The Foundations of the Origin of Species

Origin, Ed. i. p. 86, vi. p. 105.

193

It is interesting to find that though the author, like his contemporaries, believed in the inheritance of acquired characters, he excluded the case of mutilation.

194

This corresponds to Origin, Ed. i. p. 10, vi. p. 9.

195

Origin, Ed. i. p. 8, vi. p. 10.

196

For plasticity see Origin, Ed. i. pp. 12, 132.

197

Var. under Dom., Ed. ii. I. p. 393.

198

Selection is here used in the sense of isolation, rather than as implying the summation of small differences. Professor Henslow in his Heredity of Acquired Characters in Plants, 1908, p. 2, quotes from Darwin’s Var. under Dom., Ed. i. II. p. 271, a passage in which the author, speaking of the direct action of conditions, says: – “A new sub-variety would thus be produced without the aid of selection.” Darwin certainly did not mean to imply that such varieties are freed from the action of natural selection, but merely that a new form may appear without summation of new characters. Professor Henslow is apparently unaware that the above passage is omitted in the second edition of Var. under Dom., II. p. 260.

199

See the Essay of 1842, p. 3 (#FNanchor_41_41).

200

See Origin, Ed. i. p. 33, vi. p. 38. The evidence is given in the present Essay rather more fully than in the Origin.

201

Journal of Researches, Ed. 1860, p. 214. “Doggies catch otters, old women no.”

202

The effects of crossing is much more strongly stated here than in the Origin. See Ed. i. p. 20, vi. p. 23, where indeed the opposite point of view is given. His change of opinion may be due to his work on pigeons. The whole of the discussion on crossing corresponds to Chapter VIII of the Origin, Ed. i. rather than to anything in the earlier part of the book.

203

The parallelism between the effects of a cross and the effects of conditions is given from a different point of view in the Origin, Ed. i. p. 266, vi. p. 391. See the experimental evidence for this important principle in the author’s work on Cross and Self-Fertilisation. Professor Bateson has suggested that the experiments should be repeated with gametically pure plants.

204

The so-called Knight-Darwin Law is often misunderstood. See Goebel in Darwin and Modern Science, 1909, p. 419; also F. Darwin, Nature, Oct. 27, 1898.

205

Pallas’ theory is discussed in the Origin, Ed. i. pp. 253, 254, vi. p. 374.

206

See Darwin’s paper on the fertility of hybrids from the common and Chinese goose in Nature, Jan. 1, 1880.

207

Origin, Ed. i. p. 19, vi. p. 22.

208

Var. under Dom., Ed. ii. vol. II. p. 211.

209

This discussion corresponds to the Origin, Ed. i. pp. 11 and 143, vi. pp. 13 and 177.

210

See Origin, Ed. i. p. 7, vi. p. 7.

211

«Note in the original.» “Isidore G. St Hilaire insists that breeding in captivity essential element. Schleiden on alkalies. «See Var. under Dom., Ed. ii. vol. II. p. 244, note 10.» What is it in domestication which causes variation?”

212

«Note in the original.» “It appears that slight changes of condition «are» good for health; that more change affects the generative system, so that variation results in the offspring; that still more change checks or destroys fertility not of the offspring.” Compare the Origin, Ed. i. p. 9, vi. p. 11. What the meaning of “not of the offspring” may be is not clear.

213

In the Origin, Ed. i. p. 41, vi. p. 46 the question is differently treated; it is pointed out that a large stock of individuals gives a better chance of available variations occurring. Darwin quotes from Marshall that sheep in small lots can never be improved. This comes from Marshall’s Review of the Reports to the Board of Agriculture, 1808, p. 406. In this Essay the name Marshall occurs in the margin. Probably this refers to loc. cit. p. 200, where unshepherded sheep in many parts of England are said to be similar owing to mixed breeding not being avoided.

214

See Origin, Ed. i. p. 8, vi. p. 8.

215

See Origin, Ed. i. p. 42, vi. p. 48.

216

«Note in the original.» There are white peacocks.

217