Charles Darwin (1809–1882) first published this work in 1868 in two volumes. The book began as an expansion of the first two chapters of On the Origin of Species: ‘Variation under Domestication’ and ‘Variation under Nature’, and it developed into one of his largest works; Darwin referred to it as his ‘big book’. Volume 1 deals with the variations introduced into species as a result of domestication through changes in climate, diet, breeding and an absence of predators. In volume 2, concerned with how species inherit particular characteristics, Darwin first published his ‘provisional hypothesis’ of pangenesis, and challenged the theories of evolution by design. The work is a masterpiece of nineteenth-century scientific investigation; it is a key text in the development of Darwin’s own thought and of the wider discipline of evolutionary biology. INDICE: Volume I: Introduction; 1. Domestic dogs and cats; 2. Horses and asses; 3. Pigs, cattle, sheep, goats; 4. Domestic rabbits; 5. Domestic pigeons;6. Pigeons continued; 7. Fowls; 8. Ducks, goose, peacock, turkey, guinea-fowl, canary-bird, gold-fish, hive-bees, silk-moths; 9. Cultivated plants: cereal and culinary plants; 10. Plants continued: fruits, ornamental trees, flower; 11. On bud-variation, and on certain anomalous modes of reproduction and variation. Volume II: 12. Inheritance; 13. Inheritance continued: reversion or atavism; 14. Inheritance continued: fixedness of character, prepotency, sexual limitation; correspondence of age; 15. On crossing; 16. Causes which interfere with the free crossing of varieties, influence of domestication on fertility; 17.On the good effects of crossing, and on the evil effects of close interbreeding; 18. On the advantages and disadvantages of changed conditions of life: sterility form various causes; 19. Summary of the four last chapters, with remarks on hybridism; 20. Selection by man; 21. Selection continued; 22. Causes of variability; 23. Direct and definite action of the external conditions of life;24. Laws of variation, use and disuse, etc.; 25. Laws of variation continued,correlated variability; 26. Laws of variation continued, summary; 27. Provisional hypothesis of pangenesis; 28. Concluding remarks; Index.
- ISBN: 978-1-108-01424-3
- Editorial: Cambridge University
- Encuadernacion: Rústica
- Páginas: 922
- Fecha Publicación: 03/06/2010
- Nº Volúmenes: 2
- Idioma: Inglés