection, forms arise that differ from the original species and are adapted to specific environmental conditions. Over time, the discrepancy leads to the appearance of large differences in initially slightly different forms. As a result, they form differences in many ways. Over time, so many differences accumulate that new species emerge. This is what ensures the diversity of species on our planet.
The merit of Charles Darwin in science is not that he proved the existence of evolution, but that he explained how it can occur, i.e. proposed a natural mechanism that ensures evolution, the improvement of living organisms, and proved that this mechanism exists and works.
Under fairly stable conditions, small differences may not matter. However, with drastic changes in the conditions of existence, one or more distinguishing features can become decisive for survival. Comparing the facts of the struggle for existence and the general variability of organisms, Darwin makes a generalized conclusion about the existence of natural selection in nature - the selective survival of some and the death of others.
