BULLETIN OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM (NATURAL HISTORY) HISTORICAL SERIES VOL. 2 1959-1963 TRUSTEES OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM (NATURAL HISTORY) LONDON : I969 DATES OF PUBLICATION OF THE PARTS No. i. 27 November 1959 No. 2. 6 January i960 No. 3- 27 May i960 No. 4- 12 July i960 No. 5- 16 September i960 No. 6. 24 October 1961 No. 7- 8 February 1963 PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN AT THE BARTHOLOMEW PRESS DORKING BY ADLARD AND SON, LTD. CONTENTS HISTORICAL SERIES VOLUME 2 PAGE No. I. Darwin's Journal. By Sir Gavin de Beer. 3 No. 2. Darwin's Notebooks on Transmutation of Species Part I. First Notebook (July 1837-February 1838). Edited by Sir Gavin de Beer. 25 No. 3. Darwin's Notebooks on Transmutation of Species Part II. Second Notebook (February to July 1838). Edited by Sir Gavin de Beer. yy No. 4. Darwin's Notebooks on Transmutation of Species Part III. Third Notebook July 15th 1838-October 2nd 1938. Edited by Sir Gavin de Beer. 121 No. 5. Darwin's Notebooks on Transmutation of Species Part IV. Fourth Notebook (October 1838-ioth July 1839). Edited by Sir Gavin de Beer. 153 No. 6. Darwin's Notebooks on Transmutation of Species Addenda and Corrigenda. Edited by Sir Gavin de Beer and M. J. Rowlands. 187 No. 7. Darwin's Ornithological Notes. Edited by Nora Barlow. 203 Index to Volume 2. 279 MM I 7 I DARWIN'S JOURNAL SIR GAVIN de BEER BULLETIN OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM (NATURAL HISTORY) HISTORICAL SERIES Vol. 2 No. 1 LONDON: 1959 *»■ DARWIN 'S JOURNAL EDITED BY SIR GAVIN de BEER, F.R.S., F.S.A. *- rCL . Director, British Museum (Natural History) Pp. I-2I BULLETIN OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM (NATURAL HISTORY) HISTORICAL SERIES Vol. 2 No. 1 LONDON: 1959 THE BULLETIN OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM (NATURAL HISTORY), instituted in 1949, is issued in five series corresponding to the Departments of the Museum, and an Historical Series. Parts appear at irregular intervals as they become ready. Volumes will contain about three or four hundred pages, and will not necessarily be completed within one calendar year. This paper is Vol. 2, No. 1 of the Historical series. Trustees of the British Museum, 1959 PRINTED BY ORDER OF THE TRUSTEES OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM Issued November, 1959 Price Eight Shillings DARWIN'S JOURNAL Edited by Sir GAVIN de BEER, F.R.S., F.S.A. In his Autobiography, 1 Darwin referred to a " little diary, which I have always kept ", in which he recorded the work on which he was engaged, the time which he took in completing each of his researches, the books in which they were described, and his movements from place to place. The document itself was headed " Journal ". Francis Darwin also referred 2 to his father's " Diary or Pocket-book " as having been of great help to him in writing and compiling the Life and Letters. He added that " it was unfortunately written with great brevity, the history of a year being compressed into a page or less, and contains little more than the dates of the principle events of his life, together with entries as to his work, and as to the duration of his more serious illnesses ". Some important quotations have been published 3 from the Journal, such as the famous entry under the date 1837 : " ^ n J ur y opened first note book on ' trans- mutation of species '. Had been greatly struck from about month of previous March on character of South American fossils, and species on Galapagos Archipelago. These facts origin (especially latter) of all my views ". The chronological framework which the Journal provides of Darwin's life is of such interest as to deserve publication, and by the courtesy of Sir Charles Darwin, K.B.E., F.R.S. and of the Syndics of the Cambridge University Library, and with the kind help of the Librarian, Mr. H. R. Creswick, M.A., it is printed below. The manuscript 4 which has been used for transcription is not Darwin's autograph, but a copy made in a fair hand by a copyist who obviously had considerable difficulty in deciphering Darwin's handwriting. In numerous places there are corrections and indications of omissions in pencil in a hand which is presumably that of Francis Darwin. In some places there are duplications and chronological inversions (rationalized in the present transcription), but these occur mostly in the earlier part of the Journal and may have been made in the original autograph manuscript by Darwin himself if, as appears to be the case, the earlier entries were reconstructed from notes and memory at a later date which was probably August 1838 because that date is given at the head of the document, and it is also the date of an auto- biographical fragment 5 covering his life up till 1838. That was about the time 1 The Autobiography of Charles Darwin, edited by Nora Barlow, London 1958, p. 116. (Abbreviated as Autob.) 2 Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, edited by Francis Darwin, London 1887, vol. 1, p. iv. (Abbre- viated as L. & L.) 3 L. &L., vol. 1, p. 330 ; Charles Darwin. The Foundations of the Origin of Species, edited by Francis Darwin, Cambridge 1909, p. xiv ; Charles Darwin & Alfred Russel Wallace : Evolution by Natural Selection, with a Foreword by Sir Gavin de Beer, Cambridge 1958, pp. 5, and 25. 4 University Library Cambridge, Darwin MS. 140 2 . 5 More Letters of Charles Darwin, edited by Francis Darwin & A. C. Seward, London 1903, vol. 1, p. 1. (Abbreviated as M.L.) HIST. 2, I 26 4 DARWIN'S JOURNAL when he determined to propose marriage 1 to his cousin Emma Wedgwood ; and his balance-sheet of the advantages and disadvantages of the married state, which forms one of the most fascinating subjects which Lady Barlow has added to her Edition of the Autobiography,' 21 shows how his methodical mind ran to putting things down on paper. There is also clear evidence of subsequent insertion into earlier entries, as in the case of Darwin's paper on Flustra, referred to in the winter of 1826-27 when it was delivered, but which Darwin inserted in 1873 from a footnote published in Nature in that year. From the year 1846 onwards the entries in the Journal are in two columns. The left hand column is clearly designed for entries relating to scientific work, while the right hand column is devoted to personal matters such as journeys to stay with friends or at hydropathic establishments, and dates of birth and death of children and relations. Occasionally, however, the distinction breaks down, as when the length of the period of his illnesses intrudes on the scientific record to justify the time spent on various subjects of research and books. There is always an element of indiscretion in perusing a document which was never meant by its author for publication, but this one is of such value in throwing light on Darwin's life time-table that it is itself of scientific interest, and, as such, its study by others would not have been frowned on by him. It is presented as a contribution towards the celebration of the centenary of the publication of the book which, as Darwin himself recognized, 3 was the chief work of his life : On the Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection, 1859. JOURNAL Charles Darwin 1809. Feb. 12. Born at Shrewsbury Parish of St. Chad. 1813. Summer. Went to Gros near Abegele for sea-bathing, some of my earliest recollections dates from this. 1 817. Went to Mr Case's 4 School in the Spring (8 years old). July. My mother 5 died. 181 8. July. Went with Erasmus 6 on party of pleasure to Liverpool. Midsummer. Went to Dr Butlers' School. September. Ill with Scarlet Fever. 1819. July. Went to sea, at Plas Edwards & staid there three weeks. 1820. July. Went tour with Erasmus to Pistyll Rhayader on horseback. 1 H. E. Litchfield : Emma Darwin, Privately Printed, Cambridge 1904, vol. 1, p. 413. (Abbreviated as E.D.) 2 Autob., pp. 231-4. 3 Autob., p. 122. 4 L. & L., vol. 1, p. 27. 5 Susannah (1765-1817), daughter of Josiah Wedgwood I. 8 Erasmus Alvey Darwin (1 804-1 881), Darwin's eldest brother. 7 Samuel Butler (1 774-1 839), at that time Head Master of Shrewsbury School. Grandfather of Samuel Butler (1835-1902), author of Erewhon. DARWIN'S JOURNAL 5 1822. June. Tour with Caroline 1 to Downton. My first recollection of having some pleasure in scenery dates as far back as this. 13 years old. July. To Montgomery & Bishop's Castle with Elizabeth. 2 September. To old Mr. Cotton. 3 1824. November. Marianne 4 was married to Dr Parker. 5 1825. June 17th. Left Shrewsbury School for ever. 16 years old. October. Went with Erasmus to Edinburgh. 6 1826. June 15th. Walking tour into North Wales with Hubbersty. 7 Oct. 30. Riding tour with Caroline, Vaynor Parle Bala &c. November 6th. Went to Edinburgh by myself. 1826^ Winter. Examined Marine Animals on shore of Firth of Forth with Dr Grant 8 & 1827J Coldstream. 9 1827. In Spring went tour, Dundee, St. Andrews, Stirling. Afterwards Glasgow, Belfast, Dublin & Port. Then London & Paris 10 with Uncle Jo. 11 " The first paper contributed by him (Mr. Darwin) entitled ' On the Ova of the Ftustra ' in which he announces that he has discovered organs of motion, and secondly that the small black body hitherto mistaken for the young of Fucus loreus is in reality the ovum of Pontobdella muricata, exhibits his early habits of minute investigation." (From minutes of Plinian Soc :) 12 These 2 papers were read by me at close of 1826 or early in 1827 before Plinian Soc : in Edinburgh. My first paper 2 d year in Edinburgh. I was then 18 years old. In the Autumn paid many visits to Woodhouse. 13 September. Maer 14 & Sir J. Mackintosh. 15 Christmas. Went to Cambridge. 16 i > Became acquainted with Fox 17 & Way 18 & so commenced Entomology. 1 Caroline Sarah Darwin (1800-1888), Darwin's sister, afterwards wife of Josiah Wedgwood III. 2 Susan Elizabeth Darwin (1 803-1 866), Darwin's sister. 3 Mr. Cotton of Shropshire pointed out to Darwin the erratic block in Shrewsbury known as the " Bell Stone " and told him that there was no similar rock nearer than Cumberland or Scotland. (L. &• L. vol. 1, p. 41 and Autob., p. 52.) 4 Marianne Darwin (1 798-1858) Darwin's eldest sister. 5 Henry Parker (1 788-1 856). 6 Darwin signed the Matriculation Book of the University on 22 October 1825. (J. H. Ashworth : " Darwin as a Student in Edinburgh 1825-1827 ", Proc. Roy. Soc. Edinb., vol. 55, 1935, p. 97.) 7 Probably Nathan Hubbersty (1 803-1 881) who was Assistant Master at Shrewsbury School 1826-8. (J. A. Venn : Alumni Cantabrigienses, pt. II, vol. 3, p. 470, Cambridge 1947.) 8 Robert Edmund Grant ( 1 793-1 874). (J. H. Ashworth : op.cit.; and P. H. Jespersen : "Charles Darwin and Dr Grant ", Lychnos 1948-49 (Uppsala 1950), p. 159.) 9 John Coldstream, ob. 1863. 10 This was the only occasion when Darwin visited the Continent. 11 Josiah Wedgwood II (1769-1843), brother of Darwin's mother. 12 This entry is inserted from a [footnote in Nature November 20, 1873, p. 38, and it shows that Darwin inserted it at this place in his diary in that year. 13 Woodhouse, near Shrewsbury, home of the Owen family, (cf. E.D., vol. 1, p. 180.) 14 Maer Hall, 7 miles from Stoke upon Trent, Staffordshire, home of Josiah Wedgwood II. (Autob., P- 54) 15 Sir James Mackintosh (1765-1832), whose wife Catherine nee Allen was the sister of Elizabeth, wife of Josiah Wedgwood II. 16 The Admittance Book at Christ's College shows that Darwin was admitted on 15 October 1827. (cf. Christ's College Magazine Darwin Centenary Number, vol. 23, Cambridge 1909, p. 189.) 17 William Darwin Fox (c. 1805-1880), grandson of William Alvey Darwin, brother of Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802) Darwin's grandfather. William Darwin Fox was therefore Darwin's second cousin. 18 Albert Way (1805-1874). (cf. Autob., p. 63.) HIST. 2, I 26§ 6 DARWIN'S JOURNAL 1828. Very keen in collecting insects in the Spring at Cambridge & at Barmouth in the Autumn. Summer. Went to Barmouth (with Herbert 1 & Butler 2 ) to read with Butterton. 3 September. Maer & thence to Osmaston Hall* for Music Meeting. 1829. Summer. Paid Barmouth a visit. October. Birmingham, Music meeting with Wedgwoods. 1830. Christmas. Vacation spent at Cambridge. Continued to collect insects, to hunt shoot & be quite idle. Christmas passed my examination 5 for B.A. degree & kept the two following terms. 1 83 1. During these months lived much with Prof r Henslow 6 often dining with him & walking with [him], became slightly acquainted with several of the learned men in Cambridge, which much quickened the zeal which dinner parties & hunting had not destroyed. In the Spring paid Mr. Dawes 7 a visit with Ramsay, 8 Kirby 9 & talked over an excursion to Teneriffe. 10 In the Spring Henslow persuaded me to think of Geology & introduced me to Sedgwick. 11 During Midsummer Geologized a little in Shropshire. August. Went on Geological tour by Llangollen, Ruthven, Conway, Bangor & Capel Curig where I left Professor Sedgwick & crossed the mountains to Barmouth. Returned to Shrewsbury at end of August. Refused offer of Voyage. 12 Sept. Went to Maer returned with Uncle Jo to Shrewsbury 13 thence to Cambridge. 14 London. 15 1 John Maurice Herbert (1808-1882). (J. A. Venn: Alumni Cantabrigienses, pt. II, vol. 3, p. 338, Cambridge, 1947. cf. L. & L., vol. 1, pp. 49, 164, 166 ff.) 2 Probably Thomas Butler (1806-1886), son of Samuel Butler Head Master of Shrewsbury School, B.A. Cantab 1829. (J. A. Venn : Alumni Cantabrigienses, pt. II, vol, 1, p. 478, Cambridge 1940.) 3 George Ash Butterton (1805-1891). 4 Osmaston Hall, near Derby. William Alvey Darwin (1 726-1 783) of Sleafort, eldest brother of Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802) (Darwin's grandfather), had a daughter Anne who married Samuel Fox of Osmaston. Their son was William Darwin Fox. 5 Darwin was placed 10th in the list of January 1831 of successful candidates who did not seek Honours. {cf. Autob., p. 59.) Darwin was admitted B.A. on 26 April 1831. (L. (&• L., vol. 1, p. 163.) 6 John Stevens Henslow (1796-1861). 7 Richard Dawes (1 793-1 867). 8 Marmaduke Ramsay (ob. 1831), brother of Sir Alexander Ramsay 2nd Bart., admitted to Jesus College, 1814, Tutor of Jesus College, (cf. L. <&- L. vol. 1, p. 54.) 9 William Kirby (1759-1850), was at that date 71 years old ; if not he, unidentified. 10 In anticipation of his visit to Tenerife, Darwin learned Spanish, an accomplishment which must have been of the greatest value to him when visiting South America in the Beagle, (cf. L. &■ L., vol. 1, p. 190.) It is not generally known that Darwin also contemplated a voyage to South America. This emerges from the following letter addressed by the Hydrographer of the Navy, Captain Francis Beaufort R.N. (1774-1857), to Captain Robert FitzRoy R.N., for the text of which I am indebted to Rear-Admiral K. St. B. Collins, R.N., O.B.E., D.S.C., Hydrographer of the Navy. Sepr 1 1831 Cap 11 Fitzroy My dear Sir, I believe my friend Mr. Peacock of Triny College Cambe has succeeded in getting a " Savant " for you — A Mr. Darwin grandson of the well known philosopher and poet — -full of zeal and enterprize and having contemplated a voyage on his own account to S. America. Let me know how you like the idea that I may go or recede in time. F. B. 11 Adam Sedgwick (1 785-1873). 12 Darwin's letter of refusal to Henslow was dated 30 August 1831 (L. & L., vol. 1, p. 195.) The fact that Darwin had himself contemplated a voyage to South America on his own account (see footnote 10) must have made this refusal all the more painful. 13 Josiah Wedgwood's drive from Maer to Shrewsbury to persuade Darwin's father to allow Darwin to sail in the Beagle was on 1 September 1831. (Autob., pp. 71, 226 ff.) 14 Darwin went to Cambridge on 2 September 1831. (L. & L., vol. 1, p. 199 ; Autob., p. 72.) 15 Darwin was at 17 Spring Gardens in London by 5 September, 1831. (L. & L., vol. 1, p. 201.) DARWIN'S JOURNAL 7 Sept. 11 Went with Cap 1 - FitzRoy 1 in Steamer to Plymouth to see the Beagle. 2 Sept. 22 nd Returned to Shrewsbury passing through Cambridge. Oct. 2 nd Took leave of my home, staid in London. Oct. 24 th Reached Plymouth. October & November. These months very miserable. December 10 th Sailed, but were obliged to put back. „ 21 st Put to sea again & were driven back. 27 th Sailed from England on our Circumnavigation. 1832. Jan. 16 th First landed on a tropical shore (S*- Jago). Feb. 29 th Landed at Brazil. Dec 2 ,, ,, Tierra del Fuego. 1833. Dec 6 th Sailed for last time from Rio Plata. 1834. June 10 th Sailed for last time from Tierra del Fuego. 1835. Sept. 15 th Sailed from West Shores of South America. 1836. May 31 Anchored at the Cape of Good Hope. October 2 nd Anchored at Falmouth. 4 th Reached Shrewsbury after absence of 5 years and 2 days. 14 th London. 15 th Cambridge. 20 th London. 28 th Beagle arrived at Woolwich, was paid off, November 17 th . November 12 th Maer. ,, 16 th Shrewsbury. December 2 nd London. 13 th Cambridge. 1837. Jan. Cambridge, time spent in arranging general collection examining minerals, reading & writing little Journal in the evening. Paid two short visits to London & Read paper on elevation of Coast of Chile. 3 March 6 th Left Cambridge to reside in London. 13 th Entered my Lodgings in 36 G* Marlborough S f - May. Paper on Coral formation 4 to Geolog. Soc : ditto, on deposits in Pampas. 5 In July opened first note book on " Transmutation of Species " — Had been greatly struck from about Month of previous March on character of S. American fossils — & species on Galapagos Archipelago. These facts origin (especially latter) of all my views. From March 13 th to end of September entirely employed in my Journal. 6 June 26 th Short visit to Shrewsbury. Sept. 25 th Shrewsbury returned by Maer & reached London Oct. 21 st . Nov. 20 th Two days Isle of Wight to see Fox. 1 Robert FitzRoy (1 805-1 865). 2 A brief history of H.M.S. Beagle is given in Sir Gavin de Beer : " Some unpublished letters of Charles Darwin ", Appendix II. Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, vol. 14, 1959. 3 Charles Darwin : " Observations of proof of recent elevation on the coast of Chile, made during the Survey of H.M.S. Beagle, commanded by Capt. FitzRoy ", read January 4, 1837. Proc. Geol. Soc, vol. 2, 1838, p. 446. 4 Charles Darwin : "On certain areas of elevation and subsidence in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, as deduced from the study of coral formations ", read May 31, 1837. Proc. Geol. Soc, vol. 2, 1838, p. 552. 5 Charles Darwin : "A sketch of the deposits containing extinct Mammalia in the neighbourhood of the Plata," read May 3, 1837. Proc Geol. Soc, vol. 2, 1838, p. 542. 6 Charles Darwin : Journal of Researches into the Geology and Natural History of the various countries visited by H.M.S. Beagle under the command of Capt. FitzRoy, R.N. from 1832-1836. London 1839. 8 DARWIN'S JOURNAL October-November preparing scheme of Zoology of Voyage of Beagle, 1 commenced Geology 2 & finished proofs of Journal — Paper on Worms forming mould. 3 1838. Jan. 17 th I finished my account of the Geology of the Galapagos Arch : & of Ascension. Feb. 25 — Finished St. Helena & small islands in Atlantic. Also speculated much about " Existence of Species " & read more than usual. March — Part. Mammalia in Zoology. Paper on earthquakes 4 for Geolog. Soc : April. Part. Birds for Zoology. Much time thus lost. ,, 16 th Began Geolog : Cape of Good Hope. King George Sound, Sydney. May I st Unwell, working at Geolog: as named and " species ". „ 10 th Went to Cambridge for 4 days. ,, 15 th Began Geolog : of Hobart Town & New Zealand. ,, 22 nd Began Geolog : of S* Jago. Cape de Verdes. June (Beginning). Preparing 1st part of Birds. S* Jago Geology some little species theory, & lost very much time by being unwell. June 23 rd Started in Steam Boat for Edinburgh (one day Salisbury Craigs). 5 Spent eight good days in Glen Roy returned by sea through Greenock, & Liverpool. Slept at Overton & reached Shrewsbury July 13 th . Very idle at Shrewsbury, some notes from my Father. Opened note book connected with metaphysical enquiries. July 29 th Set out for Maer. August I st London. Began paper on Glen Roy and finished it. August. Read a good deal of various amusing books & paid some attention to Meta- physical subjects. Sept. 6 th Finished paper on Glen Roy 8 one of the most difficult & instructive tasks I was ever employed on. Spt. 14 th Frittered these foregoing days away on working on Transmutation theories & correcting Glen Roy. Began Crater of Elevation theory. All September read a good deal on many subjects ; thought much upon religion. Begin- ning of October ditto. October 5 th Began Coral Paper 7 requires much reading. ,, 25 th Went to Windsor for two days rest, glorious weather, delightful. October 27 th Preface & Addenda on Theory of Erratic Blocks 8 to Journal. November 9 th Started for Maer. ,, 11 th Sunday. The day of days! 9 Went to Shrewsbury the next day returned to Maer on the 17th & to London on the 20 th . 1 Ultimately published as " Zoology of the Voyage of H. M.S. Beagle, edited and superintended by Charles Darwin, London 1840— 1843. 2 Ultimately published as Geology of the Voyage of H. M.S. Beagle. London 1842-46. 3 Charles Darwin : " On the formation of mould ", read November 1, 1837. Proc Geol. Soc, vol. 2, London 1838, p. 574, Trans. Geol. Soc., vol. 5, 1840, p. 505. 4 Charles Darwin : " On the Connexion of certain Volcanic Phenomena and on the formation of mountain-chains and the effects of continental elevations ", read March 7, 1838. Proc. Geol. Soc, vol. 2, 1838, p. 654, Trans. Geol. Soc, vol. 5, 1840, p. 601. 8 At Edinburgh University, Darwin heard Professor Robert Jameson (1774-1854), a confirmed Nep- tunist, refer to trap-dykes at Salisbury Craigs as a fissure filled with sediment from above. (Autob., P- 53-) 6 Charles Darwin : *' Observations on the Parallel Roads of Glen Roy, and of other parts of Lochaber in Scotland, with an attempt to prove that they are of marine origin ", Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc, 1839, p. 39. 7 Ultimately published as The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs. Being the First Part of the Geology of the Voyage of the Beagle. London, 1842. 8 Charles Darwin : " Note on a Rock seen on an Iceberg in 16 South Latitude ", /. Geogr. Soc, vol. 9, 1839, p. 528. 'The day of the acceptance of Darwin's proposal of marriage by Emma Wedgwood (1 808-1 896), daughter of Josiah Wedgwood II (1769-1843). DARWIN'S JOURNAL 9 Lost 7 th 8 th of November unwell. Wasted entirely the last week of November. Begin- ning of December prepared number of Birds — From 6 th to 21 st busy about the House & domestic concerns. To the end of year House hunting, read a little and wasted some time by being unwell. December 6 th Emma came up to Town most fortunately for me. December 21 st Emma went to Maer. December 31 st Entered 12 Upper Gower S*. 1 1839. First week January correcting Glen Roy paper. Did nothing during rest of month. Jan 11 th Went to Shrewsbury. „ 15 th „ ,, Maer. „ 18 th „ „ London. ,, 25 th Shrewsbury. „ 28 th Maer. Jany 29 th Married at Maer 30 years old & returned to London. Feb. 5 th Began German. Feby 7 th Recommenced Coral Paper. End of February & first week in March Earthquake Paper then a little work on Species & the Coral Paper. End of March & nearly all April Coral Paper. April 26 th Went to Maer. Maer visit, some reading connected with Species but did very little on account of being unwell. May 13 th went to Shrewsbury. ,, 20 th went to London. May 20 th to July 30 th Map for Coral Island. 2 Ornithological part of Beagle's Voyage. — lost some time unwell, read little for Species ; to 23 rd of August. Coral Map & Horti- cult 1 Transact : Aug. 23 rd to Maer and thence on the 26 th to Birmingham for the Meeting of the British Assoc : Sept. 12 th to Shrewsbury & staid there ten days. Oct. 2 nd Arrived in London. December 27 th A Boy 3 born at % p. 9 a.m. During my visit to Maer, read a little, was much unwell, & scandalously idle. I have derived this much good that nothing is so intolerable as idleness. The last week corrected earthquake paper. Begin, of Octob r correcting ditto. Ornithology. October 10 th recom- menced coral paper. December 24 th became unwell & with the exception of 2 or 3 days remained so till the 24 th of February In the interval read a little for transmut. theory — but otherwise lost three whole months. 1840. Again became unwell & did not commence coral volume till March 26 th . April 3 rd Went to Shrewsbury for a week by myself. Did Coral Volume. June 10 th Went to Maer & paid a visit to Shrewsbury. Aug. 4 Taken ill. Nov. 14 Came up to London. During the summer when well enough did a good deal of Species work. Dec. 15 th Commenced last number of Birds for Zoology of Beagle's Voyage. Finished Feb. 20 th 1841. 1 12 Upper Gower Street, the Darwins' home from 1839 until September 1842. This house, re- numbered no Gower Street, was destroyed by a bomb early in 1941. 2 The map published in Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs ; it shows atolls dark blue, reefs pale blue, and fringing reefs red, from which Darwin was able to show the previous elevation and subsidence of different areas of the earth's surface. 3 William Erasmus Darwin (1839-1914). io DARWIN'S JOURNAL 1841. Commenced paper on Boulders & Till of S. America 1 — finished April 4 th . Was idle 6 unwell. March 2 nd Annie 2 born. Sorted papers on species theory. May 28 th Went to Maer & Shrewsbury reading very little returned to London July 23 rd . July 26 th commenced coral work after more than 13 months interval. 1842. Jan. 3. Sent MS. of Coral to Printers. March 7 th Went to Shrewsbury for 10 days. May 6 th Corrected last proof of Coral volume. I commenced this work 3 years & 7 months ago. Out of this period about 20 [months] (besides work during Beagle Voyage) has been spent on it & besides it I have only completed the Bird part of Zoology : Appendix to Journal — Paper on Boulders & corrected Paper on Glen Roy & earthquakes, reading on Species & rest all lost by illness. May 18 th Went to Maer. June 15 th to Shrewsbury & on 18 th to Capel Curig. Bangor. Carnarvon to Capel Curig altogether ten days, examining glacier action. During my stay at Maer & Shrewsbury (5 years after commencement) wrote pencil sketch of my Species theory. 3 July 18 th returned to London. Wrote paper on Glaciers. 4 — copied notes on Species! Employed about Down 5 — Emma came to Down September 14 th & I followed on 17 th . Sept 23 rd Mary Eleanor 6 born. Ob : October 16 th . October 14 th began on Volcanic Islands 7 to shorten and rearrange Covington's 8 MS. 1843. July 8 th to Maer & Shrewsbury for a week. July 12 th Josiah Wedgwood 9 died. Previous to this did little in the Spring from Building 10 except some species work, & returned to volcanic Islands on my return. September 25 th Henrietta Emma 11 born. October 12 th to Shrewsbury for 12 days. Paper on Sagitta 12 and on seeds, 13 preser- vation of. Sixteen months about Volcanic Isl d Book. 1844. Jan. 5 th Sent MS. of Volcanic Islands to Printers. Feb. 13 th finished corrections. In intervals & previously slowly enlarged & improved pencil sketch in 35 pages (written in Mid-summer of 1842) of Species theory 14 . April 23 rd to Maer & Shrewsbury, returned May 30 th . 1 Charles Darwin : " On the Distribution of the Erratic Boulders and on the Contemporaneous Un- stratified Deposits of South America ", Proc. Geol. Soc, vol. 3, 1842, p. 425, read May 5, 1841 ; Trans. Geol. Soc. vol. 6, 1842, p. 415. 2 Anne Elizabeth Darwin (1841-1851). 3 Printed in The Foundations of the Origin of Species, edited by Francis Darwin, Cambridge 1909 ; and in Evolution by Natural Selection, with a Foreword by Sir Gavin de Beer, Cambridge, 1958. 4 Charles Darwin : " Notes on the Effects produced by the Ancient Glaciers of Caernarvonshire, and on the Boulders transported by Floating Ice ", Lond. Philos. Mag., vol. xix, 1842, p. 180. 5 Down House, Kent was Darwin's home for the remainder of his life. 6 Mary Eleanor Darwin (born and died 1842). 7 Charles Darwin : Geological Observations on the Volcanic Islands and parts of South A merica visited during the Voyage of the H.M.S. Beagle. Being the Second part of the Geology of the Voyage of the Beagle London 1844. 8 Syms Covington c. 1816-1861 ; Darwin's attendant in the Beagle and amanuensis after his return until 1839. (cf. Sir Gavin de Beer : " Some unpublished letters of Charles Darwin ", Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, vol. 14, 1959.) 9 Josiah Wedgwood II, Darwin's uncle and father-in-law. 10 (cf. L. & L. vol. 1, p. 321.) 11 Henrietta Emma Darwin (1 843-1 929), afterwards Mrs. Litchfield. 12 Charles Darwin : " Observations on the Structure and Propagation of the genus Sagitta ", Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., vol. 13, 1844, p. 1. 13 Ultimately published as "Vitality of Seeds", Gardeners' Chronicle, 1855, p. 758; and "On the Action of Sea-water on the Germination of Seeds ", J. Linn. Soc. Lond., (Bot.) vol. 1, 1857, p. 130. 14 Printed in The Foundations of the Origin of Species, edited by Francis Darwin, Cambridge 1909 ; and Evolution by Natural Selection, with a Foreword by Sir Gavin de Beer, Cambridge 1958. DARWIN'S JOURNAL n July 5 th Sent a written Sketch of Species theory (seven years after commencement) in about 230 pages to Mr. Fletcher 1 to be copied — Corrected it last week in Sept : Paper on Atlantic Dust, 2 on Planariae. 3 Sorted my collections. July 27 th Began S. America. 4 October 18 th to 29 th at Shrewsbury. 1845. April 24 th Finished first time over S. America (9 months) April 25 th Began 2 nd Edit of Journal. 5 August 25 th finished ditto (4 months). Rested idle for a fortnight. April 29 th to Shrewsbury returned 10 May. July 9 th George Howard 6 born. Sept. 15 th to Shrewsbury. Lincolnshire — -York, the Dean of Manchester, 7 Waterton, 8 Chatsworth, 9 Camp Hill, 10 returned home Oct. 26 th . Oct. 29 th Recommenced Geolog : of S. America. 4000 Copies of New Edit of Journal sold at Jan. 1. 1847. 1846. Oct. 1. Finished last proof of my 1846. Feb 21 st to Shrewsbury, March 3 rd Geolog: Observations in S. America. home. This volume including paper in Geolog: July 31 st to ditto Aug. 9 th Home. Journal on the Falkland Islands took September 9 th with Emma to Brit me 18 & I- months. The MS. however Ass 00 at Southampton, on the 12 th to was not so perfect as in case of Vol- Portsmouth & coast of Isle of Wight, canic Islands so that my Geology has on 13 th to Winchester & S. Cross, on taken me 4 & £ years : now it is 10 14 th Netley Abbey & Southampton years since my return to England. Common 17 th Home. How much time lost by illness. September 22 nd With Em & Susan Oct. 1. Paper on new Balanus to Knole Park. 11 Arthrobalanus 12 10 days in London during 2 visits 4 visitors here & some days unwell. November, December, Conia & Megatrema. 1847. Jan. 1. Conia. ^tf- Feb. 19 th to Shrewsbury March 5 th Feb. Balanus. Home. March Acasta & Clisia. June 22 nd to Brit. Assoc 11 at Oxford. April 14 th Lost several weeks by Blenheim, Nuneham, Dropmore, Burn- 1 Mr. Fletcher : unidentified. Later Darwin employed Ebenezer Norman, appointed schoolmaster in the village of Downe in 1854, to copy manuscripts for him. 2 Charles Darwin : " An Account of the fine Dust which often falls on vessels in the Atlantic Ocean ", /. Geol. Soc, vol. 2, 1846, p. 26. 3 Charles Darwin : ' ' Brief Description of several terrestrial Planariae, and of some remarkable marine species, with an account of their habits ", Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., vol. 14, 1844, P- 2 4 J - 4 Charles Darwin : Geological Observations on South America. Being the Third part of the Geology of the Voyage of the Beagle. London 1846. 5 Charles Darwin : Journal of Researches into the Natural History and Geology of the countries visited during the Voyage of H. M.S. Beagle round the world, under the command of Captain Fitzroy, R.N. London 1845. 6 George Howard Darwin (1845-1912). 7 The Hon. and Rev. William Herbert (1 778-1847), the distinguished plant geneticist, (cf. L. &• L., vol. 1, p. 343.) 8 Charles Waterton (1782-1865). (cf. L. & L., vol. 1, p. 343.) 9 (cf. L. &■ L., vol. 1, p. 344.) 10 Camp Hill, Staffs, home of Sarah Elizabeth Wedgwood (1778-1856). 11 Knole Park (or Knowle Park) near Sevenoaks. 12 This was the start of Darwin's work on the Cirripedia, but the paper on Arthrobalanus does not seem to have been published. DARWIN'S JOURNAL 1847 — (contd.) Boils & unwellness. Tubicinella Coronula. Dec. 18 th Anat of Pedunculated Cirres. From Jan. I st 1847 to Jan 1848, 236 copies sold of my Journal by- Murray. Total up to Jan. 1. 1848, 4100. 1848. March 20. Finished Scientific In- structions 1 & Transportal of Boulders from Lower to Higher level. 2 April 19 th Paper read on Transpor- tal of Boulders. Both these done in Intervals of Work. About Nov r 1. Began species of Anatifera — Jan: 13. 49 finished ditto. From July to end of year, unusually unwell, with swimming head, depres- sion, trembling, many bad attacks of sickness. 1849. Jan I st to March 10 th Health very bad with much sickness & failure of power. Worked on all well days. March 10 th to June 30 th , at the Lodge Malvern, 6 perfectly idle, health greatly improved. July 13 th Recommenced systematic part of the pedunculate Cirripedia. Recent & Fossil. 1850. Ap r 28 th Commenced systematic Sessilia. Dec. 30. finished Balanus & Pachy- lasma. ham Beeches home July I st . October 22 nd to Shrewsbury- 5 th Home. -Nov. 1848. May 17 th to Shrewsbury June I st Home. July 22 nd to Swanage by Wareham & Corfe Castle. Home 29 th by Sir W. Symonds 3 yacht. Poole spending a morning in new forest. Oct r 10 th to Shrewsbury Oct 25 th Home. Nov 17 th to ditto Nov r 26 th Home. My father 4 died in morning of Nov r 13 th in his 83 rd year. Born at Lichfield on May 30 th 1766. He was 3 rd son of Erasmus Darwin (born at Elston in 1731. Settled in Shrewsbury about 1786.) 1849. Sept r 11 th to 21 st Brit Asso n at Birmingham going to Malvern on the Sunday. 1850. June 11 th to 18 th Malvern. Aug* 10th to 16 th Leith Hill. 6 Oct r 14 th Hartfield 7 — 18 th Ramsgate 22 nd Home. to 1 Darwin contributed Section VI (Geology) to a Manual of Scientific Enquiry ; prepared for the use of H.M. Navy : and adapted for travellers in General, edited by Sir John Herschel, London 1849. 2 Charles Darwin : " On the transportation of Erratic Boulders from a lower to a higher level ", /. Geol. Soc, vol. 6, 1848, p. 315, read April 19. 3 Rear-Admiral Sir William Symonds (1782-1856), Surveyor of the Navy. 4 Robert Waring Darwin. 5 Darwin took the Lodge, Great Malvern, to enable him to undergo the water-cure. 6 Leith Hill Place, home of Josiah Wedgwood III (1795-1880), brother of Darwin's wife, husband of Darwin's sister Caroline, and Darwin's first cousin. 7 There were two houses at Hartfield Sussex, which the Darwin family frequented. One was Hart- field Grove, home of Charles Langton (1801-1866) and his wife Charlotte Wedgwood (1797-1862), sister of Josiah Wedgwood and of Darwin's wife. The other was The Ridge, home of Sarah Elizabeth Wedgwood (1793-1880). They were given up in 1862. (cf. E.D. ii, p. 199.) DARWIN'S JOURNAL 13 1 85 1. Early part finished fossil Lepa- didae 1 prepared for press recent Lepadidae. 2 Aug* 18 th began proofs. Nov 12 th Finished ditto & began Genus Conia (or Sessile C s ) & Elminius. 1852. Whole year Sessile Cirriped Genera Acasta, (Pyrgoma & Escuria 41 days) Coronula (19 days), Platylepas, Tubi- cinella, Xenobalanus, Chelonobia (Chthamalus 36 days) Chamaesipho, Octomeris, Catophragmus, Balanus recommenced : M r Sowerby's 8 draw- ings Balanidae. Began Verruca. 1853. Whole year preparing MS. of Sessile Cirripeds for press viz. Verruca, Cryptophialus, Alcippe. M r Sowerby for drawing Sept. 20 Class Cirripedia. 1854. Feb 3 First proof of Sessile Cirri- pedia. 10 July 15 Final Revise of ditto. Sept 9 th Finished packing up all my Cirripedes preparing fossil balanidae distributing copies of my work &c. &c. &c. I have yet a few proofs for Fossil Balanidae 12 for Pal: Soc: to complete perhaps a week more work. Began Oct 1 1846. On Oct 1 it will be 8 years since I began! but then I have lost 1 or 2 years by illness. Sept 9 Began sorting notes for Species theory. 14 1 85 1. March 24 th to Malvern with Annie & Etty, 3 returned home 31 st . April 16 th started for Malvern April 23 rd our dear child 4 expired 24 th . I returned to Emma, our darling was born March 2 nd 1841. July 30 th to London Aug 1 10th returned Erasmus house 5 for Exhi- bition &c. 1852. March 24 th to Rugby for a day thence to Shrewsbury, Home April I st . Sept 1 11 to Leith Hill 16 th Home again (Drove in Carriage by Godstone & Reigate). 1853. July 14 th to Eastbourne 7 on to Brighton & Hastings. Home Aug 1 4 th . Aug* 13 th to Hermitage 8 for Chob- ham 17 th Home. Nov 30. Royal Medal 9 given to me. 1854. March 13 th to Hartfield on account of Franky's 11 illness returned on 17 th . July 13-15 Hartfield. Oct 9 th 14 th Leith Hill. Dec. Lenny 13 & Franky ill. 1 Charles Darwin : A Monograph of the Fossil Lepadidae, Palaeontographical Society, 1851. 2 Charles Darwin : A Monograph of the Sub-class Cirripedia, Ray Society, London 1851, vol. 1. 3 Henrietta Emma Darwin (1843-1929), afterwards Mrs. R. B. Litchfield. 4 Anne Elizabeth Darwin . 5 7 Park Street, W.i., home of Erasmus Alvey Darwin (1804-1881), Darwin's brother. 6 George Brettingham Sowerby (181 2-1 884). 7 The Darwins took Sea House, Eastbourne for 3 weeks in July, 1853. 8 The Hermitage, near Woking, home of Henry Allen Wedgwood (1779-1885), brother of Josiah Wedgwood III and of Darwin's wife. (cf. E.D., ii, p. 168.) 9 The Royal Medal of the Royal Society " awarded for his work entitled Geological Observations on Coral Reefs, Volcanic Islands, and South America and his work on the Fossil Cirripedia of Great Britain, Lepididae, and the Monograph on Cirripedia." 10 Charles Darwin : A Monograph of the Sub-class Cirripedia, Ray Society, London 1854, vol. 2. 11 Francis Darwin (1 848-1 925). 12 Charles Darwin : A Monograph of the Fossil Balanidae and Verrucidae of Great Britain, Palae- ontographical Society, London 1854. 13 Leonard Darwin (1850-1943). 14 The preliminary work for the large book on natural selection. 14 DARWIN'S JOURNAL 1855. March & April employed chiefly in comparing seeds trying experiments in salting seeds & reading. 1856. May 14 th Began by Lyell's advice writing Species Sketch Oct 13 Finished 2 nd Chapt (& before part of Geograph Distr.) Dec. 16. 3 rd Chapt. 1857. Jan. 26 th Finished Ch. 4. Var: Nature. March 3 rd Fin d Ch. 5. Struggle for Existence. March 31 st Finished Ch. 6 Nat: Selection. Sept r 29 th Finished Ch. 7 & 8 but one month lost at Moor Park. Sept r 30 to December 29 th on Hybrid- ism. 1858. March 9 th finished instinct chapter. April 14 th Discussion on large genera & small & on Divergence & correcting Ch. 6. (Moor Park) finished June 12 th & Bees cells. June 14 th Pigeons (interrupted) July 20 th to August 12 th at Sand own began Abstract of Species book. 8 Aug* 17 th recommenced Selection & Pigeon M.S. Sept 16 th Recommenced Abstract Sect. Ill & IV. Oct r 8 Began Sect V on Laws of Variation of Abstract finished 22 d . Oct r 23 rd Sect VI Difficulties finished. Nov r 13 th Instinct (Moor Park). „ 30 th Hybridism. Dec r n 1h Geological Succession. x ^55- J an J 8 Went to 27 York Place, Baker S 1 . 1 Feb. 15 Returned home. Sep 10 th Started for Glasgow. British Assoc 11 Sleeping at Carlisle with Emma 19 th return sleeping in Carlisle & reaching Shrewsbury on 20 th & I returned home on 22 nd . 1856. Sept 13th Leith Hill returned 19 th . November A 1 Sarah 2 died. Dec 6 Charles Waring Darwin 3 born. 1857. April 22 d Moor Park, 4 Returned May 6 th . Did me astonishing good. June 16 th to Moor Park, returned on 30 th Etty there. On 27 th went to Selborne. In latter part of September for about week Lenny had very intermittent pulse ; but now Oct r 6 th seems quite well, latter part of Oct r occasionally poorly. Nov r 13 th seems quite well. Nov r 5tn_ I2 th Moor Park. 1858. April 20 th Moor Park returned May 4 th . Etty very ill. June 28 th Poor dear Baby 5 died. July 9 th to Hartfield, 16 th to I of Wight, 17 th to Sandown, 6 27 th Shanklin, 7 August 13 th Home. Oct r 25 th Moor Park. Returned Nov r I st . Marianne Parker 9 died in July. 1 27 York Place, Baker Street, was a house which the Darwins took for a month, (cf. E.D. ii, ■ 170.) 2 Sarah Elizabeth Wedgwood (1 778-1 856), sister of Josiah Wedgwood II. 3 Charles Waring Darwin (1856-1858). 4 Moor Park, Hydropathic establishment in Surrey. 5 Charles Waring Darwin. 6 The Darwins stayed at the King's Head Hotel, Sandown. (cf. L. & L., ii, p. 129.) 7 The Darwins stayed at Norfolk House, Shanklin. (cf. L. & L., ii, p. 131.) 8 On the Origin of Species. 9 Darwin's eldest sister, DARWIN'S JOURNAL 15 1859 i860 Jan. 15 Abstract Geolog: Distr. Feb. 28 Affinities & Classification. March 19 Began relooking over first MS. Ch s . & finished last Chapter. May 25 th Began Proof sheets. Oct. 1 Finished proofs. 13 months & 10 days on Abstract of Origin of Species. 1250 copies printed. During end of November and begin- ning of December employed in correct- ing for 2 nd Edition of 3000 copies. Multitude of Letters. The I st Edit n was published on all copies i.e. 1250 sold l" 1 & Nov 1 24 first day. Jan. 9 th Began looking over MS. for work on Variation (with many interruptions). Letters & preparation for foreign edition on Variation. March 24 th Began Introduction to Vol. June 10 th Finished 2 nd Ch. on Pigeons arranged paper for next Ch. & experiments. August 11 th Began Ch. III. During July at Hartfield & afterwards at Eastbourne worked at Drosera. 1 861. March 20 th Finished Ch. Ill on Variation under Domestication & began Ch. IV. In Dec. last & Jan. prepared new & Third Edition of Origin : 2000 Copies. May 16. „ 3i- July 1. Finished Fowls (8 weeks) Ducks. During stay at Torquay did paper on Orchids. All rest of year Orchid Book. 1862. April 28 finished Orchis Book. Besides odd time for several years 1859. Medal from Geolog. Soc: 1 Feb. 5 th 19 th Moor Park did not do me so much good as usual. May 2i st -28 th Moor Park. July i9 th -26 th Moor Park. Aug 20-23 Leith Hill. Oct r 2 nd Started for Ilkley. 2 Re- turned Home (staying in London two days) on Dec. 9 th . i860. Jan. Murray says 6000 Copies of my Journal now sold. Jan? 7 th The 2 nd Edition 3000 copies of Origin was published. May 22. The I st Edit, of Origin in U. States was 2500 copies. June 28 th to July 7 th Sudbrooke Park. 3 July 10 th to (Etty long ill). Sept. 22 to Augt 2 nd Hartfield Eastbourne. 4 Re- turned Nov r 10 th seven weeks owing to Etty's illness. i 180 636.13.4 21. 17.6 10.10 - 1861 April 30. 3 d Edit. 372. 1 861. The new Edit, of Origin 2000 Copies was published in April. July 1. Started for Torquay 5 & returned Aug* 27 th , 8 weeks & a day. May 28* h I s * Edit. July & Oct 2 nd Edit. May American Edit. „ (61) ditto 1861 1862. Feb. March & April. Horace 6 ill. 1 Darwin was awarded the Wollaston Medal by the Geological Society on 18 February 1859. Charles Lyell received it on his behalf. 2 Wells Terrace, Ilkley : water-cure establishment, (cf. L. &• L., ii, p. 218.) 3 Sudbrooke Park, Richmond, Dr Lane's water-cure establishment, (cf. M.L., i, p. 158.) 4 The Darwins took 15 Marine Parade, Eastbourne, for 9 weeks in September i860. 5 The Darwins stayed at 2, Hesketh Crescent, Torquay, (cf. M.L., i, p. 190.) 6 Horace Darwin (1851-1928). Sir i6 DARWIN'S JOURNAL J — (contd.) this book has cost me 9 months if I do not count Torquay, but in this time I did Primula Paper. 3 2 nd Edit (German) of Origin & experiments say 10 months counting \ Time at Tor- quay. May 15 th Orchid Book 4 publi- shed. Much time wasted June & July from Leonard's illness. Finished Silk worms, geese &c. Oct r 7 th Facts of Varieties of Plants. Dec. 11 th finished long chapter. Paper on Linum. 5 Dec. 21. Bud variation. 1863. Jan. 23 Chapter on Inheritance, finished April I s * took me 6£ weeks, time lost by illness & London. April 1 Chapter on Crossing and Sterility finished June 16 th took me 8 weeks ; time lost by Hartfield & Illness &c. June 16 th Selection, July 20 th finished. 1864. Began to count seeds of Lythrum about April 20 th . Finished Lythrum paper 7 about May 25 th . Began Tendril paper 8 & finished it on Sept r 13 th but afterwards had about a fortnight for additions. Hence this paper on climbing plants took 4 months!! Sep. 14. Began Laws of Variation for " Domestic Animals & Cult: Plants " & finished this Ch. on Nov r 16 th . I then began going over again the earlier chapter of Book on " Domestic Animals &c." May 15th to 22 nd Leith Hill Place. June July August Leonard very ill Scarlet Fever. Aug* 12 th to Southampton. 1 Emma Scarlet Fever. Sept r 1 to Bournemouth. 2 Sept r 30 Home. 1863. Feb. 4 th to 14th Stayed with Erasmus. April 13 th sick April 20 th Dr Jenner 8 April 22 nd Dr Jenner. April 27 th to May 13 th Hartfield & Leith Hill Place. Sept r 2 nd Malvern Wells ; returned Oct 14 th 111 then. Ill to end of year. 1864. Ill all Jan. Feb: March, Last sickness April 13 th . Aug 1 25. to Elizabeth for one week to Chester Place. 9 The severe illness lasted seven months. Copley Medal. 10 1 The Darwins stayed at 1, Carlton Terrace, Southampton, (cf. M.L., i, p. 203.) 2 The Darwins stayed at Cliff Cottage, Bournemouth, (cf. M.L., i, 204.) 3 Charles Darwin : " On the two forms of dimorphic condition in the species Primula, and their remarkable sexual relations ", /. Linn. Soc. Lond., (Bot.), vol. 6, 1862, p. 77. 4 Charles Darwin : On the various contrivances by which Orchids are fertilized by insects, London 1862. 5 Charles Darwin : " On the existence of two forms, and on their reciprocal sexual relation, in several species of the genus Linum ", /. Linn. Soc. Lond., (Bot.), vol. 7, 1864, p. 69. 6 Probably Sir William Jenner (181 5-1 898), physician to University College Hospital. 7 Charles Darwin : " On the sexual relations of the three forms of Lythrum salicaria " , J . Linn. Soc. Lond., (Bot.), vol. 8, 1865, p. 169. 8 Charles Darwin : " On the movements and habits of climbing plants ", /. Linn. Soc. Lond., (Bot.), vol. 9, 1867, p. 1. • 4, Chester Place, Regent's Park, home of Sarah Elizabeth Wedgwood (1793-1880). 10 The Copley Medal of the Royal Society was presented to Darwin 30 November 1864 " for his important researches in Geology, Zoology and Botanical physiology ". DARWIN'S JOURNAL 17 1865. Jan. 1. I continued on " Domestic Animals &c" Ch X till April 22 nd when (with exception of one week) I became ill & remained so & unable to do any- thing (except read Origin for 2 nd French Edit.) till early in Dec. when I began correcting Homomorphic seeds. On Dec. 25. began again on Chapt. X of Domestic Animals. 1866. Continued correcting Chaps of Domestic Animals. March I st Began on 4 th Edit of Origin of 1250 Copies : (Received for it 2 3 8 £) making 7500 copies alto- gether. May 10 th Finished Origin except Revises & began going over Ch. XIII of Dom Animals. Nov r 21. Finished Pangenesis. Dec. 21. Finished regoing over all Chapters, & sent them to Printers. Dec. 22. Began concluding chapter of Book. 1867. Last chapt of " Variation under Domestication " & beginning of Man Essay. First proof arrived March I st . Revises finished Nov. 15 th . I began this book beginning of i860 (& then had some MS.), but owing to inter- ruptions from my illness & illness of children, from various editions of Origin & papers especially Orchid book & Tendrils I have spent 4 years & 2 months over it — 1260 Copies sold at Murray Sale. The Book not actually published until Jan. 30 1868. 1868. New Book on Var. under Domesti- cation 3 published on Jan. 30 (1500 cops). On Feb 10 th a new edition to be printed of 1250 Copies. Received for this edition 720 £. Began middle of December 1867 On illegitimate Offspring of Dimorphic 1865. Fell ill on April 22 nd , got a little better in middle of Sept r . On Nov. 8 th went to Erasmus & staid ten days & fell ill again with cold, but got better in beginning of Decem- ber. 1866. April 21 st to May 2 nd to Erasmus. May 29th to June 2 nd Leith Hill Place. Nov r 22 nd to 29 th to Erasmus. Feb?. 2 Catharine 1 died. Oct r 3 Susan 2 died. 1867. Feb. 13 to 21 to Erasmus. June 17 to 24 ditto Sept 18 to 24 ditto poorly all time. Nov r 28 to Dec. ditto very well. 1868. March 3 for a week to Erasmus 4 & then for 3 weeks to Aunt Elizabeth's House. 5 Returned home April I st . June 23 rd unwell & continued so to July 16 th & did hardly anything. July 16 th to Isle of Wight (Fresh- water). 6 1 Emily Catherine Langton nee Darwin (1810- 1866), wife of Charles Langton and Darwin's youngest sister. 2 Susan Elizabeth Darwin (1 803-1 866), Darwin's sister. 3 Charles Darwin : The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication. London 1868. 4 Erasmus Darwin was living at 6, Queen Anne Street, Cavendish Square, (cf. M.L., ii, p. 66.) 5 4, Chester Place, Regent's Park {cf. M.L., ii, p. 68.) 6 At Mrs. Cameron's house, Dumbola Lodge, Freshwater, Isle of Wight, which the Darwins took for 6 weeks, Darwin was visited by Tennyson, Longfellow, and Thomas Appleton. Mrs. Cameron, n£e Pattle, was the sister of Mrs. Prinsep and Lady Somers. {cf. E.D., ii, p. 220.) i8 DARWIN'S JOURNAL 1868 — (contd.) & Trimorphic Plants & on specific difference of Primula 1 & finished Feb. 1. Feb. 4 th Began on Man & Sexual Selection. May 17 th Birds — Sexual Selection. Dec r 26 th Fifth Edition of Origin Edit, 'of 2000 Copies. 1869. Feb. 10 th Finished 5 th Edit of Origin 2 has taken me 46 days. Feb. 11 th Sexual Selection of Mam- mals & Man & Preliminary Chapter on sexual Selection (with 10 days for notes on Orchids) to June 10 th when I went to North Wales. On Aug* 4 recommenced going over all chapters on Sexual Selection. 1870. I find Murray has printed 9000 copies of my Journal of Travels & Colburn 3 1500 = 10,500 copies. The whole of the year at work on the Descent of Man & Selection in relation to Sex. I began this work on Feb. 4 th 1868 but many interruptions. Went to press Aug* 30 & finished last proof. 1 87 1. I began " Descent of Man & S. Selection " on Feby 4 th 1868. & I have now Jan 15 th corrected last sheet ; so it has taken me nearly 3 years, but the 5 th Edit, of Origin took up 46 days & notes on Orchids 10 days ; & health compelled many visits & rests. Descent of Man published Feb. 24 th . At first 2500 copies printed & 2000 reprinted. Received 1470^. Jan 17. Began Expression & finished final rough copy on April 27. Many interruptions. June 18 th Began 6 th Edit, of Origin ; Aug 21 st Returned to Down having slept at Southampton. Nov r 7 th -i 6 th Erasmus. 1869. Feb. 16 th 24 th to Erasmus. June 10 th started for Caerdeon, Barmouth sleeping at Shrewsbury. Returned July 31 st having slept at Stafford. Weak & unwell. Nov r I st to 9 th Erasmus. 1870. March 5-10 Erasmus. May 20-24 Cambridge. 4 June 24 to July 1. Erasmus. Aug* 13-26 Southampton at Wil- liam's. 5 Oct 13-20 Leith Hill & I wrote. Dec. 8-14 Erasmus. 1 87 1. Feb. 23 to March 2 nd Erasmus. April 1 to 5 ditto May 11-19 Southampton. June 24-30 Erasmus. July 28 Haredene Albury, 6 Home Aug 25. Aug 31. Henrietta 7 married. Nov. 3-10 Leith Hill Place. Dec. 12-22 Erasmus. 1 Charles Darwin : " On the character and hybrid -like nature of the offspring from the illegitimate unions of dimorphic and trimorphic plants ", J . Linn. Soc. Lond., (Bot.), vol. 10. 1869, p. 393. 2 Published June 1869. 3 Henry Colburn published the first edition of the Journal of Researches. London 1839. 4 Darwin stayed at the Bull Hotel, Cambridge. 5 Bassett, Southampton, home of William Erasmus Darwin (1839-19 14), Darwin's eldest son, partner in a Bank in Southampton. 6 Haredene, Albury, near Guildford was a house which the Darwins took for a month, (cf. E.D., ii, p. 245.) 7 Henrietta Emma Darwin, Darwin's daughter, married Richard Buckley Litchfield (1 832-1 903). DARWIN'S JOURNAL 19 1 87 1 — (contd.) Oct 29 th finished MS. but lost 2 months by illness. Nov. & Dec. Proofs of ditto & Expression &c. & illness & visits. 1872. Jan 10 th Finished Proofs of Origin & again rewriting expression. Aug* 22. Finished last Proofs of Expression 2 which I began on Jan 17 th last year. (Has taken me about 12 months). Aug 1 23 rd Began working at Drosera. Nov. 3 rd Began writing on ditto. Nov r 8 th At Murrays Sale 5267 Copies of Expression Book sold to London Booksellers. The Edition consists of 7000 published November, 2000 at end of year additional. 1873. Jan 15 Finished Drosera 14 th & recorrected climbing plants. Feb. 3 Began on evil [sic] effects of inter-crossing. June 14 th Began Drosera again. Oct. 20 Began correcting Drosera MS. Nov. 20 Began correcting 2 nd Edit of Descent of Man, & continued for rest of year & next year. 1874. Second Edit, of Descent and of Coral Reefs. The Descent took 3 months. April 1. Began Insectivorous plants — (interruptions from Proof sheets) & went on whole rest of year, writing & some observations. 1875. March 29 th finished MS. of Insecti- vorous & recorrecting climbing Plants. 8 1872. Feb. 13 to March 21. London, 9 Devonshire S*. Portland Place 1 (5 weeks) . June 8-20 Southampton. Aug 1 13 to 21 Leith Hill Place. Oct 5 to 26 Sevenoaks Common. 3 Dec r 17 to 23 Erasmus (unwell all time). 1873. March 15 th to April 10 th at 16 Monta- gue St.* June 4 th to 12 th Leith Hill Place Aug 1 5 th to 9 th at Abinger, 5 from 9 th to 21 st at Basset. Nov. 8-1 8«i Bryanston S t6 (very pleasant) . 1874. Jan 10 th to 17 th Erasmus. Ap 1 21 st to 29 th Henrietta. July 25 th to Abinger, 30 to William. Aug 4 24 th to Home. Dec r 3 rd -i2 Henrietta's. Frank 7 married July. Copies sold in Germany of Trans- lation Feb. 1. 1874 Origin 6500, Descent of Man 5000, Var. 1700, Expression 3000, Orchids 600. 1875. March 31 st to Eras: & Litchfields, Home April 12 th . June 3 rd to July 5 th Abinger Hall. 1 9, Devonshire Street, Portland Place, was a house which the Darwins took for a month, (cf. E.D., ii, p. 254.) 2 Charles Darwin : The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals. London 1872. 3 Horace Darwin had lodgings at Sevenoaks. 4 16, Montague Street, was a house which the Darwins took for a month, (cf. E.D., ii, p. 262.) 5 Abinger Hall, home of Sir Thomas Henry Farrer, afterwards Lord Farrer, married firstly Cecilia Erskine ; and secondly Katherine Euphemia Wedgwood, Darwin's wife's niece. 6 4, Bryanston Street, home of Henrietta Emma Litchfield. 7 Francis Darwin married Amy Richenda Ruck. 8 Charles Darwin : The Movements and Habits of Climbing Plants. London 1875. DARWIN'S JOURNAL 1875 — (contd.) Began correcting 3 rd June Began writing with some observa- tions on April I st on Insectivorous Plants. July 2 nd Insectivorous Plants pub- lished. 2700 sold immediately. July 6 th Correcting 2 nd Edit, of Var. under Domestication. Oct 3 rd Finished about Var under Domestication but shall have nearly month of more work with proofs &. Therefore I may say I began " On advantages of Crossing " on Sept r I st . 1876. May 5 Finished MS. first time over of effects of Cross Fertilization. Began correcting 2 nd Edit n of Orchid Book, much labour, at Hopedene began my little Autobiography. June 11 th Began going over for 2 nd time MS. of effects of Cross Fertili- sation. Aug 1 19 th Firs proofs of ditto. Oct 21 st Finished proofs. Pub- lished 3 on Nov r o th & 1500 copies sold by end of year. In intervals I worked at 2 nd Edit, of Orchids. Nov r 14 finished first proof — published at end of year. Nov 15 th Began on Heterostyled Plants but in intervals I have done 2 or 3 weeks work say Nov. I st I began on the book so during last 14 months I have done Effects of Cross Fertilisation & 2 nd Edit, of Orchids ; but then I had rough MS. written out of the experimental parts of " the Effect &c ". 1877. All the early part of Summer at work on " Different forms of Flowers " published (1250 copies) middle of July- From that time to end of year work- ing on Bloom Spontaneous Movement of Plants & Heliotropism & a little on Worms. July 2 nd Insectivorous Plants pub- lished. 3000 Copies printed. Aug 4 28 th to Sept 1 I th Southampton, William. Nov. 4 th & 5 th Erasmus, Vivisection Commission. Dec. 10 th to 20 th Bryanston S l . 1876. Feb. 3 rd -5 th at Erasmus. Ap 1 27 th to May 3 ditto. May 24 th to Hopedene. 1 June 7 Holly combe. 2 ,, 10 th Home. Oct 4 th Leith Hill. Southampton. Home. Poor Amy 4 died, a most 7 th ,, 20 th Sept a 11 dreadful blow to us all. 1877 Jan 6 to 15 Henrietta. April 12 to 28 ditto & Erasmus. June 8 th Leith Hill, 13 th to South- ampton, Stonehenge & returned home July 4 th . Aug 1 20-25. Abinger, delightful. Oct 26-29. Erasmus. Nov. 16-19 Cambridge, LL.D. Degree. 5 1 Hopedene, Surrey, home of Hensley Wedgwood (1803-1891), Darwin's wife's brother. 2 Hollycombe, near Midhurst, Sussex, home of Sir John Hawkshaw (1811-1891) whose son John Clarke Hawkshaw (1841-1921) married Cecily Mary Wedgwood (1837-1917) daughter of Francis Wedgwood (1 800-1 888) brother of Darwin's wife and son of Josiah Wedgwood II (1769-1843). Cecily Mary Hawk- shaw's brother Godfrey Wedgwood (1833-1905) married Mary Hawkshaw as his first wife. 3 Charles Darwin : The Effects of Cross- and Self-fertilization in the Vegetable Kingdom, London 1876. 4 Amy, first wife of Francis Darwin. 5 The degree of LL.D. was conferred on Darwin on 17 November, 1877. DARWIN'S JOURNAL 1878. The whole of this last year on the circumnutating Movements of plants & bloom. 1879. The whole of this year on circum- nutating movements of plants except about 6 weeks on Life of Erasmus Darwin. 1880. Circumnutating Movements. All Spring publishing MS. of " Power of Movement in Plants " & then Proof Sheets — Began in Autumn on Worms. Nov r 6 th 1500 Copies of Power of Movement sold at Murrays Sale. !i. All early part of year Worm book 7 published Oct: 10 th 2000 Copies sold immediately, 5000 printed by Dec- ember & corrected a new Edit. November on the action of C. of ammonia on Chlorophyll & on roots of Euphorbia & other plants. [1882 April 17 Recorded an experiment for Francis Darwin.] 1878. Jan. 17-23 at Erasmus. Feb. 27 to March 5. Bryanston S* on account of Giddiness. April 27 to May 13 th Southampton. Aug* 7 th Leith Hill, Abinger, & Barlaston 1 Home Aug 1 22 nd . Nov. 19-27" 1 Bryanston S*. 1879. Feb? 27 to March 5 at Erasmus on account of Elizabeth's illness. May 6 th Worthing. 8 th Southamp- ton. 21 Leith Hill 26 th Home. June 26 th Erasmus, Baly Medal, 2 28 th Laura Forster. 3 July 1. Home. Aug* 1 to 27 Coniston sleeping at Erasmus. Dec r 2 nd to 11 th Henrietta & Erasmus. 1880. March 4*^-8* Erasmus. April 8-13 Abinger, Horace & Ida. 4 May 25 to June 8 Southampton. Aug* 14 th to Cambridge, 5 19 th Erasmus, 21 st Home. Oct 20 to Nov r 2 nd Henrietta's House. Nov. 8 th Eliz: Wedgwood 6 died. Dec r 7 Erasmus. 11 th Leith Hill Place. 15 th Home. 1 88 1. Feb. 24 th to March 3 rd Bryanston S* June 2 nd to July 4 th Patterdale. 8 August 3 rd to 5 th to Erasmus. ,, 26 th Erasmus 9 died at night. Sept. 8 th to 10 th to A. Rich Worth- ing. 10 Oct 20-27 at Horace's at Cambridge. Dec r 13 th to 20 th Bryanston S*. [1882 March 7 last visit to April 19 April 26. Abbey.] Suffered seizure on his ' Sand Walk '. Darwin died at Down. Buried in Westminster 1 Barlaston, Staffordshire, home of Francis Wedgwood (1800-1888), Darwin's wife's brother. 2 The Baly Medal of the Royal College of Physicians. 8 Laura May Forster (1839-1924), of West Hackhurst, Abinger Hammer, Dorking, lent her house to the Darwins to minimize the fatigue caused by this journey to London, (cf. L. & L., hi, 224, and E. M. Forster : Marianne Thornton, London 1956.) 4 Emma Cecilia Farrer (Ida) married Horace Darwin in 1880. 5 The Darwins were visiting the Horace Darwins at Botolph Lane, Cambridge, (cf. E.D., ii, 306.) 6 Sarah Elizabeth Wedgwood (1793-1880), eldest sister of Darwin's wife. 7 Charles Darwin : The formation of vegetable mould through the action of worms, with observations on their habits. London, 1881. 8 The Darwins took Glenrhydding House, Patterdale for a month, (cf. M.L., ii, p. 433.) 9 Erasmus Alvey Darwin (1804-1881), Darwin's brother. 10 Anthony Rich, of Heene, Worthing, (cf. E.D., ii, p. 291.) PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY ADLARD AND SON, LIMITED, BARTHOLOMEW PRESS, DORKING ft. 0< DARWIN'S NOTEBOOKS ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES Edited with an Introduction and Notes by SIR GAVIN DE BEER BULLETIN OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM (NATURAL HISTORY) HISTORICAL SERIES Vol. 2 No. 2 LONDON: i960 DARWIN' S, NOTEBOOKS ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES PART I. FIRST NOTEBOOK (JULY 1837— FEBRUARY 1838) Edited with an Introduction and Notes BY SIR GAVIN DE BEER A Pp. 23 — 73 ; 3 Text-figures BULLETIN OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM (NATURAL HISTORY) HISTORICAL SERIES Vol. 2 No. 2 LONDON: i960 THE BULLETIN OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM (NATURAL HISTORY), instituted in 1949, is issued in five series, corresponding to the Departments of the Museum, and an Historical series. Parts will appear at irregular intervals as they become ready. Volumes will contain about three or four hundred pages, and will not necessarily be completed within one calendar year. This paper is Vol. 2, No. 2 of the Historical series. Trustees of the British Museum, i960 PRINTED BY ORDER OF THE TRUSTEES OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM Issued January, i960 Price One Pound DARWIN'S NOTEBOOKS ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES Edited with an Introduction and Notes by SIR GAVIN de BEER Part I. First Notebook (July 1837-FEBRUARY 1838) INTRODUCTION In Darwin's Journal 1 the year 1837 contains an entry which runs, " In July opened first notebook on ' Transmutation of Species '—Had been greatly struck from about month of previous March on character of S. American fossils — & species on Galapagos Archipelago. These facts origin (especially latter) of all my views." This notebook is transcribed and printed below and forms the subject of the present study. The four Notebooks on Transmutation of Species are the first implementation of the suggestion put forward by Darwin in his Ornithological Notebook 2 referring to his visit to the Galapagos Islands in September and October 1835. There he wrote : — " When I recollect the fact, that from the form of body, shape of scale and general size, the Spaniards can at once pronounce from which Isd. any tortoise may have been brought : — When I see these Islands in sight of each other and pos- sessed of but a scanty stock of animals, tenanted by these birds but slightly different in structure and filling the same place in Nature, I must suspect they are only varieties. The only fact of a similar kind of which I am aware is the constant asserted difference between the Wolf-like Fox of East and West Falkland Islands. — If there is the slightest foundation for these remarks, the Zoology of Archipelagoes will be well worth examining ; for such facts would undermine the stability of species ". The First Notebook, begun in July 1837, represents the state of Darwin's opinion as it developed six months after his return to England, the results of his consulting the literature on the subject, and the first formulation of his conviction that the stability of species had been " undermined ". It will be noticed that the passage from the Journal quoted above must have been a retrospective entry written at a later date, for if he only began his Notebook in July 1837 ne could not then have known what " all his views " were. In this First Notebook itself Darwin stated that he finished it " probably " in February 1838, 1 " Darwin's Journal ", edited by Sir Gavin de Beer, Bull. Brit. Mus. (Nat. Hist.) Historical Series, vol. 2, p. i, 1959. 2 Charles Darwin and the Voyage of the Beagle, edited by Nora Barlow, London 1945. P- 2 4 6 - ** is not known at what exact date these words were written. hist. 2, 2 27 26 DARWIN'S FIRST NOTEBOOK and this was nine months before he read Malthus's Essay on Population which, as he said 1 (and Wallace also admitted 2 in his own case) supplied him with the remain- ing piece that he required to complete the construction of his argument. What that argument was is known from Darwin's 3 Sketch of 1842 and Essay of 1844, from which the Origin of Species was elaborated without much novelty of principle. The First Notebook is therefore of great importance in tracing the course of his thoughts and the extent of his knowledge before his cognisance of Malthus's work, and will throw light on what it was in the latter which gave Darwin that extra idea which acted as a spark and launched him on his course. At the outset, however, it must be made clear that the Notebooks all suffer from a grave defect. In the First Notebook Darwin himself wrote on the first page 4 : " All useful pages cut out. December 7, 1856. (and again looked through April 29, 1873)." In spite of all attempts to trace the missing fifty pages, in the Cambridge University Library where Mr P. J. Gautrey searched for them, at Down House and the Royal College of Surgeons where Miss J. Dobson looked for them, and in the British Museum (Natural History) where Miss M. Skramovsky hunted for them among the letters addressed to Darwin deposited by Mr Robin Darwin, they could not be found. The nature of their contents can only be surmised after a close study of the two hundred and thirty pages that remain, and an estimate can be made of what is missing from the information and the argument. Another reason why the Notebooks are important is because Darwin has from time to time been reproached for having obtained information from the writings of other men without acknowledging the source. The Origin of Species, as is well known, contains the names of Darwin's authorities for the facts stated, but not their biblio- graphical references, for Darwin regarded his book as only an abstract from the much larger work on which he was then engaged but never finished. The Sketch of 1842 and the Essay of 1844, likewise, contain names without bibliographical references, but they were written only as an exercise in reviewing the state of his own argument and not intended for publication. The Notebooks, as will be seen, contain names and references. Before any conclusion can be drawn on Darwin's indebtedness to his predecessors three considerations must be borne in mind. The first is the precise identification of what the original contribution to science was which Darwin himself claimed to have made. This is known from a letter 5 which he sent on 18th January i860 to Baden Powell. " No educated person ", he wrote, " not even the most ignorant, could suppose that I meant to arrogate to myself the origination of the doctrine that species had not been independently created. The only novelty in my work is the attempt to explain how species became modified, & to a certain extent how the 1 The Autobiography of Charles Darwin, edited by Nora Barlow, London 1958, p. 120. 2 Alfred Russel Wallace, " Note on the passages of Malthus's ' Principles of Population ' which sug- gested the idea of natural selection to Darwin and myself." The Darwin and Wallace Celebration held on Thursday, 1 July 1908 by the Linnean Society of London, London 1908, pp. 11 1-118 ; especially p. 117. 3 Darwin's Sketch of 1842, and Essay of 1844 are reprinted in Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace : Evolution by Natural Selection with a Foreword by Sir Gavin de Beer, Cambridge 1958. 4 All page references to Darwin's Notebooks on transmutation of species are to the pagination of the original manuscripts indicated in the margin of the transcription printed below. 8 " Some unpublished letters of Charles Darwin ", edited by Sir Gavin de Beer, Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, vol. 14, 1959, p. 52. ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES 27 theory of descent explains certain large classes of facts ; & in these respects I re- ceived no assistance from my predecessors." In arriving at a just appraisal of Darwin's character, this quoted passage is very important, and his contention is correct. Some of his predecessors, as will be seen, acknowledged evolution but had no notion of any mechanism adequate to explain its cause, let alone any idea of natural selection ; two contemporaries 1 recognized natural selection but used it to prove that evolution could not occur. Unknown to Darwin, two other men 2 had, before him, grasped the solution of the problem and stated that natural selection could cause modification of species ; but they were very far from being able to appreciate the significance of what they had done, provide evidence to support it, or work out its consequences. The second consideration to bear in mind is that while Darwin was always on the look-out for facts, what he most hoped for in the works of his predecessors and contemporaries was ideas. The third consideration is the necessity of appreciating what information and opinions, correct and false, were available in 1837 when Darwin " opened " his Notebook. Chief among these was the folk-belief in the inheritance of acquired characters. As Conway Zirkle has shown, 3 this is based on an uncritical combination of two propositions each of which by itself is approximately correct. The first is that organisms can be changed, often in an adaptive manner, by the conditions of the environment. The blacksmith's muscles are enlarged as a result of wielding his hammer. The second proposition is that organisms tend to produce offspring like themselves not only in physical features but in functional characters like gait and voice. Hence the conclusion is drawn that parents modified by the environment will produce offspring showing the same modifications. This syllogism is invalidated because its middle term (resemblance between parent and offspring) is not only undistributed, but, as modern genetics has proved, fal- lacious. Offspring are not the product of their parents, but of germ-cells of which the parents are only the life-custodians. The old block produces no chip but is the elder brother, and the chip resembles him, if he does, because both are the product of the same line of germ-plasm. The old wives' tale of the hereditary effect of environmentally evoked modifica- tions or inheritance of acquired characters is deeply built-in to folk lore. It appears in one of the earliest Greek myths. When Phaethon drove his father Apollo's chariot across the sky, the horses got out of control and carried the sun much too near Abyssinia with the result that the Ethiopians' skins were scorched black, and their offspring became the negroes. In the form of hereditary transmission of maternal impressions, it also appears in the Old Testament. 4 Jacob when working for Laban agreed that he could not have any white sheep or unspotted goats, but if any lambs were born brown or any goats spotted and speckled, he might have them for himself. Jacob thereupon 1 Charles Lyell and Edward Blyth. 2 William Charles Wells and Patrick Matthew. 3 Conway Zirkle. " The early history of the idea of the inheritance of acquired characters and of pangenesis ", Trans. Amer. Phil. Soc, vol. 35, 1946, p. 91. 4 Genesis, 30, 30-42. 28 DARWIN'S FIRST NOTEBOOK selected the strongest animals and presented to their eyes striped patterns of green leaves and white rods just before they conceived, with the result that they " brought forth cattle ringstraked, speckled, and spotted " which therefore belonged to Jacob ; the weaker, untreated animals produced offspring which remained true to the speci- fication of Laban's property. In the revival of science in the 18th century, Maupertuis, Diderot, Buffon, Erasmus Darwin, and Lamarck accepted the hereditary transmission of environmentally induced modifications as a matter of course. 1 It would never have occurred to them, or to Darwin, to doubt it. Nor would it have occurred to Darwin that in making use of this notion he was in any way indebted to Lamarck. In all the history of science before 1800 only three names stand out in opposition to the old fallacy : Lucretius, because he believed in particulate inheritance with " atoms " of inheri- tance derived from previous generations ; Charles Bonnet, whose theory of emboite- ment of all future generations within the parent involved predetermination which could not admit of modification ; and Immanuel Kant, who repudiated it because otherwise evolution would have occurred, and he believed that it had not. As Loren Eiseley 2 has remarked, it only remains to underline the irony with which this fallacy has been identified with the name of Lamarck who did not invent it. The term " Lamarckism " should in all justice be applied to evolution itself, since he was the first to advocate it as a co-ordinated system. Belief in the inheritance of acquired characters was a consequence of the total ignorance of the nature of hereditary transmission. For incontrovertible experimental knowledge of this process, science had to wait not only for Gregor Mendel to publish his results in 1866, but for scientists to rediscover them in 1900 ; for T. H. Morgan and his colleagues to extend them and correlate them with the results of research in chromosome cytology, developed to a marvellous degree by C. Stern and C. D. Darlington ; and for Sir Ronald Fisher 3 to produce his great synthesis in 1930, wherein he demonstrated that the mechanism of particulate inheritance of Mendelian genes which remain uncontaminated, segregate, recombine, self-copy, and occa- sionally mutate, provides exactly what Darwinian selection theory requires to explain the source of variation ; that Selection provides exactly what Mendelian theory requires to explain why some genes become dominant, others recessive, and others again suppressed ; and that no mechanism other than selection will explain all the facts. 4 In Darwin's day there was nothing to go on at all except the age-old belief that like tends to beget like, and that when parents differed their offspring represented an average between them. This view is referred to as " blending inheritance ", and it permeates Darwin's work and caused him the greatest trouble since it supposed that variance was halved at each generation and obliterated in ten generations, which therefore made it so difficult to account for the necessary supply of variation. It is not easy today to realize the difficulty presented in Darwin's time by the 1 Jean Rostand. L' 'evolution des especes, Paris 1932, and L'atomisme en biologie, Paris 1956. 2 Loren Eiseley. Darwin's Century, London 1959, p. 204. 3 R. A. Fisher. The Genetical Theory of Selection, Oxford 1930. 4 R. A. Fisher. " The bearing of genetics on the theory of evolution ", Science Progress, vol. 27, 1932, P- 15- ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES 29 extinction of species. To admit that species of plants or animals could become extinct involved the admission that the protection of divine providence had been withheld from such species, and a considerable part of Darwin's early work was devoted to this problem, which was really a necessary corollary to the view that species were mutable. If in accordance with the hypothesis of mutability species split and gave rise to other species, the problem of the disposal of old obsolete species necessarily arose, and its solution by accepting the fact of extinction was not only an inevitable conclusion, but a help to Darwin in explaining why the gaps between some species were larger than those between others. There was another fallacy which obstructed the progress of biological science, especially in Great Britain during the twenties and thirties of the nineteenth century, namely the quinarian theory 1 associated with the name of William Sharp MacLeay. This was the mystical system of classification built on the supposition that at all levels the animal kingdom is based on five groups arranged in a circle, each with affinities to its neighbours on both sides, each containing five sub-groups arranged in a comparable manner with affinities to their neighbours, and so on. According to MacLeay, " There are five great circular groups in the animal kingdom which possess each a peculiar structure," and " these, when connected by means of five smaller osculant groups, compose the whole province of zoology." 2 In the Crustacean circle, itself one of the five groups of the Annulosa, the Decapoda " have relations of analogy " with the Araneidea of the Arachnid circle while the latter 's Acaridea have " relations of analogy " with the Diptera of the neighbouring insect circle. Presently, Edward Newman improved on MacLeay's quinarian system by sub- stituting the number 7 for 5 because of the 7th day of Creation, etc. " Most groups of animals with which we are tolerably well acquainted are divisible into seven ; we shall never find the number greater, and when less, we shall invariably perceive that the deficiency exists in groups of which our knowledge is particularly limited." 3 There would be no need to make mention of such abject nonsense were it not for the fact that at the time when Darwin opened his Notebook these notions were current, and, as will be seen, (pp. 46, 129), Darwin himself had to struggle through them when considering the problem of affinities between different groups. Next, it will be profitable to consider the legacies of Darwin's immediate prede- cessors and the contributions of his contemporaries that were known to him. First comes Erasmus Darwin. 4 Erasmus Darwin believed in the transmutation of species and evolution because of the observed changes undergone by organisms during their life-history, the changes brought about by domestication and resulting from hybridization, and monstrous 1 William Sharp MacLeay. Horae entomologicae , London 1 8 19-21. The Quinarian System was also adopted by William Swainson : The natural history and classification of birds, Lardner's Cabinet Cyclo- paedia, London 1837, vol. 2, pp. 56 and 100. 2 MacLeay. op. cit. p. 318. 3 Edward Newman. Sphinx vespiformis : an essay, London 1832, p. 15. Since nature possesses the tendency for the formation of globes or circles (e.g. the sun and its planets), he agrees with the principle of MacLeay's quinarian system, but substitutes the number 7 for 5, because God rested on the 7th day, Noah took 7 clean animals into the ark, there were 7 plagues, 7 years of famine, 7 years of plenty, 7 golden candlesticks, 7 churches, 7 angels, 7 spirits of God. 4 Erasmus Darwin. Zoonomia ; or, the laws of organic life, vol. 1, London 1794. 3o DARWIN'S FIRST NOTEBOOK births. He was aware of the general similarity of structure shown by vertebrate animals, and he believed that the modification of species was brought about by the satisfaction of wants for " lust, hunger, and danger " } and as a result of " their own exertions in consequence of their desires and aversions, of their pleasures and pains, or of irritations, or of associations ; and many of those acquired forms or propensities are transmitted to their posterity." 2 He therefore accepted the inheri- tance of acquired characters. In his work, an astonishing number of principles can be found which echo later developments in Darwin's hands. Adaptation, protective colouration, the struggle for existence, artificial selection, sexual selection, vestigial organs, the importance of cross-fertilization, the significance of monsters as proof against preformation in primordial germs, and the occurrence of mutations such as polydactylous cats and rumpless fowls, are all touched on. But when Erasmus Darwin ascribed the produc- tion of adaptation to " the power of acquiring new parts, attended with new propen- sities, directed by irritations, sensations, volitions, and associations ; and thus possessing the faculties of continuing to improve by its own inherent activity, and of delivering down those improvements to its posterity, world without end ", 3 a " power working from within ", and " internal impulse ", or a " living force ," it is easy to see why such a hard-headed scientist as Darwin should have been " much disappointed, the proportion of speculation being so large to the facts given " in the work of his grandfather. One observation Darwin did cull from Erasmus Darwin's Zoonomia, as the First Notebook shows (p. i), namely that sexual reproduction is conducive to variation, whereas asexual reproduction allows of none. 4 This fact, which has no direct bearing on Erasmus Darwin's views on evolution, became the basis of Darwin's views on the supply of variation. Lamarck 5 believed in the mutability of species because of the difficulty of dis- tinguishing between species and varieties, 6 and having with a stroke of genius substituted for the old static scale of beings a dynamic branching tree, 7 his was the first scientific formulation of the " transformism " of species, although he only assumed it as axiomatic and provided no evidence to support it. He was familiar with the fact of the struggle for existence 8 and the importance of adaptation ; he realized the vast amount of time required for evolution to have taken place, but appeared to think that species had not suffered extinction but had instead become transformed. 9 Before proceeding to consider Lamarck's attempt to provide an explanation of 1 Erasmus Darwin, op. cit. p. 503. 2 Erasmus Darwin, op. cit. p. 503. 3 Erasmus Darwin, op. cit. p. 505, cf. also p. 500 : " in the more advanced state of the fetus, it evi- dently possesses volition ; as it frequently changes its attitude, though it seems to sleep the greatest part of its time ; and afterwards the power of volition contributes to change or alter many parts of the body during its growth to manhood, by our early modes of exertion in the various departments of life." 4 Erasmus Darwin, op. cit. p. 487. 5 Jean Baptiste de Lamarck. Philosophic Zoologique, Paris 1809. ' Lamarck, op. cit. vol. 1, p. 73. 7 Lamarck, op. cit. vol. 1, p. 76 : " une serie rameuse." 8 Lamarck, op. cit. vol. 1, p. 112. ' Lamarck, op. cit. vol. 1, p. 93. ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES 31 the cause of " transformism "* or " evolution " as Lyell 2 termed it, there is a matter which calls for attention in the reasoning behind Lamarck's argument by which he reached the conclusion that transformism had occurred. It was based on the notion that the greater the number of species of a genus that were collected and studied, the more they appeared to grade insensibly into one another, with the result that taxonomic distinctions could not be made between them. If this were really so, systematic classification would be logically impossible. Using the expression of " species-barrier ", so happily coined by Professor Loren Eiseley, 3 it could be said that Lamarck did not discover the solution to the problem of how to penetrate it, but that he abolished it. As Sir Ronald Fisher has pointed out, 4 this criticism must not be applied to the solution found by Darwin of how the species-barrier could be penetrated, because Darwin was careful to recognize that species are well-defined even if their limiting characters are changeable. Lamarck's explanation of the cause of transformism is contained in his four laws 5 : — 1. Life, by its own forces, tends continually to increase the volume of every body possessing it and to extend the dimensions of its parts, up to the limits which it sets itself. 2. The production of a new organ in an animal body results from the emergence of a new need which continues to make itself felt, and a new movement which this need evokes and maintains. 3. The development of organs and their power of action stand in constant relation to their use. 4. Everything that has been acquired, traced, or changed in the organization of individuals in the course of their life is preserved by generation and transmitted to the new individuals that descend from those which have experienced those changes. The tendency to perfection 6 resulting from Lamarck's first Law necessitated an explanation of the persistence on earth of forms like infusoria which remain " imper- fect ", and this he provided by supposing that spontaneous generation 7 had taken place continuously, and that the more " imperfect " an organism is, the more recently its stock was generated. The " movements " from which the production of new organs is supposed to follow, 1 The term " transformism " is preferred by many French-speaking authors (e.g. Alphonse de Candolle, Darwin, 2nd edition, Geneve 1882, p. 35) because the successive changes are not always in the direction of increased development but may result in simplification, cf. also Jean Rostand. L'etat present du transformisme, Paris 1931, p. 13. 2 Charles Lyell. Principles of Geology, London 1832. vol. 2, p. 11 which contains the first use in English of the term evolution in its present accepted sense. 3 Eiseley. " Charles Darwin, Edward Blyth, and the theory of natural selection." Proc. Amer. Phil. Soc. vol. 103, 1959, p. 108. 4 Sir Ronald Fisher. " Retrospect of the criticisms of the theory of natural selection ", Evolution as a Process edited by Julian Huxley, A. C. Hardy and E. B. Ford, London 1954, p. 88. 5 Lamarck. Histoire naturelle des animaux sans vertebres, Paris 1815, vol. 1, p. 181 : " iere loi. La vie, par ses propres forces, tend continuellement a accroitre le volume de tout corps qui la possede, et a 6tendre les dimensions de ses parties, jusqu'a un terme qu'elle amene elle-meme. "2ieme loi. La production d'un nouvel organe dans un corps animal, requite d'un nouveau besoin survenu qui continue de se faire sentir, et d'un nouveau mouvement que ce besoin fait naitre et entretient. ' '3ieme loi. Le developpement des organes et leur force d'action sont constamment en raison de l'emploi de ces organes. "4ieme loi. Tout ce qui a 6te acquis, trac6 ou change, dans l'organisation des individus, pendant le cours de leur vie, est conserve par la generation, et transmis aux nouveaux individus qui proviennent de ceux qui ont eprouv6 ces changemens." 6 Lamarck. Philosophic Zoologique, vol. 1, p. 263. 7 Lamarck. Philosophic Zoologique, vol. 1, p. 82 ; vol. 2, p. 78. 32 DARWIN'S FIRST NOTEBOOK Lamarck contended are due to the sentiment interieur, 1 or inner feeling possessed by " those animals which have a nervous system sufficiently developed to permit them to experience sensation. This feeling, although obscure, is very powerful for it is the source of the internal emotions experienced by those individuals that possess it, and therefore is the source of that curious force which places those individuals in a position to produce themselves the movements and actions which their needs demand ". Lamarck's attempts to define his sentiment interieur were not felicitous. In one place he wrote 2 of " the emotions of the inner feeling which actuate animals and man himself, sometimes without any participation of the will, sometimes by an act of volition that gives rise to it." Elsewhere, 3 the inner feeling is made respon- sible for the good time with which a deaf and dumb girl was able to play the piano, " the whole of her person was actuated by measured movements of her inner feeling ". It has been held that Lamarck's reputation has suffered from faulty translation of his works ; but to those who are competent to dispense with translation his works are not more acceptable, because his conclusions are contrary to the results of obser- vation and experiment. When it is contended, as it has been, that the essence of Lamarckism is that when structures become necessary they appear, the matter ceases to belong to the realms of science. Animals strive for food, mates, and protec- tion, and they scour for habitats and select them as Charles Elton 4 has stressed, which increases the possibilities of adaptation by multiplying the occasions for trial and error and exposing organisms of different genetic composition to different environments ; but this characteristic behaviour of mobile animals is not explained by ascribing an " inner feeling " to them ; nor is this an acceptable substitute for natural selection, mutation, and recombination of genes to account for evolution. The similarity between Erasmus Darwin's " volition " and Lamarck's " inner feeling " as agents made responsible for evolution is remarkable, but there is no reason to suppose that the latter owed anything to the former ; still less to imagine that Darwin was not speaking the truth when he said of Lamarck's work that he " got not a fact or idea from it ". Charles Lyell's work, without any doubt, exerted the most important influence on Darwin's thought. Curiously enough, this was not because of any facts which enabled Darwin to construct his theories of coral reefs or of evolution by natural selection ; on the contrary, in these subjects Darwin contradicted most of what Lyell had thought or written. It was the background of uniformitarianism in Lyell's Principles of Geology which provided Darwin with the general orientation of thought and method which enabled him to succeed where others, including Lyell himself, 1 Lamarck. Philosophic Zoologique, vol. 2 p. 256 : le " sentiment interieur, n'est point commun a tous les corps vivants, et ... nel'est pas meme a tousles animaux, ... est un sentiment ... dont sont doues les animaux qui ont un systemenerveuxassezdeveloppepour leur donner la faculte de sentir." 2 Lamarck, op. cit. vol 2, p. 259 : Les " emotions du sentiment interieur, qui font agir les animaux et 1'homme meme, tantot sans aucune participation de leur volonte, et tantot par une volonte qui y donne lieu . . . sentiment interieur . . . susceptible de s'emouvoir par des causes qui l'affectent ; or, ces causes sont tou jours le besoin, soit d'assouvir la faim, soit de fuir les dangers, d'eViter la douleur, de rechercher le plaisir, ou ce qui est agr6able a l'individu." 3 Lamarck, op. cit. vol. 2, p. 262 : " toute sa personne etait mue par des mouvements mesures de son sentiment interieur." 4 Charles Elton. Animal Ecology and Evolution, Oxford 1930, p. 51. ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES 33 had failed to build and establish a coherent and scientifically satisfactory basis for biology. As Professor Loren Eiseley 1 has so convincingly shown, it is an astonishing irony of history of science that Lyell did not discover Darwin's solution to the problem, for Lyell possessed all the ingredients which Darwin required to construct his theory. Already in 1832, the year in which the second volume of his Principles of Geology appeared, Lyell was familiar with the struggle for existence, ecological balance, the extinction of species, and even with the principle of natural selection by which extinction was brought about : 2 "A faint image of the certain doom of a species less fitted to struggle with some new condition in a region which it previously inhab- ited, and where it has to contend with a more vigorous species, is presented by the extirpation of savage tribes of man by the advancing colony of some civilized nation." But as Lyell in these early years refused to accept evolution, natural selection had no part to play in bringing it about in his scheme. Lyell recognized the succession of species and was well acquainted with the facts of geographical and geological distribution. The only thing which he rejected, as just stated, was evolution itself, and the curious reason for this has been admirably brought to light by Professor Eiseley. Cuvier had broken the old notion of the scale of beings as a figurative single beanstalk, and had substituted for it a succession of stages of life, each terminated by a catastrophe. " Catastrophism " required that life started again after each revolution ; but as it was obvious that the forms of life showed progress in organiza- tion after each catastrophe, it was necessary to invoke a principle of " progres- sionism " on the part of the creative power. Imbued with the superior scientific value of uniformitarianism over catastrophism, Lyell repudiated the latter and, therefore, progressionism with it. The baby of evolution was thrown out with the bathwater of pseudo-geological magic, and Lyell missed one of the finest opportu- nities in the history of science. This was perhaps the greatest debt that Darwin owed to him. The First Notebook contains a number of references to the names and works of other men, some of which may have been the start of ideas which subsequently played parts of great importance in the construction of Darwin's system. Among these is Cuvier whose views on the immutability of species Darwin of course chal- lenged (pp. 53, 88, 89). But there is also a reference (p. 118) to some remarks by Cuvier's brother Frederic on the production of domestic races of animals, in the course of which he wrote : "we could only produce domestic individuals and not races, without the concurrence of one of the most general laws of life, the transmission of the organic or intellectual modifications by generation. Here one of the most astonishing phenomena of nature manifests itself to us, the transmission of a fortuitous [our italics] modification into a durable form, of a fugitive want into a fundamental propensity, of an accidental habit into an instinct." Professor Eiseley 3 has drawn attention to the extremely important question of what led Darwin to believe in the chance emergence of new characters. It is the 1 Eiseley. Darwin's century, p. 102. 2 Charles Lyell. Principles of Geology, vol. 2, London 1832, p. 175. 3 Eiseley. op. cit. p. 202. hist. 2, 2 27§ 34 DARWIN'S FIRST NOTEBOOK fundamental difference between the Darwinian view of fortuitous variation (which has been experimentally demonstrated by Sir Ronald Fisher as correct), and all other attempts to explain evolution as due to adaptively directed mutation. It is at the base of the argument about design. If variation were designed, as Darwin wrote 1 to Asa Gray, 26th November i860, " you would have to believe that the tail of the Fantail was led to vary in the number and direction of its feathers in order to gratify the caprice of a few men "; and again 2 on 5th June 1861 : " It is not that designed variation makes, as it seems to me, my deity ' Natural Selection ' superfluous, but rather from studying, lately, domestic variation, and seeing what an enormous field of undesigned variability there is ready for natural selection to appro- priate for any purpose useful to each creature." In the last pages of his book 3 Variation of animals and plants under domestication, Darwin drew up a fearsome list of consequences for those who believe in designed rather than in fortuitous variation, for they would be obliged to accept design as responsible for hosts of variations that are most injurious to the organisms concerned. Today, with modern knowledge of the properties of lethal genes, such arguments appear elementary, but in Darwin's day they were very topical, and it is at least probable that Frederic Cuvier's remarks on " fortuitous modifications " started Darwin on this funda- mentally important train of thought. In the light of recent research on mutation of genes, the term " fortuitous " variation is preferable to the older term " random " variation, because although no correlation has ever been found between a mutagenic agent and the quality of adaptiveness in the character controlled by the resulting mutant gene, it is clear that chemical properties of mutagenic agents may induce some rather than other mutations. To this extent therefore mutations are fortuitous rather than random, since randomness implies equality of possibilities of mutation in any direction ; but equally there can be no question of biologically significant directedness in the mutations. The geologist Leopold von Buch is not a source from which it is generally known that Darwin derived information or ideas for his special purposes, and yet in the Notebook of 1837 ne is quoted twice for facts which were of supreme importance to Darwin. In the first (p. 156), von Buch related that on the island of Tristan d'Acunha, Du Petit Thouars found only 25 species of flowering plants of which some resembled the flora of the Cape and others that of South America. This played an important part in shaping Darwin's views on the colonization of islands and in framing the rhetorical question whether these species were created like this in order to deceive man (p. 218). The second reference (p. 158) is even more important, for in it von Buch stated two fundamental propositions quite clearly : — that permanent varieties give rise to distinct species, and that geographical isolation of a region in which such a variety arises is the chief factor in its conversion into a new species by preventing intercrossing with the remainder of the parent population. 1 Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, edited by Francis Darwin, vol. 2, 1887, p. 353. 2 Ibid. vol. 2, p. 373. 3 London 1868, vol. 2, p. 431. ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES 35 That Darwin was indebted to Humboldt in a general way was known already from the Autobiography , but the Notebook shows (p. 142) that Humboldt's Personal Narrative contains a remark which reinforces that of von Buch : " The exclusion of all foreign mixture contributes to perpetuate varieties, or the aberrations from a common standard." The part which isolation can play in the formation of species is mentioned in the Origin of Species (World's Classics p. 105), but in later life Darwin believed that it was not essential : a view contested by Moritz Wagner and Ernst Mayr. 1 To Etienne Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire it is possible that Darwin owed the germ of an idea of the relation between final and mediate causes. His name appears in the Notebook (p. 114) in connexion with the notion of the creator giving laws and leaving things to follow their consequences. This idea reappears in the Sketch of 1842 (p. 86), the Essay of 1844 (P- 2 54)> an d the Origin of Species (World Classics edition P- 559). Mention must be made of the Hon. and Rev. William Herbert, the heterodox plant-breeder whose name figures in the Notebook (pp. 180, 191). He supplied Darwin with the information that in some genera the barrier of sterility between the species did not exist, and that there was no real difference between species and varieties. Another man to whom Darwin was certainly indebted was William Paley, whose works on Natural Theology provided him with a catalogue of cases of adaptation and an argument which he used in reverse to show the efficacy of natural selection without design. His name does not appear in the extant portion of the Notebook, nor is there any reason why it should because neither adaptation nor the problem of design figure in it. There was also John Stevens Henslow (mentioned on pp. 68 and 230), a devout believer in the fixity of species, to whom Darwin owed no particular information at all, but a great and loyal friendship, encouragement in his pursuits of natural history, the opportunity of embarking on the Beagle, and the suggestion that he should take with him (but not agree with) Lyell's Principles of Geology. Edward Blyth was a man with whose works, as Professor Eiseley 2 has shown, Darwin who was his friend must have been familiar, but whose name and works do not appear in the extant portion of the First Notebook although they do in the Second. In a series of papers published between 1835 and 1837, Blyth touched on a number of subjects with which Darwin was concerned, including a remarkable description of the results of variation in species preyed upon by predators such as birds of prey. If the behaviour or colour of the variants departs from the typical specific character, either by failing in vigilance or in assuming a protective attitude or in matching its normal background, or in straying away from its normal back- ground, such variants fall victim to the predator by the natural interplay of causes which remove " all that deviate from their normal or healthy condition, or which occur away from their proper and suitable locality ", and thereby " tend to limit the 1 Ernst Mayr. " Isolation as an evolutionary factor ", Proc. Amer. Phil. Soc, vol. 103, 1959. P- 221. 2 Eiseley. " Charles Darwin, Edward Blyth and the Theory of Natural Selection ", Proc. Amer. Phil. Soc, vol. 103, 1959, p. 94. 36 DARWIN'S FIRST NOTEBOOK geographical range of species, and to maintain their pristine characters without blemish or decay to their remotest posterity." In other words, like Lyell before him (see above), Blyth who believed in special creation used the principle of natural selection to prove that species were immutable. Bearing in mind that Darwin was after only one thing : how species became modi- fied, it may be asked what Darwin's debt to Blyth was. So far as the construction of his theory is concerned, the answer is probably nothing at all. But Professor Eiseley also raises the question whether there were not items of information in Blyth's papers which Darwin built into his own body of knowledge, and bases it on the appearance in Darwin's notebooks and Sketch of expressions and statements which are also found in Blyth's papers. One such item is the word " osculant "j 1 others are mentions of Ancon sheep and of mutations such as polydactylous cats or rumpless fowls. Blyth's paper of 1835 and Darwin's First Notebook both contain mention of what Blyth called " the fact, equally well-known, of bullfinches . . . becoming wholly black when fed entirely on hempseed." Additional similar corre- spondences can probably be found, and although Darwin may have obtained some of them from other sources such as Lyell and Erasmus Darwin, and certainly found the expression " osculant " in the work of MacLeay, there is nothing improbable in his having copied some from Blyth. Indeed, Darwin's references to Blyth in the Origin of Species, Variation in Animals and Plants under Domestication, and the Descent of Man, are very numerous and generous on subjects other than how species become modified. It forms no part of the intention of this study to defend Darwin from the imputation that he made unacknowledged use of Blyth's or any one else's work as regards the mechanism of natural selection. Darwin (and others) may have been wrong in thinking that he owed him or them nothing on this score. Robert Edmund Grant surprised 2 Darwin as early as 1826 by speaking in high admiration of the work of Lamarck, and the anonymous paper 3 published in the Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal in that year when Darwin was in Edinburgh, was probably written by Grant. To this paper Darwin would not have felt himself any more indebted than to Lamarck's book, because it provided no facts that he 1 Darwin used the word " inosculating " in his letter to Henslow dated 24 November 1832 (Extracts from Letters addressed to Professor Henslow, p.p. Cambridge 1835, p. 8) . The source of the word is William Sharp MacLeay : Horae entomologicae, London 1819-21, p. 396 : " By an external order is meant one situated in the greater segment of a circle of affinity, when divided by a line joining its osculant points. There are ten such, viz. Orthoptera, Neuroptera, Homoptera, Hemiptera, Phalangidea, Scorpionidea? Amphipoda? Laemodipoda? Chilopoda and Thysanura. We may name the five orders, Vermes, Hymen- optera, Diptera, Acaridea, and Branchiopoda, internal, and the ten remaining inosculant, from their communicating with osculant groups." p. 37 " the nature of the genera that form the links of connexion. These genera I propose to call osculantia, from their occurring as it were at the point where the circles touch one another ..." Murray NED : Osculant: — intermediate; two groups united by some com- mon characters and to an intermediate group which unites in itself the characters of two groups. MacLeay 1819, Kirby & Spence 1826 : Entom. 4, 382 : " They may form an osculant group, partly winged and partly apterous ... " Inosculate, to pass into; to join; to blend Kirby & Spence 1816 : Entom. 1, 332 : "hooks like those in the laminae of a feather inosculate into one another." Kirby. Habits and Instincts of Animals, II, 17, 168 : " The thigh inosculates with " the innominate. 2 Autobiography of Charles Darwin, edited by Nora Barlow London 1958, p. 49. 3 " Observations on the nature and importance of Geology ", Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, vol. 1, 1826, p. 293. ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES 37 could use, and the late Dr P. Helveg Jespersen has pointed out 1 that Grant shocked Darwin at the time by displaying scientific jealousy when he told Darwin that it was very unfair of him to work on the eggs of Flustra, material on which Grant was then engaged. There are other cases in which Darwin simply forgot to mention his informants. The most striking case of this was his omission of the name of Wallace from the summary in the first edition of the Origin of Species. 2 In 1859 when writing 3 to Lyell about the succession of forms, Darwin forgot that he had himself published a paper on this subject in 1837. In i860 when writing 4 to Baden Powell he excused himself for not having given a list of his predecessors who rejected special creation, saying that he had attempted no history of the subject ; yet later on the same day he remembered that he had a year or two previously drafted a Historical Sketch for his large work on evolution, in which Powell's name was mentioned with honour. All subsequent editions of the Origin contained the Historical Sketch. In 1880 when writing 5 to Samuel Butler about his introduction to Dr Krause' book on Erasmus Darwin, Darwin forgot that he had struck out a passage in proof which unintentionally altered the meaning of a footnote. The only reason for mentioning these details is that they show, as Professor Eiseley has pointed out, that Darwin for all his eminence and genius was not different from other men ; and his Notebooks are like that of any other beginner casting around for facts with which to spin a hypothesis and by which to refute or establish it. SUMMARY OF DARWIN'S CONCLUSIONS IN THE FIRST NOTEBOOK ON TRANSMUTATION In order to provide a succinct account of the conclusions to which Darwin had arrived by February 1838, the following summary has been drawn up, leaving out all reference to subjects and questions on which he wanted further information or had not yet made up his mind. The page references are to the manuscript of the First Notebook. " Definition of Species : one that remains at large with constant character . . . Species may be good ones and differ scarcely in any external character . . . Between species from moderately distant countries there is no test but generation whether good species " (pp. 212, 213). Variation is observed between the progeny of parents reproducing by sexual methods. No variation is observed among the progeny of stocks reproducing by asexual methods such as budding, fission, or grafts. Therefore " generation ", which means sexual reproduction, is a mechanism whereby variation can be pro- duced (p. 3). Fully-developed organisms have difficulty in varying, but sexual reproduction 1 P. H. Jespersen. " Charles Darwin and Dr. Grant ", Lychnos 1948-49, vol. ii, p. 159. 2 Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, vol. 2, p. 264. 3 More Letters of Charles Darwin, edited by Francis Darwin and A. C. Seward, London 1903, vol. 1, p. 133, to which attention was called by Eiseley : Darwin's Century, p. 163. 4 " Some unpublished letters of Charles Darwin ", edited by Sir Gavin de Beer, Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, vol. 14, 1959. P- 5 2 - 5 Autobiography of Charles Darwin, edited by Nora Barlow, London 1958, p. 182. 38 DARWIN'S FIRST NOTEBOOK provides the means whereby new organisms can vary and become adapted to changed conditions, and conditions on earth have undoubtedly changed (p. 4). With this tendency of organisms to produce varying offspring by sexual repro- duction, why do species remain constant? Because interbreeding between variants in opposite directions quashes variation ; and if a pair of breeding organisms be isolated it is very doubtful if their offspring will remain constant (pp. 5, 6). There- fore the offspring of animals on separate islands should become different if they are kept isolated long enough (pp. 5, 6, 7). " As we thus believe species vary, in changing climate we ought to find representative species ". We do : e.g. Galapagos tortoises; Falkland Islands fox; English and Irish hare (p. 8). If new species result from isolation, their subsequent spread will be along rays from a centre (P- 155). In islands near continents, recent arrivals would be similar to the organisms on the mainland ; earlier arrivals might have varied provided that the original types had not continued to arrive. Examples : Galapagos Islands ; Juan Fernandez (pp. 10, 11). "Propagation" of species which means the origin of new species from other species, by descent, not by special creation, explains why on a continent there may be living species of the same type as extinct forms. Examples : Edentates in South America. " Parent of all armadilloes might be brother of Megatherium, uncle now dead", (pp. 14, 54). Origination of species by descent from a common ancestor explains why in parti- cular continents animals may have the same type of structure although the " neces- sity " for such structure may not be apparent ; but it might have been " necessary " for their common ancestor, in which case "the result would be as it is". Examples : marsupials in Australia ; antelopes in South Africa (pp. 12, 14). In the course of time, all animals may change, and the longer the time since regions were separated, the greater the difference between their animals (pp. 15, 16). The cause of variation is unknown, except that change is not the result of volition of animals but of adaptation (pp. 17, 21). If the number of species in an isolated region remains " equable ", and variation and multiplication have occurred, some species must have become extinct ; and extinc- tion of species is no more extraordinary than death of individuals (pp. 21, 22, 36). If a variety (e.g. Petise ostrich) is not well adapted for its environment, it will probably perish. If a variety is well adapted (e.g. Orpheus) it will multiply. Extinc- tion is therefore a consequence of non-adaptation (p. 38). Organisms represent an irregularly branched tree. Some branches are more branched than others, and these are the genera ; some twigs die and these are extinct species ; new twigs are formed and these are newly originated species (p. 21). Why do some genera contain aberrant species ? " Is it an index of the point whence two favourable points of organization commenced branching ?" (p. 28). If a population remains constant in numbers, say 2000, then 400 years ago perhaps 150 people were the progenitors of the 2000 alive today. This means that there was a selection of ancestors with long progeniture. Unless the population increases greatly, it is very unlikely that any one man of ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES 39 a family of 12 will have offspring living 10,000 years hence. If this is true, the larger the group of organisms, the greater will be the gaps between them and the wider their divergence (pp. 40, 42, 146). In Marsupials the splitting into orders analogous to carnivores, rodents, etc. can be seen just beginning (p. 141). There is no justification for denying that mammals and fish may have a common ancestor when such strange intermediate forms as the platypus exist (p. 97). " I cannot for a moment doubt but what Cetacea and Phocea now replace Saurians of Secondary epoch ". This is the principle of the occupation of ecological niches (p. 206). " My theory will make me deny the creation of any new quadrupeds since days of Didelphys in Stonesfield." (p. 219). If species are specially created, were South American and African species created on Tristan d'Acunha merely because it lies between Africa and South America, or to deceive man, like fossils in old formations? What was the creative power that was to create species on the Galapagos islands doing before those islands emerged above the sea? (pp. 98, 194, 218). " Absolute knowledge that species die and others replace them. Two hypotheses : fresh creations is mere assumption ; points gained if any facts are connected." (p. 104). " The Grand question which every naturalist ought to have before him when dissecting a whale, or classifying a mite, a grampus or an insect is What are the Laws of Life? " (p. 229). SUBJECTS TREATED IN THE FIRST NOTEBOOK The chief subjects included in the extant portion of the Notebook are : — repro- duction, variation, constancy of variation, causes of variation, heredity, prepotency in crosses, hybridization, breeding-barriers, isolation, geographical distribution, centres of origin of species, conditions of life, radiation, ecological niches, means of transport, taxonomy, instincts, morphology, parasitology, palaeontology, geology, extinction, divergence. Only the briefest references are made to the struggle for existence, selection, and adaptation. The chief subjects missing are artificial selection, domestic breeds, conditions of domestication, inadequacy of climatic or other environmental conditions to account for resemblance and differences between floras and faunas, principle of gradations, sterility, imperfection of the geological record, affinities and classification, embryonic resemblance, vestigial organs, inheritance of effects of use and disuse. How far these may have been included in the missing pages is hard to determine. The chief impression left after comparing the First Notebook with the Sketch of 1842 is that the latter is imbued with a dynamic background of necessitation which the extant portion of the former lacks. It is here that the effect of reading Malthus's work in October 1838 may most probably be discerned. The principle of selection of better adapted variants is present in the First Notebook (p. 38), but it is presented statically without indication of its universal compelling force. 40 DARWIN'S FIRST NOTEBOOK Why this should be so, in spite of the fact that the struggle for existence was well known to Darwin from the works of Erasmus Darwin, Lamarck, and Lyell, was probably because Malthus was the first to state the problem quantitatively, stressing the discrepancy between the arithmetical rate of increase of food supplies and the geometrical rate of potential increase of organisms. It is in this light that the words should be read which Darwin wrote 1 in 1876 : "In October 1838, that is, fifteen months after I had begun my systematic inquiry, I happened to read for amusement " Malthus on Population ", and being well prepared to appreciate the struggle for existence which every where goes on from long-continued observation of the habits of animals and plants, it at once struck me that under these circumstances variations would tend to be preserved, and unfavourable ones to be destroyed. The result of this would be the formation of new species. Here then I had at last got a theory by which to work ". The clock had been provided with a mainspring. There is another point on which the First Notebook throws light, for it contains a splendid discussion of the principle of branching and sub-branching of the evolu- tionary tree (pp. 21, 22), and this shows that Darwin had already grasped fully the principle of divergence. This emerges also from his query whether Geoff roy- Saint-Hilaire visualized evolution as having taken place in straight or in branching lines (p. 113). The question naturally arises how this is to be reconciled with Darwin's statement 2 written in 1876 referring to the Essay of 1844 : " But at that time I overlooked one problem of great importance. . . . This problem is the tendency in organic beings descended from the same stock to diverge in character as they become modified ". In trying to explain this discrepancy, Sir Francis Darwin 3 was mistaken in thinking that descent with modification necessarily implies divergence ; evolution might take place along single lines without any divergence at all. The explanation emerges from a close attention to the Origin of Species [6th ed. World's Classics p. 112] where the problem is stated more forcibly : " How, then, does the lesser difference between varieties become augmented into the greater difference between species?" The problem is not only that of branching or splitting a species into two but of widening the split. 4 What Darwin was referring to in 1876 was not the fact of divergence, for this was clearly stated in the First Notebook, but to a causal explanation of how it occurs and increases. This is also clear from the Origin [p. 113] : — " The more diversified the descendants from any one species become in structure, constitution and habits, by so much will they be better enabled to seize on many and widely diversified places in the polity of nature." Darwin's other Notebooks on Transmutation of Species will be transcribed and printed in subsequent Numbers of this Bulletin. 1 Autobiography of Charles Darwin, edited by Nora Barlow London 1958, p. 120. 2 Ibid. p. 120. 3 Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, vol. 2, p. 15. 4 The date when Darwin hit on the solution of the problem of divergence ("I can remember the very spot on the road, whilst in my carriage, when to my joy the solution occurred to me," Autob. p. 120), may be placed in 1852 because of a letter from Darwin to George Bentham dated 19 June 1863 (Life &■ Letters, iii, p. 26) : "I believe it was fifteen years after I began before I saw the meaning and cause of the divergence of the descendants of any one pair." If the " beginning " was in 1837, the solution came in 1852. CHARLES DARWIN'S FIRST NOTEBOOK ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES 1837-1838 Inside cover C. DARWIN All useful pages cut out. Dec. 7 /1856/. (and again looked through April 21, 1873). 1 This Book was commenced about July 1837 I P- 2 35 was written in January 1 1838, I perhaps ended in beginning of February. ZOONOMIA Two kinds of generation : the coeval kind — all individuals absolutely similar ; for instance, fruit trees, probably polypi, gemmiparous propagation, bisection of Planariae etc. etc. The ordinary kind which is a longer process, the new individual passing through several stages (? typical or shortened repetition of what the original molecule has 2 done). — This appears I highest office in organisation (especially in lower animals, where mind and therefore relation to other life has not come into play) — seeZoonomia 2 arguments, fails in hybrids, where every thing else is perfect ; mother apparently only born to breed, — annuals rendered perennial etc. etc. — Yet eunuch, nor cut stallions, nor nurses are longer lived. Why is life short, why such high object — generation. — We know world subject to cycle of change, temperature and all circumstances, 3 which I influence living beings. We see the young of living beings become permanently changed or subject to variety, according to circumstance, — seeds of plants sown in rich soil, many kinds are pro- duced, though new individuals produced by buds are constant ; hence we see genera- tion here seems a means to vary or adaptation. — Again we know, in course of 4 generation even mind and instinct becomes influenced. | Child of savage not civilized man. — Birds rendered wild generations acquire ideas ditto. V. Zoonomia. — There may be unknown difficulty with full grown individual with fixed organisation thus being modified, — therefore generation to adapt and alter the race to changing world. — On other hand, generation destroys the effect of accidental injuries, which if 5 animals lived for ever would be endless | (that is with our present system of body and universe. — Therefore final cause of life). With this tendency to vary by generation, why are species all constant over whole country. Beautiful law of inter-marriages partaking of characters of both parents and then infinite in number. 1 On this first page Darwin wrote a series of figures in running vertical order, and subsequently scored them out ; they were : 26, 30, 41, 46, 50, 54, 66, 67, 69, 76, 79, 91, 93, 107 Ireland, 113, 117. 2 Erasmus Darwin. Zoonomia ; or, the laws of organic life, London 1794, vol. 1, p. 487 : " This paternal offspring of vegetables, I mean their buds and bulbs, is attended with a very curious circumstance : and that is, that they exactly resemble their parents, as is observable in grafting fruit-trees, and the propagating flower-roots ; whereas the seminal offspring of plants, being supplied with nutriment by the mother, is liable to perpetual variation." hist. 2, 2 27§§ 42 DARWIN'S FIRST NOTEBOOK 6 In man it has been | said, there is instinct for opposites to like each other. Aegyptian cats and dogs, ibis — same as formerly, but separate a pair and place them on fresh island, it is very doubtful whether they would remain constant ; is it not said that marrying-in deteriorates a race, that is alters it from some end which is good for man. — | 7 Let a pair be introduced and increase slowly, from many enemies, so as often to intermarry — who will dare say what result. According to this view animals on separate islands, ought to become different if kept long enough apart, with slightly different] circumstances. — Now Galapagos tortoises, mocking birds, Falkland fox, Chiloe fox. — English and Irish Hare. — | 8 As we thus believe species vary, in changing climate we ought to find representative species ; this we do in South America closely approaching. — But as they inosculate, we must suppose the change is effected at once, — something like a variety produced 9 — every grade in that case [it] seems is not | produced? — Species according to Lamarck 1 disappear as collection made perfect. — Truer even than in Lamarck's time. Gray's 2 remark, best known species (as some common land shells) most difficult to separate. [Difference in] Every character continues to vanish, — bones, instinct etc. etc. etc. | io Non-fertility of hybridity etc. etc. If species (i) may be derived from form (2) etc., — then (remembering Lyell's 3 arguments of transportal) island near continents might have some species same 11 as nearest land, which were late arrivals, | others old ones (of which none of same kind had in interval arrived) might have grown altered. Hence the type would be of the continent, though species all different. — 2 cases as Galapagos and Juan Fernandez. When continent of Pacific existed, might have been monsoons. When they ceased, 12 importation ceased and | changes commenced ; — or intermediate land existed ; — or they may represent some large country long separated. — On this idea of propagation of species we can see why a form peculiar to continents, 13 — all bred in from one parent. Why Megathera several | species in S. America? why 2 [species] of ostriches in S. America. — This is answer to Decandolle 4 (his argument applies only to hybridity) : genera being usually peculiar to same country, different genera — different countries. | 14 Propagation explains why modern animals — same type as extinct, which is law almost proved. — We can see why structure is common in certain countries when 1 Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck. Philosophic Zoologique, Paris 1809, vol. 1, p. 75 : "a mesure que nos collections s'enrichissent, nous voyons presque tous les vides se remplir et nos lignes de separation s'effacer . . . plus nous rencontrons de preuves que tout est nuance, que les differences remarquables s'eVanouissent." 2 John Edward Gray. Probably personal communication. 3 Charles Lyell. Principles of Geology, vol. 2, London 1832, pp. 96-104. 4 Augustin-Pyramus de Candolle. Essai elementaire de geographic botanique, Strasbourg 1820, p. 60 : " Les differences constantes des v£g£taux nes dans diverses regions ne semblent se rapporter ni a l'une ni a l'autre de ces classes [= produites par les elemens exterieurs + formers par l'hybridite] on ne peut les attribuer aux circonstances externes, ... on ne peut les attribuer a l'hybridite. . . . [Les] especes sont distributes sur le globe en partie d'apr^s des lois qu'on peut immediatement deduire de la combinaison des lois connues de la physiologie et de la physique, en partie d'apres les lois qui paroissent tenir a l'origine des choses et qui nous sont inconnues." [This question was discussed by Lyell, Principles of Geology, vol. 2, London 1832, p. 56.] ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES 43 we can hardly believe necessary, but if it was necessary to one forefather, the result 15 would be as it is. — Hence antelopes at C. of Good Hope and | Marsupials at Aus- tralia. — Will this apply to whole organic Kingdom when our planet first cooled. — Countries longest separated — greatest differences, — if separated from immersage, possibly two distinct type[s], but each having its representatives — as in Australia This presupposes time when no mammalia existed ; Australia ; Mamm[alia] were produced from propagation from different set as the rest of the world. — | 16 This view supposes that in course of ages, and therefore changes, every animal has tendency to change. — This difficult to prove cats etc. from Egypt no answer, because time short and no great change has happened. — 17 I look at two Ostriches as strong argument of possibility of such | change ; as we see them in space, so might they in time. — As I have before said, isolate species, especially with some change, probably vary quicker. — 18 Unknown causes of change. Volcanic island. — Electricity. | Each species changes. Does it progress. Man gains ideas. The simplest cannot help becoming more complicated ; and if we look to first origin, there must be progress. If we suppose monads are constantly formed, would they not be pretty similar 19 over whole world under | similar climates and as far as world has been uniform at former epoch. How on this Ehrenberg? 1 Every successive animal is branching upwards different types of organisation improving as Owen 2 says simplest coming in and most perfect and others occasionally 20 dying out ; for instance, secondary terebratula may | have propagated recent terebratula, but Megatherium nothing. We may look at Megatherium, Armadillos and Sloths as all offsprings of some still older type. Some of the branches dying out. — With this tendency to change (and to multiplication when isolated) requires 21 deaths of species to keep numbers | of forms equable. But is there any reason for supposing number of forms equable : This being due to subdivisions and amount of differences, so forms would be about equally numerous. — Changes not result of will of animals, but law of adaptation as much as acid and alkali. Organized beings represent a tree, irregularly branched ; some branches far more branched, — hence genera. — As many terminal buds dying, as new ones generated. | 22 There is nothing stranger in death of species, than individuals. If we suppose monad definite existence, as we may suppose in this case, their creation being dependent on definite laws ; then those, which have changed most, 23 owing to the accident of positions must in each state of existence have shortest | life. Hence shortness of life of Mammalia. — 1 Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg. Die fossilen Infusorien und die lebendige Dammerde, Berlin 1837. 2 Richard Owen. Probably personal communication. 44 DARWIN'S FIRST NOTEBOOK Would there not be a triple branching in the tree of life owing to three elements — air, land and water, and the endeavour of each typical class to extend his domain 24 into the other domains and subdivision [s] three more double arrangement. — | If each main stem of the tree is adapted for these three elements, there will be cer- tainly points of affinity in each branch. A species as soon as once formed by separation or change in part of country, repugnance to intermarriage — settles it. | 25 ? We need think that fish and penguins really pass into each other. — The tree of life should perhaps be called the coral of life, base of branches dead, so that passages cannot be seen. — [fig. 1] 26 This again offers | no [(] only makes it excessively complicated [)] Contradiction to constant succession of genera in progress. \/ • • Fig. 1 Fig. 2 Is it thus fish can be traced right down to simple organization. — Birds — not. [fig. 2] 27 I We may fancy according to shortness of life of species that in perfection the bottom of branches deaden, — so that in mammalian tree it would only appear like circles, and insects amongst articulate, — but in lower classes perhaps a more linear arrange- ment. — I 28 ? How is it that there come aberrant species in each genus (with well characterised parts belonging to each) approaching another. Petrels have divided themselves into many species, so have the awks [auks], there is particular circumstance, to which. *- Is it an index of the point, whence two favourable points of organization commenced branching. — | 29 As all the species of some genera have died, have they all one determinate life dependent on genus, the genus upon another, whole class would die out therefore. 30 [remainder of page excised] | [beginning of page exised] In island neighbouring conti- nent where some species have passed over, and where other species have " air " of 31 that place, will it be said those have been then created there : — I Are not all our ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES 45 British shrews different] species from the continent. Look over Bell 1 and L. Jenyns. 2 Falkland rabbit may perhaps be instance of domesticated animals having effected, a change which the Fr[ench] naturalists thought was species. Study Lesson 3 — Voyage of Coquille. — | 32 Dr Smith 4 says he is certain that when white man and Hottentots or Negroes cross at C[ape] of Good Hope, the children cannot be made intermediate. The first children partake more of the mother, the later ones of the father ; is not this owing to each copulation producing its effect ; as when bitches ' puppies are less purely bred owing to having once born mongrels. He has thus seen the black blood come out from the grandfather (when the mother was nearly quite white) in the two first children. How is this in West Indies — Humboldt, 5 New Spain. — | 33 Dr Smith 6 always urges the distinct locality or metropolis of every species ; believes in repugnance in crossing of species in wild state. — No doubt CD. 7 wild men do not cross readily, distinctness of tribes in T.del Fuego. The existence of whiter tribes in centre of S. America shows this. — Is there a ten- dency in plants hybrids to go back? — If so man and plants together would establish law as above stated : no one can doubt that less trifling differences are blended | 34 by intermarriages, then the black and white is so far gone, that the species (for species they certainly are according to all common language) will keep to their type : in animals so far removed with instinct in lieu of reason there would probably be repugnance and art required to make marriage. — As Dr Smith 8 remarked man and wild animals in this respect are differently circumstanced. — | 35 ? Is the shortness of life of species in certain orders connected with gaps in the series of connection! if starting from same epoch certainly. The absolute end of certain forms from considering S. America [independent of external causes) does appear very probable : — Mem.: Horse, Llama, etc. etc. If we grant similarity of animals in one country owing to springing from one branch, and the monucle has definite life, then all die at one period, which is not .'. MONUCULE NOT DEFINITE LIFE. | 36 I think Case must be that one generation then should have as many living as now. 1 Thomas Bell. A History of British Quadrupeds, London 1837. O n P- xv *" there is a notice pointing out that the Sorex araneus of British authors is not the S. araneus of the continent. Ellerman & Morrison- Scott {Checklist of Palaearctic & Indian Mammals, London 1 951, p. 51) accord the status of a geographical race to the British Sorex araneus castaneus Jenyns 1838. 2 Leonard Jenyns, afterwards Blomefield. A Manual of British Vertebrate Animals, London 1835, p. 17 : " incisors deep feruginous brown* * This circumstance together with one or two others, induces me to suspect that the S. araneus of the continental authors may be distinct from ours." This suspicion was verified by Jenyns in his paper " Further remarks on the British shrews ", Ann. Nat. Hist., vol. 1, p. 417 ; especially p. 424. 3 Rene-Primevere Lesson & Prosper Garnot. Voyage autour du monde . . . sur ... la Coquille, pendant . . . 1822-1825. Zoologie, Paris 1826-30. 4 Dr, later Sir Andrew Smith. Personal friend of Darwin who met him in South Africa in June 1836. 5 Friedrich Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt. Political essay on the Kingdom of New Spain, transl. from the original French by John Black, New York 181 1. 6 Andrew Smith. Report of the expedition for exploring Central Africa from the Cape of Good Hope, June 23 1834, under the superintendence of Dr. A. Smith, Cape Town, 1836. Appendix, p. 39 : " most of the species we met with, appeared to have each a natural or chosen domicile, where an evident congre- gation of its members existed." 7 Charles Darwin. Journal of Researches, (London 1839), p. 236 : " each [tribe] is surrounded by other hostile ones, speaking different dialects." 8 Andrew Smith. Probably personal communication. 46 DARWIN'S FIRST NOTEBOOK To do this and to have many species in same genus (as is), requires extinction, [fig. 3] Thus between A and B immens[e] gap of relation, [between] C and B the finest gradation, [between] B and D rather greater distinction. Thus genera would be 37 formed, — bearing relation | to ancient types, — with several extinct forms, for if each species as ancient (1) is capable of making 13 recent forms. Twelve of the contemporaries must have left no offspring at all, so as to keep number of species constant. — With respect to extinction we can easily see that variety of ostrich Petise may not be well adapted, and thus perish out, or on other hand like Orpheus being favour- 38 able, I many might be produced. This requires principle that the permanent varieties, produced by confined breeding and changing circumstances are continued and produce according to the adaptation of such circumstances, and therefore that Fig- 3 death of species is a consequence (contrary to what would appear from America) | 39 of non-adaptation of circumstances. — Vide two pages back Diagram. The largeness of present genera renders it probable that many contemporary [genera] would have left scarcely any type of their existence in the present world. — Or we may suppose only each species in each generation only breeds, like individuals in a country not rapidly increasing. — | 40 If we thus go very far back to look to the source of the Mammalian type of organiza- tion, it is extremely inprobable that any of the successors of his relations shall now exist. ■ — In same manner, if we take a man from any large family of 12 brothers and sisters 41 in a state which does not increase, | it will be chances against any one of them having progeny living ten thousand years hence ; because at present day many are relatives, so that by tracing back the fathers would be reduced to small percentage : — there- fore the chances are excessively great against any two of the 12 having progeny after that distant period. — I ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES 47 42 Hence if this is true that the greater the groups the greater the gaps (or solutions of continuous structure) between them. — for instance, there would be great gap 43 between birds and mammalia, still greater between | vertebrate and articulate, still greater between animals and plants. — But yet besides affinities from three elements, from the infinite variations, and all coming from one stock and obeying one law, they may approach — some birds may approach animals and some of the vertebrate invertebrate. — Such or few on 44 each side will yet present some anomaly and bearing | stamp of some great main type, and the gradation will be sudden. — Heaven know whether this agrees with Nature : Cuidado! The above speculations are applicable to non-progressive development, which certainly is the case at least during subsequent ages. — | 45 The Creator has made tribes of animals, adapted preeminently for each element, but it seems law that such tribes, as far as compatible with such structure, are in minor degree adapted for other elements. Every part would probably be not complete, if birds were fitted solely for air and fishes for water. — 46 If my idea of origin of | Quinarian system 1 is true, it will not occur in plants which are in far larger proportion terrestrial, — if in any in the Cryptogamic flora. — but not atmospheric type hence probably only four, is not this Fries 2 rule, what subject has Mr Newman the (7) man 3 studied. The condition of every animal is partly due to direct adaptation and partly to 47 hereditary taint ; hence the | resemblances and differences, for instance, of finches of Europe and America, etc. etc. etc. The new system of Natural History will be to describe limits of form (and where possible the number of steps known). 48 Examine good collection of insects with this in view. — | Geogr. Journal. Vol. VI, P. 11, p. 89. — Lieut. Wellsted 4 obtained many sheep from Arabian countries]. " These were of two kinds : one white with a black face, and similar to those brought from Abyssinia, and others dark brown, with long clotted hair resembling that of goats ". I 49 Progressive development gives final cause for enormous periods anterior to man. Difficult for man to be unprejudiced about self, but considering power, extending range, reason and futurity, it does as yet appear cli. [cut off] | 50 In Mr Gould['s] Australian work 5 some most curious cases of close but certainly 1 William Sharp MacLeay. Quinarian theory, see Introduction. 2 Elias Magnus Fries. Fries's rule is given in John Lindley : " Some account of the Spherical and Numerical System of M. Elias Fries," Phil. Mag. & Journ., vol. 68, Aug. 1826, p. 81 : " the founder of the system of quaternary arrangement . . . opinions are contained in the Introduction to a work published by M. Fries in 1825, under the title of Sy sterna Orbis Vegetabilis." p. 86 : " When the members of a bipartite section are again dichotomously divided upon analogous principles, four sections are created, of which the first and second, and the third and fourth, are in affinity ; but the first and third, and the second and fourth, are in analogy. But when this method of division becomes circuitous, a more direct path is undoubtedly to be discovered : hence other numbers are admitted, especially the quaternary (or double dichotomy), and also others in which dichotomy is understood." (Reference kindly supplied by W. T. Stearn). 3 Edward Newman. See Introduction. 4 Lieutenant R. Wellsted. " Observations on the Coast of Arabia between Ras Mohammed and Jiddah," Journ. Roy. Geogr. Soc, vol. 6, 1836, p. 51, especially p. 89. 5 John Gould. The Birds of Australia and the adjacent Islands, London 1837. 48 DARWIN'S FIRST NOTEBOOK distinct species between Australia and Van Diemen's land, and Australia and New Zealand. Mr Gould says in subgenera they undoubtedly come from same countries. — In mundine genera | 51-52 excised. 53 • • • and whether extinction of great S. American quadrupeds part of some great system acting over whole world, the period of great quadrupeds declining as great reptiles must have once declined. — Cuvier 1 (Read his theory of the Earth attentively) objects to propagation of species, by saying, why not have some intermediate forms been discovered between palaeo- 54 therium, megalonyx, mastodon and the species now living. — Now, according | to my view, in S. America parent of all armadilloes might be brother to Megatherium — uncle now dead. — Bulletin Geologique, april 1837, p. 216. Deshayes 2 on change in shells from Salt and F[resh] Water on what is species. Very good. Has not Macculloch 3 written on same changes in Fish. Mem. Rabbit of Falklands described by Q[uoy] and G[aimard] 4 as new species. Cuvier examined it. | 55-56 excised. 57 ... something occurs with regards to other tribes in that same family. — (NB. I see Waterhouse 5 thinks Quinary only three elements.) How far does Water- house's representatives agree with breeding in irregular trees and extinction of forms?? It is in simplest case saying every species in genus resembles each other (at least in one point, in truth in all excepting specific character) ; and in passing from species 58 to genera, each retains | some one character of all its family ; but why so? I can see no reason for these analogies ; from the principle of atavism, where real structure obliged to be altered, I can conceive colouring retained ; therefore probably in some Heteromera colouring of C[h]rysomela may be going back to common ancestor of C[h]rysom[ela] and Heterom[era], but I cannot understand the universality of such law. — I 1 Georges Cuvier. Essay on the theory of the earth, with geological illustrations by Professor Jameson, Edinburgh & London 1817, p. 102 : " Why may not the presently existing races of land quadrupeds, . . . be modifications of those ancient races which we find in a fossil state ; ... If the species have changed by degrees, we ought to find traces of these gradual modifications. Thus, between the palaeotheria and our present species, we should be able to discover some intermediate forms ; and yet no such discovery has ever been made." 2 Gerard-Paul Deshayes. Bull. Soc. Geol. France, vol. 8, 1836 a 1837, Paris 1836 [1837], p. 216 : " Dans les especes tertiaires de la Crim6e, les modifications dans les caracteres des dents de la charniere sont encore beaucoup plus nombreuses. On y observe une multitude de combinaisons dans la forme, la position, la presence ou l'absence, comme dans le plus ou moins de developpement des dents cardinales et laterales, variations que M. Deshayes attribue a un changement de milieu ; il pense que d'abord marines, ces coqui'les auront continue' de vivre dans les eaux douces qui ont remplace les eaux salves." 3 John MacCulloch. " On the possibility of changing the residence of certain fishes from salt water to fresh ", Quart. Journ. Sci., vol. 17, 1824, p. 209. 4 Jean-Rene-Constantin Quoy & Joseph-Paul Gaimard. Voyage Autour du Monde . . . Zoologie, Paris 1824, contains no description of the Falkland Islands rabbit. But Prosper Garnot : " Remarques sur la Zoologie des iles Malouines, faites pendant le Voyage autour du monde de la Corvette la Coquille," Ann. Sci. Nat., vol. 7, p. 39, contains on p. 42 a description of a rabbit " que nous croyons pouvoir considerer comme une espece nouvelle bien distincte, et que nous proposons de nommer lapin magellanique, (Lepus magellanicus Garnot)." 5 George Robert Waterhouse. " Description of some new species of exotic insects," Trans. Entom Soc. Lond., vol. 2, 1837, p. 188. On p. 190 [His views] " may go a great way to prove or disprove an exceedingly ingenious and favourite theory — I mean the circular and quinary system ; for it may happen that in the formation of this theory analogies may in some instances have been mistaken for affinities." ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES 49 59 It would be curious to know in plants (or animals) whether races have tendency to keep to either parent (this is what French call atavism). Probably this is first step in dislike to union, offspring not well intermediate. Lyell, 1 vol. Ill, p. 379. Mammalian type of organization same from one period to another, preeminently Pachidermata, less so in Miocene and so on. — | 60 As I have traced the great quadrupe[d]s to Siberia, we must look to type of organi- zation : extinct species of that country — parents of American. — Now genera of these two countries ought to be similar. — | 61 ? Law : existence definite without change, superinduced, or new species. Therefore animals would perish if there was nothing in country to superinduce a change? | 62 Seeing animals[s] die out in S. America with no change, agrees with belief that Siberian animals lived in cold countries and therefore not killed by cold countries. Seeing how horse and elephant reached S. America, — explain how zebras reached South Africa. — 63 It is a wonderful fact — Horse, Elephant and Mastodon dying out | about same time in such different quarters. — Will Mr Lyell 2 say that some circumstance killed it [them] over a tract from Spain to S. America? — (Never). They die, without they change, like golden Pippins ; it is a generation of species like generation of individuals. — | 64 Why does individual die? To perpetuate certain peculiarities (therefore adaptation), and to obliterate accidental varieties, and to accomodate itself to change (for, of course change even in varieties is accomodation). Now this argument applies to species. — If individual cannot propagate, he has no issue ; so with species. — | 65 I should expect that Bears and Foxes are same in N. America and Asia ; but many species closely allied, but different, because country separated since time of extinct quadrupeds ; — same argument applies to England. — Mem. Sh[r]ew mice | 66 Animals common to South and North America. — ? Are there any} | 67 Rhinoceros peculiar to Java and another to Sumatra. — Mem. Parrots peculiar, according to Swainson, 3 to certain islets in East India archipelago. — Dr Smith 4 considers probable that northern species replace southern kinds. Gnu reaches Orange river and says : so far will I go and no further. — | 68 Prof. Henslow 5 says that when race once established, so difficult to root out. — For instance ever so many seeds of white flower all would come up white, though planted in same soil with blue. Now this is same bearing with Dr Smith's fact of races of man . . . 69-70 excised. 71 Strong odour of negroes — a point of real repugnance. — Waterhouse 6 says there is no true connection between great groups. — | 1 Charles Lyell. Principles of Geology, 5th edition, London 1837, vol. 3, p. 379. 2 Charles Lyell. Principles of Geology, 5th edition, London 1837, v °l- 3- P- I 4 2 : " Successive extinction of species consistent with their limited geographical distribution " (cross-heading) ... " They must die out ", to borrow an emphatical expression from Buff on ; " because Time fights against them." 3 William Swainson. A treatise on the geography and classification of animals, Lardner's Cabinet Cyclo- paedia, London 1835, p. 52 : " The suctorial cockatoos of Malacca, the elegant ring-necked parrakeets of the continent, and the crimson-coloured lories of the islands, are appropriated solely to these regions." 4 Andrew Smith. Probably personal communication. 5 John Stevens Henslow. Probably personal communication. 8 George Robert Waterhouse. Probably personal communication. 5 o DARWIN'S FIRST NOTEBOOK 72 Speculate on land being grouped towards centre near Equator at former periods and then splitting off. — If species generate other species, their race is not utterly cut off : — like golden pippins, if produced by seed, go on, — otherwise all die. — The fossil horse generated 73 in S. Africa zebra — and continued, — perished in America. | All animals of same species are bound together just like buds of plants, which die at one time, though produced either sooner or later. — Prove animal[s] like plants : — trace gradation between associated and non-associated animals — and the story will be complete. — | 74 It is absurd to talk of one animal being higher than another — We consider those, where the < . , ,, _. . - ,. . > most developed, as highest. — A bee doubtless ^intellectual faculties J r ° would where the instincts were [most developed] | 75-76 excised. yy There appears in Australia great abundance of species if few genera or families. — (long separated.) — Proteaceae and other forms (?) being common to Southern hemisphere. Does not look, as if S. Africa peopled from N. Africa. I 78 An originality is given (and power of adaptation is given by true generation), through means of every step of progressive increase of organization being imitated in the womb which has been passed through to form that species. — | 79 Mr Don 1 remarked to me, that he thought species became obscurer as knowledge increased, but genera stronger. Mr Waterhouse 2 says no real passage between good genera. — How remarkable spines, like on a porcupine or Echidna. — Good to study Regne animal 3 for Geography. — | 80 The motion of the earth must be excessive up and down. — Elephants in Ceylon. — East India archipelago. — West Indies. — Opossum and Agouti same as on continent — 3 Paradoxusi 4 in common to Van Diemen's Land and Australia. England and Europe, Ireland — common animals. Ireland longer separate. Hare[s] of two countries different. — Ireland and Isle of Man possessed elk, not England. Did Ireland possess mastodons?? Negative facts tell for little. — From the consideration of these archipelagos ups and downs in full conformity with European formations, — for instance, tertiary deposits between East India islets. — | 81 Geographic distribution of Mammalia more valuable than any other, because less easily transported — then plants on coral islets. — Next to animals land birds. — And life shorter or change greater. — In the East Indian Archipelago it would be interesting to trace limits of large animals. — | 82 Owls : transport mice alive? Species formed by subsidence. Java and Sumatra. Rhinoceros. Elevate and join keep distinct, two species made ; elevation and subsidence continually forming species. — The male animal, affecting all the progeny of female, insures often mixing of individuals. | 1 George Don. Probably personal communication. 2 George Robert Waterhouse. Probably personal communication. 8 Georges Cuvier. Le Rigne animal, Paris 1829. 4 i.e., platypus (Ornithorhynchus paradoxus). ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES 51 83 South Africa — proof of subsidence and recent elevation : pray ask Dr Smith 1 to state that most clearly. — Fox 2 tells me, that beyond all doubt seeds of Ribstone Pippins produce Ribstone Pippins, and Golden Pippins — goldens ; hence sub-varieties and hence possibility of reproducing any variety, although many of the seeds will go back. Get instances of a variety of fruit tree or plant run wild in foreign country. Here we have avitism the ordinary event and succession the extraordinary. | 84 When one sees nipple on man's breast, one does not say some use, but sex not having been determined ; — so with useless wings under elytra of beetles, born from beetles with wings and modified, — if simple creation, surely would have [been] born without them. — | 85 In some of the lower orders a perfect gradation can be found from forms marking good genera by steps so insensible that each is not more change than we know varieties can produce. — Therefore all genera MAY have had intermediate steps. Quote in detail some good instance. 86 But it is other question whether there | have existed all those intermediate steps, especially in those classes, where species not numerous. (NB. In those classes with few species greatest jumps — strongest marked genera ? Reptiles?). For instance, 87 there never may have been grade between pig and tapir, yet from some | common progenitor. — Now if the intermediate links had produced infinite species, probably the series would have been more perfect, because in each there is possibility of such organization. (Spines in Echidna and Hedgehog.) — 88 As we have one Marsupial animal in Stonesfield slate, the father of all | mammalia in ages long gone past and still more so known with fishes and reptiles. — In mere eocene rocks we can only expect some steps. — I may ask whether the 89 series is not more perfect by the discovery of fossil Mammalia than before, | and that is all that can be expected. This answers Cuvier. 3 — Perhaps the father of Mammalia as heterodox as Ornithorhynchus. If this last animal bred — might not new classes be brought into play. — j 90 The father being climatized — climatizes the child? — Whether every animal produces in course of ages ten thousand varieties (influenced itself perhaps by cir- cumstances) and those alone preserved which are well adapted? This would account for each tribe acting as in vacuum to each other. | 91 p. 306. — Chamisso 4 on Kamtchatka quadrupeds. Kotzebues 5 first Voyage. Entomological Magazine, paper 6 on Geographical range. Copied with list. Richardson's 7 Fauna Borealis. 1 Andrew Smith. " 1836 June 1-15 ... with Dr A. Smith who has lately returned from his most interesting expedition to beyond the Tropic, I took some long geological rumbles." Charles Darwin's Diary of the Voyage of the Beagle, edited by Nora Barlow, Cambridge 1934, P- 4°9- 2 William Darwin Fox. Probably personal communication. 3 Georges Cuvier. Essay on the Theory of the Earth, Edinburgh and London 1817, p. 102. 4 Adelbert von Chamisso. In A Voyage of Discovery into the South Sea and Beering's Straits, etc. by Otto von Kotzebue, (Remarks and Opinions of the Naturalist of the Expedition Chamisso) vol. 3, London 1821, p. 306. 5 Otto von Kotzebue. A Voyage of Discovery into the South Sea and Beering's Straits etc., London 1821. « " Delta ". "Thoughts on the Geographical Distribution of Insects ", Entomol. Mag., London 1835, vol. 2, pp. 44, 280. 7 Sir John Richardson. Fauna B or eali- Americana ; or the zoology of the northern parts of British America, London, 1829-1837. 52 DARWIN'S FIRST NOTEBOOK It is important the possibility of some islands not having large quadrupeds. — | 92 Humboldt 1 has written on the geography of plants : Essai sur la Geographie des Plantes. I vol. in 4 . I have abstracted Mr Swainson's 2 tract at beginning of Volume on geographical distribution of animals. | 93 Geograph. Journal, 3 vol. I, p. 17-21, says from Swan river long south coast, all the remarkable Australian genera collected together. — Man has no hereditary prejudices or wishes to conquer or breed together. — Man has no limits to desire, in proportion instinct more, reason less, so will aversion be. | 94 L'Institut, 4 1837, No. 246, a section of fossil " singe ", it cannot be made to approach the Colobus, which in South Africa appear to represent the semnopitheque of India. — Tooth of Sapajou, — NB. Sapajou is S. American form : therefore it is 95 like case of great edentate (has been doubted?) | and opossum, found in Europe, now confined to southern hemisphere. — If these facts were established it would go to show a centrum for Mammalia. — I really think a very strong case might be made out of world before Zoological divisions. Man : species doubtful when known only by bones. Mem. Silurian fossils :? how are South American shells? | 96 Do not plants, which have male and female organs together, yet receive influence from other plants — Does not Lyell 5 give some argument about varieties being difficult to keep on account of pollen from other plants because this may be applied to show all plants do receive intermixture. — But how with hermaphrodite shells!!!? | 97 We have not the slightest right to say, there never was common progenitor to mammalia and fish, when there now exist such strange forms as ornithorhync[h]us. — The type of organization constant in the shells. — | 98 The question if creative power acted at Galapagos, it so acted that birds with plumage and tone of idea purely American, North and South, — so permanent a breath cannot reside in space before island existed. — Such an influence must exist in such spots. We know birds do arrive and seeds. (And geographical division are arbitrary and not permanent. This might be made very strong if we believe 1 Friedrich Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt. Essai sur la geographie des plantes, Paris 1805. [ = Vol. 2 Part V of Humboldt, F. H. A. von, & Bonpland, A. J. A.: — Voyage aux regions e'quinoxiales du Nouveau Continent, fait en 1799-1804, Paris 1805-1837]. 2 William Swainson. A Treatise on the Geography and Classification of Animals. Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopaedia, London 1835, chapter I. 3 Robert Brown. " General view of the botany of the vicinity of Swan River," Journ. Roy. Geogr. Soc, vol. 1, p. 18 ; " this portion of the shores of New Holland, extending from Swan River on the West coast to Middle Island ... on the south coast, may be said to contain the greatest proportion of those genera which form the chief peculiarities of New Holland Vegetation." 4 William Martin. L'Institut, Paris vol. 6, 1838, No. 246, p. 300. [This paper was not published until 13th September 1838. It refers to a paper read before the Zoological Society of London on nth July 1837 : " Mr. Martin then laid before the meeting the following observations on the Proboscis Monkey, or ' Guenon a long nez ' " Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., Part V, 1837, p. 70. There is no number 246 of the Institut in 1837. Darwin's reference therefore must be incorrect. The paper referred to here contains no reference to fossil monkeys. There are several references to fossil monkeys in L'Institut in 1837, but none on page 246, and none refers to Colobus.] 5 Charles Lyell. Principles of Geology, London 1832, vol. 2, p. 33 : varieties of cultivated plants cannot originate nor be maintained without the intervention of man, because " it is only by strong manures that these varieties have been obtained, and in poorer soils they instantly degenerate." But even if the manure supply were kept up by herds of wild animals the varieties could not be maintained because of cross- pollination. ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES 53 the Creator creates by any laws, which I think is shown by the very facts of the geological character of these islands.) | 99 The same remarks applicable to fossil animals same type, — armadillos like every created [edentate]. — Passage for vertebrae in neck — same cause ; such beautiful adaptation, yet other animals live so well. — This kind of propagation gives hiding- place for many unintelligible structures — it might have been of use in progenitor, or it may be of use, — like mammae on men's breast. — | 100 How does it come wandering birds such [as] sandpipers not new at Galapagos. — Did the creative force know these species could arrive — did it only create those kinds not so likely to wander — did it create two species closely allied to Mus[cicapa] coronata, but not coronata. — We know that domestic animals vary in countries without any assignable reason. | 101 Astronomers might formerly have said that God ordered each planet to move in its particular destiny. In same manner God orders each animal created with certain form in certain country, but how much more simple and sublime power let attraction act according to certain law, such are inevitable consequences — let animal be created, 102 then by the fixed laws of generation, such will be their successors. | Let the powers of transportal be such, and so will be the forms of one country to another. — Let geological changes go at such a rate, so will be the number and distribution of the species!! j 103 It may be argued representative species chiefly found where barriers or what are barriers by interruption of communication, or when country changes. Will it [be] said that volcanic soil at Galapagos under equator, that external conditions would produce species so close as Patagonian and Galapagos Orpheus. — Put this strong so many thousand miles distant. — | 104 Absolute knowledge that species die and others replace them. — Two hypotheses : fresh creations is mere assumption, it explains nothing further ; points gained if any facts are connected. 1 — No doubt in birds ; mundine genera are birds, (bats, foxes, Mus) that are apt to 105 wander and of easy transportal. — Waders and | waterfowl — scrutinize genera and draw up tables. — Instincts may confine certain birds which have wide power of flight ; but are there any genera, mundine, which cannot transport easily. It would have been wonderful if the two Rhea had existed in different continents. — In plants I believe not. — | 106 It is a very great puzzle why Marsupials and Edentata should only have left offsprings in or near South Hemisphere. Were they produced in several places and died off in some? Why did not fossil horse breed in S. America. It will not do to say period unfavourable to large quadrupeds, horse not large. — | 107-108 excised. 109 . . . but not vice versa. (Could plants live without carbonic acid gas. Yet un- questionably animals most dependent on vegetables of the two great kingdoms. | no Principes de Zool. Philosoph. 2 : — I deduce from extreme difficulty of hypothesis 1 This is an early appearance of the argument frequently used by Darwin to the effect that the value of a hypothesis increases with the number of facts which it explains. 2 Etienne Geoff roy-Saint-Hilaire. Principes de Philosophie Zoologique, Paris 1830, pp. 54 ff. (hypothesis that Cephalopod molluscs provided a link between invertebrates and vertebrates). 54 DARWIN'S FIRST NOTEBOOK of connecting mollusca and vertebrata, that there must be very great gaps. — Yet some analogy. The existence of plants and their passage to animals appears greatest argument against theory of analogies. | in [Saint-Hilaire] states there is but one animal, 1 one set of organ[s] ; the others [he] assumes created with endless differences : — does not say propagated, but must have concluded so — Evidently or hints considers generation as a short process by which one animal passes from worm to man highest or typical of changes which can be traced in same organ in different animals in scale. — In monsters also organs | 112 of lower animals appear. — Yet nothing about propagation — I see nothing like grandfather of Mammalia and birds — &c. p. 32, reference to M[ilne] Edwards' 2 law of Crustacea with respect to mouth, those beautiful passages from one to other organ. — Cuvier 3 on opposite side ; 1st vol of Fish. p. 59. Cuvier 4 has said each animal made for itself does not agree with old and modern types being constant. Cuvier 's 5 theory of Conditions of existence is thought to account [for] resemblances and .\ quinary system, on three elements, p. 66. | 113 With unknown limits, every tribe appears fitted for as many situations as possible ; conditions will not explain states, for instance, take birds, animals, reptiles, fish. — (Perhaps consideration of range of capabilities past and present might tell something.) p. in. G. St. Hilaire Insects and Molluscs allowed to be wide hiatus : states in one the sanguineous system, in other nervous developed. 6 (Owen's idea). States these class[es] approach on the confines? Balanida? I cannot understand whether S.H. thinks development in quite straight line or branching. — | 114 S.H. What does the expression mean used by Cuvier, 7 that all animals (though 1 Etienne Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire. Principes de Philosophic Zoologique, Paris 1830, p. 22 : " il n'est plus d'animaux divers. Un seul fait les domine, c'est comme un seul etre qui apparait." Ibid. p. 214 : " II n'y a done pas plusieurs animaux, a proprement parler, mais un. seul animal, dont les organes varient dans la forme, l'usage et le volume, mais dont les materiaux restent toujours les memes, au milieu de ces surprenantes metamorphoses." 2 Henri Milne-Edwards. " Sur l'organisation de la bouche chez les crustaces suceurs (1830) Ann. Sci. Nat., vol. 28, 1833, p. 78 : transformation of normal mouth with mandibles and maxillae into sucking tube, elongated, but " la composition organique decrite est toujours restee analogique. Les memes elemens constituans sont retrouv^s dans Tun et l'autre cas ; c'est une tendance remarquable a l'uniformite de composition." 3 Georges Cuvier. Darwin made this note from E. Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire's Principes de Philosophic Zoologique, Paris 1830, p. 57, where Cuvier is quoted as saying " Tout nouvellement encore, dans le premier volume de mon Histoire des Poissons, j'ai exprime mon sentiment a ce sujet, sans doute avec le ton mod£re que les sciences reclament, et avec la politesse qui appartient a tout homme bien eleve." 4 Georges Cuvier. Darwin made this note from Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire ; Principes de Philosophic Zoolo- gique, Paris 1830, p. 59 where Cuvier's earlier article on " Nature ", in Levraut's Dictionnaire des sciences naturelles is quoted : — " Ces vues d'unite sont renouvelees d'une vieille erreur n£e au sein du pantheisme, etant principalement enfantee par une idee de causalite, par la supposition inadmissible que tons les itres sont cries en vue les uns des autres ; cependant chaque etre est fait pour soi." 5 This reference appears to be to Etienne Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire, Principes de Philosophic Zoologique p. 66 on which there is a footnote by St Hilaire (referring to Conditions) on Cuvier's argument about resemblance. 6 Etienne Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire. Principes de Philosophic Zoologique, Paris 1830, p. 111 : " Le systeme sanguin est en exces et au contraire le systeme nerveux est frapp6 d 'atropine chez les mollusques ; c'est l'inverse chez les insectes." Loi de compensation. 7 Georges Cuvier. Darwin appears to be quoting from E. Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire Principes de Philosophic Zoologique, Paris 1830, p. 56 where Cuvier is quoted as saying : " j'ai toujours soutenu que le plan, qui jusqu'a un certain point est commun aux vert£br6s, ne se continue pas chez les mollusques." Cf. also Le regne animal, Paris 1829, vol. 1 p. 48 : " on trouvera qu'il existe quatre formes principales, quatre plans generaux, si Ton peut s'exprimer ainsi, d'apres lesquels tous les animaux, semblent avoir 6te modeles." ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES 55 some may be) have not been created on the same plan. ("Second resume" well worth studying). H. 1 says grand idea God giving laws and on them leaving all to follow consequences. — I cannot make out his ideas about propagation. His work Philosophic anatomique (2d vol. about monsters 2 worth reading.) | 115 NB. Well to insist upon large mammalia not being found on all islands (if act of fresh creation, why not produced on New Zealand ; if generated, an answer can be given). — It is a point of great interest to prove animals not adapted to each country. — 116 Provision for transportal otherwise not so numerous : quoted from Lyell 3 ; | assuming truth of quadrupeds being created on small spots of land of the same type with the great continents, we get a means of Knowing of movements. — How can we understand, excepting by propagation, that out of the thousand of 117 new insects all belong to same | types already established. Why out of the thousands of forms should they all be classified. Propagation explains this. — Ancient Flora thought to [be] more uniform than existing. 4 — Ed. n. Philos. J., p. 191, No. 5, [vol. 3] Apr. 1827. I 118 F. Cuvier 5 says : " But we could only produce domestic individuals and not races, without the occurrence of one of the most general laws of life — the transmission of a fortuitous modification into a durable form, of a fugitive want into a fundamental propensity, of an accidental habit into an instinct ". Ed. n. Phi. J., p. 297, No. 8, Jan.-Apr. 1828. — I take higher grounds and say life is short for this object and others, viz. not too much change. | 119 In number 6 ? of Ed. n. Phil. Journ. Paper by Crawford 6 on Mission to Ava, account of hairy (because ancestors hairy) man with one hairy child, and of albino disease being banished, and given to Portuguese priest. — In first settling a country, people very apt to be split up into many isolated races! Are there any instances of peculiar people banished by rest? — .*. Most monstrous form has tendency to propagate as well as diseases. | 1 Etienne Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire, Principes de Philosophic Zoologique, Paris 1830, p. 219 : " La puissance creatrice, par des combinaisons aussi simples a produit l'ordre actuel de l'univers, quand elle eut attribue a chaque chose sa qualite propre et son degre" d'action, et qu'elle eut regie que tant d'elemens, ainsi sortis de ses mains, seraient 6ternellement abandonnes au jeu, ou mieux, a toutes les consequences de leurs attractions reciproques." This concept appears in the Sketch of 1842, (p. 86), Essay of 1844 (p. 253), and the Origin (World's Classics Edition p. 559). 2 Etienne Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire. Philosophie anatomique. Des Monstruosites humaines, Paris 1822. In referring to " 2nd vol.", Darwin was regarding the work Philosophie anatomique, Paris 1818 as vol. 1. 3 Charles Lyell. Principles of Geology, vol. 2, London 1832, chapters VI and IX, 5th edition, London 1837, chapters VIII and IX. 4 Anonymous. " Scientific intelligence. 9. On the distribution of living and fossil plants." Edin. New. Phil. Journ. vol. 3, April-June 1827, p. 190. On p. 191 : " the same genera and species [of fossil plants] are found in the most remote regions where the plants now in existence are entirely different." 5 FredeYic Cuvier (1773-1838, brother of Baron Georges Cuvier). " Essay on the domestication of mammiferous animals ..." Edin. new. Phil. Journ., vol. 4, April 1828, p. 297. 6 John Crawfurd. "Account of Mr. Crawfurd's Mission to Ava." Edin. new. Phil. Journ., vol. 3, July-September 1827, p. 359. On p. 368 : " a man covered from head to foot with hair . . . The hair on the face of this singular being, the ears included, is shaggy, and about eight inches long . . . has two daughters . . . the youngest is covered with hair like her father . . . Albinos occur, now and then . . . We saw two examples : one of these, a young man of twenty . . . They were ashamed of him, and considered him little better than a European, they made him over to the Portuguese clergy 56 DARWIN'S FIRST NOTEBOOK 120 In intermarriages : smallest differences blended, rather stronger tendency to imitate one of the parents ; repugnance generally to marriage before domestication, afterwards none or little with fertile offspring ; marriage never probably excepting from strict domestication, offspring not fertile or at least most rarely and perhaps never female. — No offspring : physical impossibility to marriage. — j 121 ? Whether those genera which unite very different structure as petrel and alk do not show the possibility of common branching off? Accra, 1 Coast of Africa. Clay slate, strike SSW and NNE, and 30°-8o° C°. — Ed. Phil. n. J., p. 410, 1828 I 122 It is daily happening, that naturalist [s] describe animals as species, for instance — Australian dog or Falkland rabbit. — There is only two ways of proving to them it is not ; one when they can proved descendant, which of course most rare, or when placed together they will breed. — But what a character is this? — | 123-128 excised. 129 The relation of analogy of MacLeay 2 etc. appears to me the same as the irregularities in the degradation of structure of Lamarck, 3 which he says depends on external influences. — For instance he says wings of bat are from external influence. — | 130 Hence name of analogy, the structures in the two animals bearing relation to a third body, or common end of structure. A Race of domestic animals made from influences in one country is permanent in another. — Good argument for species not being so closely adapted. | 131 Near the Caspian province of Ghilan wooded district, cattle with humps 4 as in India. Geograph. J. — Vol. Ill, P. 1, p. 17, (Lat. about 37 °). Vol. IV, P. 1, Geograph. Journal. Voyage up the Massaroony by W. Hillhouse. 5 — Demerara. In note Demerara 10-12 feet beneath surface forest trees fallen, kind well known, carbonized ; clay, fifty feet, then forest 120 ft., micaceous rocks ; subsidence appears indicated. — P- 36. — I 132 Geograph. Journ., Vol. IV, P. II, p. 160. Melville Island : " the buffaloes, intro- duced from Timor, herded separate from the English cattle, nor could we get them to associate together ". 6 I 1 Thomas Park. In " Scientific intelligence : Mr. Thomas Park's journey into the interior of Africa," Edin. new Phil. Journ., vol. 4, March- April 1828, p. 410. 2 William Sharp MacLeay. Horae Entomologicae , London 1819-1821. The "relations of analogy" are conceived as " existing between corresponding points of the two contiguous circles which pass through a perfect change of form " (p. 391) e.g. the Decapoda in the Crustacean circle have " relations of analogy " with the Araneidea of the Arachnid circle, while the latter 's Acaridea have " relations of analogy " with the Diptera of the Haustellata circle. 3 Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck. Philosophic Zoologique, Paris 1809, vol. 1, p. 153 : degradation is the result of less progress in the perfection and composition of the organization, and must be distinguished from the effects of environment and contracted habits. E.g., seals owe their imperfect limbs to the water in which they live, as do whales ; but seals are less degraded than whales because their organization is less degraded in its essential parts. 4 Colonel William Monteith. " Journal of a tour through Azerdbijan and the shores of the Caspian," Journ. Roy. Geogr. Soc, vol. 3, 1834, p. 1. On p. 17 : " Their features more resemble Indians, and the cattle are small, having also the hump peculiar to that country." 6 William Hillhouse. " Journal of a voyage up the Massaroony in 1831." Journ. Roy. Geogr. Soc., vol. 4, 1834, P- 2 5- 6 Major Campbell. " Geographical memoir of Melville Island, and Port Essington on the Coburg Peninsula Northern Australia ..." Journ. Roy. Geogr. Soc., vol. 4, 1834, p. 129 (160). ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES 57 133 There is long rigmarole articles by S. Hilaire 1 on wonder of finding monkey in France — of genus peculiar to East Indian isles. — Compares it to fossil Didelphis (S. American genus) in plaster of Paris. — Now this is exception to law of type, like horse in S. America or like living Edentata in Africa etc. etc. — Now if suppose 134 world more perfectly continental, we might have | wanderers (as Peccari in N. America) ; then if it is doomed that only one species of family has offspring the chance is that these wanderers would not, but where original forms most numerous, 135 there would be wanderers. — Some however might have offspring, and then | (v. L'Institut, 2 p. 245 [recte 243], 1837) we should have anomalies, as Cape anteater. — This supposes world divided into Zoological provinces, united — and now divided again. — Weakest part of theory death of species without apparent physical cause. — Mem.: Mastodon all over S. America. Hilaire 3 does not seem (?) to consider the monkey as a wanderer, but as produced by climate? — | 136 M. Baer 4 (thinks) the Auroch was found in Germany and thinks even now in central and eastern Asia beyond the Ganges and perhaps even in India — p. 261, L'Institut, i837- Mem.: F[ox] Darwin 5 cross breed boars were wilder than parents, which is same as Indian Cattle. .\ Tameness not hereditary? Having been gained in short time. | 137 Milvulus forficatus is a great flycatcher doing the service of a swallow. I think we may conclude from Australia and S. America, that only some mundine cause has destroyed animals over the whole world. — For instance, gradual reduction of temperature from geographical or central heat. — But the shells. | 138 Mr Yarrell 6 says that old races when mingled with newer, hybrid variety partakes chiefly of the former. Eyton's 7 paper on Hybrids, Loudon's Magazine. Gould 8 on Motacilla Loudon's Mag., September or October 1837 species peculiar to Continent and England. I 1 Etienne Geoff roy-Saint-Hilaire. " Singe fossile de Sansan ", L'Institut, 5, 1837, p. 242 : " Ce n'est speciality d 'essences animales propres d'une sorte deter minee." 2 Darlu. L'Institut, Paris 5, 1837, 218, p. 245. This paper deals with fossil mammals in deposits of gypsum near Meaux and contains no reference to the wanderings of mammals, nor to their anomalous distribution. Darwin's reference must therefore be incorrect, and should read p. 243 : cf . next footnote. 3 Etienne Geoff roy-Saint-Hilaire. L'Institut, vol. 5, 1837, p. 243 : " n'allez pas conclure qu'en recourant a l'accumulation hypoth^tique des siecles, vous fmiriez par construire une route geographique bien servie par la nature des diverses temperatures, immediatement a ce propices, afin que les especes, Sarigue et Gibbon, aujourd'hui vivantes en leur contree respective, aient fourni des voyageurs vers un point voisin de leur antipode et soient venus ainsi deposer en France les debris, juste sujet de notre admiration, que nous avons cites dans cet ecrit ; non, il n'en est point ainsi. Je m'en tiens pour d<§n6gation, quant a ce sujet, aux principes et aux donnees philosophiques de mes memoires sur les milieux ambians ..." 4 N. Baer. " Aurochs du Caucase " L'Institut, Paris, 5, 1837, 218, p. 260. 5 William Darwin Fox. Probably personal communication. 6 William Yarrell. Probably personal communication. 7 Thomas Campbell Eyton. " Some remarks upon the theory of hybridity ", Mag. Nat. Hist. N.S., vol. 1, 1837, p. 357. 8 John Gould. " Observations on some species of the genus Motacilla of Linnaeus." Mag. Nat. Hist., vol. 1, September 1837, p. 459. Distinction between Motacilla flava Ray of Britain and M. neglecta of France and Holland. The pied wagtail of Britain, Norway and Sweden, has its place taken in France by M. alba L. M . lugubris Pallas is restricted to eastern Europe. 58 DARWIN'S FIRST NOTEBOOK 139 Westwood 1 has written paper on affinity and analogy in Linnaean Transactions. Mr Wynne 2 distinctly says that the mixture between Chinese and English Breed decidedly exceedingly prolific, and hybrid about half way. Eyton 3 says Hybrid about half aways [way], and results the same. Indian cattle and common produced 140 very fine | hybrid offspring, much larger, than the dom[estic] from those imported by L[ord] Powis. Hybrid dogs offspring seldom intermediate between parents. — How easily does Wolf and Dog cross? Mr Yarrel 4 thinks oldest variety impresses the offspring most forcibly. Esquimaux dog and pointer. Game-fowls have courage independently of individual force. | 141 Mr Wynne 5 has crossed Duck and Widgeon, and offspring either amongst themselves or with parent birds. W. [Darwin] Fox 6 knew of case of male widgeon winged and turned on pool ; first season bred readily with common ducks. Kirby 7 all through Bridgewater errs greatly in thinking every animal born to consume this or that thing. — There is some much higher generalization in view. In Marsupial division do we not see — splitting in orders carnivora, rodents etc. JUST COMMENCING. | 142 Kirby 8 says (not definite information) west of Rocky Mountains asiatic types discernible. — Bridgewater Treatise, p. 85. Parasites of negroes different from European. 9 — Horse and ox have different parasites in different climates. — Humb[oldt], 10 Vol. V, P. II, p. 565. Consult. Says types most subject to vary where intermixture precluded. — | 143 Kirby 11 Bridgewater Treatise. There are some good accounts of passages of legs 1 John Obadiah Westwood. " On Diopsis, a Genus of Dipterous insects ", Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond. vol. 17, 1837, P- 2 83- On p. 285 : " as these instances* involve in some degree the doctrine that every affinity is connected with, and must be tested by, a corresponding analogy ..." (* footnote : lateral prolongation of the head into ocular peduncles). 2 Wynne. Untraced. 3 Thomas Campbell Eyton. " Some Remarks upon the Theory of Hybridity ", Mag. Nat. Hist., N.S., London 1837, v °l- *• P- 357- 4 William Yarrell. Probably personal communication. 5 Wynne. Untraced. 6 William Darwin Fox. Probably personal communication. 7 William Kirby. On the power, wisdom, and goodness of God, as manifested in the creation of animals and in their history, habits, and instincts, (The Bridgwater Treatises) London 1835, vol. 1, p. 141 : " There is another function which is devolved upon animals with respect to the vegetable kingdom : to keep the members of it within due limits " vol. 2, p. 496 : " the vegetable tenants of the ocean require to be kept within due limits, . . . amongst other creatures to whom this province is assigned, are some Crustacea.' vol. 2, p. 514 : " The general functions of this Order [Carnivora] are to check the tendency to increase not only in their own Class, the Mammalians, but in most of the other Classes of Animals ." 8 William Kirby, op. cit. vol. 1, p. 52 : " On the Rocky Mountains, and in the country westward of that range, Asiatic types are discoverable, both in the vegetable and animal kingdoms." 9 William Kirby. op. cit. vol. 1, p. 85 : " Little stress will be laid on the parasite of the negroes (Pediculus Nigritarum) , being specifically distinct from that which infests the whites, when we reflect that the horse and the ox have different parasites and assailants in different climates." 10 Friedrich Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt. Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of the New Continent, during the years 1799-1804, translated by Helen Maria Williams, London 1821, vol. V, p. 565 : " The exclusion of all foreign mixture contributes to perpetuate varieties, or the aberrations from a common standard." 11 William Kirby. op. cit. vol. 2, p. 75 : " in this Order of the Myriapods we see the first tendency towards employing what in Hexapods wear the form and perform the functions of legs as auxiliaries of the mouth." ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES 59 into mouthpieces of Crustacea. Vol. II, p. 75. A Fish which emigrates over land, 1 a silurus, p. 123. A climbing fish, 2 p. 122. A terrestrial annelidous animal, 3 p. 347, Vol. I. — compare with my planariae. 4 Leaches out of water. | 144 Does the odd Petrel of T. del F. take form of awk because there is no awk in Southern Hemisphere? Does this rule apply? | 145 A Treatise on Form of Animals by Mr Cline : 5 " The character of both parents are observed in their offspring, but that of the male more frequently predominates ". p. 20 ditto : "If hornless ram be put to horned ewe almost all the lambs will be hornless ". Does this apply to when same animal breeds often with same male. p. 23 " It is wrong to enlarge a native breed of animals, for in proportion to their increase of size they become worse in form, less handy, and more liable to disease ". | 146 If population of place be constant, say 2000, and at present day every ten living souls on average are related to the (20odth year) degree, then 200 years ago there were 200 people living who now have successors. Then the chance of 200 people, being related within 200 years backward, might be calculated and this number eliminated ; say 150 people four hundred years since were progenitors of present people, and so on backwards to one progenitor, who might have continued breeding from eternity backwards. — | 147 If population was increasing between each lustrum, the number related at the first start must be greater, and this number would vary at each lustrum and the calculation of chance of the relationship of the progenitors would have different formula for each lustrum. We may conclude that there will be a period, though long distant, when of the present men (of all races) not more than a few will have 148 successors. At present day in looking at two fine families one will | [have] successors for centuries, the other will become extinct. — Who can analyse causes, dislike to marriage ; hereditary disease, effects of con- tagions and accidents ; yet some causes are evident as, for instance, one man killing another. — So is it with varying races of man : then races may be overlooked mere variations consequent on climate etc. — the whole races act towards each other and are acted on, just like the two families no doubt a different set of causes must act in the two cases. — 1 William Kirby. op. cit. vol. i, p. 122 : " Another migrating fish was found by thousands in the ponds and all the fresh waters of Carolina, by Bosc ; and as these pools are subject to be dry in summer, the Creator has furnished this fish, as well as one of the flying ones (Exocoetus), by means of a membrane which closes its mouth, with the faculty of living out of water, and of travelling by leaps, to discover other pools." 2 William Kirby. op. cit. vol. 1, p. 123 : " Another fish (Perca scandens), found by Daldorff, in Tran- quebar, not only creeps upon the shore, but even climbs the Fan palm in pursuit of certain Crustaceans which form its food." 3 William Kirby. op. cit. vol. 1, p. 347 : " My late indefatigable and talented friend, the Rev. L. Guilding once found a land species, in an ancient wood in the Island of St. Vincent's, which from its soft body he regarded as a Molluscan, but from its figure, and annulose structure, its jointed antennae, and seemingly jointed legs crowned with bristles, it (Peripatus juliformis) certainly belongs, as Mr. Gray has remarked, to the present class [Annelida]." 4 Charles Darwin. Journal of Researches, London 1839, P- 30 : " The terrestrial Planariae, of which I have found no less than eight species, occur from within the tropic to lat. 47 south, and are common to South America, New Zealand, Van Diemen's Land, and Mauritius." 5 Henry Cline. On the form of animals, London 1805. Observations on the Breeding and Form of Domestic animals, London 1829. 6o DARWIN'S FIRST NOTEBOOK May this not be extended to all animals, first consider species of cats etc. etc. Exclude mothers and then try this as simile. | 149 In a decreasing population at any one moment fewer closely related, .'. (few species of genera) ultimately few genera (for otherwise the relationship would converge sooner), and lastly perhaps some one single one. — Will not this account for the odd genera with few species which stand between great groups, which we are bound to consider the increasing ones. — NB. As illustration are there many anomalous lizards living, or of the tribes fish extinct, or of Pachydermata, or of coniferous trees, or in certain shell cephalopoda. — Read Buckland. 1 | 150 L'Institut, 1837, p. 319. Brongniart 2 — no dicotyledonous plants and few monocot [yledonous] in coal formation? p. 320. States cryptogam[ic] Flora formerly common to New Holland?! p. 320. Says Coniferous structure intermediate between vascular or Cryptogam (original Flora) and Dicotyledones, which nearly first appear (p. 321) at Tertiary epochs, p. 330. Fossil Infusoria found of unknown forms, a circumstance undiscovered by Ehrenbergh. 3 — | 1 51-154 excised. 155 . . . Indian cow with hump and common ; — between Esquimaux and European dog? Yet man has had no interest in perpetuating these particular varieties. If species made by isolation, then their distribution (after physical changes) would be on rays — from certain spots. — Agrees with old Linnaean 4 doctrine and Lyell's 5 to certain extent. | 156 Von Buch 6 — Canary Islands : French Edit. — Flora of Islands very poor (p. 145) : 25 plants [Tristan da Cunha]. 36 St. Helena without ferns. — Analogous to nearest continent ; poorness in exact proportion to distance (?) and similarity of type (?) (Mem.: Juan Fernandez 7 ). From study of Flora of islands : " ou bien encore on pourrait au plus en conclure quels sont les genres qui, sous ce climat, se divisent le plus aisement en especes distinctes et permanentes ", p. 145. In Humboldt 8 great 1 William Buckland. Geology and Mineralogy considered with reference to Natural Theology, London 1836. 2 A. Brongniart. " Vegetaux fossiles ", L'Institut, Paris 5, 1837, 220, p. 318. 3 Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg. L'Institut, Paris 5, 1837, P- 33° : " Pateontologie : infusoires fossiles du tripoli d'Oran. M. Ehrenberg communique 1'extrait d'une lettre de M. Agassiz de Neuchatel sur le tripoli d'Oran qu'il a reconnu etre forme de corps organises microscopiques et silicin6s." 4 Carolus Linnaeus. " Oratio de telluris habitabilis incremento ", reprinted in Amoenitates Academicae, vol. 2, contains a hypothesis of diffusion of plants and animals from the Island of Paradise. It is probable that Darwin's source was the English translation by F. J. Brand : Select dissertations from the Amoenitates Academicae, London 1781. (Information kindly supplied by W. T. Stearn ; cf. his " Botanical Explora- tion to the time of Linnaeus ", Proc. Linn. Soc. Lond., 169 Session 1956-7, London 1958, especially pages 193 and 194). 8 Charles Lyell. Principles of Geology, vol. 2, London 1832, p. 126. 6 Leopold von Buch. Description physique des lies Canaries, par Leopold de Buch traduite de l'Allemand par C. Boulanger, Paris 1836, p. 144 : " Le celebre naturaliste francais Du Petit-Thouars ne trouve, sur l'He de Tristan d'Acunha . . . pas plus de 25 differentes especes de plantes phanerogames, dont les unes rappellent la vegetation du Cap, les autres celle de l'Am6rique, a peu pres 6galement distante, et leur nombre a Sainte- H61ene, d'apres le Catalogue de Risburgh, ne monte pas a plus de 36 especes." 7 Charles Lyell. Principles of Geology, vol. 2, London 1832, p. 154 has a reference to the introduction of goats into Juan Fernandez. 8 Friedrich Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt. De Distributione geographica plantarum secundum coeli temperiem et altitudinem montium, prolegomena, Lutetiae Parisiorum, 181 7, p. 39 : "si, in singula zona, specierum numerum cum numero generum confers, cui illae adscribuntur, turn versus polum, turn versus cacumina montium, longe plura genera invenies, quam locis planis et calidioribus. Sic alit Gallia inter 3645 species phanerogamas 683 genera, cum in Laponia 487 Phanerogamae ad 212 genera referuntur ; unde rationes fiunt 5, 7 : 1 et 2, 3 : 1." ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES 61 157 work I De distribut. plantarum relation of genera to species in France is 1:5-7, in Laponia 1:2-3. Mem.: Lyell 1 on shells. — genera In North Africa 1 4-2 lies Canaries 1 • 1-46 St. Helena 1 • 1-15 Calculate my Keeling case ; Juan Fernandez ; Galapagos. — Radack Islands. — 158 .-. Islands and Arctic are in same relation. We find | species few in proportion to difficulty of transport. For instance, the temperate parts of Teneriffe : the pro- portion of genera 1:1. I can understand in one small island species would not be manufactured. Does it not present analogy to what takes place from time? Von Buch 2 distinctly states that permanent varieties become species, p. 147-150, — not being crossed with others. — Compare it to languages. But how do plants cross? Admirable discussion. | 159-160 excised. - 161 Mr Owen 3 suggested to me, that the production of monsters (which Hunter 4 says owe their origin to very early stage) and which follow certain laws according to species, present an analogy to production of species. — Animals have no notion of beauty, — therefore instinctive feelings against other species for sexual ends, whereas man has such instincts very little. | 162 In Zoolog. Proceedings, June 1837, by Eyton 5 account of three kinds of pigs. Difference in skeletons : very good. Apteryx, a good instance probably of rudimentary bones. — As Waterhouse 6 remarked mere length of bill does not indicate affinity because similar habits produce similar structure. — Mem.: Ornithorhync[h]us. Would not relationship express a real affinity and affinity whales and fish? — | 163 Progeny of Manks-cats without tails : some long and some short, therefore like dogs. 1 Charles Lyell. Principles of Geology, vol. 3, London 1833. Appendix I. M. Deshayes's Table of Shells, gives the number of species in each genus of selected living and Tertiary shells, in various localities. 2 Leopold von Buch. op. cit. p. 148 : " Un lieu se trouve-t-il isole par des obstacles naturels, par des chaines de montagnes qui etablissent une separation plus effective que des espaces considerables de mer interposes, on peut toujours s'attendre a y trouver des especes de plantes entierement nouvelles, et ne croissant pas dans les autres parties de l'ile. Un hasard favorable a peut-etre porte, par un enchainement particulier de circonstances, des sentences pardessus les montagnes. Abandonnee a elle-meme, la vari^te qui requite des nouvelles conditions auxquelles elle est soumise, y formera, avec le cours du temps, une espece distincte, qui s'eloigne d'autant plus de sa forme primitive, qu'elle reste plus longtems dans cette region isol^e, exempte d'autres influences." 3 Richard Owen. Probably personal communication. 4 John Hunter. Observations on certain parts of the Animal Oeconomy, London 1837, with notes by Richard Owen. P. 26 [":] I should imagine, " he writes, " that monsters were formed monsters from their very first formation, for this reason, that all supernumerary parts are joined to their similar parts, as a head to a head &c. &c." 5 Thomas Campbell Eyton. " Notice of some Osteological Peculiarities in different skeletons of the Genus Sus ", Proc. Zool. Soc. Loncl., 1837, pt. V, p. 23. 6 George Robert Waterhouse. Probably personal communication. 62 DARWIN'S FIRST NOTEBOOK Ogleby 1 says : Wolves at Hudson bay breed with dogs, — the bitches never being killed by them, whilst they eat up the dogs. — L'Institut. Curious paper by M. Serres 2 on Molluscous animals representing foetuses of Vertebrata etc. 1837, P- 37°- Owen 3 says nonsense. | 164 The distribution] of big animals in East Indian Archipelago, very good in connec- tion with Von Buch Volcanic chart and my idea of double line of intersection. — At India House collection of Birds from Java. — At Leyden series from several islands. — Bear peculiar to Sumatra and not found on Java. — Monkey peculiar to latter, not to former. — Dr Horsfield. 4 | 165-166 excised. 167 ? Consult Dr. Smith 5 History of S. African cattle. Phillips Geology, 6 p. 81, in Lardners Encyclop. Proportion between fossils and recent shells, between herbivorous and zoophagous mollusca according to periods. — NB. Was Europe desert (like S. Africa) after Coal Period? | 168 ? In those divisions of mollusca, where species now least in number (as cephalopods) , in last tertiary epoch most genera dead? — Examine into this in Phillips. 7 — Accord- ing to this formerly there would have been many genera of monotrematous animals. — p. 82. There are many tables in Phillips of numerous genera in fossil and recent state well worth consideration. — j 169 Tabulate Mammalia on this principle. Man in savage state may be called species, in domesticated races. — If all men were dead, then monkeys make men. — Man makes angels. — | 170 Those species which have long remained are those — ? Lyell 8 ? — which have wide range and therefore cross and keep similar. But this is difficulty : this immut- ability of some species. In Phillips, 9 p. 90, it seems the most organized fishes lived far back, first approaching to reptiles at Silurian age. — | 171 How long back have insects been known? As Gould 10 remarked to me the " beauty of species is their exactness ", but do not known varieties do the same, may you not breed ten thousand greyhounds and will they not be greyhounds? — Yarrell's 11 1 William Ogilby? The reference has not been traced, but John Wandesford Ogilby was Assistant Secretary to the Hudson's Bay Company from 1777 to 1780. At the London Office of the Company, Beaver House, there is a MS by Andrew Graham who was on the staff from 1 750-1 775 : " Observations on Hudson's Bay ", in which the following passage occurs : " a she-wolf copulated with a husky dog ..." 2 Antoine-Etienne-Renaud-Augustin Serres. " Anatomie des mollusques ", L'Institut, Paris 5, 1837, 221, p. 370. 3 Richard Owen. Probably personal communication. 4 Thomas Horsfield. Zoological researches in Java and the neighbouring islands, London 1824. Semnopi- thecus pyrrhus = Presbytis cristatus, Java. Ursus malayanus = Helarctos m., Sumatra. 5 Andrew Smith. Cf. Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication, vol. 1, p. 88 : " Sir Andrew Smith several years ago remarked to me that the cattle possessed by the different tribes of Caffres, though living near each other under the same latitude and in the same kind of country, yet differed, and he expressed much surprise at the fact." 6 John Phillips. Treatise on Geology. Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopaedia, London 1837. 7 John Phillips. A Treatise on Geology. Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopaedia, London 1837, p. 83 : " Most of the fossil cephalopoda belong to extinct genera." 8 Charles Lyell. No reference to this subject in Lyell's published works has been traced. 9 John Phillips. A Treatise on Geology. Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopaedia, London 1837, p. 90. Fishes with placoid and ganoid scales are shown dating back to the Silurian. 10 John Gould. Probably personal communication. 11 William Yarrell. Probably personal communication. ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES 63 remark about old varieties affecting the cross must [be] well worthy of observation. — | 172 I think it is certain strata could not now accumulate without seal-bones and ceta- ceans, — both found in every sea from Equatorial to extreme poles. — Oh, Wealden, — Wealden. — 1 Do the N. American Tertiary deposits present analogies to shells of living seas? | 173-174 excised. 175 A breed of Blood-Hounds from Aston Hall close to Birmingham, and supposed to be descended from a breed known to be there since the time of Charles, — and now in the possession of Mr Howard Galton have one of the vertebra, about 2/3 from 176 base of tail, enlarged here [?] | very considerably, so that any person would say the tail was broken and this came so often that it was difficult to obtain a litter without this defect. Very curious case. — W. D. Fox. 2 When dogs are bred into each other, the females loose [lose] desire, and it is re- quired to give the cantharides. | 177-178 excised. 179 Bull. Soc. Geolog., 1834, p. 217. Java Fossils : 10 out of twenty have analogues in the Indian sea. — Deshayes. 3 Mr M'Clay 4 is inclined to think that offspring of Negro and white will return to native stock (the cross often whiter than white parent) ; the mulattos themselves 180 explain it by intermarriage with people either a little nearer black | or white as it may happen. — Dr Smith 5 says he is sure of the case at Cape. — M'Clay argues from it Black and White species. — For, says he, seeds of hybrid lillies etc. etc. (V[ide] Herbert 6 on hybrids) thus act. — Now the point will be to find whether know[n] varieties in plants do so, — as in cacti etc. etc., — as in dogs ; investigate 181 case of pidgeons, fowls, rabbits, | cats etc. etc. — When black and white men cross, some offspring black, others white, which is more closely allied to case of cross of dogs. — See Paper in Philosophic Transactions on a quagga and mare, crossing by Lord Moreton [Morton], 7 where mare was influenced in this cross to after births like aphides. — Case of boy with foetus developed in breast, — looking as if many ova 182 impreg- I nated at once. — Dr Smith 8 considers the Caffers (like Englishmen) men of many countenances, as hybrid race. Is not this contradiction to his view of races 1 Darwin's exclamation probably refers to the problem presented by the apparently estuarine nature of the Wealden deposits and the embedding of freshwater species in them. (Cf . Lyell, Principles of Geology, vol. 1, London 1830, p. 134 ; vol. 2, London 1832, p. 275 ; vol. 3, London 1833, p. 325). Information kindly supplied by Mr. S. C. A. Holmes of the Geological Survey. 2 William Darwin Fox. Probably personal communication. (Cf. Variation in Animals and Plants, 1868, vol. 2, p. 121.) 3 Gerard Paul Deshayes. Bull. Soc. Geol. France, vol. 4, Paris [1834], p. 217 : " M. Deshayes fait connaitre a la Societe que M. Hardie lui ayant fait voir les fossiles qu'il a recueillis dans lTnde, a l'ile de Java, dans un terrain tertiaire tres moderne, il a reconnu que, parmi les vingt especes environ qui lui ont ete communiquees, dix sont rigoureusement determinables, et ont certainement leurs analogues dans les mers de lTnde." 4 William Sharp MacLeay. Probably personal communications. 5 Andrew Smith. Probably personal communication. 6 William Herbert. Amaryllidaceae : preceded by an attempt to arrange the Monocotyledonous orders, and followed by a Treatise on cross-bred vegetables and Supplement. London 1837. 7 George, Earl of Morton. " A singular fact of natural history. Peculiarities of the progeny of an Arab horse from a mare that had previously bred with a Quagga." Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc, 1821, p. 20. 8 Andrew Smith. Probably personal communication. 64 DARWIN'S FIRST NOTEBOOK not mingling? — In Fox's 1 case of Blood Hounds — a little mingling would probably have been good, namely such as Blood Hounds from other parts of England. | 183 Mr Bell 2 of Oxford Street had a very fine blood hound bitch which would never take the dog. But at last a rough-haired shepherd dog lined her and produced a very large litter — never afterwards went in heat. This is good instance of same fact in Mr Galton's case. — It explain[s] the loss and experience (must probably have occurred to every one) of rare breeds of dogs from owners great care of them. Fox says when two dogs of opposite breeds are crossed, sometimes offspring quite inter- 184 mediate | sometimes take strongly after either parent, about as often one way as other. — He has known case of good pointer and rough water spaniel produce litter like both parents, and Mr Bell has half blood-hound and greyhound. — When two dogs have lined bitch directly one after the other, puppies differ, and [are] like both parents. — Fox told me of case of mare covered by blood horse and carthorse two folds [foals ?] ... 185-190 excised. 191 Mr Herbert's 3 papers are in the Horticultural Transactions and a distinct work on Hybridity under title of Amaryllidae and Narcissus. Mr Donn [Don] considers Mr H[erbert] rather wild. Mr Donn 4 [Don] remarks to me that give him a species from Ireland, England, Scotland and other localities, and each one will have a peculiar constant aspect. That is varieties, though of trifling order are formed by nature. | 192 Carmichael, 5 Tristan D'Acunha, a list of its Flora is given. Mr Don 6 remarked to me, that some good African and some good S. American forms (and on average some of these forms would have some peculiarity). — Now when we hear that the whole island is volcanic, surmounted by crater and studded with others, we see a beginning to island. Graham Island. — We know many seeds might be transported 193 some blown — floating trees. | — Thrushes (Turdus Jagonensis?) and bunting[s] (Emberiza Brasiliensis?) and coots (Fulica chloropus) might bring in stomach etc. etc. (Mem.: discover what kinds of seed these plants). (Mem.: Fact stated by Mr Don 7 in island[s]. Teneriffe, St. Helena, J. Fernandez, Galapagos. Many trees [and] compositae, because seeds first arrived and hence formed trees ; Ferns ditto), and would creator make plants when this volcanic point appeared in the great ocean, 194 have made | plants of American and African form, merely because intermediate 1 William Darwin Fox. Probably personal communication. 2 J. Bell, " of Oxford Street ". Bell, Thomas : A History of British Quadrupeds, London 1837, P- 2 °9 '■ " The race [of blood-hounds] has been gradually diminishing, and is now very rarely to be met with in its purity. Amongst the very few instances of its present existence, I may mention a fine breed in the possession of Mr. J. Bell, of Oxford Street, who retains them in great purity." Darwin's information was no doubt transmitted personally by Mr. j. Bell. 3 William Herbert. " Instructions for the treatment of the Amaryllis longifolia, with some observations on the production of hybrid plants." Trans. Hort. Soc, vol. 3, 1820, pp. 187-196 : and " On the produc- tion of hybrid vegetables, with the result of many experiments made in the investigation of that subject ", Trans. Hort. Soc, vol. 4, 1822, p. 15. 4 George Don (junior). Probably personal communication. 5 Captain Dugald Carmichael. "Some account of the Island of Tristan da Cunha and of its natural productions ", Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond., 12, Part II, 1818, p. 483. 6 George Don (junior). Probably personal communication. 7 George Don. Presumably personal communication or perusal of Don's manuscript Journal in Royal Horticultural Society of London (cf. A. W. Exell : Catalogue of the Vascular plants of S. Tome, London B.M. (N.H.), 1944, p. 8. ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES 65 position. — We cannot consider it as adaptation because volcanic islands whilst African sandstone and granite (that is genera near Cape), see if there are any species same as T. del Fuego and C. of Good Hope, show possibility of transport. If some cannot be explained more philosophical to state we do not know how transported. | 195 (Glaciers might have acted at Tristan D'Acunha. — Carmichael, 1 Linn. Transacts., Vol. XII. — ) The alpine plants of the Alps must be new formations because snow formerly descended lower, therefore species of lower genera altered, or northern plants. Mem. The antarctic flora must formerly have been separated by short space from mountains low down, therefore plants common ; take an example from T. del Fuego. | 196 Ellis 2 (?) says Tahitian kings would hardly produce from incestuous intercourse, — a parallel fact to Blood Hounds. Before attraction of gravity discovered it might have been said it was as great a difficulty to account for movement of all [planets] by one law, 3 as to account for each separate one ; so to say that all mammalia were born from one stock, and since distributed by such means as we can recognize, may be thought to explain nothing, — it being as easy to produce for the creator two quadrupeds at S. America — jaguar and Tiger. | 197-202 excised. 203 When species cross and hybrid breed, their offspring show tendency to return to one parent ; this is only character, and yet we find this same tendency (only less strongly marked) between what are called varieties. NB. One mother bringing forth young having very different characters is attempt at returning to parent stock. I think we may look at it so — ?? It holds good even with trifling differences of expression — one child like father," another like mother. | 204 Has Lowe 4 written any other paper besides one in Latin, one on Madeira — any general observation. Difference of species between land shells of Porto Santo and Madeira. I believe very curious. My idea of propagation almost infers, what we call improvement. All mammalia from one stock, and now that one stock cannot be supposed to be most perfect 205 (according to our ideas of perfection), but intermediate | in character. The same reasoning will allow of decrease in character (which perhaps is case with fish, as some of the most perfect kinds the shark. Lived in remotest epochs). — ? Lizards of secondary period in same predicament. It is another question whether whole scale of Zoology may not be perfecting by change of Mammalia for Reptiles which can 206 only be adaptation to changing world. — I cannot for a | moment doubt but what cetacea and Phocea now replace Saurians of Secondary epoch : it is impossible to suppose such an accumulation at present day and not include Mammalian remains. The Father of all insects gives same argument as father of Mammalia, but here 1 Captain Dugald Carmichael. See above p. 64. 2 William Ellis. Polynesian researches, during a residence of nearly eight years in the Society and Sandwich Islands, London 1831. 3 This is the first appearance of the argument used by Darwin in the Sketch of 1842, p. 84 ; and the Essay of 1844, p. 250. 4 Richard Thomas Lowe. " Primitiae Faunae et Florae Maderaeet Portus-Sancti ; sive Species quaedam novae vel hactenus minus rite cognitae animalium et plantarum in his insulis degentium breviter descrip- tae ", [1830] Trans. Camb. Phil. Soc, vol. 4, 1833, P- I - 66 DARWIN'S FIRST NOTEBOOK improvement in system of articulation. ? Whether type of each order may not be supposed that form, which wandered least from ancestral form. If so are present 207 typical I species most near in form to ancient ; in shells alone can this comparison be instituted. — People often talk of the wonderful event of intellectual man appearing. The appear- ance of insects with other senses is more wonderful. — Its [the insect's] mind more different probably and introduction of man nothing compared to the first thinking 208 being — although hard to draw line, | not so great as between perfect insects and forms low hard to tell whether articulate or intestinal, or even a mite. — A bee compared with cheese mite — with its wonderful instincts. The difference is that there is wide gap between man and next animals in mind more than in structure. If the skeleton of a negro had been found, what would anatomists have said? — ? Where is Pentland's 1 account of ... 209-210 excised. 211 A. B. C. D. (A) crossing with (B), and (B) being crossed with (C) prevents offspring of A becoming a good species, well adapted to locality. But it is instead a stunted and diseased form of plant, adapted to A. B. C. D. Destroy plants B. C. D. and A will soon form good species! The increased fertility of slightly different species and intermediate character of offsprings accounts for uniformity of species and we must confess, that we cannot 212 tell, what is the amount | of difference which improves and checks it. — It does not bear any precise relation to structure. Mem.: Eyton's 2 hogs and dogs. The passage in last page explains that between species from moderately distant countries there is no test but generation (but experience according to each group) whether good species, and hence the importance naturalists attach to geographical ranges of species. | 213 Definition of species : one that remains at large with constant characters, together with other beings of very near structure. — Hence species may be good ones and differ scarcely in any external character. For instance, two wrens, found to haunt two islands — one with one kind of herbage and one with other — might change organization of stomach and hence remain distinct. | 214 When country changes rapidly, we should expect most species. — The difference [between] intellect of man and animals not so great as between living thing without thought (plants) and living thing with thought (animal) . .•. My theory very distinct from Lamarck's. 3 Without two species will generate common kind, which is not probable, then 215 monkeys will never produce man, but | both monkeys and man may produce other species. Man already has produced marked varieties and may someday produce something else, but not probable owing to mixture of races. — When all mixed 1 Joseph Barclay Pentland. Probably " Decription of fossil remains of some animals from the northeast border of Bengal ", Proc. Geol. Soc, vol. i, 1834, p. 76. 2 Thomas Campbell Eyton. " Some Remarks upon the Theory of Hybridity ", The Magazine of Natural History, N.S., vol. 1, London 1837, p. 357. 8 Darwin's point appears to be that Lamarck placed a great distinction between the higher animals which possessed a " sentiment int^rieur ", and the lower animals which do not. (Philosophie Zoologique, Paris 1809, vol. 2, p. 256). ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES 67 physical changes (? intellectual [faculty] being acquired alters case) other species or angels produced. | 216 Has the Creator since the Cambrian formation gone on creating animals with same general structure. — Miserable limited view. — With respect to how species are [formed], Lamarck's 1 "willing" doctrine absurd (as equally are arguments against it 2 — namely how did otter live before being made 217 otter — why to be sure there were a thousand intermediate | forms. — Opponent will say : show them me. I will answer yes, if you will show me every step between bull Dog and greyhound). I should say the changes were effects of external causes, of which we are ignorant, as why millet seed turns a Bullfinch black, or iodine on glands of throat, or colour of plumage altered during passage of birds (where is this state- ment? — I remember L. Jenyns 3 talking of it), or how to make Indian cow with hump or pig's foot with cloven hoof. | 218 Ask Entomologists whether they know of any case of introduced plant, which an insect has become attached to, that insect not being called omniphitophagous. But it will be said there are latent insects [instincts], — as crows against man with gun, and Bustards etc. etc.!!! An American and African form of plant being found in Tristan D'Acunha, may be said to deceive man, as likely as fossils in old rocks for same purpose! | 219 Can the wishing of the Parent produce any character in offspring? Does the mind produce any change in offspring? If so, adaptation of species by generation explained? NB. Look over Bell 4 on Quadrupeds for some facts about dogs etc. etc. — NB. Animals very remote — ass and horse — produce offspring exactly intermediate. — Reference to Pig and Dogs. My theory will make me deny the creation of any new quadruped since days of Didelphis in Stonesfield .*. all lands united (Falkland Fox, ice). Mauritius — what a difficulty, when elevated, subsidence near is only hope. — New Zealand, compare to Van Diemen's land, glorious fact of absence of quadrupeds. — East India Archi- pelago, very good on opposite tendency. — | 220 Study Ellis and Williams [William Ellis] 5 Zoology of South Sea islands — any animals [mammals]? I believe — none. — Canary islands? Madeira? Tristan D'Acunha? Iceland? The connection between Mauritius and Madagascar very good. — Fernando Po and Coast of Africa equally good. — Small islands off New Guinea — same fact, see Coquille's Voyage. — Galapagos mouse (?) — brought by canoes. — Ceylon and India. — Van Diemen's Land — Australia. — England and Europe. — It will be well worth while to study profoundly the origin and history of every terrestrial mammalia, especially moderately large ones. — I 1 Jean Baptiste de Lamarck. See Introduction. 2 Darwin means that arguments against the formation of species are absurd. The argument about the evolution of the otter through intermediate forms is developed in the Essay of 1844, p. 152. 8 Leonard Jenyns, afterwards Blomefield. Probably personal communication. 4 Thomas Bell. A History of British Quadrupeds, London 1837 ; pp. 194 to 251 are devoted to the breeds of dogs. 5 William Ellis. Polynesian researches, during a residence of nearly eight years in the Society and Sand- wich Islands, London 1831. 68 DARWIN'S FIRST NOTEBOOK 221 In the Flora of Tierra del Fuego, like that of North Europe, many genera and few species. The number of genera on islands and on Arctic shores evidently due to the chance of some ones of the different orders being able to survive or [to] chance having transported then to new station. — When the new island splits and grows larger, species are formed of those genera, and hence by same chance few representative species. This must happen and then enquire [enquiry] will explain representative system. Of these we see example in English and Irish Hare. — Galapagos shrews and when 222 big continent, many species belonging to its own genera. | Therefore if in small tract we have many species, we may insure mass continental or many large islands. — Hence this must have been condition of Paris basin land. — How is this with Fernando Po, with plants of St. Helena and Tristan D'Acunha? — resolves itself into question of proportion of species to genus. If on one island several species of same genus — subsided land. — Mauritius? Although the horse has perished from S. America, the jaguar has been left and Fox 223 and bear. — If I had not discovered | channel of communication by which great Edentata might have roamed to Europe and Pachydermata from Europe to America, how strange would presence of jaguar [have] been in S. America. — West coast of Africa and East of America ought to present great contrast in forms ; India intermediate ; see how that is. — ? Are shell-boring Mollusca like Carnivorous mammalia in their wide range and in their duration of species. (? Are carnivorous mamm[alia] in Paris basin altered ? perhaps more like present carnivora than Pachydermata.) | 224 If my theory true, we get 1st a horizontal history of earth within recent times, and many curious points of speculation ; for having ascertained means of transport, we should then know whether former lands intervened. — 2 d ) By character of any two ancient fauna, we may form some idea of connection of those two countries. Hence India, Mexico and Europe — one great sea. (Coral reefs .*. shallow water at Melville island). 3 d ) We know that structure of every organ in A.B.C., three species of one genus can pass into each other by steps we see ; but this cannot be predicated 225 of structures in two genera. Although D.E.F. follow close to | A. B.C., we cannot be sure that structure (C) could pass into (D). — We may foretell species, limits of good species being known. It explains the blending of two genera. — It explains typical structure. — Every species is due to adaptation hereditary structure ; Latter far chief element. .'. Little service habits in classification or rather the fact they are not far the most serviceable. We may speculate on durability of succession from what we have seen in old world and in current changes which may happen. — It leads you to believe the world older than geologists think ; it agrees with exces- 226 sive inequality of numbers of species in divisions, — look at articulata!!? | It leads to [knowledge of] nature of physical change between one group of animals and a successive one. — It leads to knowledge what kinds of structure may pass into each other ; now on this view no one need look for intermediate structure, say in brain, between lowest mammal and reptile (or between extremities of any great divisions) ; thus a knowledge of possible changes is discovered, for speculating on future. | ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES 69 227 .\ Fish never become a man. — Does not require fresh creation. — If continent had sprung up round Galapagos on Pacific side, the Oolite order of things might have early been formed. — With belief of transmutation and geographical grouping we are led to endeavour to discover causes of changes, — the manner of adaptation (wish of parents??), instinct and structure becomes full of speculation and line of observation. — View of generation being condensation, test of highest organization intelligible. — May 228 look to first germ, | led to comprehend true affinities. My theory would give zest to recent and fossil Comparative Anatomy ; it would lead to study of instincts, heredity and mind heredity, whole [of] metaphysics. — It would lead to closest examination of hybridity, — to what circumstances favour crossing and what prevent it ; and generation, causes of change in order to know what we have come from and to what we tend, this and direct examination of direct passages of structure in species might lead to laws of change, which would then be [the] main object of study, 229 to guide our speculations | with respect to past and future. The grand question which every naturalist ought to have before him when dissecting a whale, or classifying a mite, a grampus or an insect is What are the Laws of Life? When we have near genera far back as well as at present time, we might expect confusion of species. — Important. For instance, take Voluta and Conus (??), which now near together, were not both genera formerly abundant. Seed of Ribston Pippin tree producing crab [apple] is the offspring of a male and female animal of one variety going back? Whether this going back may not be owing to cross from other trees???? | 230 Do the seeds of Ribston Pippin and Golden Pippin produce real crabs, and in each case similar or mere mongrels? It really would be worth trying to isolate some plants under glass bells and see what offspring would come from these. Ask Henslow 1 for some plant, whose seeds go back again, not a monstrous plant, but any marked variety. — Strawberry pro- duced by seeds?? — Universality of generation strongly shown by hybridity of ferns. — Hybridity showing connexion of two plants. | 231 Animals whom we have made our slaves we do not like to consider our equals. — Do not slave-holders wish to make the black have other mind? — Animals with affection, imitation, fear of death, pain, sorrow for the dead — respect. We have no more reason to expect the father of mankind, than Macrauchenia, yet it may be found. — We must not compare chance of embedment in man in present state with what he is as former species. His arts would not then have taken him over whole world. — | 232 The soul by consent of all is superadded, animals not got it, not look forward. If we choose to let conjecture run wild, then animals — ■ our fellow brethren in pain, disease, death, suffering and famine, our slaves in the most laborious works, our companions in our amusements, — they may partake from our origin in one common ancestor, we may be all netted together. — Hermaphrodite animals couple : argument for true molluscs coupling. — | 233-234 excised. 1 John Stevens Henslow. 7 6 DARWIN'S FIRST NOTEBOOK 235 Geograph. Journal, Vol. V, P. I, p. 67. Dr Coulter 1 on decrease of population in California [by the] cessation of female offspring : applicable to any animal. Athenaeum, p. 154, 1838. Hybrid Ferns. 2 It may be argued against theory of changes that if so, in approaching desert country or ascending mountain you ought to have a gradation of species, now this 236 notoriously is | not the case. You have stunted species, but not such as would make species (except perhaps in some plants, and then a chain of steps as found in some mountains). — How is this explained by law of small differences producing more fertile offspring. — I ly All variation of animal is either effect or adaptation, ,\ Animal best fitted to that country where change has taken place. Nature. . . . 237-238 excised. 239 Any change suddenly acquired is with difficulty permanently transmitted. A plant will admit of a certain quantity of change at once, but afterwards will not alter. This need not apply to very slow changes without crossing. — Now a gradual change can only be traced geologically (and then monument imperfect) or horizontally, and then cross breeding presents perfect change. | 240 It is scarcely possible to get evidence of two races of plants run wild. — (For we know that such can take place without impregnating each other). For if they are different, then they will be called species, and these producing fertile hybrids will not destroy that evidence, as so many plants produce hybrids, or else whole fabric will be overturned. — Hence extreme difficulty, argument in circle. — Falkland Island case good one of animals not soon being subjected to change in Americas. 241 Perhaps merely gone back previous | to fresh change. — Get a good many examples of animals and plants very close (take European birds Mr Gould's 3 case of willow wren and other varying in wild state to show that we do not know what amount of difference prevents breeding, or as others would express it amount of varying in wild state. — When breaking up the primeval continent, — Indian Rhinoceros, Java and Suma- tra ones all different. — Join Sumatra and Java together by elevations now in Pro- 242 gress, and you will have two | Tapirs existing in East Indian seas. Marsupial animals all show greater connexion in Quadrupeds, but plants do not follow by any means. — Ostriches. — Hippo [pojtamus only african. — American and African forms mingle in India and East Indian islands. — Monkeys different not travellers?? Royle's 4 case of Himalayan plants. ? Migrating birds. He told me some story of crane from Holland!!! In stomach or in feathers — seeds. — | 243 Two inhabitants of the tropics (whether one fossil or not) are related by real relationship, as well as effect of similar temperature. — Now those of temperate 1 Thomas Coulter. " Notes on Upper California ", Journ. Roy. Geogr. Soc, vol. 5, 1835, p. 59. On p. 67 : " It is a very extraordinary fact that their [the Indians'] decrease is greatly hastened by the failure of female offspring, — or the much greater number of deathe amongst the females in early youth than in the males." 2 Martin Martens. " On hybridity in ferns ", (Paper read before Botanical Society on 16th February 1838). The Athenaeum, 1838, p. 154. 3 John Gould. The Birds of Europe, London 1837, vol. 2, (pages unnumbered). P. 131 : "A little variation frequently occurs in the size of each of the birds ". 4 John Forbes Royle. Illustrations of the Botany and other Branches of the Natural History of the Himalayan Mountains, London 1 834-1 835. ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES ?t regions and tropics are only related by one connection — viz. descent. — Hence far greater discordance in latter. Hence change in form. — This probably explains crag and miocene. — The descendants left in cooling climate might change twice over, whereas those which migrate a little to the southward would merely be specifically different if so. — Now this is difficult to explain by creation or we must suppose a 244 multitude of small creations. — | Will Dromedaries and Camels breed? — As man has not had time to form good species, so cannot the domesticated animals with him ! — Modern origin shown by only one species far more than by non-embedment of remains — ? agrees with non-blending of languages ? — Till man acquired reason, he would be [a] limited animal in range, and hence probability of starting from one point. — | 245 In the crag we see the process of change of those forms, which have succeeded in becoming habituated to colder climate, whilst others died out or moved towards equator, or some species might then have been wanderers. — There ought to be fewer species in proportion to genera, than in present seas. All the species which survives any change may undergo indefinite change (making in their history an eocene, miocene and pliocene epoch), whilst others may die out or move southward. 246 .-. Species must be compared | to neighbouring sea. — For change of species does not measure time but physical changes (We assume like weather on long average tolerably uniform). — Comparing fossils with whole world, would be like in a palaeon- logic table in comparison of temperature of two countries, finding a very hot day in one, oh we will take a day from the equator to add to the mean of the other. | 247 If the world had cooled by secular refrigeration in chief part instead of change from insular to extreme climate, Iceland and North of Europe would have possessed a most peculiar Flora. — As European forms have travelled towards Equator, so would the plants from extreme north, which according to all analogy would have been very unlike southern European ones, — "a variation played on secular re- frigeration ". I 248 Experimentise on land shells in salt water and lizards ditto. — Ask Eyton 1 to procure me some. Get Hope 2 to give me an account of parasitic animals of beast varying in different climates. Those will not object to my theory, those the philosophers who soar above the pride of the savage, they perceive the superiority of man over animals, without such resorts. | 249-250 excised. 251 Dumeril 3 great work on Reptiles. M. D says some reptiles same from Mauritius and Madagascar and C. of Good Hope. — His book probably worth studying. — Wingless birds [of] S[outh] continents. Ostriches. Dodo. Apteryx. Penguin. — 1 Thomas Campbell Eyton. 2 Frederick William Hope. 3 Andre-Marie-Constant Dumeril. Erpelologie generate on Histoire complete des Reptiles. Paris 1836, p. 278 : " Parmis ces cinq dernieres especes Africaines [de Platydactyles] , une a pour patrie commune le Cap de Bonne Esperance, Madagascar et Maurice." 72 DARWIN'S FIRST NOTEBOOK Logger-headed Duck. — Large proportion of Water and small of land — or few quadrupeds. — Study production of great Fresh Water lakes of North America. | 252 If Parasites different, whilst man and his domesticated quadrupeds are not so, greater facilities of change in the articulata, than in Vertebrata. But how does this agree with longevity of species in Molluscs!!! When we talk of higher orders, we should always say intellectually higher. — But who with the face of the earth covered with the most beautiful savannahs and forests dare to say that intellectuality is only aim in this world. | 253-260 excised. 261 Of genera in all classes are not a few only cosmopolitan, and in genera peculiar to any one country do not species generally affect different stations ; This would be strong argument for propagation of species. — Again is there not similarity even in quite distinct countries in same hemisphere more than in other. | 262 Are there any cases where domesticated animals separated and long interbred having great tendency to vary? Is not man thus circumstanced? Varieties of dogs in different countries a case in point. — All cases like Irish and English Hare bear upon this. — I 263 Why do Van Diemen's land people require so many imported animals? — At what point of tree of life can orders like birds and animals [mammals] separate etc. etc. Work out Quinary system according to three elements. | 264 How is Fauna of Van Diemen's land and Australia? | 265-271 blank. 272 Falconer's 1 remarks on influence of climates, situations etc. etc. 242 Hook. Smellie, 2 Philos. of Zoolog. 842 Poor Tract Lyell. White 3 regular gradat. in man 1024. Fleming's 4 Philosophy of Zoolog. Royle 5 on Himalaya Plants. — | 273 Would it not be possible to work through all genera and see how many confined to certain countries. So on with families. — Ask Royle 6 about Indian cattle with humps. — I 274 ? To be solved if horses sent to India and long bred in and no new ones introduced, would not change be superinduced. — Why is every one so anxious to cross animals from different quarters to prevent them taking peculiar character. Indian Bull? — | 275 Do species of any genus, as American or Indian genus inhabit different kind of localities? — if so, change. 1 Hugh Falconer. " On the Aptitude of the Himalayan Range for the Culture of the Tea Plant ", /. Asiatic Society of Bengal, Calcutta 1834, vol. 3, p. 178. 8 William Smellie. The Philosophy of Natural History, Edinburgh & London 1790, 1799. 3 Charles White. An account of the regular gradation in Man, and in different animals and vegetables, London, 1799. 4 John Fleming. The Philosophy of Zoology, Edinburgh & London 1822. 5 John Forbes Royle. Illustrations of the Botany and other Branches of the Natural History of the Hima- layan Mountains, London 1 834-1 835. 6 John Forbes Royle- Cf. Illustrations of the Botany and other Branches of the Natural History of the Himalayan Mountains, London 1839, p. lxxiv. ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES 73 The grand question : Are there races of plants run wild or nearly so, which do not intermix, — any cultivated plants produced by seed. — Lychnis. — Flox. — I 276 Read Swainson. 1 | 277 blank. 278 In production of varieties is it not per saltum — Islands bordering continents — same type. Collect cases. — African islands. — How in Juan Fernandez ? Humming-Birds. Types of former dogs. Character of Miocene Mammalia of Europe. | 279 Mem. Mr Bell's 2 case of Sub-Himalayan land emys decidedly an Indian form of Tortoise. — On other hand, freshwater tortoise from Germany 3 (where Mr Murchison's 4 fox was found) decidedly next species to some South American kinds. — I 280 Are the closest allied species always from distant countries, as Decandolle 5 says? (no, he only says — sometimes). We might expect disseminated species to say a little, but such should not be general circumstance. — In insects, in England, surely it is not — intermediate genera we might expect. — | 281 Lindley 6 Introduction. Diet. Science Naturelle. 7 Geographie Botanique. De Candolle. 8 Geol. Soc. Horae Entomologicae. 9 Linn. Soc. Geoff r. St. Hilaire Philosophy of Zoology. 10 Waterhouse. 1 William Swainson. A Treatise on the Geography and Classification of Animals. Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopaedia, London 1835. 2 Thomas Bell. Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., Part II, 1834, P- J 7- " Specimens and drawings were exhibited of a freshwater Tortoise, forming part of the collection of Mr. Bell, by whom it was described as a type of a new genus, for which he proposed the name of Cyclemys." " Mr. Bell regards the Tortoise which he has thus characterized as supplying a link in the connecting series of the land with the freshwater families which has hitherto been wanting. ..." 3 Thomas Bell. " Zoological observations on a new Fossil Species of Chelydra, from Oeningen." [1832], Trans. Geol. Soc, vol. 4, 1835, p. 379. 4 Roderick Impey Murchison. " On the fossil fox of Oeningen, with an account of the lacustrine deposit in which it was found," Proc. Geol. Soc. 1826-1833, vol. 1, p. 167 ; Trans. Geol. Soc, vol. 3, 1835, p. 277. 5 Augustin-Pyramus de Candolle. Essai elementaire de geographie botanique, Strasbourg, 1820. 6 John Lindley. An Introduction to the Natural System of Botany, London 1830. 7 Dictionnaire des sciences naturelles, dans lequel on traite methodiquement des differens Etres de la nature, edited by F. Cuvier with a prospectus by Georges Cuvier, Paris & Strasbourg 181 6-1830. 8 Augustin-Pyramus de Candolle. Essai elementaire de geographie botanique, Strasbourg 1820. 9 William Sharp MacLeay. Horae Entomologicae, London 1 819-182 1. 10 Etienne Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire. Principes de philosophie zoologique, Paris 1830. PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY ADLARD AND SON, LIMITED, BARTHOLOMEW PRESS, DORKING 2k ' i i ' fi- ll DARWIN'S NOTEBOOKS ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES PART II Edited with an Introduction and Notes by SIR GAVIN DE BEER BULLETIN OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM (NATURAL HISTORY) HISTORICAL SERIES Vol. 2 No. 3 LONDON : i960 DARWIN'S NOTEBOOKS ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES PART II. SECOND NOTEBOOK (FEBRUARY to JULY 1838) Edited with an Introduction and Notes BY SIR GAVIN DE BEER Pp. 75— 118 V BULLETIN OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM (NATURAL HISTORY) HISTORICAL SERIES Vol. 2, No. 3 LONDON: i960 THE BULLETIN OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM (NATURAL HISTORY), instituted in 1949, is issued in five series corresponding to the Departments of the Museum, and an Historical Series. Parts will appear at irregular intervals as they become ready. Volumes will contain about three or four hundred pages, and will not necessarily be completed within one calendar year. This paper is Vol, 2, No. 3 of the Historical series. © Trustees of the British Museum, i960 PRINTED BY ORDER OF THE TRUSTEES OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM Issued May, i960 Price Fifteen Shillings DARWIN'S NOTEBOOKS ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES Edited with an Introduction and Notes by SIR GAVIN de BEER Part II. Second Notebook (February to July 1838) INTRODUCTION In his First Notebook on Transmutation of Species, 1 Darwin satisfied himself that it had occurred when populations were isolated and no longer able to prevent the variation that resulted from sexual reproduction and is normally kept in check by breeding throughout the population. In this way varieties become split off from species and eventually become species themselves, while old species become extinct, thereby increasing the separation between the surviving species, many of which after being split into daughter species become genera. This was what Darwin meant by " my theory ", and it was already distinctively his even before he thought of natural selection because nobody before him had combined genetic variation, isolation, divergence, and extinction into a coherent theory of transmutation of species. In his Second Notebook, which represents Darwin's train of thought from the beginning of February to the first half of July 1838, he was already concerned with the problem of expressing his views on paper and gave himself instructions for presenting his theory. He had even thought out how he would start : " The only cause of similarity in individuals we know of is relationship, children of one parent, races of animals — argue opening thus " (II 219) 2 ; " The argument [that two varieties of old standing will not breed together] must thus be taken as in wild state " (II 30) . In the event he started very differently as the Sketch of 1842 shows. Other instructions covered the different aspects of the argument : " Give specimen of arrangement " of species in relation to geographical distribution (II 45) ; Discrimination between species is empirical : " show this by instances " (II 70) ; " Mention persecution of early astronomers " (II 123) ; " Argue the case theoretically if animals did change excessively slowly whether geologists would not find fossils such as they are" (II 137) ; "Put note Sir W. Scott has written about" recalling images long past (II 172) ; John Gould's conviction that half-breed of Australian dog would be most like Australian " might be mentioned in note " (II 189). An especially awkward problem was the origin of instincts : " my theory must encounter all these difficulties " (II 1 " Darwin's Notebooks on Transmutation of Species. Part i, First Notebook." Bull. Brit. Mus. (Nat. Hist.), Historical Series, vol. 2, pp. 23-73, i960. 2 References are given to the number of the Notebook and the manuscript page number. hist. 2, 3. 2 8§ 78 DARWIN'S SECOND NOTEBOOK 199). Most important, he felt, was the following warning which shows that he was already alive to possible objections : "I fear great evil from vast opposition in opinion on all subjects of classification, I must work out hypothesis & compare it with results ; if I acted otherwise my premises would be disputed " (II 202). Among the claims which he was already able to make for " my theory " were the following : " My theory agrees with unequal distances between species " (II 145) ; " My theory explains that family likeness . . . holds good " (II 138) ; " My theory explains a grand apparent anomaly in nature " i.e. the existence of mules (II 135) ; " State broadly scarcely any novelty in my theory, only slight differences, the opinion of many people in conversation. The whole object of the book is its proof " (II 177). One of the pillars of " my theory " was the principle of Community of descent and its consequences. " We now know what is the natural arrangement. It is the classi- fication of relationship, latter word meaning descent." (II 155) ; " The one end of classification [is] to express relationship and by so doing discover the laws of change in organization " (II 158). Darwin's recognition of the community of language of different species of birds in cries of distress (II 68) anticipated by 120 years the modern demonstration of the fact by electrical recordings 1 . Taxonomy acquired a completely new significance as a result of " my theory ", and it is remarkable how Darwin's views anticipated modern conclusions. He recognized the principle that two similar but separated populations should not be regarded as distinct species until the regions between their ranges have been studied. Populations which overlap in their ranges but maintain their distinct characters can be regarded as good species (II 126). Therefore, a traveller " will not have brought home new species until he can show range and habits " (II 127). For Darwin, species and genera had real existence in Nature. " Genus must be a true cleft putting out of case the analogy [of its species breeding with those of another genus]. If genus does not mean this it means nothing. There should be some term used where there is series " (II 129). This is Rensch's Artenkreis. As for the origin of genera, " Genus only natural from death or slow propagation of forms — just same way as men not all equally related to each other " (II 138) ; " The death of some forms & succession of others ... is absolutely necessary to explain genus and species " (II 167). Darwin soon saw that the onset of sterility was an essential factor in the origin of new species : " One species may have passed through a thousand changes, keeping distinct from other, and if a first and last individual were put together, they would not . . . breed together " (II 152). The geographical equivalent of this effect of passage of time is to be found in the British Herring Gull and Lesser Black-backed Gull. Darwin, however, had no evidence to support his view. Hence : " The most hypo- thetical part of my theory [is] that two varieties of many ages standing will not readily breed together " (II 30). This may be compared with T. H. Huxley's caveat that Darwin had not proved his point until he could show that natural selection had led to sterility between divergent products of evolution. Darwin realized this difri- 1 cf. " Developments in the study of animal communications " by P. Marler, in Darwin's Biological Works, edited by P. R. Bell, Cambridge 1959, pp. 150-206. ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES 79 culty even before he had formulated his theory of natural selection. Meanwhile he investigated the possibility that the half-way stage to sterility is represented by sterile hybrid offspring (II 222), and concluded that " My views which would even lead to anticipate mules is very important for Lyell said to me the fact of existence of mules appeared to him most strange . . . my theory then explains a grand apparent anomaly in nature " (II 135). The effects of " my theory " on the position of man was already realized : man " Likes to think his origin god-like " (II 155) ; " Not a deity " (II 77). Comparative pathology is invoked to good effect : " Many diseases in common between man and animals " (II 174). Darwin's abhorrence of slavery is reflected in the following : " White man who has debased his nature by making slave of his fellow black " (II 154). Sexual selection is applied to man as well as to animals : " Cock birds attract female by song (analogy of man) (II 178). Man is compared with the oraiig utan (II 79), and with other Primates : "A man grinning is to expose his canine teeth (this may be made a capital argument if man does move muscles for uncovering canines), no doubt a habit gained by formerly being a baboon with great canine teeth " (II 243) ; " Man in his arrogance thinks himself a great work worthy the interposition of a deity. More humble and I believe truer to consider him created from animals " (II 196). The prevailing total ignorance of the causes of variation was a constant worry to Darwin. Always bearing adaptation in mind, he could only conclude : " Till we know uses of organs clearly, we cannot guess causes of change " (II 56). He was reduced to wrestling with William Yarrell's view that the oldest variety has the greatest effect on offspring in a cross (II 1), but was careful to remind himself to " give it " as Yarrell's theory. Later, (II 121) he gave it up. The difference between sports (or mutations) which were already recognized as inherited and minor vari- ability which was so important for transmutation by imperceptible steps led Darwin to believe that there were " Two kinds of varieties. One approaching to nature of monster, [is] hereditary, [the] other [is] adaptation " (II 4). Darwin already realized clearly that adaptation was a phenomenon of varying efficiency and that organisms could be imperfectly adapted to their environment (I 115, 130). In one striking passage he anticipated the principle of the phenocopy : "If puppy born with thick coat [in temperate climate it is] a monstrosity, [but if the puppy is] brought into a cold country and [a thick coat] is then acquired, then [it is an] adaptation " (II 66). Admission of possible imperfection in Nature is shown in the following ; " Even a deformity may be looked at as the best attempt of nature under very unfavoured conditions as an adaptation " (II 65). He realized that the phe- nomenon of the ptarmigan and hare becoming white in winter are not caused by the direct effect of the environment by physical action, but are instances of adaptation (II 84), and this example shows how closely variation and adaptation were associated in his mind. " The wonderful power of adaptation given to organization. This [is] really perhaps greatest difficulty to whole theory" (II 175). The recognition of adaptations often requires ingenuity, as in the following case : " Wax of ear bitter, perhaps to prevent insects lodging there " (II 174). 80 DARWIN'S SECOND NOTEBOOK It was the fact of anomalies of geographical distribution that first brought Darwin up against the problem of transmutation. He soon saw that the distribution of large mammals was significant : " There is this great advantage in studying geograph : range of quadrupeds ; that either created in each point, or migrated from those quarters where we know quadrupeds have existed for ages " (II 29). Geographical distribution introduced the possibility of isolation of groups on a grand scale : " Have the Edentata and Marsupials forms been chiefly preserved where shut up by them- selves without other animals ? " (II 36) ; " How came it animals not preserved in Central S. America and yet in Africa and India ? " (II 132). Related representative species in different regions interested him greatly : " Buzzards in Patagonia and in Chile a good case of replacement " (II 56) ; " Once grant my theory and the exam- ination of species from distant countries may give thread to conduct to laws of change of organization " (II 70). Darwin realized that if species had not been separated and specially created, there must have been a mechanism of evolution. Before he hit upon the principle of natural selection his views on this problem could not be very precise, but the notion of competition appears in the following passage, albeit without defined penalties for the losers : " Once grant that species and genus may pass into each other, grant that one instinct to be acquired (if the medullary point in ovum has such organization as to force in one man the developement of a brain capable of producing more glowing imagining or more profound reasoning than other, if this be granted) and whole fabric [of special creation of species] totters and falls " (II 76). The penalties make their appearance in the following : " The constitution being hereditary and fixed certain physical changes [in the environment] at last become unfit [for the organism] the animal cannot change quick enough and perishes " (II 153). He also wondered " Whether species may not be made by a little more vigour being given to the chance offspring " (II 61). Isolation is part of the mechanism : " Nature conscious of the principle of incessant change in her offspring has invented all kinds of plan to insure sterility, but isolate your species [and] her plans are frustrated " (II 53). It has not been explained how and why Darwin adopted a mechanistic viewpoint at a time when religious orthodoxy permeated science and philosophy, but there is no mistaking it in the following passages : " Why is thought being a secretion of brain, more wonderful than gravity a property of matter ? " (II 166). He even referred to mental processes as " machinery " : Animals " can reason but man has reasoning power in excess. Instead of definite instincts his is a replacement in mental machinery so analogous to what we see in bodily that it does not stagger me " (II 78). The following remark needs no comment : " Love of the deity effect of organization, oh, you materialist ! " (II 166). All the more remarkable is it to find Darwin giving voice to a view which Malthus would have rejected as anathema : " Educate all classes, avoid the contamination of caste, improve the women (double influence) & man- kind must improve " (II 220). Although the Second Notebook on Transmutation of Species was started in the beginning of February 1838 and finished in July of the same year, Darwin added lists of books to be read and read at dates subsequent to July 1838. Among these books under the date 3 October, is listed Malthus on Population, which enables the ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES 81 date when Darwin read that book " for amusement " to be determined with pre- cision. The significance of this information will be pointed out in the Introduction to the Third Notebook on Transmutation of Species. As in the other Notebooks, a number of pages (102) were cut out by Darwin in 1856 when he began to write the work of which the Origin of Species was an abstract. Darwin's Second Notebook on Transmutation of Species, also known as Notebook " C ", is Darwin MS 122 in the Cambridge University Library, to the authorities of which acknowledgement is warmly made for their unfailing assistance and courtesy. I am also deeply obliged to Dr. Sydney Smith for his kind criticism and help. HIST. 2, 3. 28§§ CHARLES DARWINS SECOND NOTEBOOK ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES FEBRUARY-JULY 1838 Inside front cover CHARLES DARWIN written between (begining of February & July 1838) . . . two pidgeons which cross & keep colour on wing. Effects of colour on parent, white room. How are varieties . . . ? Books about amount of difference when hybrids produced have any close species ever yet failed. About trades affecting form of man. Could you get racehorse from cart horse . . . All good References selected Dec 13 1856. Also worked through April 23 1873. | 1 Mr Yarrell 1 give it as his theory tells me he had no doubt that oldest variety takes greatest effect on offspring. Thus presuming those varieties to be oldest which have long been known in any country, he states that Esquimaux dog when crossed with pointer produced offspring much nearer Esquimaux than Pointer. — He has no doubt that same thing would happen with Australian dog & any of our common 2 varieties. He has ditto doubt that | chestnut for many generations back was crossed with Bay mare, only by a few generations, that offspring would be chestnut. — On this principle I may add, that fact of half cross with parents, going back to either parent, is lucidly explained. — Mr. Yarrell states that if any odd pidgeon crossed with common pidgeon, offspring must be like latter, because oldest variety. — He 3 says of two varieties of | pidgeon, although having skulls so different, that they would be called genera, yet retain marking of wings like the wild rock pidgeon. — Fact analogous to Owen's 2 Phil, remark of Apteryx having feathers. — It is possible time being an element in the transmission of form may explain mule and pig being half way. Yet dogs sometimes like father, sometimes like mother. The fact of j 4 great monstrosities being produced, & handed down with ease, is analogous to what occurs in plants. — All these facts clearly point out two kinds of varieties. — One approaching to nature of monster, hereditary, other adaptation. — Mr. Yarrell says, that after breeding in pidgeons with very much care that it requires the greatest difficulty to rear them, eggs hatched under other birds & brought up by hand. These facts all account for | 5-14 excised. 15 Birds of Australia. Many in common ? species ? with New Guinea. — Many kinds common to New Guinea & rest of isle in E. Indi : Arch : In New Zealand a Sturnus of American form, a Synallaxis ? American ? p. 159 & 160 162 list of some birds of Tingetabou & New Ireland. 3 — Gould 4 will hereafter know about birds of 1 William Yarrell (i 784-1 856). 2 Richard Owen. " On the anatomy of the Southern Apteryx." Communicated April 10, 1838, Trans. Zool. Soc. Lond., vol. 2, 1841, p. 257. On p. 258 : — " The Apteryx presents such a singular and seemingly anomalous compound of characters belonging to different orders of Birds, ... It seems, as it were, to have borrowed its head from the Longirostral Grallae, its legs from the Gallinae, and its wings from the Struthious order. It is clothed with a plumage having the characteristic looseness of that of the terrestrial birds deprived of the power of flight ..." Presumably Darwin heard Owen deliver this paper or discuss it beforehand. 3 Jean-Ren6-Constantin Quoy, et Joseph-Paul Gaimard. Voyage de d'ecouvertes de l' Astrolabe. Zoologie. Paris 1830, p. 159 : — " La Nouvelle-Irlande a plusieurs genres d'oiseaux qui lui sont communs avec la Nouvelle-Guin6e dont elle est si voisine." * John Gould (1804-1881). DARWIN'S SECOND NOTEBOOK ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES 83 N. Zealand. 1 L'Institut 1838. A Dipus & other rongeur in Australia. — p. 67 ? American forms ? An Infusorian not extinct species. 2 good Resume ditto p. 62 ??? I 16 Age of Deinotherium. 3 p. 23. Bull : Soc. Geolog. 1837-8 Tom. IX. M. D'Urville on the Distrib. of Ferns in South Sea 4 (Indio Polynes : vegetation far East) Ann : des Sciences Semplemt. 1825. Get Henslow 5 to read over the pages from about 8 to 20 of Zoologie of Coquille's Voyage to see if Lesson's remarks 6 on the Flora can be trusted. | 17-18 excised. 19 Coquille Voyage p. 25. Mais il n'y a pas jusqu'aux iles Macquarie et Campbell (52 S) qui n'aient egalement leurs especes ; et certainement on eut ete bien eloigne, il y a peu d'annees, d'admettre que ces oiseaux eussent leurs representants dans de si hautes latitudes " P — ? translate ? All Australian forms have representative (& instances given) in East Ind. Arch. — Birds of New Zealand absolutely different. — Philedon cincinnatus not found in 20 Australia only New Zealand — Norfolk Is d & New Caledonia | peculiar species of cassicans (? cassicans Australian form ?) p. 27. Many fish of Taiti found at Isle of France : 8 instance of wide range, when means of wide range says same remark with regard to shells. — But he says shells towards extremities of the continents peculiar to the different points. — Work this out. L. Jenyns 9 about my fish New Zealand and New Holland fish very similar. — N.B. Lesson method of generalizing without tables of references highly unphil- osophical. | 21 Consult Voyage aux terres australes 10 Chap XXXIX torn IV p. 223, 2d edit. Consult Latreille Geographie 11 des Insectes in 8° p. 181 who says insects Indian like Plants. 1 William Ogilby. L'Institut, tome 6, Paris 1838, p. 67. Zoologie : Rongeurs australasiens. " L'autre animal decrit par M. Ogilby, quoique n'appartenant pas a un nouveau genre, est Egalement inteYessant en ce qu'il jette quelque lumiere sur les lois de la distribution gebgraphique des animaux. C'est une vraie Gerboise (Dipus) des plaines centrales de la Nouvelle-Hollande." 2 Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg. L'Institut, tome 6, 1838, p. 62. Paleontologie : Infusoires. " M. Ehrenberg lit une note sur les masses que forment les infusoires siliceuses." 3 Heinrich Georg Bronn. " Sur l'age geblogique des terrains tertiaires du bassin de Mayence," Bull. Soc. Geol. France, tome 9, 1838, p. 23 : — " MM. Klipstein et Kaup ont rapports les couches contenant leur Dinotheriutn au calcaire grossier des environs de Paris." * J. D'Urville. " De la distribution des fougeres sur la surface du globe terrestre." Annates des Sciences naturelles, tome 6, Paris 1825, p. 51. 8 John Stevens Henslow. 6 Ren6-Primevere Lesson, et Prosper Garnot. Voyage autour du Monde execute sur la Corvette La Co- quille. Zoologie. Paris 1826, tome 1, pp. 12-19 are concerned with the floras of Oceania. 7 Ren6-Primevere Lesson, et Prosper Garnot. Ibid., tome 1, p. 25. 8 Rene-Primevere Lesson, et Prosper Garnot. Ibid., tome 1, p. 27 : — " nous avons retrouv£ a ITsle de France un grand nombre des poissons de Taiti." 9 Leonard Jenyns, afterwards Blomefield, author of the Section on Fish in Zoology of H.M.S. Beagle London 1842. 10 Francois P6ron. Voyage de decouvertes aux terres australes, seconde Edition revue corrigee et aug- mented par M. Louis de Freycinet, tome 4, Paris 1824, p. 223 : — " Une observation tres remarquable tend a confirmer 1'origine que j'attribue ici aux incrustations de la Nouvelle-Hollande ; c'est que de l'immense 6tendue de cotes dont je viens de parler, le seul point sur lequel nous n'ayons pu voir aucune de ces incrustations, le port du Roi-George, se distingue aussi de tous les autres par la nature presque exclusivement quartzeuse de ses rivages." 11 Pierre-Andre Latreille. Memoires sur divers sujets de I'histoire naturelle des insectes, de geographie ancienne et de chronologic Paris 1819, tome 4, p. 180 : — " Quoique l'entomologie de la Nouvelle-Hollande forme un type special, elle se compose n^anmoins, en grand partie, d'especes analogues a celles des Moluques et du sud-est des Indes." 84 DARWIN'S SECOND NOTEBOOK It would be very important to show wide range of fish & shells in tropical seas it would demonstrate : not distance, makes species but barrier. It would make strong contrast with southern regions. — It would now represent what actually has is taking place with quadrupeds. p. 118 wild pigs of Falklands generally " red of bricks " hair. 1 Very stiff. p. 120 Coati roux common near Conception. 2 Some tatous !!! p. 120 Most of the dogs of Payta belong to the hairless kind said to come originally from Africa. 3 j 22 p. 122 Mus decumanus at Caroline Is ds & a Roussette. 4 p. 136 Isle of France. — the Tennecs [tenrecs] from Madagascar. Monkey from Java. 5 — Hairs [hares] & deer. — Procured two makis alive from there. — Mem. Waterhouse knows of some species which escaped there. — p. 139. Vespertilio bonariensis (from Buenos Ayres) holds same relation with equator that Vesp. lasiurus does in North Hemisphere. 6 — | 23-28 excised. 29 Rabbits introduced in 64 of very many colours, like the cattle which I say " are as variously coloured as a herd in England." — Black & grey varieties of rabbits thus handed down for nearly 70 years. Galapagos mouse not the same section with house mice. It is wonderful how it could have been transported ? What section does the New Zealand Rat belong to. There is this great advantage in studying geograph. range of quadrupeds ; that either created in each point, or migrated from those quarters where we know quadrupeds have existed for ages. — | 30 The most hypoth : part of my theory, that two varieties of many ages standing, will not readily breed together. The argument must thus be taken, as in wild state (where instinct not interfered with, or generative organs affected as with plants) no animals very different will breed together, so when two great (which can be shown probable) varieties may be made in wild state, there will be presumption that they would not breed together. — We see even in domesticated varieties a tendency to go back to oldest race, which evidently is tendency to same end as the law of hy- bridity, namely the | 1 Ren6-Primevere Lesson, et Prosper Garnot. Voyage autourdu Monde . . . Zoologie, Paris 1826, tome 1, p. 118 : — " Les cochons se sont 6galement propages sur les iles Malouines, et principalement sur un ilot, qui est a l'entree de la baie Francaise. Leur nourriture n'est ni succulente, ni meme abondante : aussi leur chair maigre, quoique poss&lant un fumet agreable, n'a aucun rapport avec celle de nos cochons domestiques, et encore moins avec celle des sangliers. Leur poils d'une rudesse extreme sont g^neralement d'une couleur rouge de brique ..." * ReneVPrimevere Lesson, et Prosper Garnot. Ibid., tome 1, p. 120 : — " Nous ne vlmes guere que le coati roux, qu'on dit etre commun aux alentours de Penco, quelques tatous et une sorte de chat ..." 8 ReneVPrimevere Lesson, et Prosper Garnot. Ibid., tome 1, p. 120 : — " Nous observames que la plupart des chiens de Payta appartenaient a la race des chiens sans poil (Canis aegyptius), le chien turc de Buffon, qui est originaire d'Afrique, suivant les auteurs." 4 ReneVPrimevere Lesson, et Prosper Garnot. Ibid., tome 1, p. 122 : — " Notre s^jour sur l'tle d'Oualan nous a permis d'y remarquer que deux especes qui y soient vraiment indigenes. L'une est la roussette Keraudren. . . . Le surmulot commun (Mus decumanus, Mamm. Desm., 773) " 6 ReneVPrimevere Lesson, et Prosper Garnot. Ibid., tome 1, p. 136 : — "les tenrecs. Ces derniers, venus de Madagascar, . . . tandisque le singe (Macacus sinicus, Des. 32), originaire de Java, occupe les sommets escarpes de la montagne du Pouce." • ReneVPrimevere Lesson, et Prosper Garnot. Ibid., tome 1, p. 139: — "Ces vespertilions vivent a une egale distance de l'equateur, dans les zones temp^rees des deux hemispheres du continent americain." ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES 85 31-32 excised. 33 animals unite, all the change that has been accumulated cannot be transmitted ; hence the tendency to revert to parent forms, & greater fertility of hybrid & parent stock, than between two hybrids. — As we see external influences first affect external [for]m, so will the internal parts be of longest [?]nt & therefore most permanent. Owe[n rejmarkable laws of Brains & manner of generation & primary divisions of insects. 1 2. Relation of external conditions, & of succession : the latter is most intimately connected with important structure, which are less obviously affected by external 34 circumstances. These therefore will be chiefly hereditary. — | If varieties produced by slow causes, without picking become more & more impressed in blood with time, then generation will only produce an offspring capable of producing such as itself. — Therefore two different varieties will produce hybrids but not varieties which are not deeply impressed on blood, will cross & produce fertile offspring. In first case it will either produce no offspring or such as not capable of producing again. | 35 The varieties of Cardoon are cases like those of Primrose & Cowslip run wild. The two species of Clenonga case of replacing species. Dr Smith 2 will give me some capital information. ? Carnivora of New and Old wor[l]d do not form two sections, is this not connected with wide range of animals. Follow this out where species of same genera in 36 [...?...] word have not species generally wide range? Mice. — | Waterhouse's remarkable fact 3 of no forms peculiar to (to special districts ????) land north of 30 , may be connected with Mr Blyth's statement 4 of birds of Europe & America which are of different forms being migratory, also with Temmincks fact 5 of forms being within Tropics. — European birds at Japan connected with European forms 6 on Himalaya ? ? — This is very remarkable when we consider number of quadrupeds in Eocene period. Have the Edentata & Marsupials forms been chiefly preserved, where shut up by themselves without other animals? But they were not shut up!! | 37 Extreme southern points of S. Hemisphere fully characterized of each continent. Try amongst European quadrupeds if Africa destroyed would not then some forms 1 Richard Owen. The reference appears to be to Owen's Lectures. In the Syllabus of an elementary course of lectures on comparative anatomy by Richard Owen to be delivered at St. Bartholomew's Hospital during April and May 1835, in the analysis of Lectures IV and V, on page 5, appear the words : — " Changes effected in the nervous and other systems during the metamorphoses of insects." * Andrew Smith, whom Darwin met in South Africa. 8 George Robert Waterhouse. The Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle, Part II. Mammalia by George Robert Waterhouse. London 1839, p. 19 : — , Felis pajeros : — " it extends northwards as far as latitude 30 ." p. 88 : — " Lagostomus trichodactylus is not found north of 30 ." Darwin's obscure note would appear to mean " no forms peculiar to South America." 4 Edward Blyth. The reference is presumably to " Further remarks on the affinities of the feathered race," Mag. Nat. Hist Lond. vol. 9, 1836, p. 509 : — " Many years have now elapsed since the genius of Buffon suggested the capital proposition that there is no absolute specific identity between any organism of the Eastern and Western continents, with the exception of those which inhabit very far to the north." 5 Coenraad Jacob Temminck. Perhaps Histoire naturelle genirale des pigeons et des Gallinacis, Paris 1813, tome 1, p. 6 : — " II paroit que les Pigeons et les Gallinacis habitent de pr^feYence les parages de la zone torride." * This question is prompted by Edward Blyth : " Further remarks on the Affinities of the feathered Race ", Mag. Nat. Hist. Lond. 9, 1836, p. 510 : — " we have every grade of diversity, from the obviously distinct Japanese peafowl (Pavo muticus), to the mealy linnet, which, apparently, differs in no respect from that of Europe." 86 DARWIN'S SECOND NOTEBOOK be peculiar to it, so on & so on. — Whatever destroyed great Pachyderms in S. America destroyed great Edentata or American form. — Is the Australian Dipus an American form? The climates having grown more extreme both in N. & S. America, is only common cause I can conceive of destruction of great animals in Europe & America. | 38 Some portion of the world (Africa) being left more equable (yet America pre- eminently equable) might have allowed fresh species to have been formed & spread to other Africa & East India Arch. — But where these great animals had not spread then such tribes as Marsupial & Edentates increased most. Certainly Africa approaches nearest to what is supposed to have been condition of former whole world. America must have been string of islands. — | 39-44 excised. 45 The systematic naturalists get clear indication of circumstances in Geography to help in distinguishing empirically what is species. — The collector is directed to study localities of isl ds . — Immense importance of local faunas foundation of all our know- ledge especially great continents. Give specimen of arrangement. Rhinoceros 3 species Cape Town good species Indian species so distinct that all analogy [?] from each other f Sumatra 1 .... - T ,. TJ ,, ij-rr *w r — ditto from India I do not know how different . Ljava J Some doubt from want of knowledge of times analogy from three first will give one almost certain guide \' time required to separate isl d very long. Increase of knowledge would probably tell more certainly. Get closer species. Foxes good case on account of varieties in N. America. Mice of America. I 46 America & Indian deer. — Africa not. — Africa camels?? Airica. Bears?? Plantigrade carnivora?? — Compare rodents of two countries & monkeys. Fact of Elephant same species in Borneo Sumatra India Ceylon — perhaps show great persistency of character. Hence Elephas primigenius over so wide a range & Mastodon angustidens. — Ogleby 1 has facts to show that Australian dog introduced by savages into Australia. — What are they? Colonel Montagu 2 probably contains some facts about close species of Birds. | 47-50 excised. 1 William Ogilby. " Notice of certain Australian Quadrupeds, belonging to the Order Rodentia ", read December, 1837 ; Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond., vol. 18, 1841, 121. On page 121 : — " ... I think, that there are strong grounds for believing that the Dingo, or native dog, ... is not an aboriginal inhabitant of the continent, but a subsequent importation, in all probability contemporary with the primitive settlement of the natives. ..." 2 George Montagu. " Observations on some species of British Quadrupeds, Birds, and Fishes. Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond., vol. 7, 1804, p. 274. On page 282 : — " were it not for the strong chestnut colour the Kentish Plover is said to possess on the crown of the head, as described by Lewin, and since by Dr Latham in the Second Synopsis to the General Synopsis, we should not have hesitated in pronouncing these three birds to be only one species." Page 287 : — " It is indeed remarkable that a bird bearing such strong marks as the Black-headed Gull, in all the changes, from the nestling to the adult plumage, should have ever been multiplied into so many species [i.e. " brown gull ", and " brown turn ".] ... of the several, re- markable changes incident to the black-headed Gull . . . one of those mutations is the identical bird in question, the Brown Gull." ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES 87 51 Instinct goes before structure (habits of ducklings & chickens young water ouzels) hence aversion to generation, before great difficulty in propagation. — Feathers on Apteryx because we may suppose longest part of structure. — Shape of wings have altered many times, but all have had feathers, — if wing totally obliterated. — This may account for permanence in many trifling marks, — such as the bands on pidgeons back. — According to this description of class is description | 52 of ancestor of all birds, & so for birds, we thus obtain an abstract idea of a bird, an animal with skeleton of such general forms. — The hybridity of ferns bears on my doctrine of cross-generation. The infertility of crosse & cross is method of nature to prevent the picking of 53 monstrosities as man does. — One is tempted to exclaim | that nature conscious of the principle of incessant change in her offspring has invented all kinds of plan to insure sterility, but isolate your species her plans are frustrated or rather a new principle is brought to bear. If man created as now languages would surely have been homogeneous. — There must be some sophism in Lyell's statement 1 that some species vary more than what makes species in other animals. — | 54 Forster on South Sea 2 will probably contain description of domesticated animals in those regions. Species so far are not natural that they are either A.B.C.D.E or A.C.D.E.H. Very striking to see M. Bibron 3 looking over reptiles he often had difficulty in dis- tinguishing which were species (theory admirably) yet a glance would tell from which country. — I often disputed for a moment. — Galapagos, S. American genera. — 55 The circumstances of having | two sexes is the check to distribution of birds & animals. Mrs. Strickland & Hamilton 4 found tertiary formation amongst Greecian isles ?see if type continued? See to Babbage 5 & Virlet. 6 — Whewell 7 thinks (p. 642) anni- versary speech Feb. 1838 thinks gradation between man & animals small point in tracing history of man. — granted. — but if all other animals have been so formed, 56 then man may be a miracle, but induction leads to other view. — | Till we know uses of organs clearly, we cannot guess causes of change. — hump on back of cow!! &c. &c. 1 Charles Lyell. Principles of Geology, vol. 2, London 1832, p. 25 : — " we have only to suppose that what is true of size, may also hold in regard to colour and many other attributes, and it will at once follow that the degree of possible discordance between varieties of the same species, may in certain cases exceed the utmost disparity which can even arise between two individuals of many distinct species." 2 John Reinhold Forster. Observations made during a Voyage round the World, on Physical Geography &c. London 1778, refers only to hog, dog, and cock among the domestic animals. 3 Gabriel Bibron, author of " Reptiles " ; Voyage autour du Monde execute pendant 1836, et 1837 sur la Bonite ; Zoologie, tome 1, Paris 1841. 4 Hugh E. Strickland, & William John Hamilton. " An account of a Tertiary deposit near Lixouri, in the island of Cephalonia ", Proc. Geol. Soc. Lond., vol. 2, 1834, p. 545. 5 Charles Babbage. " Observations on the temple of Serapis at Pozzuoli, near Naples ; with remarks on certain causes which may produce Geological Cycles of great Extent", Proc. Geol. Soc. Lond., vol. 2, 1833. P- 72- 6 Pierre-Th6odore Virlet d'Aoust. Expedition scientifique de Moree, Paris 1833-5. 7 William Whewell. " Address to the Geological Society, delivered at the Anniversary, on the 16th of February 1838, by the Rev. William Whewell, President of the Society. " Proc. Geol. Soc. Lond., vol. 2, 1838, p. 642. On page 642 : — " The gradation in form between man and other animals, a gradation which we all recognise, and which, therefore, need not startle us because it is presented under a new aspect, is but a slight and, as appears to me, unimportant feature, in looking at the great subject of man's origin." 88 DARWIN'S SECOND NOTEBOOK D'Orbigny (p. 108) says 1 having observed B. tricolor in Patagonia then in Chile & lastly 12.000 feet above sea in Bolivia, he examined all species & found " beaucoup des m&mes oiseaux que nous avions deja observes en Patagonie ou au moins des 57 especes tres-analogues, quand ce n'etaient I pas tout a fait les memes ". This good case of replacement under peculiar conditions — of nearly same kind country distant. The circumstances of ground woodpeckers, — birds that cannot fly &c. &c. seem clearly to indicate those very changes which at first it might be doubted were pos- sible, — it has been asked how did the otter live before it had its web-feet. All nature answers to the possibility. — My views will explain no mammalia in secondary epochs & developement of lizards. | 58 As we have birds impressions in Red Sandstone great lizards in ditto. — Coniferous wood in Coal Measure. — highest fish in old Red Sandstone. — Nautili in [blank] it is useless to speculate not only about beginning of animal life generally, but even about great division. Our question is not how there come to be fishes & quadrupeds 59 but how there come to be many genera of fish &c. &c. at present day. — | It is assumption to say generation produces young ones capable of producing young ones like itself, but? whether great assumption? not solely producing like itself, not applicable to monster. — Are monstrosity hereditary??? Does not atavism relate to this law? — Local varieties formed with extreme slowness even when isolation from general circumstances effecting the area equably. — | 60 Animals having wide range, by preventing adaptation owing to crossing with un- seasoned people would cause destruction. — Simile man living in hot countries, if continually crossed with people from cold, children would not become adapted to climate. — Descent, or true relationship, tends to keep the species to one form (but is modi- fied). The relationship of analogy is a divellent power & tends to make forms remote antagonist powers. — Every animal in cold country has some analogy in hot gaudy 61 colours so all changes may be considered in this light. — | Hence relation of analogy may chiefly be looked for in the aberrant groups. — It is having walking fly catcher, woodpecker &c &c which causes the confusion in this system of nature. — Whether species may not be made by a little more vigour being given to the chance offspring who have any slight peculiarity of structure, hence seals take victorious seals, hence deer victorious deer, hence males armed & pugnacious all order ; cocks all war-like ; this wars against the resemblances relationship, the dissemblances analogy, in any class those points which are different from each other, & resemble some other class, analogy. See Abercrombie 2 p. 172 for definition of analogy. Zoolog. Journal. 3 Parrots in Macquarie is ld vol. Ill p. 430 alluded to by Capt. King. 1 Alcide Dessalines d'Orbigny. Voyage dans I'Amerique meridionale . . . 1826-33, tome 4, Paris 1835, p. 108 ; observations on Buteo tricolor. * John Abercrombie. Inquiries concerning the Intellectual Powers and the Investigation of Truth, Edinburgh 1830, p. 171 : — " 2. Relations of resemblance and analogy . . . When there is a close agreement between two events or classes of events, it constitutes resemblance ; where there are points of difference, it is analogy. In the latter case, we then trace the degrees of analogy, depending upon the number of points in which the resemblance holds, and the number of points in which there is a difference." * Phillip Parker King. " On the Animals of the Straits of Magellan ", Zool. Journ. vol. 3, London 1828, p. 430 : — " Parrots as you are well aware are brought from Macquarrie Island ..." ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES 89 62 Ditto p. 434 Table of birds from Cuba. Vigors, 1 nothing of much interest. | All the discussion about affinity & how one order first becomes developed & then another — (according as parent types are present) must follow after there is proof of the non creation of animals. — Then argument may be, — subterranean lakes, hot spring &c &c inhabited therefore mud wood [would] be inhabited, then how is this 63 effected by — for instance, fish being excessively abundant | & tempting the Jaguar to use its feet much in swimming, & every developement giving greater vigour to the parent tending so produce effect on offspring — but whole race of that species must take to that particular habitat. — All structures either direct effect of habit, or hereditary & combined effect of habit, — perhaps in process of change. — Are any men born with any peculiarity, or any race of plants. — Lamarck's willing absurd, 2 V not applicable to plants. | 64 Epidemics of South Sea wonderful case of extermination of species. — Epidemic amonst trees. Plane trees all died certain year. Extreme difficulty of tracing change of species to species although we see it effected tempts one to bring one back to distinct creations. — It is only be [by] recollecting that the ground woodpecker &c fresh water animals of great Lakes are American form that one is brought to admit the 65 possibility | (any great change in species is reduced by atavism). Even a deformity may be looked at as the best attempt of nature under certain very unfavoured conditions, — as an adaptation, but adaptation during earliest existence ; if whole life then real adaptation. The case of hereditary disease is on the same principle that cut a sheeps tail off plenty of times & you will have no tail (example probably not true) — or again healthy parents have healthy children. The other case is change during life of parent & therefore being always necessary may be called adaptation. | 66 With respect to my theory of generation, fact of armless parent not having armless child, shows that there is reference to more than offspring (like atavism) & shows my view of generation right? — If puppy born with thick coat monstrosity, if brought into cold country & then acquired then adaptation. — | 67 No Common Vultures in Australia 3 !! Wilsons ornithology, vol. Ill p. 226. Wilsons Ornithology, D'Orbigny, 4 Spix, 5 &c might compare birds of N. America & South, — any how temperate regions, — crows in N. America. Study Bonapartes 6 list. In the Zoological Journal 7 I read a curious account to show that very many birds of different kinds have been known to assist in feeding young cuckoos ; as if there was storge [strong urge], which could not be resisted, when hearing cry of hunger of 1 Nicholas Aylward Vigors. " Sketches in Ornithology etc.," Zool. Journ., vol. 3, London 1828, p. 434 : — " the following 45 species occur among the birds from Cuba ..." 2 Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck. See Introduction to First Notebook, p. 32. 3 Alexander Wilson. American Ornithology, vol. 3, London 1832, p. 226 : — " The Vultures are com- paratively a limited race, and exist in every quarter of the world, New Holland excepted ..." 4 Alcide Dessalines d'Orbigny. Voyage dans I'Amerique meridionale . . . tome 4, 3e partie, Paris 1839. 5 Johann Baptiste von Spix. Travels in Brazil in 1817-20, London 1824. 6 Charles-Lucien Bonaparte. A Geographical and Comparative List of the Birds Europe and North America, London 1838. 7 John Blackwell. " Facts relating to the natural history of the Cuckoo ", Zoological Journal, vol. 4, 1829, p. 294 : — " In the Gentleman's Magazine for April 1806 itwo instances are recorded of young cuckoo having been occasionally fed by large numbers of birds of the same species as their foster parents ..." hist. 2, 3. go DARWIN'S SECOND NOTEBOOK 68 little bird. In same way Wilson 1 | (p. 5) describes many kinds of birds uniting together in pursuit of Blue Jay, when birds hears cry of distress of other parents. — Shows community of language. Desert country is as effectual as a cold one in checking beautiful colours of species. — Mem. St. Jago ; solitary Halcyon bird of passage. — M. coronata of Latham, wrong. Mr. Yarrell says that some birds or animals are placed in white rooms to give tinge to 69 offspring. Darkness effect on human offspring. — | White snow, — the fine green of vegetation, — ? account for colour of bird in district which they frequent!!? Wilsons' American ornithology 2 a mine of valuable facts, regarding habits range & all kinds of information, instinct. Swainson's remarks in Fauna Borealis 3 must be studied. There is capital talk of extent of all species. Accumulate instances of one family sending out structures into many genera, — like Synallaxis or Marsupial animals 70 of N. America. | Hence it is universally allowed that the discrimination of species is empirical. Show this by instances. Once grant my theory & the examination of species from distant countries may give thread to conduct to laws of change of organization! The little turtle without its parent running to the water is a good instance of innate instinct, better than child sucking or even duckling & fowls. When talking of races of man, — black men, black bull finches from linseed, — notably effects of climate on some antecedent race perhaps not one now existing. | 71-72 excised. 73 Study the wars of organic being. — The fact of guavas having overun Tahiti, thistle Pampas show how nicely things adapted. — The abberrant varieties will be formed in any kingdom of nature where scheme not filled up (most false to say no passages ; nature is full of them. — Wading birds partially webbed &c &c) — & in round of chances every family will have some aberrant groups, — but as for number five in each group absurd. — The mere fact of division of lesser & more power (2. 74 typical 3. sub typical) | where power arbitrary, leaves door open for Quinarians to deceive himself. — Give the case of Apterix split, depress & elevate & enlarge New Zealand, a division of nature of Apterix, many genera & species. The believing that monkey would breed (if mankind destroyed) some intellectual being though not MAN, — is as difficult to understand as Lyells doctrine of slow movements 4 &c &c. | 75 This multiplication of little means & bringing the mind to grapple with great effect produced is a most laborious & painful effort of the mind (although this may appear an absurd saying) & will never be conquered by anyone (if has any kind of prejudices) who just takes up & lays down the subject without long meditation. — His best chance is to have [pondered] profoundly over the enormous difficulty of 1 Alexander Wilson. American Ornithology, London 1832, vol. 1, p. 5 : — " The cries of the distressed parent soon bring together a number of interested spectators, (for birds in such circumstances seem truly to sympathize with each other) and he [blue jay] is sometimes attacked with such spirit as to be under the necessity of making a speedy retreat." 2 Alexander Wilson. Ibid. 3 William Swainson. Fauna Boreali- Americana ; or the Zoology of the Northern parts of British America. Part II, the Birds, London 1831. 4 Charles Lyell. The reference is to the production of great effects as a result of slow action over great periods of time, which is the basis of the Principles of Geology. ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES 91 reproduction of species & certainly of destruction ; then he will choose & firmly believe in his new faith of the lesser of the difficulties. | 76 Once grant that species and genus may pass into each other, — grant that one instinct to be acquired (if the medullary point in ovum has such organization as to force in one man the developement of a brain capable of producing more glowing imagining or more profound reasoning than other, if this be granted!!) & whole fabric totters & falls. — Look abroad, study gradation, study unity of type, study yy geographical distribution, | study relation of fossil with recent. The fabric falls! But man — wonderful man " divino ore versum coelum attentior " is an exception. — He is mammalian, — his origin has not been indefinite. — he is not a deity, his end under present form will come, (or how dreadfully we are deceived) then he is no exception. — He possesses some of the same general instincts all & feelings as animals. They on other hand can reason — but man has reasoning powers in excess, instead 78 of I definite instincts — this is a replacement in mental machinery so analogous to what we see in bodily, that it does not stagger me. — What circumstances may have been necessary to have made man! Seclusion want &c & perhaps a train of animals of hundred generations of species to produce contingents proper. — Present monkeys 79 might not, — but probably would, — the world | now being fit, for such an animal — man, (rude uncivilized man) might not have lived when certain other animals were alive, which have perished. Let man visit Ourang-outang in domestication, hear expres- sive whine, see its intelligence when spoken [to], as if it understood every word said — see its affection to those it knows, — see its passion & rage, sulkiness & very extreme of despair ; let him look at savage, roasting his parent, naked, artless, not improving, yet improvable and then let him dare to boast of his proud preeminence. — Not 80 understanding language of Fuegian puts on par with monkeys. | Gould seems to think that many species when close come from different localities as my Funaire — some genus of yellow and brown breasted bird in Australia &c &c — but of course they might be blended, if archipelago turned into continent &c &c. There is beautiful gradation of forms in Australia leading on one side into shrikes & at the other into crows. Yet all forming, according to Gould, 1 good genus. | 81 Gould seems to doubt how far structure & habits go together. This must be pro- foundly considered. — Structure may be obliterating, whilst habits are changing, or structure may be obtaining, whilst habits slightly preceed them — From this view habits must form most important element in considering to which tribes — structure 82 without corresponding habits clearly showing true affinity, for instance | tail of ground woodpecker, — but tail of some ducks aberrant from habit. — Gould 2 I see quite recognizes habits in making out classification of birds. Birds vary much (more than shells) owing to variety of station inhabited by them. 83 Timor. Australian forms amongst birds | Java, not so much. — Peculiarities of structure as six-fingered people are sometimes hereditary — yet these not adaptations — they are counteracted by nature by crossing with other varieties, but accidental 3 changes after 1 John Gould. " Characters of two new species of birds constituting a new genus, Aplonis." Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., Part IV, 1836, p. 73 : — " He stated them to approximate, in his opinion, in nearly an equ^l degree to the genera Lanius, Turdus, and Lamprotornis ." 2 John Gould. The reference is to Gould's treatment of species in The Birds of Europe, London 1837. 3 This word crossed out in MS. 92 DARWINS SECOND NOTEBOOK birth do not effect progeny. Many dogs in England must have been lopped off & sheeps tails cut yet there is no record of any effect. — New Hollanders have gone on boring their noses &c &c. This congenital changes show that grandson is determined, 84 when child is, — | shows that generation implies more than mere child, but that child should produce like children. Lyell has story from Beck 1 about six fingered children hereditary. With respect to question which is adaptation, — examine ptarmigan, hare becom- ing white in winter of Arctic countries few will say it is direct effect, according to 85 Physical laws, as sulphuric acid disorganizes | wood, but adaptation. — Albino however is monster, yet albino may so far be considered as adaptation, as best attempt of nature colouring matter being absent. — Again dwarf plant on alpine district & dwarf plant from seed, one adaptation other monsters. — The only way of judging whether structure is owing to habits or hereditary is to see 86 whether a large family has it, & one member of that | family having it with very different habits. — Thus bill & nostril of Puffinuria I think we may clearly attribute to hereditary origin & not adaptation to its habits. — Few will dispute that it is possible to have structure without habits — after seeing beetle with wings beneath 87 soldered wing-cases — yet these wings may be of some use. — Nature | is never extravagant though clearly not of the use to which wings are generally applied. — Therefore argument not destroyed even if their shrivelled wings could be shown to be of some use. If we only had Puffinuria Garnottii & no other species — as we have only Ornithorhync[h]us, then we should never know how much structure was con- nected with habits, & how much hereditary. The circumstance of aberrant groups being small it is truism, for if not so not aberrant. — | 88 Taenioptera rufiventris is instance of bird belonging to family with peculiar coloured plumage, where colours have changed in accordance to habits, — one is tempted to suppose from beholding the ground. — Why do beetles & birds become dull coloured in sterile countries. — Gould insist much upon knowing to what type a bird belongs. — I conceive without knowing from which country many birds come it would be impossible to classify them. — I would | 89-98 excised. 99 element geographical distribution is. — ? Pelagic forms — similar birds?? — We must always bear in mind proofs of most equable climate both in S. & N. Hemisphere just anterior to present. ? cause of destruction of great animals? Show independency of shells to external features of land by seeing how many species common to Patagonia & Tierra del Fuego & forest, insert Parrots in Macquarrie Isd. 2 Coast very good. Study D'Orbigny 3 , & range in West Guyaquil & Peru. I 1 Charles Lyell. The 5th edition of the Principles of Geology has three references to Dr J. Beck of Copenhagen, quoted for geological observations. The present reference appears to be to a personal com- munication to Lyell. 2 Phillip Parker King. " On the Animals of the Straits of Magellan ", Zoological Journal, vol. 3, London 1828, p. 430 : — " Parrots as you are well aware are brought from the Macquarrie Island ..." 3 Alcide Dessalines d'Orbigny. Voyage dans I'Amerique meridionale, Paris 1835. ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES 93 100 Henslow 1 in talking of so many families on Keeling seemed to consider it owing to one of each being fitter for transport. ? may it not be explained by mere chance? — or [is] it like each great class of animals having its aquatic aerial &c type? — This of consequence because applicable to N. Hemisphere. N.B. Examine Abrolhos Flora with this view. Tristan D'acunha. St. Helena &c &c Juan Fernandez. [ 101-102 excised. 103 After reading " Cams on the Kingdoms of Nature, their life & affinity ", 2 in Scientific Memoirs I can see that perfection may be talked of with respect to life generally. — When unity constantly develops multiplicity (his definition " constant manifestation of unity through multiplicity") this unity, — this distinctness of laws from rest of universe (which Carus considers big animal) become more devel- oped in higher animals than in vegetables. p. 243 radiate animals plants turned inside out, 3 have portion of organ of genera- tion!!! Mem. Agasziz (i No. Annals of Nat. Hist.) spiral structure in Echinodermata. 4 | 104 Agassiz says Infusoria are insecta 5 — G. R. Treviranus Biologie 6 referred to as compilation of action of organic nature on inorganic. It is very remarkable as shown by Carus 7 how intermediate plants are between animal life & " inorganic life ". animals only live on matter already organized. — This paper might be worth consulting if any metaphysical speculations are entered on upon life, namely Carus. I 105-118 excised. 119 alone, but on all the general arguments — Lamarck was the Hutton of Geology, he had few clear facts, but so bold & many such profound judgment that he foreseeing consequence was endowed with what may be called the prophetic spirit in science. The highest endowment of lofty genius. 8 1 John Stevens Henslow. Personal communication. 2 Karl Gustav Carus. "On the Kingdoms of Nature, their Life and Affinities", Scientific Memoirs selected from the Transactions of foreign Academies of Science and Learned Societies and from foreign Journals, edited by Richard Taylor, vol. 1, 1837, P- 22 3- 3 Karl Gustav Carus. Ibid., vol. 1, 1837, p. 243 : — " We may now see why in the Medusa, the Sea-Star, the Echinus, and other inferior kinds of animals, the aperture of the mouth is turned downwards and the alimentary duct upwards ..." 4 Louis Agassiz. " Prodromus of a Monograph of the Radiata and Echinodermata ", Ann. Nat. Hist. vol. 1, 1838, p. 30. 5 Louis Agassiz. Reference untraced. 6 Gottfried Reinhold Treviranus. Biologie oder Philosophic der lebenden Natur fur Naturforscher und Aerzte, Gottingen, 1 802-1 822. 7 Karl Gustav Carus. " On the Kingdoms of Nature ..." Scientific Memoirs edited by Richard Taylor, vol. 1, 1837, P- 2 34 : — " The animal stands in the same relation to the vegetable kingdom as organized bodies in general do to the unorganized. ..." 8 This remarkable sentence lacks a word, for as it stands it makes no sense since no man but Hutton was the " Hutton of Geology ". It seems that the sentence should read : — Lamarck was the French Hutton of Geology, referring to Lamarck's Hydrogeologie, ou recherches sur V influence generate des eaux sur la surface du globe terrestre, sur les causes de I'existence du bassin des mers, de son deplacement, de son transport successif sur les differ ents points de ce globe, enfin sur les changemens que les corps organises vivant exercent sur la nature et I'e'tat de cette surface. Paris 1802. In this work Lamarck put forward the view that Nature had unlimited time at her disposal. 94 DARWIN'S SECOND NOTEBOOK Using geographical distribution of animals, I use (new step in induction) as key- stone of ancient geography species tell of Physical relations in time, form & distri- bution tells of horizontal barriers — | 120 Mr. Yarrel — says 1 my view of varieties is exactly what I state, — or picking varieties unnatural circumstance. L d Orfords had breed of greyhounds fleetest in England lost courage at end of chase would not run up hill. 2 (Bull-dogs are used because they have no scent. J. M. Wynne. 3 ) He took thorough bred bull-dog & crossed & recrossed till there was a dash of blood with whole form of greyhound, — picking out finest of each litter & crossing them with finest greyhounds. — Sir J. Sebright 4 first got 5 point on hackles on Bantams by crossing with common Polish cock is that not old variety & then recrossing offspring till size diminished, but feathers continued by picking chicken of each brood. — These bantam feathers | 121 at last got dusky, then took white Chinese Bantam crossed & got some yellow & others yellower & white varieties by picking the yellow ones & crossing with dark bantam produced old variety. — The pidgeons which have such different skulls, but same marks on wings are Blue Pouter & small Bald Heads Mr. Yarrell will mention in his work. 6 I am sorry to find Mr. YarrelTs evidence about old varieties is reduced to scarcely anything, — almost all imagination — He says he recollects all half Bred cattle of L d Darnleys were most like parent Brahmin bulls — Mr. Y. is inclined to think that the male communicates the external resemblances [more] than the female. | 122 The expression hybrid & fertile Hybrids may be used to varieties as well as species. As formation of species gradual so may we suppose that something intermediate, between no offspring & ordinary offspring. — This gradation is infertile offspring without organs of generation?! By profound study of local variation laws of change whether beak (as it appears to me) colour of plumage & laws which might probably be reduced. | 123 What the Frenchman did for species between England and France I will do with forms. — Mention persecution of early Astronomers, — then add chief good of individual scientific men is to push their science a few years in advance only of their age, (differently from literary men,) must remember that if they believe & do not openly avow their belief they do as much to retard as those whose opinion they believe 124 have endeavoured to advance cause of truth. | It is of the utmost importance to show that habits sometimes go before structure. — the only argument can be a bird practising imperfectly some habit, which the whole rest of other family practise with a peculiar structure, thus Tyrannus sulphureus if compelled solely to fish, structure would alter. — It is a difficulty how a different number of vertebrae are produced when (& in all 1 William Yarrell. * cf. Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication, vol. 1, London 1868, p. 68. 8 Wynne. Unidentified. * Sir John Sebright, cf. Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication, vol. 2, London 1868, p. 197. 5 A small drawing at this place in MS. * William Yarrell. A History of British Birds, London 1837-43. ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES 95 such structures) there cannot be gradation. See what Eytons young pigs 1 — if vertebra much lengthened or there may be tendency to divide which often enough | 125 repeated would cause an unequal number of vertebrae — ? When two very close species inhabit same country are not habits different. (Mem. Gould's willow wren) 2 but when close species inhabit different countries habits similar ?law? probable — •.• if habits & structure similar would have blended together. Mem. Mr Herbert's 3 law, habits determining fertility. | 126 Scheme for abolishing specific names & giving subgenera true value — as in Opetiorhync[h]us fuliginosus (a) Falklands (b) T. del Fuego differ from (c) Chiloe (d) Chile rupestris — good species. ?0. modulator -f O. patagonicus. till neutral ground ascertained call them varieties but two ostriches good species because interlock. It is reverting to old plan but reason now assigned for doing so. There should be mark to every species only known by analogy genera of course distant analogy 127 from every country & class tells us that. | Analogy to be guide in islands species, — each describer giving his test namely differ as much as those (naming them) which are found together. — If two species come over to this country without range or habits ascertained, put them as (a) (b) until data be given. — This will aid in preventing the chaos, — will point out what to observe, — will aid us in physiology, tell traveller what to observe, — if he knows he has done least part, — that he will not have brought home new species until he can show range & habits. — Take instance of most disputed shells such as Cyrena. j 128 This is reform which probably will be slow but must take place. — Such a classi- fication would answer every purpose & would present many ideas of causes of change. — The mark of analogy would be empirical because as soon as two species were placed in different subgenera, then it would be useless, but the formation of sub- genera is empirical & is judged solely by comparison with other genera in other families. — it will however be much surer, when false species banished by this 129 test. — I Excepting where as Andrew Smith, 4 Richardson 6 & Vaillant, 6 & D'Orbigny 7 has travelled this will be most difficult. Sub genera so far may be eliminated where every species of a section is confined to one continent & every species [of another section] to another, then those sections 1 Thomas Campbell Eyton. " Notice of some osteological peculiarities in different skeletons of the Genus Sus," Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., vol. 5, 1837, p. 23. 2 John Gould. The Birds of Europe, vol. 2, London 1837, P^ & P- I 3 I - (unnumbered). Description of Willow-wren, Chiff-chaff, and Wood-wren, including the differences in their songs and habits. 3 The Rev. The Hon. William Herbert. 4 Andrew Smith. Report of the Expedition for exploring central Africa from the Cape of Good Hope . . . 1834, under the superintendence of . . .A. Smith, Cape Town, 1836. 5 Sir John Richardson. Fauna B or eali- Americana ; or the Zoology of the northern parts of British America, London 1829—37. 6 Francois Levaillant. Voyage . . . dans Vinterieur de I'Afrique, par le Cap de Bonne Esperance dans les anne'es 1780-85, Paris 1790. 7 Alcide Dessalines d'Orbigny. Voyage dans I'Amerique meridionale, Paris 1835-47. 96 DARWIN'S SECOND NOTEBOOK & subgenera are analogical, because we do not know whether nearest species of each might not breed. 1 — Genus must be a true cleft putting out of case the analogys. — If genus does not mean this it means nothing. — There should be some term used, when there is series. | 130 Could I not give Catalogue of Mammalia arranged according to my own methods. Dasyurus being found fossil in Australia, & only one tree species (Mitchell's 2 authority) in Australia & several in Van Diemen's land is most important as showing former connection of two continents and death of form in one. The caves are at a 131 height of more than 1000 ft. & many hundred miles | from the sea, associated with teeth of seals and dugong, therefore immense age since breccia accumulated. — Surely ask Owen to see whether species same, excessive improbability. Mem. in Gift 3 list a rat said to have been found!! rodents old inhabitants most important!! like Dipus of present day??! Major Mitchell does not think that dog was found in Van Diemens land. — V. I st . Number of Geographical Journal to discover whether dog found at Swan River. | 132 The change in England from Rhinoceros elephants &c in the most modern period, compared to Faunas of these countries, greater than Toxodon, Macrauchenia &c compared to America — the wonder is that the European forms were able to escape to some more fitting country, if Toxodon had been found in Africa the wonder [would] have been same for S. America & Europe. — the difficulty is how came it animals not preserved in Central S. America & yet in Africa & India??? — & Indian Isl ds . 4 I 133 Sir J. Sebright pamphlet 5 most important showing effects of peculiarities being long in blood. Fully supported by Mr. Wilkinson 6 , — milking hereditary, develope- ment of important organ (see mark on pages), — crosses of diff : breeds succeed, yet seems to grant that difficult & other go back to either parent. — thinks difficulty in crossing race — bad effects of incestuous intercourse. — excellent observations of sickly offspring being cut off so that not propagated by nature. — Whole art of making varieties may be inferred from facts stated. — | 134 Shows instinct (Sir J. Sebright admirable essay) hereditary journey wild ducks. — lose as well as gain instincts. Wild & tame rabbit good instance — instincts of many kinds in dogs as clearly applicable to formation of instincts in wild animals many species in one genus external circumstances in both cases effect it. — Sir J. Sebright excellent authority because written on dog. Barking — applies it to national character. — | 1 This paragraph up to here is marked by a query in the margin. 2 Sir Thomas Livingstone Mitchell. Three expeditions into the interior of eastern Australia, with descrip- tions of the recently explored region of Australia Felix, and of the present colony of New South Wales, London 1838, vol. 2, p. 363 (Owen's identification of fossil specimens of Dasyurus laniarius.) The caves and their contents were first reported by Major T. L. Mitchell : " An account of the limestone caves at Wellington Valley, and of the situation, near one of them, where fossil bones have been found." Proc. Geol. Soc. Lond., vol. 1, 1831, p. 321. 3 William Clift. " On the succession of types of fossil mammals from Australian caves closely allied to living marsupials ". Edinb. New Phil. Journ., vol. 10 1831, p. 394. The source where Darwin found this reference was no doubt Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology, vol. 3, London 1833, p. 144. 4 The words " & Indian Islds " added in pencil. 5 Sir John Sebright. Observations upon the instinct of Animals, London 1836. * J. Wilkinson. " Remarks addressed to Sir J. Sebright ", London 1820. ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES 97 135 N.B. If two species were excessively old they would not make hybrids, whereas two newer ones even if more different might do so, — is this true?? My views which would even lead to anticipate mules is very important for Lyell said to me the fact of existence of mules appeared to him most strange. — This even might be said — my theory thus explains a grand apparent anomaly in nature. — Many animals not breeding at all in domestication throws great difficulty in way of ascertaining about hybrids, — & is very remarkable fact, show influence of mind. | 136 It is not difficult to see that it is less repugnant to nature to produce one offspring unlike itself, than to produce that capable of producing itself alike. — in one case it changes one, in other it changes thousands in futurity. — This is right way of viewing it. — Variety when long in blood gets stronger & stronger, so that though by great effort one unlike can be produced, yet to produce whole generation unlike would go against the tendency it tries to go back to grandfather, but if too unlike its own parent this impossible (Hence we might expect even if two mules bred or two certain 137 varieties, they would go back to grandfather which is | true) & infertility is consequence. — The simple expression of such a naturalist " splitting up his species & genera very finely ' ' show how arbitrary & optional operation it is, — show how finely the series is graduated. — Dr Beck 1 doubt of local varieties should be remembered. Therefore do not con- sider it as proved that they are varieties (though that would be best). Argue the case theoretically if animals did change excessively slowly whether 2 138 geologists would not find fossils such as they are. — | My theory explains that family likeness, which as in absolute human family is undescribable yet holds good, so does it in real classification. The relation of all cock birds in Gallinaceous having tendency to [. . ?] or peculiar tails, strange. ?? Genus only natural from death or slow propagation of forms — just same way as all men not all equally related to each other. I cannot help thinking good analogy might be traced between relationship of all men now living & the classification of animals. — talking of men as related in the third & fourth degree. — | 130 A species must be compared to family entirely separated from any degree ; the ' tailor [tailer] in each branch would be analogous to each other &c &c. — v. p. 140. I should think meaning of circular arrangement was only so far true as avoided linear arrangement the central twigs dying, affinities would be in broken circles — which in each group is quite fatal. — Relations of analogy being those last obtained less firmly fixed & therefore most subject to change, — may account for certain organs not being fixed in some genera which are most fixed in others. | 140 In analogy it is not the relation to bear to each other but to some external contingency. — Affinity is the sum of all the relations, analogy is the close relation- ship in some one. — Imagine the men to have greater powers of change yet, as external conditions over whole world similar & constitution of men originally similar, limits of change would be same. Yet each family might have its own character. — We 1 Presumably Dr Henrich Henrichsen Beck of Copenhagen who is referred to three times in Lyell's Principles of Geology, 5th edition, London 1837, as an authority on shells. 2 This word crossed out in MS. 98 DARWIN'S SECOND NOTEBOOK here suppose these changes of adaptation greater than those hereditary ones which would elapse, during time such changes j 141-142 excised. 143 When one reads in Ehrenberg's Paper on Infusoria 1 on the enormous production — millions in few days — one doubt that one animal can really produce so great an effect. — the spirit of life must be every where ambient & merely determined to such points by the vital laws. — So that all characters originally may must have had the character of analogical. — Gould says it is only in large groups where you have representations. — The aerial type in each family is relation to elements & not habits as shown by frigate Bird & flying Hawk. | 144 Gould 2 seemed to think, that widow bird replaced Birds of Paradise — if such fantastic sexual ornaments have so intimate a relation to two continents as to be called into existence in two continents our ignorance is indeed profound & such it appears. — Is there not some statement about diversity of form in aberrant circles — explained by such not having been long in blood? — | 145 My theory agrees with unequal distances between species some fine & some wide which is strange if creator had so created them. — People will argue & fortify their minds with such sentences as " oh turn a Buccinum into a Tiger " — but perhaps I feel the impossibility of this more than any one. — no turn the Zebra into the Quagga, let them be wild in same country with their own instinct (even though fertile 3 hybrids produced when compelled to breed) & then all that I want is granted. — For at Galapagos make ten species of Orpheus, one of which has very short legs & long tail, short much curved beak. Other very long beak with short [tail] ; let them only have progeny with species & there will be two genera, — let short billed one be exaggerated & all rest destroyed, far remote genera will be produced. | 146 As we know from Ehrenberg 4 there are fossil (see scientific Memoirs & LTnstitut) that there are Tertiary fossil Infusoria of same forms with recent & we have nothing to do with CREATION. — The end of formation of species & genera is probably to add to quantum of life possible with certain preexisting laws. — If only one kind of plants not so many. — | 147-148 excised. 149 Mr Blyth 5 remark that a resemblance between some forms in birds is visible when young but not when old, — thus speckled form of young blackbird good remark if general. — 1 Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg. " Recherches sur les Infusoires ", Annates des Sciences Naturelles, seconde s^rie, tome 1 Zoologie, Paris 1834, p. 207 : — " La force r^productrice des animaux infusoires est plus deVelopp6e que dans aucune autre classe d'etres ". 2 John Gould. The widow bird, which is a weaver, inhabits South Africa while the Birds of Paradise inhabit Australia. Gould's opinion was probably a personal communication to Darwin. 3 This word crossed out in MS. 4 Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg. " Pateontologie : infusoires fossiles du tripoli d'Oran ". L' Institut, tome 5, 1937, p. 330. " Remarks on the real occurrence of fossil Infusoria, and their extensive diffusion " Scientific Memoirs, vol. i, 1837, P- 4°°- 8 Edward Blyth. " Further remarks on the affinities of the feathered race ; and upon the nature of specific distinctions ", Mag. Nat. Hist. Lond., vol. 9, 1836, p. 505. On p. 507 : — " The black bird has when young, a spotted breast ; and, in fact, the characters of its nestling plumage alone forbid its alienation from the spotted thrushes. Where, indeed, can we trace the line of separation between Morula and Philomela even? ..." ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES 99 Where any structure is general in all species in group we may suppose it is oldest, & therefore least subject to variation, — & good for generic divisions Ought genus to be founded on such characters as do not vary in the species of it : where does such occur? Now some such characters rule are used by naturalists in their test of value of character. Therefore value of organ vary in different group & not known in single ones — viz. Macleay letter 1 to Fleming 2 p. 32 " where it (mode of generation) varies according to the species, it is manifestly of less importance as affording natural cha- racters than among those groups, where it remains less subject to Variation". Macleay's Rule is converse : value of character depends on non-variation & not on extension ? these go together? | 150 Dr A. Smith 3 know lots of instances of replacement of one species by another, supply place in each others economy. Dr S. showed that savages are not born with any capacity for observation of tracks &c &c. Dr S. has some remarkable crochets about instincts whenever instinct is mentioned some definition must be given. It would not be difficult to arrange children of same parents in a circle, — herma- phrodite & father & grandfather must be introduced & made young, father must be left out of case, that difference occurring. — I 151 It will be necessary to show hybridity from few forms, parents of all species not possible in some detail, the relation to islands close species on these isld &c will probably upset it. — The space which one branch of the tree of life occupied after its decay, will be occupied by the vigorous shoots from each branch no : because decay in that space is effect of unfavourable conditions (hence rise & depression of importance in each group & connection of even distant ones) the characters will be first those of analogy but will grow into affinity, but whether ever arrive at true 152 affinity doubtful. | A species is only fixed thing with reference to other living being. — One species may have passed through a thousand changes, keeping distinct from other, & if a first & last individual were put together, they would not according to all analogy breed together. — The bottom of the tree of life is utterly rotten & obliterated in the course of ages. — As species is real thing with regard to contemporaries — fertility must settle it. — | 153 Changes in structure being necessarily excessively slow they become firmly embedded in the constitution, which other marked difference in the varieties made by of nature & man. — The constitution being hereditary & fixed, certain physical changes at last become unfit, the animal cannot change quick enough & perishes. — Lyell has shown 4 such Physical changes will be unequally rapid with respect to their effects. The Egyptian animals domesticated?? & therefore most especially under care of man, & external circumstances not variable. — | 1 William Sharp Macleay. "A letter on the dying struggle of the Dichoiomous system", London 1830, P- 32. 2 John Fleming, author of the Philosophy of Zoology, Edinburgh 1822. 8 Andrew Smith, author of : Report of the Expedition for exploring central Africa, from the Cape of Good Hope . . . 1834, under the superintendence of . . .A. Smith. Cape Town 1836. 4 Charles Lyell. Principles of Geology, vol. 2, London 1832, p. 158 : — " Rate of the change of species cannot be uniform, however regular the action of the inorganic causes." ioo DARWIN'S SECOND NOTEBOOK 154 Animals have voice so has man. Not saltus but hiatus ; hence if sickness death, unequal life — stimulated by same passions, brought into the world same way, animals expression of countenance. They may convey much thus. Man has expres- sion. — animals signals, (rabbit stamping ground), man signals. — animals under- stand the language. They know the cry of pain as well as we. — It is our arrogance, to raise on the same shelf to look at common ancestor scarcely conceivable in savages precludes [?] any but instinct [?] feeling. Has not the white man, who has debased his nature by making slave of his fellow Black, often wished to consider him as other animal. — it is the way of mankind & I believe those who 155 soar above such prejudices yet have | justly exalted nature of man. like to think his origin godlike, at least every nation has done so as yet. — We now know what is the natural arrangement. It is the classification of relation- ship, latter word meaning descent. — A tree is taken by Fleming 1 as emblem of dichotomous arrangement which is false. There is same difficulty in arranging animals in paper as drying plant, all brought 156 in one plane. | Fleming Quarterly review says 2 nat : fam : of willows contains many Linnaean genera. — How are the character which unite these of older standing that constant number of stamens in order or in next family ? In considering fossil animals, what relation in classification in books, ought they to hold. — Birds having web-feet when we see scarcely any traces of passage a difficulty but after all a slight one. It will be necessary from manner Fleming treats subject to put in alternative of man created by distinct miracle. | 157 Macleay letter 3 to Dr. Fleming Philosophical Magazine & Annals 1830 (?) " if she has put man on the throne (of reason), she has also placed a series of animals on the steps that lead up to it " p. 20, between mammalia & fishes, one penguin, one tortoise, shows hiatus but not saltus. When Linnaeus 4 put whale between cow & hauk a frolicsome saltus p. 29. hiatus & saltus not syn[onymous]. — Linn : Transact. 5 vol. xiv. — p. 24. Lamarck bears to Cuvier that relation of theoretical astronomer to plain observer 6 . | 158 Macleay 7 seems to limit Lamarck definition of relations to settling the relative importance of the organs in same state in different animals. These questions may be all disputable, but the one end of classification to express relationship & by so doing discover the laws of change in organization. But the classification must chiefly rest 1 John Fleming. The Philosophy of Zoology, vol. 2, Part III, p. 136 contains Fleming's views on classi- fication. The reference to a tree is probably taken from William Sharp Macleay : " A letter on the dying struggle of the Dichotomous System, (London 1830), p. 8 : " Man in this system may be compared to the trunk of a tree, Dominies and D.D.s to the branches, and John Fleming to the bud or leaf on the spray ". 8 John Fleming. Reference untraced. 3 William Sharp Macleay. A Letter on the dying struggle of the Dichotomous System, London 1830, p. 20. 4 William Sharp Macleay. Ibid., p. 29. The reference is to : Carolus Linnaeus : Systema Naturae, Holmiae 1758. The last entry among the mammals on page 77 is Delphinus in the group Cete, after which immediately come the birds the first of which on page 86 are the Accipitres, beginning with Vultur. 5 William Sharp Macleay. " Remarks on the identity of certain general laws which have been lately observed to regulate the natural Distribution of Insects and Fungi ", Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond., vol. 14, 1825, p. 46. * William Sharp Macleay. A Letter on the dying struggle of the Dichotomous System, London 1830, p. 24. 7 William Sharp Macleay. Ibid. ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES 101 on these same organs — habits, range &c &c — and the value of those organs when changed in different animals, — whether variation in eye of vertebrate afford better character than variations in eye of mollusc. Macleay rests his whole groundwork of analogy on its concurrence in parallel parts of his series, i.e. cannot be discovered till circles completed. 1 | 159-162 excised. 163 N.B. Pyrrhoalauda (bird of St. Jago) of brown colour lives on ground, colour of habitation must have some effect. — Maldonado as good forests for beautiful birds. — Hereditary ambling horses (if not looked at as instinctive) then must be owing to hereditary power of muscles. — Then we SEE structure gained by habit. Talent &c in man not hereditary because crossed with women with pretty faces. When horse goes a round the minute gets into the road at right angles how pleased it is just like man, emotions very similar. — Geolog. Transact, vol. V Birds bones in 164 strata of Tilgate forest. 2 | Seeing common gull in garden at Zoolog. Soc. its pale ash grey back like a black bird washed, whilst tips of primaries black, by examining series I cannot doubt laws of change will be known. — It appeared to me that half [breed] between fowls & pheasants is most like pheasant. I think so because viz. 3/4 bred (hence hybrids in this case have bred) . White & common pheasants have crossed. — | 165 The attachment of dogs to man not altogether explained by F. Cuvier, 3 — Mem. Hensleigh's 4 objection. — it is more, he cuts the matter short by saying man cannot be companion but master. — Hereditary tameness as well as wildness — cf. Sir J. Sebright. 5 — Love of man gained & hereditary, problem solved. Habits become important element in classification because structure has tendency to follow it, or it may be hereditary & strictly point out affinities, conduct of Gould, 6 166 remark of D'Orbigny 7 point out importance of habits in classification. — | Thought (or desires more properly) being hereditary it is difficult to imagine it anything but structure of brain hereditary, analogy points out to this. — Love of the deity effect of organization, oh you materialist! — Read Barclay 8 on organization!! Avitism 9 in mental structure a disposition & avitism in corporeal structure are facts full of meaning. — Why is thought being a secretion of brain, more wonderful than gravity a property of matter? It is our arrogance, it our admiration of ourselves. — | 167 The idea of foetus being of one both sexes is strongly supported by wonderful fact of bees changing the sex by feeding. — no it is developing a hybrid female it is a wonderful relation going through all nature. — Makes hermaphroditism one step 1 William Sharp Macleay. " Remarks on the identity of certain general laws which have been lately observed to regulat the natural Distribution of Insect and Fungi ", Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond., vol. 14 Part III, 1838, p. 46. 2 Gideon Mantell. " On the Bones of Birds discovered in the Strata of Tilgate Forest in Sussex ", (read 10 June 1835) Trans. Geol. Soc. Lond., vol. 5, 1840, p. 175. 3 Fr6d6ric Cuvier. " Essay on the domestication of mammiferous animals ..." Edinb. New Phil. Journ., vol. 4, April 1828, p. 297. 4 Hensleigh Wedgwood (1803-1891). Brother of Darwin's wife. 5 Sir John Sebright. Observations upon the instincts of Animals, London 1836. 6 John Gould. The Birds of Europe, London 1837. 7 Alcide Dessalines d'Orbigny. Voyage dans VAm&rique miridionale , tome 4, y partie, Paris 1835. 8 John Barclay. An Inquiry into the opinions, ancient and modern, concerning life and organization, Edinburgh 1822. 9 Avitism means relating to ancestors. ioz DARWIN'S SECOND NOTEBOOK in series — in plants we have a step between monoecious & dioecious plants in animals it may be difficult to imagine how sexes were separated. — in plants we have some flower monoecious and other dioecious. Some flower hermaphrodites and others not??? The death of some forms & succession of others (which is almost proved, elephant has left no descendant in Europe, Toxodon in S. America) is absolutely necessary to explain genera & classes, if extinct forms were all fathers of present, then there 168 would be | perfect series or gradation. — It is easy to see if South America grew very much hotter, then Brazilian species would migrate southward being ready made, — and so destroy individuals, whereas in Falkland Is d they would change & make new species. — Alpine species being destroyed at Falkland Is d . — even at Falklands some probably would stand change better than others 1 . — Mem. Lyell hypothesis of change in Sicily. 2 — Splendid Harmony these views — did Lamarck connect extermination of some forms with his views. 3 — as genera are large probably only few of extinct | 169 forms have generated species & of 100 extinct species the greater number probably have no descendants on earth. — The more complicated the animal the more subject to variation, therefore sexes in two animals : — When sexes are united (which probably is first stage) the tendency to change cannot be great, otherwise it would be unlimited. We absolutely know the tendency is greater in Mammalia than in shells? univalves or bivalves. — | 170 Any man No. VI Magazine of Zoology & Botany p. 566 wants to see absurdity of Quinary arrangement let him look at abstract of Swainson 4 on classification. " Let anyone ever with a very superficial knowledge like myself of real affinities i.e. structure of the whole animal let him read Mr Swainson's on the Classification of animals & observe the character of the demonstrations offered of the singular views there offered, & he must be a zealous man in the cause if his faith not staggered." I confess no dissertation against these views could possibly have had & brought so much con- viction to my mind. — | 171 Reflect much over my view of particular instinct being memory transmitted with- out consciousness, a most possible thing see man walking in sleep. — an action becomes habitual is probably first stage, & an habitual action implies want of consciousness & will & therefore may be called instinctive. — But why do some 1 These eleven words on p. 169 of the MS. are marked to appear here. 2 Charles Lyell. Principles of Geology, vol. i, London 1830, Chapter VI in which Lyell proved by means of the fossil Mollusca of Sicily that the climate of the Northern Hemisphere had deteriorated. 3 Jean-Baptiste-Pierre-Antoine de Monet de Lamarck. Philosophie Zoologique, tome 1, Paris 1809, p. 77 : — " Or, si quantite de ces coquilles fossiles se montrent avec des differences qui ne nous permettent pas, d'apres les opinions admises, de les regarder comme des analogues des especes avoisinantes que nous connaissons, s'ensuit-il n6cessairement que ces coquilles appartiennent a des especes reellement perdues? Pourquoi, d'ailleurs, seraient-elles perdues, des que l'homme n'a pu operer leurs destruction? Ne serait-il pas possible au contraire, que les individus fossiles dont il s'agit appartinssent a des especes encore existantes, mais qui ont change depuis et ont donn£ lieu aux especes actuellement vivantes que nous en trouvons voisines. Les considerations qui suivent et nos observations dans le cours de cet ouvrage rendront cette conclusion tres-probable " (p. 93 of 1873 reprint). Lamarck therefore did not connect his views with " extermination of some forms." 4 William Swainson. Review and Critical Analysis. " 1. On the Geography and Classification of Animals. By William Swainson. 2. Classification of Quadrupeds. By William Swainson ". Mag. Zool. Bot., vol. 1, 1837, P- 545- On P- 566 ! — " We have no hesitation, however, in stating our conviction, that Mr. Swainson's theory, in regard to the analogies of this order, is the true one, ..." ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES 103 actions become hereditary & instinctive & not others. — We even see they must be done often to be habitual or of great importance to cause long memory, — structure is only gained slowly. Therefore it can only be those actions which many successive generations are impelled to do in same way. — The improvement of reason implies diversity & therefore would banish individual but general ones might yet be trans- mitted. — j 172 Memory springing up after long intervals of forgetfulness, — after sleep strong analogies with memory in offspring, or simply structure in brain people & senses recollecting things utterly forgotten — Some association in such cases recall the idea it is scarcely more wonderful that it should be remembered in next generation. (N.B. What are those marvellous cases where you feel sure you have heard con- versation before, is strong association recalling up image which had been past — so great an anomaly in structure of brain not probable) , put note Sir W. Scott has written about it. 1 If we saw a child do some action which its father had done habitually we should exclaim it was instinct, even if savage taken & was given a great coat & this he put on & we afterwards could understand (language better instance) he had done this without reflection or consciousness of reasoning to tell back from front &c or use 173 of button holes it would | be instinctive. — My view of instinct explains its loss? if it explains its acquirement. — Analogy a bird can swim without being web footed yet with much practice & led on by circumstance it becomes web footed. Now man by effort of memory can remember how to swim after having once learnt, & if that was a regular contingency the brain would become web-footed & there would be no act of memory. — There is no correlation between individual objects as Ichneumon & caterpillar though our ignorance may make us think so, but only between laws. 1 I 174 Many diseases in common between man & animals. Hydrophobia &c cowpox, proof of common origin of man. — different contagious diseases, where habits of people nearly similar. Curious instance of differences in races of men. — Wax of Ear, bitter perhaps to prevent insects lodging there. Now these exquisite adaptations can hardly be accounted for by my method of breeding, there must be some correlation, but the whole mechanism is so beautiful. The correlations are not, however, perfect, else one animal would not cause misery to other, — else smell of man would be disagreeable to mosquitoes. | 175 We never may be able to trace the steps by which the organization of the eye passed from simpler stages to more perfect preserving its relations. — the wonderful power of adaptation given to organization. — This really perhaps greatest difficulty to whole theory. — There is breed of tailless cats, near Bath, Lonsdale 2 ditto says sheep could not live for some time at New York instance of the fine relation of adaptation of animals & the country they inhabit, — & the first one that bred one was diseased in its loins 176 & all were so afterwards (forgets authority). — | Lonsdale is ready to admit per- manent small alterations in wild animals & thinks Lyell has overlooked argument 1 This sentence in square brackets in MS. 2 William Lonsdale was Curator of the Geological Society's collections. The information about tailless cats was probably a personal communication. 104 DARWIN'S SECOND NOTEBOOK that domesticated animals change a little with external influence, & if those changes permanent so would the change in animal be permanent. — It will be easy to prove persistent varieties in wild animals, but how to show species. — I fear argument must rest upon analogy & absence of variates in a wild state — it may be said argument will explain very close species in isld near continent, must we resort to quite different 177 origin when species rather further. — Once grant good species as | carrion crow & rook formed by descent or two of the willow wrens &c &c & analogy will necessarily explain the rest. — Lonsdale says 1 he has seen in old Book last Bear in England killed in year 1000, reference to succession of types? different species ; Horses &c. State broadly scarcely any novelty in my theory, only slight differences, the opinion of many people in conversation. The whole object of the book is its proof, its limiting the allowing at same time true species & its adaption to classification & 178 affinities its extension. — | Von Buch Travels p.. 302 account of trees 2 ceasing to grow far N. become stunted, altered & low fertility — more sickness?? because offspring too unlike.?? Memoir of Charles D'Orbigny on Plastic Clay of Paris 3 contains many genera of Pachydermata or & other mammals, otter, civet cat, rodents. — (Pachyderm in Portland stone of Alps!!!? No) p. 15 (Lyell's pamphlet). 4 Is man more hairy than woman because ancestors so, or has he assumed that character, — female & young seem most like mean character the others assumed. — Daines Barrington 5 says cock birds attract females by song do they by beauty, analogy of man if so war not | 179-188 excised. 189 p. 428 ouzel sometimes builds nest without dome 6 vol. 9 Mag. Z. & B. p. 431 Missel thrush lately increased in numbers over whole of England & Ireland. 7 — Curious in so wild bird. — Annals of Natural History Vol. I p. 185 case of tit lark placing withered grass over nest when often looked at. 8 — This most puzzling whether instinct or reason?? 1 William Lonsdale. Personal communication. There is a tradition that the last British bear was killed in Scotland in 1057. 2 Leopold von Buch. Reise durch Norwegen und Lappland, Zweiter Theil, 1810. The account of trees is on pages 295-302. 3 Charles d'Orbigny. " Existence d'un 6tage de calcaire marin particulier au-dessous du terrain ter- tiaire du bassin de Paris, et d'une assise, egalement nouvelle, dependant de l'argile plastique ; d^couverte d'ossements fossiles dans ce dernier 6tage." Comptes Rendus Acad. Sci., Paris, tome 3, 1836, p. 228. 4 Charles Lyell ; presumably the reference is to a reprint of " On the strata of the plastic clay formation exhibited in the cliffs between Christchurch Head, Hampshire, and Studland Bay, Dorsetshire." Trans. Geol. Soc. Lond., vol. 2, 1829, p. 279. 5 The Hon. Daines Barrington. " Experiments and Observations on the singing of birds',' Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc, vol. 63, 1773, p. 243. 6 William Thompson. " Contributions to the natural history of Ireland. No. 4 On the Birds of the order Insessores. The Water Ouzel ". Mag. Zool. Bot., vol. 2, 1838, p. 427. On page 429 : — " The first nest of this bird I remarked was placed in a hole in the clayey bank of a pond, where, owing to the shelter afforded, there was no occasion for the display of its domed architecture, and this was consequently dispensed with." 7 William Thompson. " Contributions to the natural history of Ireland, No. 4 On the Birds of the order Insessores. The Mistle-Thrush." Mag. Zool. Bot., vol. 2, 1838, p. 427. On p. 431 : — " Has of late years extended its locality in Ireland, as in other parts of the British Islands, and is now found throughout the country." 8 William Thompson. " Contributions to the natural history of Ireland. No. 6 On the Birds of the order Insessores." Ann. Nat. Hist., vol. 1, 1838, p. 181. On p. 185 : — " ... he observed a quantity of withered grass laid regularly across the nest. ..." This remark is however made in respect of the meadow pipit. ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES 105 Gould says 1 he believes that he has seen half fox & dog & that it was most like fox. — He felt sure the half breed of Australian dogs would be most like Australian. — Curious this ready answer without any leading question. — This might be mentioned in note. — | 190 Try to trace from simplest reasoning in lower animals many times produced, a general tendency produced, such as man getting habitually into passion, becomes habitually passionate. — The key to the affections might perhaps thus be found — a person who is habitually kind to children increases general instinctive feeling. — | 191 There is great difficulty in making an alpine species from one in lower country during gradual elevation of isl d . — We must imagine a considerable range of one species on a mountain side of which the central parts become occupied by a third best adapted kind. — Lower species would then revert to pristine form (which must have been altered by crossing with alpine form). Lower species afterwards would probably often be destroyed, — or regrafted with fresh arrivals &c &c. — Climate altering as island increases, — upper parts attracting all the moisture. | 192 Henslow thinks 2 if leaf of plant varies, all organs vary in plant. The variation in character of leaf of plant is remarkable what is analogous to it in animals? — Babington says 3 in most plants, even those on Guernsey & on West Coast of Ireland, are absolutely (& who better authority) similar with those over whole of country. — Some species are larger &c in different countries. These facts show how very per- 193 manent plants I are, & this conclusion must be arrived at, when one sees a plant like Paris quadrifolium growing in one wood far from any other plants of same species. Channel Isl. (& probably Isle of Man) no plants peculiar to themselves, this remarkable compare it with Canary Isld, Galapagos. — Iceland has same uni- 194 formity. | Primrose & Cowslip quite wild but they affect different localities, — latter on banks & in damp parts, both propagated by seeds. — There are two Dandelions which just lately have been shown to be same — one grows in marsh & other dry ; yet if T. palustris be sown in dry station it will for some generation come up so. — There are not many intermediate shades in these case, but absolute species formed. The Anagallis perhaps offers another case of permanent varieties in wild state. — 195 The two I former produced by difference of station. Varieties chiefly produced by cultivating parent in rich soils & then seeds produce variety. Wild carrot made into biennial domesticated kind with large root by sowing it at wrong time of year & manuring it. — Epigonous & perigonous are very important in classification. Here we have generative organs first character. In dioecious plants many of the female flowers unimpregnated Babington. 4 | 196 We see gradation to mans mind in Vertebrate Kingdom, in more instincts in rodents than in other animals ; & again in mans mind, in different races being un- equally developed. — ? is not elephant intellectually developed amongst Pachyder- mata like man amongst monkeys or dog in Carnivora. — 1 John Gould. Probably personal communication. * John Stevens Henslow. Probably personal communication. 3 Charles Cardale Babington. " A notice, with the results, of a Botanical Expedition to Guernsey and Jersey in July and August 1837 "> Mag. Zool. Bot., vol. 2, 1838, p. 397. 4 Charles Cardale Babington. Reference untraced. 106 DARWINS SECOND NOTEBOOK Man in his arrogance thinks himself a great work worthy the interposition of a 197 deity, more humble & I believe truer to | consider him created from animals. Insects shamming death most difficult case to imagine how art acquired. — Only reason however on this to a degree. Mem. spider only dropping where ground thick. — Shamming death it is but being motionless. How is instinctive dread it is exceed- ingly doubtful whether animals have any fear of death or of pain of death acquired? The S. American dung beetles will each become the father of many species, a few eggs transported to the St. of Magellan. — Change of habits in Van Diemens Land. | 198 Study Mr. Blyths papers on Instinct. 1 — His distinction between reason & instinct very just ; but these faculties being viewed as replacing each other it is hiatus & not saltus. — The greater individuality of mind in man is analogous to greater individuality of bodies of some animals over those of others. — The mind of different animals less divided. — But as man has hereditary tendencies, his mind is still only, divided body. P. 3 language seems to supply instincts, — & those powers which allow of acquire- ment of language hereditary, acquirable. — therefore mans mind not so different from that of brutes. Hard to say what is instinct in animals & what reason, in precisely same way not possible to say what habitual in man & what reasonable. Some action may be either in same individual. | 199 P. 7, is not squirrel hoarding & killing grain acquirable through hoarding from short time. — My theory must encounter all these difficulties, knowing that animals have some reason, & actions habitual, it surely is not worthy interposition of deity to teach squirrel to kill ears of corn. According to my views, habits give structure, .-. habits precede structure, .*. habitual instincts precede structure. — duckling runs to water before it is conscious of web-feet. — P. 7 Mr. Blyths arguments 2 against squirrel using reason in hiding its food is applicable to any habitual action even which man performs, — child striking a post in passion. — Habit instinct gained during life. — do elephants easily acquire habits is this the key to their mental powers? p. 8 mistakes of instinct are external contingencies where the habit is not applic- able. I 200 The degree of development of all animals of same class being about equal, — organs of generation about equally complicated. — An Entomologist going into a country & collecting thousands & tens of thousands new insects, perhaps scarcely one new family & no new order. — Wonderful, partly explained on my theory, & otherwise mere fact creator chooses so to create. — It is very remarkable, with so much death, as has gone on, no greater gaps. — External conditions to be sure have remained somewhat similar. — !!! | 201 My theory drives me to say that there can be no animal at present time having an 1 Edward Blyth. " On the Psychological distinctions between Man and all other animals ; and the consequent Diversity of Human Influence over the inferior ranks of Creation, from any mutual and reciprocal Influence exercised among the latter." Mag. Nat. Hist. Lond., vol. 1, 1837, P- *• * Edward Blyth. Ibid. ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES 107 intermediate affinity between two classes. — there may be some descendant of some intermediate link. — the only connection between two such classes will be those of analogy, which when sufficiently multiplied become affinity yet often retain- ing a family likeness, & this I believe the case. — Any animal really connecting the fish & mammalia must be sprung from some source anterior to giving off of these two families, but we see analogies between fish. — Birds same remarks. | 202 Characters of analogy, — last acquired, — or aberrant, therefore more easily modi- fied. — This is not easily told, for any small family having analogous characters, might be multiplied. — We must argue reversely : where character variable it is (one of analogy or) lately acquired. In pigs number of vertebrae subject to variation there- fore lately acquired. I fear great evil from vast opposition in opinion on all subjects of classification, I must work out hypothesis & compare it with results ; if I acted otherwise my premises would be disputed. — According to Principle of last page osculant groups between two circles of equal value must be so from characters of analogy. — See my notes on p. 37 of Macleay. 1 Wonderfully accordant with fact there stated only in most discordant groups. | 203 The formation of genera may sometimes be due to accident as submersion of land containing all of intermediate Father-species, & not, therefore, solely owing to such interm. father-species being little adapted to some physical change. — If Patagonia became fertile all intermediate species living there would be destroyed, & N. & S. existing species become fathers of genera — Whatever the cause is, any osculant species which survived would be few in number. — 204 Parallel of Japan, near Himalaya, & European forms on that Isl d . | The races of men differ chiefly in colour, form of head & features (hence intellect? & what kinds of intellect) quantity & kind of hair forms of legs — hence the father of mankind prob- ably possessed a structure in these points for a less time than other points. — female genital organs, — make abstract on this subject from Lawrence, 2 Blumenbach 3 & Prichard. 4 In some monkeys clitoris wonderfully produced. — Now we might expect that animal half way between man & monkey would have differed in hair colour & form of head & features ; but likewise in length of extremities, how are men in this respect upper & lower, which I do not know whether it differs in present races, & form of feet. — Negro or father of negro probably was first black at base of nails & on white of eyes. — Will he say creation is at end seeing that Tertiary geology has obeyed rules of modern causes & considering over the vicissitudes of present animals. He would be bold. I will venture to say unphilosophical. | 207 A question of immense difficulty is whether Apterix descend from same parent with other birds, or branched off anteriorly, think what principles are there to guide in this opinion? Excellent principle of abortion. 1 William Sharp Macleay. Horae Entomologicae , London 1819, p. 37 : — " These genera I propose to call osculantia, from their occurring as it were at the point where the circles touch one another ". 2 William Lawrence. Lectures on physiology, zoology, and the natural history of man, London 1819. This edition was suppressed. 3 Johann Friedrich Blumenbach. A Manual of the Elements of Natural History. London 1825. 4 James Cowles Prichard. Researches into the physical history of Man, London 1813. 108 DARWIN'S SECOND NOTEBOOK Isolation of range tends to alteration view. — ostriches ditto but then there may have existed series between Apterix & other birds. — Will having many trifling characters in common with other birds reveal the secret. — Now all the different forms of Synal- laxis trifling characters as red band on wing show to be from one parent — same form of beak &c without these trifles, it would not then be told whether not descended 208 from long way back. — aberrant forms produced when many species | but when much death, may be inferred much time elapsed &, therefore descended from branch high up. — Such probabilities only guides. — Yet trifles are produced by circumstances. Spines on Echidna, when it can be traced through series then probably hereditary & not produced by circumstances. In Ostrich which is not isolated we must suppose the changes from typical structure have either been more rapid than in all other birds, or that it sprung from a branch high up. This argument not applicable to Apterix, but source of error for only | 209-210 excised. 211 organic matter — have & which thinking principle seems to be given a assumed according to a more extended relations of the individuals, whereby choice with memory or reason! is necessary — which is modified into endless forms bearing a close relation in degree & kind to the endless forms of the living beings. We see thus unity in thinking and acting principle in the various shades of separation between those individuals thus endowed & the community of mind even in the tendency to delicate emotions between races. — recurrent habits in animals. — Animal magnetism principle of irritation, sleep walking, fits, laughter, &c &c. Man & man may have some relation together as well as man & child, polypus & 212 polypus, bud & bud, polypus & germ, plant & seed. — | Instincts in young animals well developed, just like habits easily gained in childhood. — Young salmon first a species which lived in estuaries, its tastes taught it to go to Salter water (& its neces- sities teach it taste, but that a much more general argument) & therefore down the stream follow ebb tide, therefore got into habit of going down stream which would last were the stream 1000 miles long. A monkey (Baboon) at Z. garden upon being beaten behaved very differently from a dog, more like man. continued long in a passion & looked out for him to come again, very different from dog, perhaps being in passion chief difference. | 213-216 excised. 217 before, then there always have been gaps, & there now must be, .'. extinction of species bears relation to existence of genera &c &c. Discussion useless, until it were fixed what a species means. Two savages, two species, — civilized man may exclaim with Christians we are all Brothers in spirit, all children of one father, — yet differences carried a long way. Case of habit : I kept my tea in right hand side for some months, & then when that was finished kept it in left, but I always for a week took of[f] cover of right side though my hand would sometimes vibrate seeing no tea brought back memory — old habit of putting tea in pot, made me go to tea chest almost unconsciously. — Why do absent [minded] Dr Black tea & sugar people reverse habits. | 218 Insects & birds are the only two tribes fitted for water, air & land (Macleay has this remark). ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES 109 Mem. number 5 here most evident!!? Examine into this case. L d Jeffrey 1 (Life of Mackintosh, vol. II, p. 495) — ["] in fact in all reasonings of which human nature is the object, there is really no natural starting place, because there is nothing more elementary than that complex nature itself with which our speculations must end as well as begin " &c &c. The centre is everywhere & the circumference nowhere as long as this is so — !! Metaphysics!!! | 219 Mrs. Somerville 2 connection of Phisical sciences p. 276 may be worth glancing at as she has no original idea, it will show state of knowledge. Negros existed since time of earliest Egyptian drawings & Old Testament. Domesticated animals having same idiosyncrasy, cause of fertility. — varieties not produced as by nature, if so the habits which would have formed them would have arisen under different climates &c. Do I mean that idiosyncrasy of wild animals is generally different, because this difference arises a good deal from climate & habits, & therefore less fertile according to Mr Herbert's views. 3 Argue case of abortive organs to mules in their genitals & even to a limb not used. The only cause of similarity in individuals we know of is relationship, children of one parent, races of animals — argue opening case thus. | 220 Educate all classes, avoid the contamination of castes, improve the women (double influence) & mankind must improve. — The areas of subsidence marked out by animals of same genera is not equal to areas of elevation : marked out by existence of elevated extinct? genera of shells. — duration in the classes however different. — | 221-2 excised. 223 & hereditary & such definite thoughts, I will never allow that because there is a chasm between man ( — & chasms necessary consequence of to account for the scheme of nature) and animals that man has different origin. Dr Royle 4 Royal Institution seems to think Botanical Provinces will turn out not nearly so confined as now thought. — N. American, European, & Chinese genera & some species in Himalaya, some English beetle, birds & a fox most close. | 224 The most curious case is saxifrage, almost closely allied species Himalaya, 13000 & Melville Is d . — West Africa & India some plants same. 1 Lord Francis Jeffrey. Robert James Mackintosh : Memoirs of the Life of the Right Honourable Sir James Mackintosh, London 1836. In chapter VIII there is a letter to the editor by The Hon. Lord Jeffrey, p. 491. Darwin's quotation is on p. 496 of the second edition. 2 Mary Somerville. On the connexion of the physical sciences. London 1834. [from the 3rd edition, London 1836, p. 286] : — " . . . nothing is more remarkable than the distinctions which characterise the different tribes of mankind, from the ebony skin of the torrid zone to the fair and ruddy complexion of Scandinavia, — a difference which existed in the earliest recorded times, since the African is represented in sacred writing to have been as black as he is at the present day, and the most ancient Egyptian paintings confirm that truth ; yet it appears from a comparison of the principal circumstances relating to the animal economy or physical character of the various tribes of mankind, that the different races are identical in species. Many attempts have been made to trace the various tribes back to a common origin, by collating the numerous languages which are, or have been spoken. ..." 3 William Herbert. Amaryllidaceae ; preceded by an attempt to arrange the Monocotyledonous orders, and following the Treatise on Cross-bred Vegetables, and Supplement, London 1837, p. 343. 4 John Forbes Royle. " Illustrations of the Botany and other branches of the Natural History of the Himalayan Mountains, and of the Flora of Cashmere ". Journ. Roy. Geogr. Soc. Lond., vol. 5, 1835, p. 361. The significance of the words " Royal Institution " is not clear. no DARWIN'S SECOND NOTEBOOK America. See Brown Congo Expedition : x 400 Australian plants found in other parts of world. Athenaeum June 3 d 1838 quotes Mr. Turpins 2 assertion that globules of milk produce a plant capable of growing!! & propagating itself. In Tropical countries (as St. Jago Cape de Verdes) the shells in equal periods with Europe would probably have changed much less. — Here is an | 225-230 excised. 231 Henry Thompson 3 tells me best way to improve cattle is to cross between a good bull & the provincial breed, & the first offspring thus produced are better than those bred in & in, — which looks as if qualities were not permanent in the new cross. — In the Bantam clubs they used to fix on the kind wanted, colouring of each feather, weight & size & they would produce number agreeing almost to the point in question. — Merely picking opposite qualities, with no other means whatever. — | 232 Individual man & animals could only exist by habit — therefore same principle transferable not wonderful. According to my view because actions are constant they are instincts and not V instincts constant. ? whether mutilations non-hereditary & variation produced in short time in some extent counterpart, mutilation being variation produced in shortest possible time. Mr. Willis 4 long-eared little dogs, I am told, go to heat, take dog but do not become 233 impregnated | & puppies delicate. — they cross sister & brother of same litter, those of different litters or of father & child are thought to be unhealthy — puppies become very small, idiots, & bandy legged by this long breeding in. Hope 5 says must not trust him that genus of parasite to genus of animals different (p. 234), different species to different, — inguinal louse African — European different. — those 2 breeds differ Africa Australia. Parasites die when brought over on tropical animals, which account for the species changing v because mammalia can subsist where parasite [..?]. Read Entomological Transactions. | 234 Why if louse created should not new genus have been made, & only species. Good argument for origin of man one. — Is the extinction & change of species two very different considerations, with respect to law of mammals shorter duration than molluscs, argue case both in Europe & S. America, very difficult case. Does this law of duration apply to utter extinction 1 Robert Brown. " Observations, Systematical and Geographical, on Professor Christian Smith's collection of Plants from the Vicinity of the River Congo ", Narrative of an Expedition to explore the River Zaire, usually called the Congo in South Africa in 1 8 1 6 under the direction of Captain J. K. Tuckey, R.N., London 1818, Appendix v, p. 420. 2 Jean-Pierre-Francois Turpin. " Recherches microscopiques sur l'organisation et la vitalite des globules du lait ; sur leur germination, leur deVeloppement et leur transformation en un vegetal rameux et articuleV' Comptes Rendus A cad. Sci., Paris tome 5, 1837, pp. 822-837. Darwin's reference to the A thenaeum of 3 June 1838 is incorrect, and should read June 2 where on page 396 M. Turpin's assertion is quoted. 3 Henry Thompson. Unidentified. 4 Mr. Willis was the name of the hairdresser in Great Marlborough Street where Darwin was then living at No. 36. His Third Notebook on the Transmutation of Species (p. 163) has another reference to the breeding of dogs. 5 Frederick William Hope. The reference is presumably : " On Insects and their larvae occasionally found in the Human Body ". Trans. Entom. Soc. Lond., vol. 2, 1837-40, p. 256. ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES in or rapidity of specific change? he first would be called generic & other specific extinction. — | 235 In the Entomostraca 1 (Magazine of Zoology & Botany) where several generations are produced in succession (13?) without impregnation, therefore sexual passion must arise after long interval, very good case. — habit is awakened by association (case of Elephant which had run wild in India in Heber?) 2 is analogous to dormant instinct. — (How wonderful a case bees developing sex of neuters). Species may have had their infancies as well as men, when habits much more firmly impressed we see in the Entomostraca. The sexual curiosity of the orang outang (in June 1838 [)] when young male was added good instance of instinct showing itself, not from instruction. | 236 Even the action of the viscera under sympathetic nerve may be instinct or habits. ? Are sympathetic nerves & nervous system of insects analogous? — Even plants have habitual actions. — this very important in considering how children come to suck or other actions in foetus of mammalia, or chick eat. Generation becomes necessary when organs of parent are concentrated in different parts & scission cannot effect the process. — scission in all cases probably gemmation (Ehrenberg) but why two sexes — not necessary to generation (latent with no relation to time) as in buds. — I can scarcely doubt final cause is the adaptation of species to circumstances by principles, which I have given | 237-242 excised. 243 Study Bell on Expression 3 & the Zoonomia 4 , for if the former shows that if a man grinning is to expose his canine teeth (this may be made a capital argument if man does move muscles for uncovering canines), no doubt a habit gained by formerly being a baboon with great canine teeth. — Blend this argument with his having can- ine teeth at all. — This way of viewing the subject important. — Laughing modified barking, smiling modified laughing. Barking to tell other animals in associated kinds of good news, discovery of prey, arising no doubt from want of assistance. — crying is a puzzler. — Under this point of view expression of all animals becomes very curious — a dog snarling in play. — | 244 Hensleigh 5 says the love of the deity and thought of him or eternity only difference between the mind of man & animals. — yet how faint in a Fuegian or Australian! Why not gradation. — No greater difficulty for Deity to choose when perfect enough for future state, that when good enough for Heaven or bad enough for Hell. — Glimpses bursting on mind & giving rise to the wildest imagination & superstition. — York Minster story of storm of snow after his brothers murder, — good anecdote. 6 1 William Baird. " The Natural History of the British Entomostraca ", Mag. Zool. Bot., vol. 1, 1837, PP- 35. 3°9. 5 X 4- On p. 522 : — " They must either therefore, be hermaphrodite, or, as in some other genera, as the Daphnia for instance, one copulation suffices not only to impregnate the female for life, but succeeding generations also." 2 Reginald Heber. Journey through the Upper Provinces of India, from Calcutta to Bombay, 1824-5, {with notes on Ceylon) ; to Madras & South Provinces, 1826, (S- Letters written in India. London 1828. 3 Sir Charles Bell. Anatomy and Philosophy of Expression, London 1806. Darwin referred to this subject in his Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (London 1872) on pp. 250-1. 4 Erasmus Darwin. Zoonomia ; or, the Laws of Organic Life &c. London 1794-6. 5 Hensleigh Wedgwood. Brother of Darwin's wife. Charles Darwin. The Descent of Man and selection in relation to Sex. London 1871, p. 67 : — " [York Minster] related how, when his brother killed a ' wild man ', storms long raged, much rain and snow fell." H2 DARWIN'S SECOND NOTEBOOK Sowerby. 1 Geographical range, shells, like cryptogamic plants, of marine kinds, there are some restricted genera, but then they appears always very small ones as Trigonia in Australia or Concholepas in America. — yet many countries have far 245 more species than other countries (* 2 p. 246) | as Cyclostoma in Philippines & Amphidroma in S. America. — yet there are a few Cyclostomes & a few Amphidromas. — This is remarkable. — Fish & drift sea weed may transport ova of shells. — Conchifera hermaphrodite, eggs in groups. Have dioecious plants more restricted ranges than other plants. — Many same genera confined to hot countries & many to cold. — Hence latitude is more important element than longitude. But in land & f[resh] w[ater] shells there is more confinement, thus the Naiads (study de Ferussac) 3 are confined to S. America. 246 — Mr. Sowerby says | there are some shells common to West coast of Afria & E.S. America. — get instances. — very good anomaly in range. * 4 What circumstances have led to formation of some species some few have been scattered over whole world. Many shells at present day same (or according to Sowerby fine species) on coasts of N. America & England — but the fossils are not lik"e, except in very few cases, | 247 those of Tertiary European fossils — (so much the more remarkable, v Carboniferous ones similar?). Now this is very remarkable (connect these facts with identity of land animals, these however come from Siberia). — It cannot be said American fossils more resemble those of America than of Europe, because the recent ones are so close. Was there continent between N. America & Europe? — Norton 5 has written on fossils of N. America. — | 248 At the end of " White's Selbourne " 6 many references very good. Also " Rays Wisdom of God " 7 . Often refer to these. — Also some few facts at end of " The British Aviary" 8 or Bird Keepers Companion. Study Appendix (& only appendix) of Congo Expedition. 9 | 249-254 excised. 2 55 gradually separated the birds might yet remember which way to fly. There is a kind of wren (Bebyk??) which seems common in Rocky mountains & on one lofty isolated spot on the Alleghanies to which it migrates every year ; probably a chance wanderer like the first pair of Pipe flycatcher. — 1 James Sowerby. The Genera of Recent and Fossil Shells, for the use of students in Conchology and Geology, London 1820-5. 2 This asterisk refers to the passage marked by an asterisk on page 246 of the manuscript below. 8 Andr6-Etienne- Justin -Pascal- Joseph-Francois D'Audebard de Ferussac. Histoire Naturelle et par- ticular e des Mollusques terrestres et fluviatiles , Paris 18 19-51. * This asterisk marks the beginning of the sentence referred to on page 244 of the manuscript above. 8 Reference untraced. * Gilbert White. The Natural History and Antiquity of Selborne, in the country of Southampton : with engravings and an appendix, London 1789. , 7 John Ray. The Wisdom of God manifested in the works of Creation, London 1691. 8 The British Aviary, London n.d. 9 Robert Brown. " Observations, Systematical and Geographical, on Professor Christian Smith's Collection of Plants from the Vicinity of the River Congo ", Narrative of an Expedition to explore the River Zaire, usually called the Congo in South Africa in 1816 under the direction of Captain J . K. Tuckey, R.N. London 1818 Appendix v, p. 420. ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES 113 Bachman 1 says he thinks the Mocking thrush beats all English birds in song. — one of their thrushes exceeds our blackbird, but our blackbird exceeds their other 256 thrushes, — yet they have one with very sweet notes. — | Their soft-billed birds are inferior to ours, & our lark ranks very high. — Upon the whole thinks more birds sing in England than in America, but the few of N. America are quite as beau- tiful. The thrushes of N. America singing so well & the mocking thrush being so very beautiful great contrast with South America. — | 257-258 excised. 259-264 blank. 265 s Books quoted by Herbert p. 338 Schiede in 1825 & Lasch. Linn, in 1829 has given list of Spontaneous Hybrids, where ? Sweet. Hortus Britannicus has remarks on acclimatizing of Plants. Herbert p. 348 gives reference to Kohlreuter's Papers Wiegman has published German pamphlet on crossing Oats, &c Mr. Coxe " Views of the Cultivation of Fruit trees in N. America " in Lib. of Hort. Soc. 3 Mc Neil has written good article on Horticulture in Edinburgh Encyclop. — Horticulture Journal The British & Foreign Medical Review No. XIV April 1839. — Review on " Walker on intermarriage ", price 14s. March 20 th 1839. Philosophy of Blushing lately advertised /6s Mrs. Necker on Education preeminently worthy of studying in metaphysical point of view Henslow has list of plants of Mauritius with locality in which each one is found. Very good to see whether peculiar plants in high points | 266 Institution of Paris with respect to licentiousness destroying children, — it is not effect, as Lyell suggested, of organs being worn out as otherwise old couple would not have children Turner's embassy to Thibet, perhaps worth reading, quoted by Malthus. — Heberdens Observat. on increase & decrease of different diseases 4*° 1801. — quoted by ditto. — There appears to be good art. on Entozoa by Owen in Encyclop. of Anat & Physiology. — Dampier probably worth reading Lessings Laocoon (translated in 1837) on limits of painting & poetry. — Erasmus thinks I should like it. The Sportsman's Repository 4 to contains much on dogs. — Reports of Brit. Assoc. — some important Papers. Dr Mayo. Pathology of Human Mind. — 1 John Bachman. Reference untraced. 2 From this point the succession of pages is inverted, because Darwin wrote these pages by working forwards from the end of the notebook. 3 William Cox of Burlington, New Jersey. A view of the cultivation of fruit trees, and the management of orchards and cider, Philadelphia 1817. n 4 DARWIN'S SECOND NOTEBOOK Audubons Ornithological Biography 4 volumes well worth reading Bevans work on Bees, new edit 1838 Harlaam [Harlan] Physical & Medical Researches on Horse in N. America. — Owen has it — Ld. Brougham. Dissertations on subject of Science connecting with Natural Theology, — on instinct & animal intelligence, — very good. Endlicher has published in first volume of annalen of Vienna, sketch of South sea Botany R. Brown has curious coloured maps by Copenhagen Botanist of range of plants | 267 Silliman's [American] Journal [of Science] Rengger on Mammalia of Paraguay, account wild cattle &c Montagu on birds (facts about close species). Wilson's American Ornithology Read Aristotle to see whether any my views is ancient? Study with profound care abortive organs produced in domesticated plants, where function has ceased to be used as tendril into stump Library of Useful Knowledge, Horse, Cow, Sheep Vesey Philosophie d'Histoire Naturelle Marcel de Serres Cavernes d'Ossements 3rd edit. Octavo (good to trace European forms compared with African) Annals [of natural history] Histoire Generalle et Particuliere des Anomalies de l'organization des Hommes et les animaux. by Isid. Geoffroy St. Hilaire 1832 contains also his fathers views. Quoted by Owen. — Hunter has written quarto works on physiology besides the papers collected by Owen (at Shrewsbury) Yarrells Paper on change of plumage in the Pheasants Philosoph Transactions 1827 [vol. 118] Paxton on the culture of Dahlias Mrs. Gore on roses might be worth consult. Paper on Consciousness in Brutes in Blackwood, June 1838 H. C. Watson on Geograph. Distrib : of British Plants. Humes Essay on H[uman] Understanding (some time) Du[gald] Stewart works & lives of Reid, Smith & giving abstracts of their views Mackintosh Ethnical [Ethical] Philos : | 268. To be read Humbold[t]. New Spain — much about castes &c Richardson's Fauna Borealis Entomological Magazine (paper on geograph range) Study Buffon on Varieties Domesticated animals see if laws cannot be made out Find out from Statistical Society where M. Quetelet has published his laws about sexes relative to age of marriages Brown at end of Flinders & at end of the Congo Voyage Decandolle Philosophie on Geographical distrib in Diet. Sciences Nat. in Geolog Soc. F. Cuvier on instinct ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES 115 L. Jenyns paper in Annals of Nat. History Prichard. — Lawrence Roy St. Vincent vol. iii p. 164 on unfixed form. Dr Royle on Himalaya types. Smellie. Philosophy of Zoology Flemming. ditto Falconers remark on the influence of climate Whites regular gradation in Man. Lindleys introduction to the Natural System Bevan on honey bee Dutrochet memoires sur les vegetaux et animaux — on sleep & movements of Plants £1 . 4s Voyage aux terres Australes chapt. xxxix, torn iv. p. 273 [Peron . . .] Latreille Geographie des insectes 8° p. 181 Sept. 17 [1839] For references to authors about E. Indian Islands consult Dr Horsfield | 269 Sir G. Staunton's Embassy to China Oct. 12 th [1838] Kotzebues two voyages, skimmed well ditto Lutkes Voyage, carefully read. — Reynolds Discourses Lessings Laocoon Whewell's inductive History. References at end of each vol Herschel's introduction to Natural Philosophy R. W. Darwin's Botany. — references at end Mayo Pathology of the Human Mind Evelyn's Sylva, skimmed stupid Brown's travels in Africa ; well skimmed. 1839 Jan. 10 th All Life of W. Scott, except the V volume — 19 th Mungo Parks Travels Feb. 12 Sir H. Davy Consolations in travels — Observations on morals of Eugenius — 14 th Boswells Life of Johnson 4 vols. 25 th Philips Geology, 2 nd vol. — March 16 Gardner's Music of Nature — Herbert on Hybrid mixture : marginal notes. — 20 th Carlyle's French Revolution 3 ? vols oct : — 26 th Blumenbach's Essay on Generation. English Transla. — The Rev. A. Wells Lecture on instinct — Clive on the Breeding of animals — Spallanzanis Essay on Animal Reproduction — Treatise on Domestic pidgeons — 30 th Lives of Hayd[n] & Mozart April 25 th Lockarts Life of Napoleon. 5 th Dr Edwards influence of physical causes, well skimmed n6 DARWIN'S SECOND NOTEBOOK — Bartrams travels in N. America May 1 8 th Stanley familiar History of Birds — Mackintosh's Ethical Philosophy — Bell's Bridgewater Treatise — Wilkinson's Egyptian remains skimmed — Pliny Nat. Hist of world ditto ,, Lamarck II vol Philos. Zoology references at end of each chapter Crabbes Life June I st King & Fitzroy | 270 Rays Wisdom of [God] Lisiansky's Voyage round World. 1803-6. nothing Lyells Elements of Geology Gibbons Life on himself Hume's ditto with correspond, with Rousseau Miss Martineau How to observe Mayo Philosophy of Art of Living Several of Walter Savage Landors Imaginary Conversations very poor Sir J. Browne's Religio Medici Lyell Book III there are many marginal notes Rengger & Mitchell's Australia Walter Scotts Life I st 2 nd & 7 th volumes Abercrombie on the Intellectual Powers. Hunters Universal Oeconomy edited by Owen, read several papers all that bear on any of my subjects Elie de Beaumont 10 vols of Memoires on Geology of France on Etna almost re- read the previous volume & C. Prevost on l'lle Julie Waterton's Essays on Natural History Octob 2 d [1838] Transactions of Royal Irish Academy ditto Lavater's Physiognomy Octob 3 rd Malthus on Population W. Earl's Eastern Seas. Octob 12 th | 271-274 excised : 275 Sir J Sebright's Pamphlets \ abstracted Wilkinsons on cattle j Scientific Memoirs published by Taylor Magazine of Zoology & Botany & continuation Annals of Natural History Skimmed von Buch travels Whites Natural History of Selbourne References at end Dr Langs Australian tract, skimmed Macleays Horae Entomologicae Rays Wisdom of God references at end The British Aviary — ditto Lisle's Husbandry Tuckey Voyage reread Appendix ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES 117 Ovington Voyage to Surinam Voyage Congo Expedition Zaire except Browns Appendix & excellent table of Canary Island plants Home's History of Man Transactions of the Entomological Society vol. I & I st no. of vol. II (read re- mainder) when out | 276 Most of those which have references at end, is so said to have Books examined with ref : to species Mackenzie's Iceland Molinas Chile Falkner Patagonia Azara Voyage & Quadrupeds of Paraguay Dobrizhoffer Abipomnes Edinburgh New Phil. Journal about 13 numbers have been read Voyage a l'isle de France {Voyage de 1 'Astrolabe Partie Zoologique Pernety voyage a l'isle Malouines Zoological Journal 5 vols Voyage de la Coquille Zoological Transactions up to parts published March 1838. done Whole of Geographical Journal Asiatic Journal to end of 1837, read, contains very little Macleay's letter to Dr Fleming & Review of letter in Quarterly | Inside Back Cover : Read Volney's Travels in Syria vol 1, p 71. account of European plants trans- ported — Crawford. Eastern Archipelago probably some account Raffles Sir S. ditto ditto — ,.• Buffon suites Line on the improvement of domesticated animals Fries de plantarum praesertim crypt, transitu et analogior commentalia Library of Useful Knowledge on horse & cow & sheep Clarke's travels Temmincks Hist. Nat. des Pigeons et des Gallinaces Sillimans Journal during 1837. paper by Bachman on migration of birds [vol. 30 July 1836, p. 81.] Temminck has written Coup d'Oeil sur la faune des iles de la sonde et de l'empire du Japon Wowett on cattle — (Waterhouse has it) Shells from Bernier Island many relations with a living Natica & many shells of genera Corbula, Chama, Cardium, Porcellana, Turbo, Cerithium Jardin du Roi Java fossils at same time Study Botanical works on Buds & Gemmae 3 I MAY it PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY ADLARD AND SON, LIMITED, BARTHOLOMEW PRESS, DORKING H.ik.fl'O- DARWIN'S NOTEBOOKS ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES PART III Edited with an Introduction and Notes by SIR GAVIN DE BEER BULLETIN OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM (NATURAL HISTORY) HISTORICAL Vol. 2 No. 4 LONDON: i960 DARWIN'S NOTEBOOKS ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES PART III. THIRD NOTEBOOK JULY 15th 1838— OCTOBER 2nd 1838 Edited with an Introduction and Notes BY SIR GAVIN DE BEER Pp. 119-150 BULLETIN OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM (NATURAL HISTORY) HISTORICAL Vol. 2 No. 4 LONDON: i960 THE BULLETIN OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM (NATURAL HISTORY), instituted in 1949, is issued in Jive series corresponding to the Departments of the Museum, and an Historical Series. Parts will appear at irregular intervals as they become ready. Volumes will contain about three or four hundred pages, and will not necessarily be completed within one calendar year. This paper is Vol. 2, No. 4 of the Historical series. © Trustees of the British Museum, i960 PRINTED BY ORDER OF THE TRUSTEES OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM Issued July, i960 Price Twelve Shillings DARWIN'S NOTEBOOKS ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES Edited with an Introduction and Notes by Sir GAVIN de BEER Part III. Third Notebook (July 15TH to October 2nd 1838) INTRODUCTION Darwin began his Third Notebook on Transmutation of Species on 15th July 1838 and finished it on 2nd October of the same year. From the list of books read, appended to the Second Notebook, it is known that he did not read Malthus's Essay on Popula- tion before 3rd October 1838, from which it can be seen that the contents of the Third Notebook owe nothing to Malthus's work. It is therefore of great importance to note that Darwin hit on the principle of natural selection independently. After a consideration of changes resulting in the formation of new species, he wrote : — " All this agrees well with my view of those forms slightly favoured getting the upper hand and forming species " (III 175). 1 Darwin himself realized the historical impor- tance of these lines, because at a later date, probably 14th December 1856 when he looked through his Notebook, he wrote at the head of it : " Towards close I first thought of selection owing to struggle ". It has always been a puzzle to know why the stimulus of Malthus's book should have been necessary to put Darwin on the scent of natural selection about which Malthus knew nothing, and Darwin's Third Notebook now shows that the problem has hitherto been incorrectly formulated. From the various passages in the extant portions of the first three Notebooks it is clear that Darwin had independently grasped two ideas. One was the parallel between the effects of artificial selection by man and those of natural selection. It is contained in the Third Notebook and supported by the observation that the magnitude of the differences between domestic breeds of cattle exemplified in the hump of Indian cattle is comparable to that of the differences between the species of cattle and of bison (III 65). The second idea was that of forms slightly favoured getting the upper hand and forming species. But it was an idea of natural selection without stress on the heavy and unavoidable penalties for failure in the struggle for existence, although the probability of extinction as the price to be paid for insufficient adaptation was already recognized in the First Notebook (I 38). It seems that it was the mathemati- cal demonstration of the insufficiency of food supplies if numbers increased too fast, and the consequent inevitableness of the penalties, that Darwin derived from Malthus's work, not the principle of selection itself which completely undermines the validity of Malthus's own thesis that mankind was unimprovable. 1 References are made to the Notebook on Transmutation of Species concerned in Roman figures, and to the MS. pages in Arabic figures. hist. 2, 4 29 122 DARWIN'S THIRD NOTEBOOK The proof of the correctness of this interpretation of the story is to be found in the letter 1 which Darwin wrote to Wallace on 6th April 1859, m which he explained that after reading Malthus's book he " saw at once how to apply the principle of natural selection ". He had already grasped the principle of natural selection and had seen how it could result in unlimited change away from the ancestral type and the production of new species ; but he had not recognized how nature enforced it until he read Malthus. The Third Notebook contains a number of passages which reveal Darwin's outlook on his own work and that of his predecessors. The most important is the following : — " Seeing what von Buch, Humboldt, G. St. Hilaire & Lamarck have written I pretend to no originality of idea (though I arrived at them quite independently & have used them since) the line of proof and reducing facts to law only merit if merit there be in following work." (Ill 69). These words come early in the Third Notebook and refer to the period before his discovery of the principle of natural selection. They are in complete agreement with what Darwin wrote 2 to Baden Powell twenty eight years later, after the publication of the Origin of Species : — " No educated person, not even the most ignorant, could suppose that I meant to arrogate to myself the origination of the doctrine that species had not been independently created. The only novelty in my work is the attempt to explain how species became modified, & to a certain extent how the theory of descent explains certain large classes of facts ; & in these respects I have received no assistance from my predecessors." After the Origin of Species was published, Darwin wrote 3 to F. W. Hutton, 20th April 1861 : — " I am actually weary of telling people that I do not pretend to adduce direct evidence of one species changing into another, but that I believe that this view is in the main correct, because so many phenomena can be thus grouped together and explained. ... I generally throw in their teeth the universally admitted theory of the undulations of light . . . admitted because the view explains so much." The stress on the value of his theory in explaining the " large classes of facts " is already made in the Third Notebook : — " In comparing my theory with any other, it should be observed not what comparative difficulties (as long as not over- whelming) [but] what comparative solutions and linking of facts " (III 71). The Third Notebook also contains some interesting remarks on Darwin's methods. " Although no new fact be elicited by these speculations even if partly true they are of the greatest service towards the end of science, namely prediction, till facts are grouped & called there can be no prediction. The only advantage of discovering laws is to foretell what will happen & to see bearing of scattered facts." (Ill 67). Much ink has been used to argue the question whether Darwin arrived at his conclusions as a result of inductive processes of reasoning. Writing at a time when so-called Baconian principles of induction were widely thought to be the only " cor- rect " method of scientific inquiry, Adam Sedgwick 4 accused Darwin of deserting 1 More Letters of Charles Darwin, edited by F. Darwin and A. C. Seward, London 1903, vol. 1, p. 118. 2 Sir Gavin de Beer. " Some unpublished letters of Charles Darwin ", Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, 1959, vol. 14, pp. 12-66. 3 M. L., vol. 1, pp. 183, 184. 4 Life and Letters of Charles Darwin edited by Francis Darwin, London 1887, vol. 2, pp. 247-250. ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES 123 these principles and used this argument for the express purpose of discrediting the theory of evolution by natural selection. Other critics, more recent, have accepted Darwin's conclusions but claimed that he was mistaken in thinking that he had arrived at them inductively and even reproached him for " speculating " in his Notebooks, as if it was reprehensible. Darwin himself always maintained that he had used induction and wrote 1 in his Autobiography that he " worked on the true Baconian principles, and without any theory collected facts on a wholesale scale ". This did not mean that he must refrain from basing a hypothesis on each fact as he came to it, if he could. In the Notebooks he explained his method of working quite clearly : " The line of argument often pursued throughout my theory is to establish a point as a probability by induction & to apply it as hypotheses to other points & see whether it will solve them " (III 117). This is precisely what the Notebooks show. An authority is quoted for some observation believed to establish a fact, and immediately Darwin began asking questions suggested by the fact to see if a hypothesis constructed ad hoc was applicable to other situations. The Notebooks are littered with these queries. Later in his life, in a letter 2 to Sir John Fiske dated 8th December 1874, Darwin described his method more explicitly but less correctly : " my mind is so fixed by the inductive method, that I cannot appreciate deductive reasoning. I must begin with a good body of facts and not from principle (in which I always suspect a fallacy), and then as much deduction as you please." In place of " deduction " he should have said " hypothesis and deduction ". The hypotheses and deductions can follow immediately from each fact. The facts and the tentative hypotheses based on them follow one another pell mell through the Notebooks, and the attempts to reprove Darwin for speculating in his Notebooks are futile. He was seldom more than one jump ahead of his facts, and it was precisely because he was one jump ahead that he made progress. As Darwin wrote 3 to Lyell, 1st June i860, referring to a paper by Hopkins who refused to accept the explanatory value of a theory as evidence of its correctness : "on his standard of proof, natural science would never progress, for without the making of theories, I am convinced there would be no observations ". In a letter to Henry Fawcett, 18th September 1861 Darwin wrote : 4 — " About 30 years ago there was much talk that geologists ought only to observe and not theorise ; and I well remember some one saying that at this rate a man might as well go into a gravel pit and count the pebbles and describe the colours ". When Darwin was speculating without a firm basis of fact he was careful to warn himself : " Pure hypothesis be careful " (III 58). In a masterly study of the problem, Alvar Ellegard 5 has shown that the method of hypothesis by means of which Darwin worked was perfectly legitimate. As early as i860 T. H. Huxley had pointed this out : 6 " There cannot be a doubt that the 1 Autobiography of Charles Darwin edited by Nora Barlow, London 1958, p. 119. 2 L. & L., vol. 3, p. 193. 3 L. & L., vol. 2, p. 315. 4 M. L., vol. 1, p. 195. 5 Alvar Ellegard. " The Darwinian Theory and Nineteenth-Century Philosophies of Science ", Journ, History of Ideas, 1957, vol. 18, pp. 362-393. 6 T. H. Huxley. Westminster Review, i860, vol. 17, p. 566. 124 DARWIN'S THIRD NOTEBOOK method of inquiry which Mr. Darwin has adopted is not only rigorously in accordance with the canons of scientific logic, but that it is the only adequate method ". Huxley also had a rod in pickle 1 for the philosophers of science who cavilled at Darwin's method in order to try to invalidate his results : — " Critics exclusively trained in classics or in mathematics, who have never determined a scientific fact in their lives by induction from experiment or observation, prate learnedly about Mr. Darwin's method, which is not inductive enough, not Baconian enough, forsooth, for them. But even if partial acquaintance with the process of scientific investigation is denied to them, they may learn, by the perusal of Mr. Mill's admirable chapter " On the Deductive Method", that there are multitudes of scientific inquiries in which the method of pure induction helps the investigator but a very little way ". The attempts by Darwin's opponents to discredit his views by appealing to " Baconian principles of induction " as the only true path of science are particularly disingenuous. As Stanley Jevons 2 showed many years ago, not only are the processes of inductive and deductive reasoning inseparable in the construction of theories capable of generalisation, but they must be accompanied by hypothesis ; and in any case it is incorrect to ascribe the principle of inductive reasoning in scientific method to Francis Bacon. Darwin was abundantly justified in his procedure " of inventing a theory and seeing how many classes of facts the theory would explain." 3 The Notebooks show that he had already realized the importance and value of this method. An hypothesis is an idea based by induction on facts, in an attempt to find a consistent formula to fit other facts. Furthermore, as James K. Feibleman 4 has stressed, " an induction to an hypothesis is just what it is quite independently of whether it was suggested by one fact or a thousand ; the hypothesis itself is what is important, and depends for its staying powers upon its truth or falsity ". In Darwin's case the first three facts from which he started are known. 5 They were the discovery by him of " great fossil animals covered with armour like that on the existing armadillos ", " the manner in which closely allied animals replace one another in proceeding southwards over the Continent ", " the South American character of most of the productions of the Galapagos archipelago, and . . . the manner in which they differ slightly on each island of the group ". Darwin's observations and reflections on the conditions which he found in the Galapagos Islands led to his now famous entry in his Ornithological Notebook : 6 — " When I recollect the fact, that from the form of the body, shape of the scale and general size, the Spaniards can at once pronounce from which Isd. any tortoise may have been brought : — when I see these islands in sight of each other and possessed of but a scanty stock of animals, tenanted by these birds but slightly differing in structure and filling the same place in Nature, I must suspect they are only varieties. The only fact of a similar kind of which I am aware is the constant asserted difference between the 1 T. H. Huxley. Lectures and Essays, London 1908, p. 172. 8 W. Stanley Jevons. Logic, London 1889, p. 79. 8 L. & L., vol. 2, p. 241. 4 J. K. Feibleman. " Darwin and Scientific Method ", Tulane Studies in Philosophy, 1959, vol. 8, p. 8. 8 Autob., p. 118. 6 Charles Darwin and the Voyage of the Beagle edited by Nora Barlow, London 1945, p. 246. ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES 125 wolf-like Fox of East and West Falkland Islands. If there is the slightest foundation for these remarks, the Zoology of Archipelagoes will be well worth examining ; for such facts would undermine the stability of species." The problem presented to Darwin did not admit of many degrees of freedom in its solution. If the various species had not all been specially created with the observed differences between them ready-made, then they must have been produced by descent with modification from their ancestors. But this was the idea which had been put forward by Erasmus Darwin and Lamarck, extolled by Grant, condemned by Lyell, and hitherto rejected by Darwin. As Darwin explained, he independently arrived at the same idea as a hypothesis, and the First Notebook on Transmutation of Species 1 contains Darwin's earliest known formulation of that hypothesis and search for facts wherewith to test it. The first 54 pages of the First Notebook are devoted to a straightforward exposition of the reasons which led Darwin to abandon the view of the immutability of species and to accept the hypothesis of transmutation or evolution. It is noteworthy that the three facts which started Darwin on his train of thought do not figure in this exposition, and this is a measure of the amount of consideration which Darwin had given to the problem between the time when he was in the Beagle and July 1837 when he opened his First Notebook on Transmutation of Species. As the problem was one of differences between species, the first step in the analysis was the question of the origin of differences or variation. Here he found Erasmus Darwin's statement of empirical fact that variation was the natural result of sexual reproduction. But if variation occurs, deductive reasoning leads to the conclusion that species ought not to remain constant. Why, then, do species remain as constant as they do ? Hypothesis : interbreeding within the whole population quashes variation of the species away from the type. This was the nearest approach to empirical fact that the then-prevailing total ignorance of the processes of genetics allowed him to make. If interbreeding within the whole population quashes vari- ation, then what will happen if a portion of a population is prevented from inter- breeding with the remainder by geographical isolation ? Hypothesis : the portion of the population will vary, form a variety, and ultimately a new species. If this be so, then by deduction it ought to be observable that in some isolated regions this has happened. It is : the inhabitants of isolated areas such as the Galapagos Islands, Falkland Islands, Ireland, etc. show forms which are permanent varieties or different species as compared with the inhabitants of neighbouring lands. If species are formed in this way from pre-existing species, there must be divergence in the lines of descent ; but the number of different species living together in one region cannot be unlimited : therefore hypothesis : some species should die out. They have done so ; extinction is a fact. Now if species are related to one another by common descent and some of them have gone extinct, hypothesis : there ought to be differences between the magnitudes of difference between the different species. There are : species are grouped in different ways, some close together belonging to the same genus, others wide apart belonging to different genera. 1 Bull. Brit. Mus. (Nat. Hist.) Historical Series, i960, vol. 2, pp. 23-73. 126 DARWIN'S THIRD NOTEBOOK In this manner by a sequence of observation of empirical facts, induction into hypothesis, deduction, and exposure to test by a search for new facts leading to refutation or confirmation of his hypothesis, Darwin gradually acquired confidence. His hypothesis became " my theory " and he foretold the results of its establishment : a common ancestor for man and all animals, netted together by affinity (I 232) . In all this argument so far, there is no explanation how species are caused to become modified, if they are. In the First three Notebooks up to nearly the end of the Third, about 1st October 1838, Darwin was in the stage described in the Auto- biography i 1 "it was equally evident that neither the action of the surrounding conditions, nor the will of the organisms (especially in the case of plants) could account for the innumerable cases in which organisms of every kind are beautifully adapted to their habits of life, . . . and until these could be explained it seemed to me almost useless to endeavour to prove by indirect evidence, that species have been modified." The idea of natural selection, so far as can be seen from the extant portions of the Notebooks, seems to have occurred to Darwin as a combination of the effects on him of the facts of variation, adaptation, and extinction. Variation must result in some forms being slightly more and others slightly less favoured. If this is so, hypothesis : "of those forms slightly favoured getting the upper hand & forming species " (III 175). Once he was in the possession of the key of natural selection, Darwin worked by a combination of induction and deduction to construct the full theory of evolution by natural selection, as Sir Julian Huxley 2 and I 3 have shown. But this belongs to a stage in the development of Darwin's thought later than is represented by the first three Notebooks on Transmutation of Species, and is found in the Fourth Notebook, the Sketch of 1842, and the Essay of 1844. The remainder of the Third Notebook is largely taken up with the search for facts at a time when they were lamentably few. Even the facts of fertilisation 4 were unknown, to say nothing of genetics. In trying to acquire the elements of zoology, botany, and physiology when there were no text-books, Darwin scoured whatever he could find and was led astray as often as not. With the hindsight of a hundred and twenty years of progress of knowledge in biology, there is something rather pathetic in the spectacle of Darwin wrestling with the problem of dominance of characters of different domestic breeds when crossed (III 3, 13, 42) and the hypothesis that dominance was determined by the relative ages of the breeds (III 16, 17, 43, 49, 108) ; with the relative importance of paternal and maternal influence on off- spring (III 8, 44) ; with the explanation of the sterility of hybrids (III 15, 19) and with the possibility of telegony (III 8, 172). 1 Autob., p. 119. 2 Sir Julian Huxley. The Living Thoughts of Darwin, London 1958, p. 12. 3 Sir Gavin de Beer. " The Darwin- Wallace Centenary ", Endeavour, 1958, vol. 17, p. 65. 4 Although sperms were first discovered in 1677 by Hamm, and Spallanzani's experiments proved that sperms and not the liquid in which they swam are the element responsible for fertilization, the penetration of an egg by a sperm was first observed by G. Newport in the frog's egg in 1854, and by N. Pringsheim in 1855 in an alga. It was not until 1875 that Oskar Hertwig discovered in the sea urchin that after fertilization one of the pronuclei contained in the egg is derived from the egg and the other from the sperm. ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES 127 All the more remarkable, therefore, are the sound conclusions that he was sometimes able to draw : — Regeneration : " each part of animal must have structure of whole comprehended in itself" (III 130, 167) ; degeneration : " as Larva may be more perfect . . . than [adult] parent, so may species retrograde " (III 57) ; adaptation : " if animals became adapted to every minute change, they would not be fitted to the slow great changes really in progress " (III 167) ; instinct : " the simplest trans- mission is direct instinct & afterwards enlarged powers to meet with contingency " (III 118) ; man : " comparison of man with expression of monkey when offended, who loves who fears who is curious " (III 22), and the similarity of the sexual impulse in female animals and in women (III 99, 139). Almost prophetic is Darwin's search for material on which to carry out researches in experimental embryology : " cannot I find some animal with definite life and split it, and see whether it retains same length of life " (III 165). It was nearly a century before Driesch and Spemann showed how this could be done. There is something scientifically heroic in Darwin's wondering whether a man's amputated arm could not regenerate a man, if it could be kept alive in a form of tissue-culture (III 131). As in the other Notebooks a number of pages were cut out of the Third by Darwin in 1856. Seventy two pages of it have been lost out of one hundred and eighty, but it is a matter for congratulation that the extant pages contain as much of importance as they do. Darwin's Third Notebook on Transmutation of Species, also known as Notebook " D ", is Darwin MS 123 in the Cambridge University Library, to the authorities of which acknowledgement is warmly made for their unfailing assistance and courtesy, as also to Dr Sydney Smith and Mr. P. J. Gautrey for their kind and valuable help with the decipherment of some obscure passages. HIST. 2, 4 128 DARWIN'S THIRD NOTEBOOK Inside Front Cover Charles Darwin 36 Great Marlborough Street 1838. Did 1 Eyton's 2 hybrids when interbred show any tendency to return to either parent ? Is the first cross which makes hybrids productive like geese ? — Are the number of kittens between Lion & Tiger at litter as numerous as in common lion? Are the number of nipples in domesticated very fertile animals increased ? Where offspring heterogeneous in plants are the number of seeds greater ? — Mem. for Eyton. — Sir R. Heron's 3 case of breed of pigs with solid feet. — (In this Book some curious note on monkeys recognizing sexes of animals. 4 ) (All selected Dec. 14 — 1856) Towards close I first thought of selection owing to struggle | 1 July 15 th 1838 Finished October 2 d . As a proof what unknown causes act upon people my father 5 mention that for ten years, he never saw one case of malignant erysipelas spreading over the head, not caused by a wound, when suddenly during one time he had three patients at very distant quarters of the county, who had had no sort of communication, were seized with it, & for ten years afterwards, he then did not see other cases. — He 2 thinks Apoplexy affects people all over England at same periods. | When he began practice, he remember during a year or two he saw many cases of virulent cancer in women, & since that time it has been rare disease, but now (July 1838) he has seen more cases in a month, than in several previous years, two having consulted him on one day. — | 3 Mark 6 at Shrewsbury thinks the half bred Alderney cows take more after Alderney than the Durham, with which they have been crossed — is Alderney oldest breed — He believes all pretty much alike. — My Fathers Water in the brain 7 a century since used to be called Worm Fever, as used much more lately diseased mesatine glands. — My Father has seen case of pleurisy, broken limb in children & other such disorders accompanied with some fever, be attended by the transmission of 4 large number of worms | the child not having passed them before. Hence disordered intestines are not healthy to worms, (like parasites of Tropical countries cannot endure this climate). — July 23rd. Eyton, 8 a stone blind horse, seemed to perceive turn on road where no houses to Caton Muscote, where he had been accustomed to turn down, — applicable to birds migrations & mistakes in Savages. | 5-7 excised. 8 [sic] When two dogs line the same bitch & perfect spaniels & setters are produced one would argue the whole effect of race was determined by male : & How completely is Lor d Moreton's 9 case opposed to this fact & views. 1 The remaining words on this cover inserted at a later date. 2 Thomas Campbell Eyton. 3 Sir Robert Heron, cf. Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication, London 1868, vol. 2, p. 92. Footnote : — " Extract of a letter from Sir R. Heron, 1838 given me by Mr. Yarrell ". 4 This and the following two sentences, inserted in pencil at a later date. 5 Robert Waring Darwin. 6 Mark, Dr Darwin's coachman at Shrewsbury, cf. Emma Darwin, Cambridge 1904, vol. 2, p. 13. 7 " Water in the brain " appears to have been Dr. Darwin's term for this disorder. 8 Thomas Campbell Eyton. Probably personal communication. 9 Lord Morton. " A Communication of a singular fact in Natural History ", (read November 1820) Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc, 1821, vol. cxi, p. 20. ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES 129 Fox 1 says a cousin, one of Mr. Strutt of his used to breed to common & Muscovy Ducks. — English, China & Canada Geese, & that this first cross were equally fertile with pure bred animals. — Mem. number of mules. — He recollects one hatch of 10 hybrid geese very fine. — How is it I with plants ? This indicates a remarkable law, that first cross plentiful, second absolutely sterile. — My case of stallion, according to Erasmus 2 preferring young mare to old, explained by stallion (according to Fox) being guided entirely by their smell. Fox 3 says he knew a carter well who placed his stallion as second horse between shaft mares | 11-12 excised. 13 Fox 4 says where common & China geese are crossed the neck is not intermediate in its peculiar long neck, but much nearer to common goose. — What has long been in blood, will remain in blood, — converse, what has not been, will not remain, — yet offspring must be somewhat like parents, — therefore off- spring will tend to go back, or have none, — this argument does not apply to first 14 parents, because they are not new breed. — the first hybrids may be | compared to animal with amputated limb. Hereditary six-fingered people, Lord Renwick[?] family with defective palates, hereditary & therefore exceptions to above law. — Study what these monsters are : — are they abortive twins. — The fertility of first cross, as stated by Fox, is very important, as showing above facts as first cross being new species. — 15 Are not dreadful monsters abortive, just like mules. | Fox's 5 half bred Persian cats favour the Persian side. — Theory of abortive hybrids. — If mules did breed the offspring would as in all other animals be like either parent or intermediate within certain small limits (within which limits they might return to either parent). Then according [to] law, that in proportion as things are long in blood so will they remain, a mule being new species will have every tendency to have offspring like parent, but as they must [be] like or there will be none, therefore a mule can have no offspring. — But as badly deformed people & as mutilations (produced very quickly) sometimes have similar offsprings, so will the worst mules (as real mule) have offspring. — Slight deformities as supernumerary fingers (that is slight alteration of primitive stocks related to changes which every species undergoes) & hybrids between very near species (that is slight alterations of primitive stock) are hereditary : Hybrids & Varieties is different because not long in blood. — 16 The case of union of perfect animals is | distinct case, — gradation from physical impossibility to {perhaps increased) fertility — (but many animals are fertile, — when offspring infertile, — two considerations are here combined.). In last page, we have seen [that] mules could have no offspring, & this being [the] case, owing to the corelations of system, the organ of generation would necessarily fail. — In last page, I should have said, " an animal is able to transmit only those peculiarities 17 to its offspring, which have been gained slowly, now all the mules | have their whole 1 William Darwin Fox. Darwin's second cousin. 2 Presumably Erasmus Alvey Darwin, Darwin's elder brother. 3 William Darwin Fox. Personal communication, 4 Idem. 5 Idem. 130 DARWIN'S THIRD NOTEBOOK form of body gained in one generation, so it is impossible to transmit them, & as offspring must be like parent, therefore mule has no offspring & therefore no genera- tive organ. Same Prop, better enunciated. — An animal in either parent cannot transmit to its offspring any change from the form which it inherits from its parents stock without it be small & slowly attained. N.B. The longer a thing is in the blood the more persistent any amount of change & shorter time less so. The result of this is that animal would endeavour to return to parent stock, but if both parents are alike, offspring must be like. | 18 Hence mutilations not hereditary, but size of particular muscles. — When two animals cross, each sends his own likeness & the union makes hybrid, in fact the parents beget child like themselves, expression of countenances, organic diseases, mental disposition, stature, are slowly obtained & hereditary ; if the change be congenital (that is most slowly obtained with respect to that individual) it is more easily inherited, — but if change be in blood long, it becomes part of [the] animal, — by a succession of generations, these small changes become multiplied, & great 19 change be effected, but | in a mule these conditions are not fullfilled. My grand- fathers 1 theory of mules not hereditary, because generation highest point of organiza- tion, false. — The creator would thus contradict his own law. So far is there any appearance of animals being created, it is probable if created at once, according to ordinary laws, the character of offspring would vary, or rather they would not have offspring. — On the idea of generation being a bud from parent, if whole parent not entirely imbued with the change, a bud could not be taken, without it either went back, or not being perfect would perish. — | 20 The varieties of the domesticated animals must be most complicated, because they are partly local & then the local ones are taken to fresh country & breed confined to certain best individuals. — scarcely any breed but what some individuals are picked out, — in a really natural breed, not one is picked out, & few even of local varieties approaches quite to wild local variety, our European varieties must be very unnatural. — Italian Greyhound is probably the effect of local variety many times 21 changed | together with some training in the earlier branches as in common grey- hound^ much intermarriage. — In my speculations, must not go back to first stock of all animals, but merely to classes where types exist, for if so, it will be necessary to show how the first eye is formed, — how one nerve becomes sensitive to light, (Mem. whole plant may be considered as one large eye — have they smell, do plants emit odour solely for other parts of creation) & another nerve to finest vibration of sound, which is impossible. — | 22 Mr Spence 2 remarks that the Fringilla domestica of North Europe is replaced by 1 Erasmus Darwin. Zoonomia, London 1794, vol. i, p. 513 : — " mules which evidently partake of both parents, but principally of the male parent ". 2 William B. Spence. " Observations on a mode practised in Italy of excluding the Common House-fly from Apartments ", Trans. Entom. Soc. Lond., 1836, vol. 1, p. 1. On p. 6 : — " it would also be desirable to have similar experiments made as to the house-flies of America and other hot countries, in which it is probable that in the same way as our common sparrow (Fringilla domestica, Linn.) is replaced in Italy by another species (F. cisalpina, Temm.), which to an ordinary observer seems identical with ours, but is really distinct, ... " ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES 131 the F. cisalpina in Italy which is so like that difference would not be discovered by an unscientific observer. — Transactions of the Entomological Soc. A capital passage might be made from comparison of man, with expression of monkey when offended, who loves who fears who is curious &c. &c. &c. who imitates. — who will say there is distinct creation required if he believe Hyaena & squirrel seal & mouse elephant, come from one stock. — I 23 Theory of Geograph. Distrib.: of organic beings. — Animals of same classes differ in different countries in exact proportion to the time they have been separated ; together with physical differences of country : the time of separation depends on facility of transport in the species itself, & in the local circumstances of the two countries in times present & past. The effect of physical conditions of country is not perhaps so great, as separation or interbreeding, for 24 otherwise we could not understand the vast number I of domesticated races. — Athenaeum, * p. 505, some (very poor account) of plants of Nova Zemblia in review of Baers work. Edinburgh Royal Transact. 2 — p. 297, vol. 9, Dr Ferguson seems most clear that the ideosyncrasy of the Negro (& partly mulatto) prevents his taking any form of Malaria — Adaptation & species-like. — Says Negro thick skinned. My hairdresser (Willis) 3 says that strength of hair goes with colour, black being strongest. | 25 Vp. 63. Note Book M 1 for case of change in food in insects entered by mistake. 4 Surely the fossil Mammalogy of Britain & Europe is African, & the only difference is by the extinction of certain forms from northern part & not by fresh creation of new forms. — What is range of Hyaena ? Hippopotamus ? Indio-African, or Pure Africa ? — Fossil Elephant of Africa most important under this view, & Hippo [po]tamus of Madagascar : because contemporaries. In introduction to Eytons 5 Anatidae — recurs to idea of only animals from distant countries breeding ! mem. 3 species of goose Has not goldfinch & green- finch bred, & surely wild duck & pintail & widgeon! — Divides world into zoological Provinces, animals according to varieties of man. ?Will it hold good. — Thinks Temminck 6 doubtful when he says no genera. — In Australia plants E & W very different, — man not so but N. & S. New Zealand, New Caledonia two races of man 26 but not plants, thinks | there are some small divisions. — does not seem to think 1 Karl Ernst von Baer. Review of " Expedition to Novaia Zemlia and Lapland " (St. Petersbourgh Bull Sci., Ill, 1838), Athenaeum, 1838, July 21, p. 505. 2 William Ferguson. " On the Nature and History of the Marsh Poison ", Trans. Roy. Soc. Edinb., (read Jan. 3, 1820) 1823, vol. 9, p. 273. On p. 297 there is a note " On the Negro Skin ": " ... From peculiarity of idiosyncrasy, he appears to be proof against endemic fevers ; ... One of the most obvious peculiarities of the Negro, compared with the European, is the texture of his skin, which is thick, oily ... " cf. recent research on the immunity against malaria conferred by sickle trait, A. C. Allison : " Human Haemoglobin types ", New Biology, 21, 1956, p. 43. (Penguin Books). 3 Mr. Willis. Hairdresser, cf. below MS. p. 163. 4 The reference is to Darwin's First Notebook on Metaphysics, Morals & Speculations on Expression (Cambridge University Library, Darwin MS. 125) begun 15th July 1838, finished 2nd October 1838, from which p. 63 was excised by Darwin on 16th December 1856. 5 Thomas Campbell Eyton. A Monograph on the Anatidae, London, 1838, p. 1 : — " . . . that those animals upon which this experiment has been tried have invariably been brought from countries far apart, ... " 6 Coenraad Jacob Temminck. Presumably Observations sur la classification methodique des oiseaux, Amsterdam & Paris 181 7. 132 DARWIN'S THIRD NOTEBOOK any improbability to animals being distributed after flood (!) according to affinities! confounds, like Whewell, 1 affinity with analogy. — Good table at end of distrib.: of Anatidae. — Consult this book again. — Mine is a bold theory, which attemps to explain, or asserts to be explicable every instinct in animals. Heard at Zoolog. Soc. that Pintail & Common Ducks, breed one with another — & hybrids fertile inter se (No) directly against Eyton's rule. 2 ?Are the hybrids similar inter se — | 27-34 excised. 35 Owen 3 says relation of Osteology of birds to Reptiles shown in osteology of young Ostrich. 16th [Aug.] D Israeli 4 (Cur. of Literat. vol. II, p. n) accidentally says " — is distinctly marked as whole dynasties have been featured by the Austrian lip & the Bourbon nose ", if this be not imagination, then old peculiarity overbears the crossing with females not thus characterized. — | 36 16th Aug. What a magnificent view one can take of the world Astronomical causes modified by unknown ones, cause changes in geography & changes of climate suspended to change of climate from physical causes, — then suspended changes of form in the organic world, as adaptation, & these changing affect each other, & their bodies by certain laws of harmony keep perfect in these themselves. — instincts alter, reason is formed & the world peopled with myriads of distinct forms from a period short of eternity to the present time, to the future. — How far grander than y] idea from cramped | imagination that God created (warring against those very laws he established in all organic nature) the Rhinoceros of Java & Sumatra, 5 that since the time of the Silurian he has made a long succession of vile molluscous animals. How beneath the dignity of him, who is supposed to have said let there be light & there was light. — whom it has been declared " he said let there be light & there was light " — bad taste. August 19th Two regions may be Zool.-geographically divided either by develope- ment of new forms in one, or apparently so by the extinction of prominent ones in one : The latter will take place when conditions are unfavourable to numbers of 38 animals as in changing from warm to | cold, damp to dry. — Thus Tierra del Fuego has only one Guanaco of this characteristic form of S. America. With respect to future destinies of mankind, some of [the] species or varieties are becoming extinct, others though the negro of Africa is not loosing ground, yet, as the tribes of the interior are pushing into each other from slave trade & colonization of S. Africa, so must the tribes become blended & prevent the strong separation 39 which I otherwise would have taken place otherwise in 10,000 years. Negro probably 1 William Whewell, author of History of the Inductive Sciences, London 1837. 2 Thomas Campbell Eyton. " Some remarks upon the theory of Hybridity ", Mag. Nat. Hist., 1837, vol. 1, p. 357. 3 Richard Owen. " On the anatomy of the Southern Apteryx {Apteryx australis , Shaw)." Communicated 10th April 1838. Trans. Zool. Soc. Lond., vol. 2, 1836-1841, p. 257. On page 189 : — " The close resemblance of the Bird to the Reptile in its skeleton is well exemplified in the young Ostrich, ... " 4 Isaac Disraeli. Curiosities of Literature. 6 cf. Darwin's Sketch of 1842 and his Essay of 1844 ; in Evolution by Natural Selection with a Foreword by Sir Gavin de Beer, Cambridge 1958, pp. 83 and 249. ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES 133 a distinct species — We know how long a mammal may go on as one species from Egyptian mummies & from the existing animals found fossil when Europe must have worn a quite different figure. 19th [Aug.] With respect to the Deluge, it may be worth adding in note that amongst the Mammalia of Europe the shells of ditto — shells of N. America — shells of S. America, — there is no appearance of sudden termination of existence, — nor is there in the Tertiary geological epochs. — | 40 There are some admirable tables on geograph distribution of reptiles in Suites de Buff on. 1 — Vigors 2 has given list in Linnean Transactions of birds of Java — Caterpillars not being fertile is same as children not being so. — consider this with reference to " new species & hybrid doctrine ". — I have read there are exceptions to this in some larvae of insects. (Pglowworm) breeding — imago state fertile at once. — Consider this with reference to those insects which have fertile offspring. Entomo- straca & Aphides. | 41 The extreme difference of sexes is probably arrived at wing case of insects as glowworm. The case of one impregnation sufficing to several births analogous to superfoetation, & the successive fertile offspring in Entomostraca & Aphides. Developement of sexes in caterpillars, very valuable facts — they are eating foetuses, as young of Marsup. is sucking foetus. — August 23rd The Rev. R. Jones 3 gave an admirable harrier from Ireland to Brighton 42 Pack — first rate bitch — tried to breed from her, but | her offspring came out one big & one small. Now Jones, before this happened from her looks thought she was half bred Beagle & Staghound. the grandchildren went back to either parent & breed not fixed, though she resembled a harrier & her husband was pure harrier. Three gentlemen of parts all thought with pigs &c, that hybrids were uncertain. The peculiarities of our breeds must have been acquired, & hence this is true case of avitism. Mr Drinkwater 4 thought that a " first blood " animal must have gone on for many years, before deserves to be so called, — the short horned cattle have gone on for 43 50 or 70? years, — now well fixed breed : Jones 5 says Sussex cattle | were all white headed, but this was bred out & now all are pure red, yet calf every now & then born with white head (or short-horned with black lip) & then calf in both cases is killed. Notes from Glen Roy Note Book. 6 Why is not Tetrao Scoticus an American form (if so)?. — F. M. Daudin. Histoire naturelle, generate et particuliere des reptiles ; ouvrage faisant suite aux Oeuvres de Leclerc de Buff on. Paris an XII [1805]. 2 Nicolas Aylward Vigors [& Thomas Horsfield.] " A description of the Australian birds in the collection of the Linnean Society ; with an Attempt at arranging them according to their natural Affinities." Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond. vol. 15 Part 2, 1837, p. 170. This paper contains no list of Javanese birds, but on p. 331 there is a statement that " These two species very closely accord with the Javanese species of Pomatorhinus , P. montanus, described in these Transactions." 3 Rev. R. Jones. Unidentified. 4 Drinkwater. Unidentified. 5 Rev. R. Jones. Idem. 6 Darwin visited Glen Roy at the end of June and beginning of July 1838. (" Darwin s Journal ", edited by Sir Gavin de Beer, Brit. Mus. (Nat. Hist.), Historical Series, vol. 2, London 1959, p. 8.) 134 DARWIN'S THIRD NOTEBOOK A Shepherd of Glen Timet said he learnt to know lambs, because in their faces they were most like their mothers, believe this resemblance general. ? depend upon mother being oldest breed? — Quarterly Journal of Agriculture 1 p. 367, Dec. 1837. Generally received. | 44 Opinion that male impresses offspring more than female, yet instances given on opposite side. — The theory of males impressing most is in harmony with their wars & rivalry. — The very many breeds of animals in Britain shows, with the aid of seclusion in breeding how easy races or varieties are made. — The Highland Shepherd dogs coloured like Magellanic Fox, — peculiar hair & appearance — good case of Provincial Breed — Highland Sheep jet black legs, & face & tail, just like spencer 2 [?] high active breeding | 45-48 excised. 49 LTnstitut 3 p. 249 (1838). Eggs discovered to Taenia, — hard so as to resist external influence. 27th August. There must be some law that whatever organization an animal has, it tends to multiply & improve on it. — Articulate animals must articulate, & in vertebrate tendency to improve in intellect, — if generation is condensation of change, then animals must tend to improve. ■ — Yet fish same as, or lower than in old days : for a very old variety will be harder to vary & therefore more apt to be extinguished. — ??? Mayo 4 (Philosoph. of Living) quotes Whewell 5 as profound because he says length of days adapted to duration of sleep of man!!! whole universe so adapted!!! & not man to Planets. — instance of arrogance!! | 50 August 29th. — Macleay 6 in A. Smith Zoolog. — of Africa. — 1 Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, Edinburgh 1837, vol. 8, p. 367 : — " . . . According to the gener- ally received opinion, that the male imprints his characters more indelibly than the female on the progeny, there may be a risk of breeding from too large a horse for the usual purposes of the farm ; but, on the other hand, it is frequently seen that small stallions and bulls produce large stock. ... " Probably by one of the editors. 2 Lord Spencer. Journ. Roy. Agr. Soc, vol. 1, p. 24 : — " It is therefore very desirable, before any man commences to breed either cattle or sheep, that he should make up his mind to the shape and qualities he wishes to obtain, and steadily pursue this object." cf. Variation of Animals and Plants under Domesti- cation, London 1868, vol. 2, p. 195. 3 Felix Dujardin. L'Institut, 1838, 2 aout, p. 249 : — " ... les oeufs de Taenia proteges par une coque tres r^sistante peuvent register aux causes ext^rieures de destruction . . . 4 Herbert Mayo. The Philosophy of Living, London 1838, p. 136, Chapter III, " Of Sleep ". 5 William "Whewell. " The Length of the Day ", The Bridgewater Treatises on the Power Wisdom and Goodness of God as manifested in the Creation, Treatise III, On Astronomy and General Physics, p. 38. On p. 39: — " . . . Man, in like manner, in all nations and ages, takes his principal rest once in twenty- four hours ; and the regularity of this practice seems most suitable to his health, though the duration of the time allotted to repose is extremely different in different cases. So far as we can judge, this period is of a length beneficial to the human frame, independent of the effect of external agents. In the voyages recently made into the high northern latitudes, where the sun did not rise for three months, the crews of ships were made to adhere, with the utmost punctuality to the habit of retiring to rest at nine, and rising a quarter before six ; and they enjoyed, under circumstances apparently the most trying, a state of salubrity quite remarkable. This shows, that according to the common constitution of such men, the cycle of twenty-four hours is very commodious, though not imposed on them by external circumstances. " The hours of food and repose are capable of such wide modifications in animals, and above all in man, by the influence of external stimulants and internal emotions, that it is not easy to distinguish what portion of the tendency to such alterations depends on original constitution. . . . 6 William Sharp Macleay. " Annulosa " in Andrew Smith : Illustrations of the Zoology of South Africa ; . . . London, 1838. ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES 135 p. 4. sticks 1 to genus or group of any kind not being perfect till circular. p. 5 Most clearly shows 2 that genus expresses as now used almost any group. — all groups natural (p. 6) as expressing natural affinities. Macleays plan of arrange- ment depends on the organs judged to be of importance in inverse ratio to their variability. — (Now ceteris paribus these will be the oldest.) "The most important characters break down in certain species & become worthless 3 " — Mammalia Edentata. We do (p. 6) say 4 such is group because it has such characters of importance, " but we say such happens to be the character, of no matter of what importance, which prevails throughout the group & serves to insulate it ". — i.e. what characters | 51 chance to be hereditary whether important or not. p. 7. " The natural arrangement of animals themselves is the question in point ". 5 Now what is natural arrangement, — affinities, what is that, amount of resemblance, — how can we estimate this amount, when no scale of value of difference is or can be settled. — I believe affinity may be taken literally, though how far we can ever discover the real relationship is doubtful, — not till much knowledge is elicited. — It will rest upon the discovery what characters vary most easily, — those which do not vary being foundation for chief divisions. — p. 7. In some cases the circular arrangement from fewness of forms, cannot be discovered untill we descend to subgenera & families, 6 in the Cetoniadae, — when will Ornithorhynchus come in circle?!!! | 52 p. 8 — Anomalous structures, as in Hippo[po]tamus, solely owing to number of lost links, if all species know[n] they would be innumerable 7 — does not know any difference between permanent variety & species !! 8 (given in note) — Macleay uses term genus when it is so many steps from a head as subkingdom — evidently artificial, as interlopement of marsupials will change all, — & so on no one will settle number 1 Ibid. p. 4 ; — " Omnis sectio naturalis circulum, per se ciausum exhibet." 2 Ibid. p. 5 : — " . . . has the word genus any signification which is universally deemed definite? " 3 Ibid. p. 6 : — " . . . the most important characters break down in certain species, and become at times perfectly worthless ... " 4 Ibid. pp. 6-7 : — " . . . We do not argue that such must be the groupe, because such and such are in our opinion, good and distinct characters ; but we say, such happens to be the character, of no matter what importance, which prevails throughout the groupe, and which serves in some degree to insulate it from other groupes. ... " 8 Ibid. p. 7 : — " . . . we ought not to forget that the true question under consideration is, the natural arrangement of the animals themselves ; ... " 6 Ibid. p. 7 : — " . . . for owing to the rarity of its species, the first circular grouping of the species Cryptodinus , for instance, is into sub-genera ; ... " 7 Ibid. p. 8 :- — •" Thus, when the naturalist talks of any anomalous structure, I understand merely that so many links, that is so many groupes, of the great plan of creation are wanting, ... If I say that the Hippopotamus forms a stirps by itself, I only mean that it is the sole species of its stirps known ; and that, speaking theoretically, four families are wanting, ... or rather twenty-four genera to connect it well with other tribes of Pachyderms ... " 8 Ibid. p. 8 footnote : — " Some persons have imagined that I only assign five species to the lowest groupe in nature ; but the above theory evidently proceeds on the assumption that if we knew all the species of the creation, their number would be infinite, or in other words, that they would pass into each other by infinitely small differences. This actually takes place sometimes in nature ; and as yet I do not know any good distinction between a species and what is called ' a permanent variety '." cf. William Herbert : Amaryllidaceae , London 1837, p. 29 : — " That in some genera intermediate diversities from different localities so confound the limits of species that it is waste of words to argue whether a plant is a species or a permanent local variety ; ... " i 3 6 DARWIN'S THIRD NOTEBOOK of primary divisions. — Complains 1 (p. 53) of M. Edwardes 2 thinking any group good, though not circular, if characters can be established — clearly so. — N.B. — This paper worth referring to again. — According to my theory, every species in any subgenus will be descended from one stock, & that stock with other subgenera | 53-56 excised. 57 Foetus of man undergoes metamorphosis, heart altered & umbilical cord. — Broderip 3 alluded to Hunter's views 4 on this subject. — Monstrosities kind of deter- mined by age of foetus. — As Larva may be more perfect (as we use the word) than parent, so may species retrograde, but these facts are rare. — 2 d Sept. Those animals which have many abortive organs might be expected to have larva more perfect — this is applicable to young of Cochineal ??. | 58 Is there some law in nature an animal may acquire organs, but lose them with more difficulty — contradicted by abortive organs but number of species with abortive organs of any kind few, — hence become extinct, & hence the improvements of every type of organization. Such law would explain every thing. — Pure hypothesis be careful. — Argument for circularity of groups. When a group of species is made, father prob- ably will be dead — hence there is no central radiating point, all united, (like an uncle must be granted unequal, because fossil) now what is group without centre 59 but circle, two or three | lines deep — with respect to Macleay's 5 theory of analogies — when it is considered the tree of life must be erect not pressed on paper, to study the corresponding points. The present geographical distribution of animals countenances the belief of their extreme antiquity (i.e. much intervening physical change) — distribution especially of Mammalia. As every organ is modified by use, every abortive organ must have been once changed. — What is abortive? when it does not perform that function which experience shows us it was for. — Most important law. — Penguins wing perhaps not abortive ??? Apteryx certainly. — | 60 Lyell's 6 excellent view of geology of each formation being merely a page torn out of a history & the geologist being obliged to fill up the gaps, — is possibly the 1 Ibid. p. 53 : — " M. Milne Edwards . . . produced a classification, of which I can only say, that it makes an approach to be a rare exception to the well-known fact, that professed comparative anatomists are the persons, of all others, who in general are most incapable of using their own observations for purposes of natural arrangement. And indeed this very arrangement of Edwards is not natural, since he unfortunate- ly conceives that every groupe he can invent, provided he can furnish it with a character, must therefore be a good one." 2 Henri Milne Edwards. Histoire naturelle des Crustaccs, Paris 1834-40, vols. 3 & Atlas (forming one of Roret's " Collection des Suites a Buffon "). 3 William John Broderip. Presumably personal communication. 4 John Hunter in Richard Owen : Descriptive and Illustrated Catalogue of the physiological series Oj Comparative Anatomy contained in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons in London, London 1833, vol. 1, p. iv, footnote : " I should imagine that monsters were formed monsters at the very first formation, for this reason, that all supernumerary parts are joined by their similar parts, viz. a head to a head &c. &c.' Hunterian MSS." s William Sharp Macleay. Horae Entomologicae, London 1819-21, p. 391. 6 Charles Lyell. Elements of Geology, London 1838, p. 272 : — " ... of a series of sedimentary formations, they are like volumes of history, in which each writer has recorded the annals of his own times, and then laid down the book, with the last written page uppermost ... " ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES 137 same with the philospher who has traced the structure of animals & plants. — He get[s] merely a few pages. Hence (p. 59) looking at animal, if there be many others somewhat allied whether like parent stock, or not, now wings for flight — therefore ostrich not. The peculiar Malacca bears belong to same section with those of India. | 61-64 excised. 65 man have carries the range — Argue the case of probability, has Creator made rat for Ascension — The Galapagos mouse probably transported like the New Zealand one — It should be observed with what facility mice attach themselves to man. Sept 7th. I was struck looking at the Indian cattle with Bump, together with Bison of some resemblance as if the " variation in one was analogous to specific character of other species in genus ". — Is there any law of this. Do any varieties 66 of sheep evidently artificial approach | in character to goats, — or dogs to foxes 1 (yes Australian dog) or donkeys to zebras. — Mr. Herberts variety of horse, dun coloured with stripe approaches to ass, or fowls to the several aboriginal species or ducks (here argue if it be said domestic fowls are descended from several stock[s] then species are fertile ; as long as opponents are 2 not able to tie themselves down, they can find loopholes) " It is well worthy of examination whether variations are produced only in those characters which are seen to be different in species of same genus ". 67 Law of monstrosity not prospective, but retrospective in showing | what organs are little fixed — (Hunters 3 law of monstrosity with regard to age of foetus distinct consideration) . Now in different species of genus Sus, see Cuvier 4 Ossemens fossiles, do vertebrae vary ? Although no new fact be elicited by these speculations even if partly true they are of the greatest service towards the end of science, namely prediction, till facts are grouped & called there can be no prediction. — The only advantage of discovering laws is to foretell what will happen & to see bearing of scattered facts. — | 68 What takes place in the formation of a bud — the very same must take place in copulation — (man & woman separate parts of same plant) — now in some Polypi we see young bud changing into ovules. — Captain Grants 5 Himalaya shells (see Paper in Geolog Transact) same appearance with secondary species distinct but close. — Mem. Von Buch 6 on Cordillera fossils same remark. ? Was then formerly one great sea, & two Polar Continents. Marsupial, Edentata, Pachydermata &c. &c. — | 1 William Herbert. A mary llidaceae, London 1837. On p. 339 : — " . . . I have lately had under my observation a dog, whose father was a fox in an innyard at Ripon, and it has singularly the manner as well as the voice of a fox, but it is the parent of many families of puppies : and I feel satisfied that the fox and the dog are of one origin, and suspect the wolf and jackall to be of the same ; nor could I ever contemplate the black line down the back of a dun pony without entertaining a suspicion that the horse, unknown in a wild state except where it has escaped from domesticity, may be a magnificent improvement of the wild ass in the very earliest age of the world : ... " 2 Altered in MS. from "will not tie themselves down." 3 John Hunter in Richard Owen : Descriptive and Illustrated Catalogue of the physiological series of Comparative Anatomy contained in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons in London, London 1833, vol. 1, p. iv, footnote. See above, footnote to MS. p. 57. 4 Georges Cuvier. Recherches sur les Ossemens Fossiles des Quadrupedes, . . . Paris 1812. 5 Captain C. W. Grant. Presumably " Memoirs to illustrate a geological map of Cutch ", read 22nd February 1837, Trans. Geol. Soc. Lond., 1840, vol. 4, p. 289. 6 Leopold von Buch. " Ueber den zoologischen Charakter der Secundar-Formationen in Siid Amerika ", Monatssch. K. pr. Akad. Wissensch., Berlin, 1838, p. 54. {Gesammelte Schriften, Berlin 1885, Band 4, p. 497. 138 DARWIN'S THIRD NOTEBOOK 69 It is important with respect to extinction of species, the capability of only small amount of change at any one time. Seeing what Von Buch 1 (Humboldt) 2 G. St. Hilaire, 3 & Lamarck 4 have written I pretend to no originality of idea — (though I arrived at them quite independently & have used them since) the line of proof & reducing facts to law only merit if merit there be in following work. — The history of medicine, the extraordinary effects of different medium on organs leads one to suspect any amount of change from eating different kinds of food. Grazing animals which eat every species new. — I 70 Sept. 8th A Golden Pippin or Ribstone ditto producing occasionally (as Fox 5 says) same fruit trees is analogous to some hybrids breeding — there is tendency to reproduce in each case, but something prevents the completion. — Say my grandfathers 6 expression of generation] being highest end of organization good expression but does not include so many facts as mine. | 71 The facts about half bred animals being wilder than parents is very curious as pointing out difference between acquired & hereditary tameness. — In comparing my theory with any other, it should be observed not what comparative difficulties (as long as not overwhelming) [but] what comparative solutions & linking of facts. Savages over whole world (Major Mitchell 7 p. 244, vol. I) spit & throw dust. According to my theory of generation (p. 175) of 8 | 72 YarrelP told me he had just heard of Black game & Ptarmigan having crossed in wild state — & the English & some African Dove. — The extinction of the S. American quadrupeds is difficulty on any theory — without God is supposed to create & destroy without rule. But what does he in this world without rule ? The destruction of the great Mammals over whole world shows there is rule. — S. America & Australia appear to have suffered most with respect to extinction of larger forms. — From observing way the Marsupials of Australia have branched out into orders one is strongly tempted to believe one or two were landed I 73-74 excised. 1 Leopold von Buch. Description physique des ties Canaries, Paris, 1836, p. 144. (cf. Darwin's First Notebook MS. p. 156) ; Ibid. p. 148, (cf. Darwin's First Notebook MS. p. 158). 2 Friedrich Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt. Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of the New Continent, during the years 1799-1804, London 1821, vol. 5, p. 565. (cf. Darwin's First Note- book MS. p. 142). Ejusdem. De Distributione geographica plantarum secundum coeli temperiem et altitudinem montium, prolegomena. Lutetiae Parisiorum 1817 (cf. Darwin's First Notebook MS. p. 156). 3 Etienne Geoff roy-Saint-Hilaire. Principes de philosophie zoologique, Paris 1830. (cf. Darwin's First Notebook MS. passim.) 4 Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck. Philosophie Zoologique, Paris 1809. Histoire naturelle des animaux sans vertebres, 1815, Paris (cf. Darwin's First Notebook passim.). Ejusdem. Hydrogeologie , ou recherches sur Vinfluence generate des eaux sur la surface du globe terrestre, sur les causes de I'existence du bassin des mers, de son deplacement , de son transport successif sur les diffcrents points de ce globe, enfin sur les changements que les corps organises vivants exercent sur la nature et I'etat de cette surface, Paris 1802. (cf. Darwin's Second Notebook MS. p. 119.) 5 William Darwin Fox. Probably personal communication. 6 Erasmus Darwin. Zoonomia, vol. I, London 1794, Section XXXIX. 7 Thomas Livingstone Mitchell. Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia, . . . London 1838, vol. 1, pp. 244, 245. 8 These words were crossed out in MS.; they refer to MS. p. 175 below. » William Yarrell. Personal communication. ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES 139 75 Mitchell 1 Australia vol. I, p. 306 " The crows were amazingly bold, always accom- panying us from camp to camp ; it was absolutely necessary to watch our meat, while in kettles on the fire, & on one occasion, not withstanding our vigilance a piece of pork 3 lb was taken from a boiling pot, & carried off by one of these birds ". Case of birds of different family having very same habits in some respects as the Cara cara. | 76 Sept. 9th It is worthy of observation that in insects where one of the sexes is little developed, it is always female which approaches in character to the larva, or less developed state. — The female & young of all birds resemble each other in plumage. — (That is where the female differs from the male?) children & women — " women recognized inferior intellectually ". Opposed to these facts are effects of castration on males & of age or castration in females. — | 77-90 excised. 91 This keeper has seen when sickly tigers have first come over, insects somewhat like between lice & fleas, sticking on them, — but never in an animal, that had long been in confinement — is this effect of climate, or state in which they are kept ? — Is there any mistake about Yarrell's law, 2 is it local (not artificial variation) which impresses offspring most & not time thinking of the Penguin duck & Herbert's law of ideosyncracy 3 . | 92 I have hitherto thought that a small difference of any kind, if very firmly fixed from long time, made no difference what its kind was, — but if it were opposed to the difference in other sex, it would be much more difficult to propagate — as if one bird had very bright red breast & other very bright blue, it might be harder for | 93 both parents to transmit their peculiarities, that if both had mottled breasts, of a sort that would allow the offspring to have some different kind of mottle, each feather partaking of character of other, — the most aquatic & most terrestrial species, might be harder to cross than two less opposed in habits, though externally similar. — this 94 however is a sophism for | their brain or stomach would be different. — Or if one species left its type in having very long legs, & another in having very long tail, & other in having very short tail. — I can readily see that two first might cross easier than two last. | 95-98 excised. 99 September 13th. The passion of the doe to the victorious stag, who rubs the skin of [f] horns to fight, is analogous to the love of women (as Mitchell remarks 4 seen in savages) to brave men. — Effect of castration horns drop off, replaced by hairy ones, which never dry up & peal off their skin (not being wanted for war) & hence never fall off. Curious the rapidity of the change in 5 or 6 weeks after castration, fresh horns begin to grow. 1 Thomas Livingstone Mitchell, op. cit., vol. 1, p. 306. 2 William Yarrell. cf. Darwin's Second Notebook on Transmutation of Species, MS. pp. 1 & 121 (The supposition that the oldest variety has the greatest effect on offspring when crossed) . 3 William Herbert. Amaryllidaceae, London 1837. On p. 343 : — " In further confirmation of the fact that the sterility depends on constitutional discrepancy, or difference of what medical men call idiosyn- crasy, ..." 4 Thomas Livingstone Mitchell, op. cit., vol. i, p. 304 : — " . . . the gins have it in their power on such occasions to evince that universal characteristic of the fair, a partiality for the brave." i 4 o DARWIN'S THIRD NOTEBOOK — Mr Yarrell 1 says the male Axis of India, breeds at times when horns not perfect — (is not this so in S. America with C. campestris, refer to my notes) & Mr Yarrell supposes this a consequence of that female breeding all the year round. Ask Colonel Sykes 2 . | ioo Even our domesticated cattle have tendency to breed at particular times. Mr Yarrell has old book 1765 ? Treatise on Domestic Pidgeon, 3 in which it appears that all the varieties now known were then existing. — he has also some very fine recent drawing of prize pidgeons in 1834. — now this would be most curious to show that in sixty years (how many generations) the strangest peculiarities have been kept perfect — also to trace the laws of change in this time. — The impossibility of discover- ing their origin. — I see onry some, but very strange races of them have the forked black mark of the Rock Pidgeon, — several have a group | 101-106 excised. 107 which it must have taken to separate Van Diemens Land from Australia &c. &c. September 14th. When Macleay 4 says there is no difference between " permanent varieties ' ' & species, he overlooks those restricted in their range by man & by art — the former only giving average of effects of country (& no monstrosity or adaptations to unhealthy state of womb). — One can perceive that natural varieties or species, all the structure of which is adaptation to habits (& habit second nature) may be more in constitutional, — more conformable to the structure which has been adapted to former changes than a mere monstrosity propagated by art. | 108 Yarrell 5 told me of a cat & of a dog born without front legs — the former of which had kittens with imperfect ones, — now Sir J. Sebright 6 thought if he had had a pair he could have produced from them — this instance of monstrous variety which could not have been persistent in nature. — According to my view, the domesticated animals would cease being fertile inter se, or at least show repugnance to breeding if instincts unchanged, & if their characteristic qualities were all deeply imbued in them from long permanence, so that all their peculiarities must be transmitted if their | 109-110 excised. in every case common to many good species, & therefore to genera (& the uncles & aunts) & therefore does not tell against transmutation of species . — will it against genera. — How long will the wretched inhabitants of N.W. Australia go on blinking their eyes without extermination, & change of structure. — When will the mosquitoes of S. America take an effect — would perfect impunity from moskitoes bite influence propagation of species. — 1 William Yarrell. Personal communication. 2 Col. William Henry Sykes, author of the " Catalogue of Mammalia of Dukhan ", Proc. Zool. Soc. Land., 1831, vol. 1, p. 95 : — cf. Variation of Plants and Animals under Domestication, 1868, vol. 1, p. 62. 3 The book referred to is probably A Treatise on Domestic Pigeons, comprehending all the different species known in England ... to which is added a ... description of that celebrated . . . pigeon called the Almond Tumbler, London 1765. 4 William Sharp Macleay. " Annulosa " in A. Smith : Illustrations of the Zoology of South Africa, London 1838, p. 8, footnote, (cf. footnote to MS. p. 52 above.) 5 William Yarrell. Personal communication. 6 Sir John Sebright. Probably personal communication. ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES 141 Case of association very disagreeable hearing maid servant cleaning door outside as often as she touched handle, though really fully aware she was not coming in, — could not help being perfectly disturbed, referred to Book M. 1 | 112 Is there any law of variation (as Hunter 2 supposes with monsters) — if armless cat can propagate, i.e. with the chance of two being born at same time, & make breed, one would doubt any law. — yet seeing the feathers along one toe of the Pouter one thinks there is a law, — that there must have been a tendency for feathers to grow there. That mutilations will not alter form may be inferred from Australian knocking out teeth. — The account of the people on the N.W. Coast blinking to keep out flies might be used. The wild ass has no cross, how comes it that the tame donkey has. Old Buffon 3 should be read on mare. My view why hybrids are infertile, supposes that when foetus is forming the ovum within it is forming & this must be so else avitism could hardly ever occur. — and if that cannot be formed, generat. organ by that co-relation of parts will not be produced. — | 113-114 excised. 115 p. 482 (same book, Hunter Animal Economy) Owen says 4 " the necessity of combin- ing observation of the living habits of animals, with anatomical & zoological research, in order to establish entirely their place in nature, as well as fully to understand their oeconomy, is now universally admitted ". — p. 483 Owen 5 thinks from climate of Australia & from Ornithorhynchus & Hydromys not being Marsupial (but also mice) & there being water animals these structures " may have reference to the great distances which the mammalia of N.S. Wales are generally compelled to traverse in order to quench their thirst " — But New GuineaW S. America. — Such difficulties will always occur if animals are thought to have been created. — it might as well be attempted to be shown from peculiarities of climate cause of N. Zealand not having any Mammalia. — Type of geographical organization. No more can be said | 116 In paper on bees in same work it is said 6 that some kinds lay up honey even for single rainy day — & from case of wasps is supposed cells properly are made for larvae. — (p. 451) — Wasps breed many females, but almost all die — bees breed but few, because they are kept in security. — Hunter doubts about production of Queens. — Neuters are bred first, then males — how has this been arranged — Neuters are true female, but with parts little developed. — Sept. 19th There is no scale according to importance of divisions in arrangement, 117 of the perfection of | their separation. — Thus Vertebrata blend with Annelida by some fish. — But birds quite distinct. — 1 The reference is to Darwin's First Notebook on Metaphysics, Morals and Expression. 2 John Hunter in Richard Owen : Descriptive and Illustrated Catalogue of the physiological series of Comparative Anatomy contained in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons in London, London 1833, vol. 1, p. iv. 3 Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon. Histoire naturelle. Quadrupedes, Paris. 4 Richard Owen in John Hunter : Observations on certain parts cf the Animal Oeconomy with Notes by Richard Owen, London 1837, p. 482, footnote 1. 5 Richard Owen in John Hunter. Ibid, p. 483, footnote. 6 John Hunter. Ibid, p. 451, " On the number of Queens in a hive ". 142 DARWIN'S THIRD NOTEBOOK Collect cases of difficulty of growing plants in all parts of world, thus tea trees in Brazil must have degenerated, as must spices &c &c. The line of argument often pursued throughout my theory is to establish a point as a probability by induction, & to apply it as hypotheses to other points, & see whether it will solve them. — | 118 It is less wonderful that childs nervous system should build up its body like its parent than that it should be provided with many contingencies how to act. — So with the mind the simplest transmission is direct instinct & afterwards enlarged powers to meet with contingency. — Sept. 23rd. Saw in Loddiges 1 garden 1279 varieties of roses!!! proof of capability of variation. • — Saw his collection of Humming birds, saw several greatly developed tails & one with beak turned up like Avocette. here is what | 1 19-126 excised. 127 that it shall beget young different in colour, form, & so altered in disposition as to be more easily trained up to the offices " &c. &c. Owen illustrates 2 case of Dingo (he alludes to the Dholes or wild dogs of India) in Zoolog. Garden having coloured offspring — but surely in all these cases an unseen change is produced in parent — colour is a doubtful subject, but what other instances are there of such changes, not acquired by parent, being handed down ? | 128 Are not Loddiges 3 1279 roses kept in same soil, same atmosphere ? — may they not be transplanted ?, & yet year after year, successive roses & bud are produced, like parent stock or if different deteriorating very slowly. — I presume most of these roses, without circumstances very unfavourable, will continue of same variety as long as life lasts, yet they cannot transmit through seeds these characters though transmitting them with such facility to bud. — This must be owing to their unity 129 in one stem. — | A bud may be transplanted & carry all these peculiarities — not so a seed. — Bud probably is like cutting off tail of Planaria, claw added to crab, tail to lizard, healing of wound. — reproductive faculty simplest forms of budding. Why does Gecko produce always different tail ? The whole grown to that part — in the separated part every element of the living body is present, in generation something is added from one part of the body, (or of other similar, body) to another part of body. — (in plants does not whole individual change into generative organs?) it is of no consequence if it does — Do plants loose any qualities by being buds — more than if whole branch transplanted ? | 130 An individual bud may be thus produced from the growth of one part, (not strictly new individual) or he may [be] produced by having undergone the endless changes which its parents have, — not this is effected by short method in generation. — 1 Conrad Loddiges. Catalogue of Plants in the Collection of Conrad Loddiges & Sons, Nurserymen at Hackney near London. 13th edit. London 1823, p. 33 gives Rosa fl. simpl. 1205 ; 15th edit. London 1830, p. 57 gives Rosa fl. simpl. 1470. Presumably Darwin worked from the 14th edition. 2 Richard Owen in John Hunter. Op. cit., p. 330, footnote : — " The existence of wild dogs which are not wolves, as the Dingo of Australia and the Dhole of India, which have either lost or have never acquired the common character of domestication, variety of colour, it is itself a strong argument against the original of the domestic dog ever having been a wolf." 3 Conrad Loddiges. op. cit. ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES 143 Ehrenberg 1 considers artificial division of animals as gemmation. I consider gemmation as artificial division. — On this view each particle of animal must have structure of whole comprehended in itself, — it must have the knowledge how to grow & therefore to repair wounds • — but this has nothing to do with generation. Why crab can produce claw but man not arm, hard to say. — | 131 if it were possible to support the arm of man, 2 when cut off, it would produce another man. — That the embryo the thousandth of inch should produce a Newton is often thought wonderful, it is part of same class of facts, that the skin grows over a wound. — Does likeness of twin bear on the subject ? A mans arm would produce arm if supported, & in making true bud some such process is effected, — a child might be so born, but it would be very different from true generation, — there is no caterpillar state : the vast difference of two kinds of genera- tion shown by their happening in same plant. — I 132 The Marsupial structure shows that they became Mammalia, through a different series of changes from the placentalia. Having hair like true Mammalia, no more wonderful than Echidna & hedgehog having spines. — Does not male pidgeon (yes surely) secrete milk ? from stomach, analogous to other males feeding young, & to abortive mammae in male Mammalia — Pis not this argument for mammalia recent creation. — why what tendency can there be for abortive organ ever disappearing ?? — Have Marsupiata abortive mammae ? — My view would make every individual a spontaneous generation : what is animalcular semen but this — the living nerve massed in mould. — | 133-136 excised. 137 it, & made it meet in front. — Dr Smith 3 every baboon & monkey, big & little that ever he saw knew women. — he has repeatedly seen them try to pull up petti- coats, & if women not afraid, clasp them round waist & look into their faces & make the st. st noise. — The cercopithecus chinensis? (or bonnet faced) monkey he has seen do this. — These monkey[s] had no curiosity to pull up trousers of men. Evidently knew women, thinks perhaps by smell, — but monkeys examine sexes of every [animal]. | 138 Has repeatedly seen one he kept pull up feathers of tail of Hen, which lived with it, — also of dogs but did not seem to evince more lewdness for bitch than dog : monkeys thus examine each other sexes by taking up tail. — Mem.: Ourang Jerry with Tommy. — Good evidence of knowledge of woman. — The noise st st which the C[ercopithecus] sphingiola makes is also made by the C. porcarius, together with a grunting noise, the former signifies recognition with 139 pleasure, as when food is offered, as much as to | say give me — the other when Dr Smith more distant. — But he thinks other monkeys make st. — noise. In case of woman instinctive desire may be said more definite than with bitch, for some 1 Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg. Athenaeum, 1838, 8th Sept. p. 653. (8th Meeting of the Brit. Assoc. Adv. Sci., Section Zool.) " ... believes that process of multiplication by division to be merely the development of a gemma or bud ... " 2 Darwin is using the expression " to support the arm of a man " in the sense of keeping it supplied with its physiological requirements. An anticipation of tissue culture by 70 years. 3 Dr. Andrew Smith. Personal communication. i 4 4 DARWIN'S THIRD NOTEBOOK feeling must urge them to these actions. These facts may be turned to ridicule, or may be thought disgusting, but to philosophic naturalist pregnant with interest. Hyaena, thinks, when pleased cocks his ears, when frightened depresses them. England was united to Continent when elephants lived, & when present animals lived — we know the great time necessary to form channel & (& Basses St.) yet no change in English species — time no element in making change, only in fixing it : only circumstances a contingency of time. | 140 When we multiply the effects of earthquakes 1 , elevating forces in raising continents, & forming mountain-chains, when we estimate the matter removed by the waves of the sea, on beaches, we really measure the rapidity of change of forms, & instincts in the animal kingdom. — It is the unit of our calendar — epochs & creations reduce themselves to the revolutions of one system in the Heavens. — Is not puma same colour as lion because inhabitant of plain & Jaguar of woods &c like ground birds. | 141-152- excised. 153 If an animal breeds young her growth is immediately checked — the vis formativa goes entirely to the offspring — This is clearly the converse of animal being rendered inessential, the hardness of life in female moth &c. Mr Y. 2 says that Macleay considers the house bug, as a female which has larvae which have bred before the vis formativa had completed them — (but the argument is very weak without knowing whether if kept they would have wings. — ). — Says p. 84. Hens like Cocks from effect of heredity in & in. — Mr Yarrell does not know 154 of any case of old male becoming like female, though many | of old female becoming like cocks. — It is very singular so many Gallinaceous birds have cock & hen plumage so different, yet the Cassowary & Guinea fowl cannot be distinguished. — A capon will sit upon eggs as well as & often better than a female. — this is full of interest, for it shows latent instincts even in brain of male. — Every animal surely is hermaphrodite — (as is seen in plumage of hybrid birds) | 155 After animal has copulated, though no offspring, milk sometimes comes in mammae, & even when bitch is in heat. — Yarrell believes gestation is always some multiple of seven — if woman does not menstruate in the month, she will in 5 weeks. — A Bull is never taken from his own field to bull a cow. — A dog if led in string will not. — Some of the tigers — cat, though caterwhalling & put into female when muzzled, he is disabled. — so elephant in confinement, & so imagination in man, has strange effect. — | 156 Directly a capon is cut, it increases in size prodigiously — Animal Oeconomy by Hunter (edited by Owen) p. 34, — Owen 3 classifies Herm- aphrodites Cryptandrous (only female organs visible) Oyster, Cystic Entozoa, Echinoderms, Acalephes, Polyps, Sponges. Heautandrous, male organs formed to fecundate females (as in plants) Cirrhipeds, rotifers, trematode and cestoid Entozoa. 1 This word crossed out in MS. 2 William Yarrell. Personal communication. 8 Richard Owen, in John Hunter. Observations on certain parts of the Animal Oeconomy with Notes by Richard Owen, London 1837, footnote on p. 35 (not p. 34). ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES 145 Allotriandrous Mollusca, with [rede without] pectinibranchiate order — the Annelida, all other 1 are Dioecious as Cephalopods, pectinibranciate molluscs, insects, spiders crabs — (all these however do not require coition every generation) Epizoa, the nematoid Entozoa — Therefore highness in scale has no constant relation to separation of sexes, as may 157 be I seen in Monoecious & Dioecious plants. — NB. in Heautandrous animals is there gradation of structure leading to supposition, that the Cryptandrous are really Heautandrous. — How is fecundation effected in latter ; are organs open to water ? Would not ferns according to this doctrine be considered as really cryptandrous, & they have hybrids — This is most important support to my views — Seeing sexes separate in some of the lowest tribes, leads one to suppose still more that they must in effect be so in all. — 2 NB. In Pectinibranch mollusca or Cephalopoda are there abortive traces of other sexual organs ; for if so, separation of sexes very simple — as in plants. Even in same genus some dioecious & some monoecious — (& cultivation might make one set of organs barren in one plant & not in other). Hunter p. 36 is thought by Owen 2 to ask whether a Heautandrous animal is actually split in two — keeping sexes separate. Owen says such view worthy of a Lamarckian. — Mine is much simpler. — | 158 Hunter 3 shows almost all animals subject to Hermaphroditism, — those organs which perform nearly same function in both sexes, are never double, only modified, those which perform very different, are both present in every shade of perfection. — How comes it nipples though abortive, are so plain in man, yet no trace of abortive womb, or ovarium, — or testicles in female. — the presence of both testes & ovaries in Hermaphrodite — but not of penis & clitoris, shows to my mind, that both are present in every animal, but unequally developed. — surely analogy of Molluscs & neuter bee would shew this. (Do any male animals give milk) — But this not distinctly stated by Hunter, 4 — Do testes, & ovaria when | 159-160 excised. 161 Hunters Animal Oeconomy (by Owen) 5 p. 44 Classification of Monsters (1) from preternatural situation of parts, (2) addition of parts, (3) deficiency of parts, (4) combined addition and deficiency of parts, as in Hermaphrodites, (shows my doctrine of Hermaphrodite differs from Hunter) — Hunter 6 (p. 45) observes " every species has a disposition to deviate from Nature in a manner peculiar to itself ". Each part of each species not similarly subject. — . Divides sexual marks into primary & secondary, the latter only being developed when the first become of use. Great characteristic of male greater strength — (p. 45) and that strength 7 In speaking of generation always put female first. Will not even a fruit tree or rose degenerate during its life so that successive buds 1 The word "animals " here crossed out in MS. 2 Richard Owen, in John Hunter. Ibid, p. 36 footnote c. 3 John Hunter. Ibid, " An account of the Free-Martin", p. 36. 4 John Hunter. Ibid. 5 Richard Owen in John Hunter. Ibid, p. 44 footnote. 6 John Hunter. Ibid, p. 45 " An account of an extraordinary pheasant ". 7 This sentence was crossed out by Darwin. 146 DARWIN'S THIRD NOTEBOOK do differ — any variety is not handed down but is handed down for some generations. | 162 Theory of sexes (woman makes bud, man puts primordial vivifying principle) one individual secretes two substances, although organs for the double purpose are not distinguished, (yet may be presumed from hybridity of ferns) afterwards they can be seen distinct (in dioecious plants in their abortive sexual organs?) : they then become so relates to each other as never to be able to impregnate themselves (this never happens in plants, only in subordinate manner in the plants which have male & female flowers on same stem. — ) so that Molluscous hermaphroditism takes place. — thus one organ in each becomes obliterated, & sexes as in Vertebrates take place. — . • . every man & woman is hermaphrodite : — . • . developed instincts of capon & power of assuming male plumage in females, & female plumage in castrated male. — Men giving milk — | 163 Sept. 25th Young man at Willis 1 Gt Marlborough St Hair dresser assures me he has known many cases of bitch going to mongrel, & all subsequent litters having a throw of this mongrel. — I did not ask the question. — His bitch will not take, & if she did take, probably would not be fertile, without she knows & likes him & then is actually obliged to be held, — like she wolf of Hunter 2 — there is great difference between hybrids & inter se offspring in latter being unhealthy. — young take dis- temper very readily & are subject to fits. — Males bred in & in never lose passion. (mem. so it was said little cock yet very bad losing virile powers in Zoolog Gardens & Kings at Otaheite) Last litters are considered the most valuable because smallest sized dogs, — one litter big & then second small & so [on]. — Says there is breed of 164 Fowls called everlasting layers — or Polish breed (He thinks | half pheasant, half fowls) — eggs fertile but parent bird will never sit on them. — May be just worth remembering that ovarium of women (Paper in Vol. I of Irish Royal Academy) 3 have contained perfect teeth & hair, showing foetus has gone on growing, I believe same has happened in boys bodies. Lavaters Essays on Phy[siognomy] 4 transl by Holcroft vol. I, p. 195 says children resemble parents in their bodies " It is a fact equally well known, that we observe in the temper, especially of the youngest children, a striking similarity to 165 the temper of the | father, or of the mother, or sometimes of both ". If L. can be trusted this is Lord Moretons 6 law. — " How often do we find in the sons the character, 1 Mr. Willis. Hairdresser cf. above MS. p. 24. 2 John Hunter. Ibid, " Observations tending to show that the wolf, jackal, and dog, are all of the same species ", p. 319. On p. 324 : — " I communicated to Mr. Symmons my wish that we should endeavour to prove the fact of the wolf and dog being of the same species, by having either his female or mine lined by a dog." 3 James Cleghorn. " The History of an Ovarium, wherein were found Teeth, Hair and Bones," Trans. Irish Royal Acad., 1787, vol. 1, p. 73. 4 John Caspar Lavater. The Catalogue of the Library of Charles Darwin, Cambridge 1908, lists this book as the French edition Paris 1820. In the translation by Holcroft (London 1840) on p. 369 the following words appear : — " . . . From all observations, on the resemblance between parents and children, which I have been able to make, it appears to me evident that neither the theory of Bonnet nor Buffon give any systematic explanation of the phenomena, the existence of which cannot be denied . . . some- times, [they] resemble the mother, sometimes the father, often both, and often neither ..." The edition which Darwin used has not been traced. 5 Lord Morton. " A Communication of a singular fact in Natural History ", (read November 1820), Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc, 1821, vol. cxi, p. 20. ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES 147 constitution, & most of the moral qualities of the father !! In how many daughters does the character of the mother revive! Or the character of the mother in the son, & of the father in the daughters ! " This last remark good because showing probably not education. — Cannot I find some animal with definite life & split it, & see whether it retains same length of life — like Golden Pippin trees ? How is this with buds of plants, does annual give buds. — Life may be thus prolonged, bud being formed & one part dying for great length of time. — | There is probably law of nature that any organ which is not used is absorbed. — this law acting against hereditary tendency causes abortive organs. — The origin of this law is part of the reproductive system, — of that knowledge of the part of what is good for the whole — if cut off nerves in snail 1 (Encyclop of Anat & Phys) can make a head : the other parts may surely absorb a useless member, — in fact they do it in disease & injury. — The sympathy of parts is possibly part of same general law, which makes two animals out of one | & heals piece of skin, — if the tail knows how to make a head, & Head a tail, & the half both head & tail — no wonder there should be sympathy in human frame. One of the final causes of sexes to obliterate differences, final cause of this because the great changes of nature are slow, if animals became adapted to every minute change, they would not be fitted to the slow great changes really in progress. — Annals of Natural History, 1838, p. 123. Ehrenberg 2 makes gemmation in animals very different from that of plants (though latter does sometimes occur in animals), latter the division taking place from outside inwards & in animals from inside to the outside, is this not owing simply to more importance of internal regions in animals. One invisible animalcule in four days could form 2 cubic stone, like that of Billin [Bilin] I It 3 is very singular the same difference from parental stock having been repeated several times, that it becomes fixed in blood. — Looking at ovum of mother & ovum in offspring, as similar to the several ova in mother (with only difference of time) is the above law anyways connected with the case of successive copulation impresses offspring more & more with the added difference, like Lord Moretons 4 case & Dr Andrew Smith, 5 If A.B.C.D.E. be animals : if (X) male impresses ovum in A with 1 T. Rymer Jones, " Gastropoda ", Encycl. Anat. & Phys., London 1839, vol. 2, p. 396. Regeneration of the tentacles in snails was first demonstrated by Spallanzani and published in 1768. His results were confirmed by Voltaire in the same year. (Sir Gavin de Beer. Science and the Humanities, London, 1956). 2 Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg. " Communication respecting Fossil and Recent Infusoria made to the British Association at Newcastle ", Ann. Hist. Nat., 1838 (1839), vol. 2, p. 121. On p. 123: — " ... or as many individual animalcules as contained in 2 cubic feet of the stone from the polishing slate of Bilin . This increase takes place by voluntary division ; and this is the character which separates animals from plants. It is true that the gemmation in plants, especially in very simple cells, is at times very similar to the division in animals, but this relates to the form not to the formation. A vegetable cell apparently capable of self division always becomes one, or contemporaneously many exterior warts (gems) without any change in its interior. An animal which is capable of division first doubles the inner organs, and subsequently decreases exteriorly in size. Self division proceeds from the interior towards the exterior, from the centre to the periphery ; gemmation, which also occurs in animals, proceeds from the exterior towards the interior, ... " 3 At the top of the page are the words "Generation [crossed out] v, p. 152." 4 Lord Morton' op. cit., p. 20. 8 Dr. Andrew Smith. Reference untraced. 148 DARWIN'S THIRD NOTEBOOK some peculiarity that is (B) to some degree, & likewise ovum in (B) that in (C) in lesser degree — Then when (C) unites with male (X) 1 assume that every peculiarity 169 has a tendency to descend to several generations | If A & B be two animals which have some peculiarity for first time, & if their all their offspring inherit the same peculiarity in lesser degree & theirs again in lesser degree — now if the second race both have this peculiarity strongly ; they transmit with same force as first pair, but to this tendency is added the 3rd tendency from first pair. — Now if two of third pair of same peculiarity breed they will have the same influence as first pair + tendency they inherited from second pair, + the influence they themselves inherit. Annals of Natural History 2 p. 96, vol. I. [recte II] Notice the Syngnathus or Pipe fish the male of which receives eggs in belly. — Analogous to men having mammae. — | 170 There is an analogy between caterpillars with respect to moths, & monkeys & men, — each man passes through its caterpillar state. The monkey represents this state. — When it is said, that difference between bud & seed, that latter carries with [it] stock of food, — the generalization begins low — it goes through transformation nearly independently of its parent therefore wants independent supply of food, — is real difference — but this does not apply to potato. | 171 With respect to offspring being determined by impregnation of mother — we see in a litter every possible variation from being very near mother, & some very near father. — Now if one of these staid in the womb, when it came out, it might partake of shade of fathers character. — according to this view more semen to one child, more like father. — Stuff! — | 172 How much opposed the Quagga case appears to that of 2 dog[s] begetting different puppies out of same mother. — The following views show the transmission of mutilation impossible it should be observed that transmission bears no relation to utility of change, hence hare-lips hereditary, disease, extinction. The view that man or cock pheasant &c is abortive hermaphrodite is supported by change which takes place in old age of female assuming plumage of cock, & beards growing in old women — Stags horns & testes curious instance of corelation in structure — Neuter bee having both sexes abortive fact of same tendency. — Mammae in men having given milk, testes & ovaria. — Animals in domestication (mem. elephant) not breeding — remarkable. Athenaeum 1838, p. 653. Ehrenberg 3 thinks multiplication by division in developement of gemma | 173-174 excised. 175 Why are twin[s] in man more like each other, than twins or triplets &c or in litter. Why is there some law about sexes of twins in former case. — (many monsters are really twins.) — It is absolutely necessary that some but not grc X difference (for every brother & sister are somewhat different) should be added to each individual before he can procreate, then change may be effect of differences of parents, or external circum- stances during life. — if the circumstances which must be external which induce 1 From the words "If A.B.C.D.E " to here crossed out in MS. 2 B. F. Fries. " On the genus Syngnathus ", Ann. Nat. Hist., 1838 (1839), vol. 2, p. 96. 3 Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg. Athenaeum, 1838, 8th Sept., p. 653. ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES 149 change are always of one nature species is formed, if not — the changes oscillate back- wards & forwards & are individual differences, (hence every individual is different). (All this agrees well with my view of those forms slightly favoured getting the upper hand & forming species.) — (Aphides having fertile offspring without coition or addition of differences, shows that difference need not be added each time, but after some time.) What kinds of plants are monoecious or dioecious. Very curious how this was super- induced ? (Surely all are really dioecious) only simple forms of life are monoecious. | 176 Proved facts relating to Generation. One copulation may impregnate one or many offspring, it affects the subsequent offspring, though other male may have copulated. — two animals may unite & each have offspring by same mother. — one animal will fecundate female for several births, & even produce fertile offspring. — Desire lost when male & female too closely related : this most important with regard to theory, showing generation connected with whole system, as if there was a superabundance of life like tendency to budding, which wishes to throw itself off, — as may be inferred from annual plant being prolonged till it has bred. — Offspring like both father & mother, or very close to either. — Male & female as foetus one sex ; & therefore both capable of 177 propagating, but one is rendered abortive | as far as parturition is concerned. — Gener- ation being means to propagate & perpetuate differences, (of body, mind & constitu- tion) in the end frustrated, when near relations & therefore those very close are bred into each other. — this is somehow connected. (This seems case, for by careful observing cattle can be bred in & in.) — The life of passion in hybrids perhaps con- nected with this same case (& not merely as I have stated it) it is certainly very remarkable that too much difference should produce same effect as too little, — in (latter case female often takes males but does not produce) tendency to deformity this does not happen with hybrids ? Plants must stand much breeding in & in (those which have solitary flowers) exotics brought from foreign country & so must those forms which are produced by budding only as cryptogams & hydras — (this repug- nance to breeding in & in seems connected with more developed forms). Study buds — gemmae & monocotyledonous, do those which are monocotyledons have many flowers in same spath, as they have only one bud. — | 178 Every individual foetus would reproduce its kind was it not for the necessity of some change. Without some small change in form, ideosyncrasy or disposition were added or substracted at each or in several generations, the process would be similar, to budding which is not object of generation. — therefore passions fail. — In fruit trees no doubt there is tendency to propagate the whole difference of parent tree, but it fails. Therefore crab seedlings of one apple ought to differ from those of other. — The upshot of all this is that effect of male is to impress some difference to make the bud of the woman not a butKn every respect. — Is this connected with the physical differences in almost all male animals ? If the male in the case of some generations has gained some difference from what it received (for it is probable that breeding more in would not be deleterious if the relation had come from different quarters) then it causes a secretion of something someways different from himself, for it 179 should be observed that from I the effects of breeding in, it is not merely the too i 5 o DARWIN'S THIRD NOTEBOOK close animals which will not breed, but the female at least (Pmale?) looses all appetite. — It is the comparison of each animal with its ancestors, and not its comparison of difference with other sex. The highest bred Blood hound would be infertile with highest bred of other ? breed. Therefore it is not really breeding in & in but breeding animals that have neither varied from their stock, for to breed (as Sir J. Sebright 1 urges?) one with opposed characters is by impliance to breed two which have each varied from parent stock. — The very theory of generation being the passing through whole series of forms to acquire differences, if none are added, object failed, & then by that corelation of structure, desire fails. Every individual except by incestuous marriage has acquired from father some differences v. Sykes. 2 Books to read Buffon Suites 3 &c. — Horse & cattle Library of useful Knowledge. 4 Bell's Quadrupeds. 5 | 180 Will ova of fishes & Mollusca & Frogs pass through birds stomachs & live ? In Muscovy ducks do young take most after father or mother, according as they are crossed ? & how is it with China & Common geese. How are their instincts ? Chinensis & Common pigs. — Experimentize on crossing of the several species of wild fowl of India, with our common ones in Zoolog. Gardens 6 : Buffalo, common cattle, Esquimaux (& Australian) dogs with common dogs 6 — Ask my father to look out for instances of avitism. Examine English breeds in hot houses, will they flower. Make Hybrids with moths, where fecundation can be made artificially. — | Inside back cover : Are hybrids pintail & common duck similar inter se ? Zoolog. Gardens. 6 Are the hybrids of those species which cross & are fertile heterogenous ? When bird fanciers say the throw of two varieties is uncertain do they mean they cannot tell first result, or that hybrid breed is uncertain. 6 Is there any peculiarity or variation common to any zoophyte both in succession which is not transmitted by generation ?? Is it chiefly in high bred dogs i.e. (bred in & in) that one copulation with other dogs renders subsequent progeny faulty. Does male fail in passion. — Disposition of half bred cattle at Combermere ? How is jackall & dog of Z. Gardens. 1 Sir John Sebright. Reference unbraced. 2 Col. William Henry Sykes. Reference untraced. 3 Collection des Suites a Buffon, formant avec les oeuvres de cet auleur un cours complet d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris 1834 ( or other edition). 4 William Youatt. " The Horse, with Treatise on Draught ", Library of Useful Knowledge, Farm Series, 53, 1831 ; " Treatise on British Cattle, their Breeding, Management and Diseases ", Library of Useful Knowledge, Farm Series, 51, 1834. 5 Thomas Bell. A history of British quadrupeds, including the Cetacea, London 1837. This list of books is at the top of the page and crossed out in MS. 6 This sentence is crossed out in MS. PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY ADLABD AND SON, LIMITED BARTHOLOMEW PRESS, DORKING 0. n . s\ .1/. DARWIN'S NOTEBOOKS ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES PART IV Edited with an Introduction and Notes by SIR GAVIN DE BEER BULLETIN OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM (NATURAL HISTORY) HISTORICAL SERIES Vol. 2 No. 5 LONDON: i960 DARWIN'S NOTEBOOKS ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES PART IV. FOURTH NOTEBOOK (OCTOBER 1838—10 JULY 1839) Edited with an Introduction and Notes BY SIR GAVIN de BEER Pp. 151-183 BULLETIN OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM (NATURAL HISTORY) HISTORICAL SERIES Vol. 2 No. 5 LONDON: i960 THE BULLETIN OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM (NATURAL HISTORY), instituted in 1949, is issued in five series, corresponding to the Departments of the Museum, and an Historical series. Parts appear at irregular intervals as they become ready. Volumes will contain about three or four hundred pages, and will not necessarily be completed within one calendar year. This paper is Vol. 2, No. 5 of the Historical series. Trustees of the British Museum, i960 PRINTED BY ORDER OF THE TRUSTEES OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM Issued September, i960 Price Fifteen Shillings DARWIN'S NOTEBOOKS ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES Edited with an Introduction and Notes by Sir GAVIN de BEER Part IV. Fourth Notebook. (October 1838 to ioth July 1839) INTRODUCTION Darwin's Fourth Notebook on Transmutation of Species was written after he had read Malthus's 1 Essay on the principle of population on 3rd October, 1838. The first two pages subsequently cut out by him and now lost, were doubtless devoted to Malthus's work, as is the third page. Considering the importance of the influence which Malthus's book was thought (even by Darwin himself in later life) to have exerted on Darwin's work and ideas, it is significant that he devoted so little space to Malthus in the Notebook which he wrote immediately after reading his book. The reason, as explained in the Introduction to Darwin's Third Notebook on Trans- mutation of Species, 2 is that Darwin had already and independently thought out the principle of selection of favourable variations and seen the possibility that the transmutation of species might be explained by its means. What Malthus gave Darwin was evidence of the rigorousness of selection and of the inevitability of widespread mortality. To this concept, Darwin introduced the notion of extinction as the extreme case of depopulation (IV 3), and the notion of variation ; and he showed that he was well aware that this would lead to results very different from those which Malthus thought that he had achieved. This fact emerges clearly from the only other passage in the Fourth Notebook where Darwin refers to Malthus and is concerned to show that he does not subscribe to Malthus's assumption that the variation possible in cultivated plants and domestic animals is strictly limited. " It may be said that wild animals will vary according to my Malthusian views, within certain limits, but beyond them not, — argue against this " (IV 136). The term " Malthusian views " does not mean acceptance of Malthus's economic and political system, but solely adherence to the view that mortality ensues from reproduction outstripping food-supply. The parallel between the effects of artificial selection in producing new breeds of cultivated plants and domesticated animals, and of natural selection in producing new species is clearly formulated : " It is a beautiful part of my theory, 1 Darwin used the 6th edition, London 1826. 2 Bull. Brit. Mus. (Nat. Hist.) Historical Series, vol. 2, part 4, i960. hist. 2,5. 30 154 DARWIN'S FOURTH NOTEBOOK that domesticated races of organics are made by precisely same means as species — but latter far more perfectly and infinitely slower " (IV 71). A soliloquy on the mechanism of natural selection takes the following form : " it is difficult to believe in the dreadful but quiet war of organic beings going on in the peaceful woods and smiling fields" (IV 114). The fact that natural selection applies to man is adduced as additional evidence that man is of similar nature to animals. " When two races of men meet, they act precisely like two species of animals, — they fight, eat each other, bring diseases to each other &c., but then comes the most deadly struggle, namely which have the best fitted organization, or instincts (i.e. intellect in man) to gain the day " (IV 63). It is not difficult in this passage to recognize experiences which Darwin underwent during the voyage of the Beagle. With regard to the evolution of man and the question whether his ancestors were bimanous or quadruped, Darwin had already seen the importance of embryonic development and vestigial organs in determining affinity and therefore descent. " There being no fossils, the only way, that I can see to discover whether the parent of man was quadruped or bimanous, is to see, what parts of structure abortive." (IV 66). That was written during the first half of December 1838, and on 6th January, 1839 comes the solution: "The rudiment of a tail shows man was originally quad- ruped " (IV 89). Morals are the result of evolution from " social instincts, which as I hope to show is probably the foundation of all that is most beautiful in the moral sentiments of the animated beings " (IV 49). The notion of fortuitous as distinct from designed variation is clearly expressed : " my principle being the destruction of all the less hardy ones & the preservation of accidental hardy seedlings " (IV 111). That survival is not fortuitous but is unde- signed emerges from the following passage : " seeing the beautiful seed of a Bull Rush I thought, surely no ' fortuitous ' growth could have produced these innumer- able seeds, yet if a seed were produced with infinitesimal advantage it would have better chance of being propagated " (IV 137). The " tendency to progression" postulated by Lamarck as an inherent quality of living organisms which would make natural selection unnecessary in those cases where it has resulted in improvement, quickly attracted Darwin's attention as a principle to be tested. " See if any law can be made out, that varieties are generally additions, & not abortive : with reference to the non-necessity of the so-called progressive tendency law" (IV 70). Soon comes the answer, and it opens up the whole science of ecology : " The enormous number of animals in the world depends of their varied structure and complexity. — hence as the forms became complicated, they opened fresh means of adding to their complexity" (IV 95). Here Darwin shows that he has realized the part which organisms themselves play in the complex of factors which make up the environment of other organisms. He continues : " but yet there is no necessary tendency in the simple animals to become complicated although all perhaps will have done so from the new relations caused by the advancing complexity of others. — It may be said, why should there not be at any time as many species tending to dis-developement, . . . my answer is because, if we begin ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES 155 with the simplest forms & suppose them to have changed, their very changes tend to give rise to others " (IV 95). Darwin concludes : "I doubt not if the simplest animals could be destroyed, the more highly organized would soon be disorganized to fill their places " (IV 96). Improvement, where it takes place, is not the result of any innate tendency to progression, but to competition and adaptation. " Con- sidering the Kingdom of nature as it now is, it would not be possible to simplify the organization of the different beings, . . . without reducing the number of living beings — but there is the strongest possible [tendency] to increase them, hence the degree of developement is either stationary or more probably increases " (IV 97). The ecological web of life is so closely netted that when transmutation of species results in the origin of a new one,. a new problem is created. " When a species becomes rarer, as it progresses towards extermination, some of the species must increase in number where then is the gap for the new one to enter ? " (IV 43). The solution to this problem is closely connected with the principle of divergence 1 which Darwin did not solve until 1852. Darwin was alive to the problems of what are now known as ring-species. " Lyell tells me . . . that Hooded crow and Carrion crow have in Europe different ranges latter not going north of the Elbe, yet they meet in one wood in Anhault & there every year produce hybrids " (IV 101, 102). It is curious to find Darwin speaking of final causes regarding the existence of separate sexes, but the analysis developed in this and the following two pages of the consequences of their existence, and of what the result would be if there were only unisexual generation, is remarkably acute, particularly the realization of the ad- vantages accruing from slow change in adaptation to the general conditions of the habitat instead of rapid changes in adaptation to local conditions (IV 48, 49, 50). Variation would be entirely unconnected in any groups of individuals and change would be unarchic. Furthermore, physical factors would act on individuals without restraint. The value of sexual reproduction is therefore that it canalizes variation into a small number of channels by making physical factors act not on single indi- viduals but on interbreeding populations, and it slows down change with the result that changes can " bear relation to the whole changes of country, & not to the local changes" (IV 50). Researches into the progress of ideas in the minds of those who solved the problem of evolution and natural selection are by no means complete, but it is already possible to see two curious patterns in the history of thought. The first relates to the manner in which arguments have simply been turned upside down as a result of progress of knowledge. The foremost example of this reversal of direction is the fate of Paley's arguments aimed at proving that the adaptations of plants and animals to their environment show evidence of purposive design. 2 First of all it must be remembered that Paley selected his evidence. There are not wanting cases of mal-adaptation. Every case of a parasite killing its host is a blunder of nature, reflecting no credit on 1 In a letter which Darwin wrote to George Bentham on 19th June, 1863, Life and Letters, vol. 3, p. 26, he said : "I believe that it was fifteen years after I began before I saw the meaning and course of the divergence of the descendants of any one pair." If 1837 was the date when he began, this works out at 1852. 2 William Paley : Natural Theology, London 1836. 156 DARWIN'S FOURTH NOTEBOOK any designer, and the same is true of many structures and functions, such as the prostate and the proneness of man to hernia as a result of his upright carriage. How- ever, as a result of Darwin's work, the same facts as were adduced by Paley as proof of beneficent design are now recognized as evidence of what natural selection can achieve without any design at all. Indeed, if there were a designer, he would have to be singularly malevolent to produce all the failures and suffering caused. Another case of inversion is provided by Lyell's attempt to use the principle of uniformitarianism to show that evolution could not have occurred, because catastro- phism involved progressionism and catastrophism must be rejected. 1 Again as a result of Darwin's work, it is now clear that application of the principle of uniformi- tarianism shows that evolution must have occurred, because organic progressionism is the only correct interpretation of the facts in spite of catastrophism being erroneous. Thirdly, both Lyell and Blyth 2 used the principle of natural selection, implicit in the penalization of variants from the specific .type, to prove that species remain constant ; whereas Darwin and Wallace showed that this argument must be turned on its head to show that natural selection can make varieties depart indefinitely from the specific type. This last case is particularly instructive, because natural selection can in some cases bring about change and in other cases preserve stability, and T. H. Huxley 3 showed that natural selection was the only agency that could account for this facultative alternative. The reason for this is known, because Mendelian heredity is a mechanism which can according to circumstances produce diversity or stability. The former capacity is based on the power of mutation, crossing-over, segregation, and recombination of genes ; the latter on the particulate nature of the non-contaminating genes and on chromosome linkage. Finally, the most remarkable case of all of reversal concerns the conclusion which Malthus drew from his argument based on the check which limitation of food-supply was supposed to impose on human fecundity and population increase. Since Malthus did not consider the possibility of variation in the population, he concluded that the results of checks to increase resulted merely in keeping numbers down, the quality of the population remaining the same as before. And since he believed that the practice of cultivation of plants and breeding of domestic animals showed that they were limited and not indefinitely perfectible, he concluded that the struggle for existence was an obstacle to the improvement of man just because it kept numbers down. In other words, Malthus's principle of population meant quantitative natural elimination without selection. As Conway Zirkle 4 has pointed out, Malthus was prevented from anticipating Darwin by his opposition to the ideal of human perfecti- bility embodied in the works of Condorcet 5 and Godwin. 6 Darwin and Wallace, inde- pendently, introduced into the argument the variability of plants and animals of which 1 Charles Lyell : Principles of Geology, vol. 2, London 1832, See Introduction to Darwin's First Note- book on Transmutation of Species (Bull. Brit. Mus. (Nat. Hist.), Historical Series, vol. 2, i960, p. 33.) 2 Edward Blyth. See Introduction, ibid., p. 36. 8 T. H. Huxley : " Evolution in Biology ", Encyclopaedia Britannica, 9th Edition, vol. 8, p. 751. 4 C. Zirkle : " Natural Selection before the Origin of Species ", Proc. Amer. Phil. Soc, vol. 84, 1941, p. 101. 8 Antoine-Nicolas de Condorcet : Sketch for a Historical Picture of the Progress of the Human mind, London 1795. * William Godwin : Enquiry concerning political justice and its influence on virtue and happiness, London 1796. ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES 157 they were aware both in artificial conditions and in nature. Familiar with the results of artificial selection, Darwin had already seen that selection in nature would cause species to vary from the original type ; and both he and Wallace, independently, saw that Malthus's principle of quantitative limitation working on natural populations must inevitably result in natural selection of the better adapted variants through a qualitative elimination, and they used the struggle for existence to explain the possi- bility of departure of varieties from the original type until they became new species ; which was exactly the opposite of Malthus's conclusion. The second pattern in the history of thought is the realization that knowledge at a given time may already be sufficient to suggest the correct solution of a problem, if only the scientist knows where to look. The best example of this phenomenon, that science is sometimes richer than is imagined, is provided by Darwin himself. None of the ingredients which he required, both to establish the fact of evolution and to show that natural selection provided the explanation of how species become modified, was unknown to Lyell who missed the great chance, partly by failing to test the imaginary link between catastrophism and progressionism, and partly because his mind was orientated away from transmutation of species for reasons of theological orthodoxy. How close Lyell came to the facts without recognizing them may be seen in the second volume of his Principles of Geology published in 1832. There, in Chapter XI he actually speculated on the extinction of old species and the appearance of new species and asks (p. 179) "is it possible that new species can be called into being from time to time, and yet that so astonishing a phenomenon can escape the observation of naturalists ? " This problem was referred to in a remarkable letter dated 20 February 1836 from Sir John Herschel to Lyell, to which Darwin himself alluded in his Fourth Notebook (MS. page 59, below). The reference, 1 which I owe to Dr. Sydney Smith, is as follows : "Of course I allude to that mystery of mysteries, the replacement of extinct species by others. Many will doubtless think your speculations too bold, but it is as well to face the difficulty at once. For my own part, I cannot but think it an inadequate conception of the Creator, to assume it as granted that his combinations are exhausted upon any one of the theatres of their former exercise, though in all this, as in all his other works, we are led, by all analogy, to suppose that he operates through a series of intermediate causes, and that in consequence the origination of fresh species, could it ever come under our cognizance, would be found to be a natural in contradistinction to a miraculous process, although we perceive no indications of any process actually in progress which is likely to issue in such a result." Another example is that of Sir Ronald Fisher's 2 demonstration that, far from being antagonistic and mutally exclusive, Darwinian selection and Mendelian genetics are complementary and indispensible to each other. Here, it was William Bateson who missed his great chance of effecting the synthesis by failing to recognize the fact that mutations may have infinitesimal and cumulative effects, and the possibility that selection might have played a part in controlling the effects of mutations. Al- 1 Charles Babbage. The IXth Bridgewater Treatise. London 1837, P- 2 °3- Darwin used the 2nd edition of this work which has not been consulted. 2 R, A. Fisher ; The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection, Oxford 1930, 158 DARWIN'S FOURTH NOTEBOOK though he had available to him all the basic ingredients out of which Fisher con- structed his synthesis, Bateson was blinded by the clean-cut results of such Mendelian crosses as were known to him, appearing to have arisen ready-made without selection, and this prejudiced him against Darwinian selection. He was eventually driven to the untenable view that evolution had been stopped down at the start, and had occurred through the successive removal of inhibitory factors. 1 The lesson to be derived from this is that even today there may be great syntheses waiting to be assembled from materials that are already to hand. Darwin's Fourth Notebook on Transmutation of Species, also known as Notebook " E ", is Darwin MS. 124 in the Cambridge University Library, to the authorities of which acknowledgement is warmly made for their unfailing assistance and courtesy. As in the other Notebooks, a number of pages were cut out by Darwin in 1856, and seventy eight pages have thus been lost. Since the texts of Darwin's Notebooks on Transmutation of Species were sent to the press, some of the excised pages have been found in the British Museum (Natural History) and in the Cambridge Univer- sity Library. These will be transcribed and published in a subsequent number of the Bulletin, together with Corrigenda and an Index of the names of persons referred to by Darwin. Editorial Note The general policy of this edition has been to present a text, which is already difficult enough in its contents, with the minimum of complication. It is not intended to be a facsimile edition. The handwriting of the Notebooks is extremely difficult to decipher, because of letters indistinctly made, abbreviations and slurred endings to words, and ungram- matical construction of sentences. The use of capital and lower case letters is variable, as is the punctuation. The text is littered with dashes and with stops to which it would be misleading to attribute the value of periods in all cases. Many of them require the value of commas and are shown as such where the sense would otherwise be obscured. There are also several places where lines are drawn across the page, but no attempt has been made in this edition to reproduce them as rules. The use of different pens, inks, and of pencil here and there occurs frequently. In some cases the change appears to have no significance other than that he had temporarily run out of the instrument he had been using ; in other cases it means that entries were made subsequently, often between the lines, and these are noted where they appear to be significant. Where words that are essential for the sense of the text were inadvertently omitted by Darwin they have been added between square brackets. In some places Darwin inserted square brackets, apparently subsequently, to indicate special emphasis and perhaps to show passages which he wanted to copy out. They have been indicated where significant by footnotes, but square brackets are exclusively reserved for editorial intercalations by me. Two kinds of erasure occur in the text. In the first, words were resolutely struck 1 William Bateson : " Evolutionary Faith and modern doubts ", Science, vol. 55, 20th January, 1922. ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES 159 out by Darwin because they were wrong and not what he meant to write, or because he changed the construction of his sentence. Since such words seldom serve any purpose in elucidating the sense of the text but add to its existing complexity, Darwin's own verdict on them has been accepted and they have been omitted without indication, save in exceptional cases. In the second type of erasure sentences or whole pages have been lightly scored through, doubtless to indicate that they have been dealt with, and such erasures have been ignored. I do not doubt that even allowing for the simple editorial style here adopted, many misreadings of the text have been made, to which corrections will be welcomed for the Corrigenda and Addenda which it is hoped to publish ; but if any reader requires more information than this edition gives, he must be referred to the manu- scripts in the Cambridge University Library. A cknowledgrnents It is a pleasure to record my indebtedness to Sir Charles Darwin, K.C.B., F.R.S., in whom the copyright of the Darwin manuscripts is vested ; the Syndics of the Cambridge University Library and to Mr. H. R. Creswick, M.A. Librarian, in whose care the manuscripts are preserved ; to Lady Barlow for innumerable kindnesses and information of inestimable value for this work ; to Dr. Sydney Smith for his kind criticism and invaluable help ; to Professor S. L. Sobol of the Institute for the History of Natural Science and Technology of the U.S.S.R., Moscow, for the support of his agreement with my reading of the text of the First Notebook ; to Mr. P. J. Gautrey of the Cambridge University Library for his valuable help in searching for missing pages of the Notebook ; to Mr. A. C. Townsend, Librarian of the British Museum (Natural History) ; to Mr. M. J. Rowlands of the General Library, British Museum (Natural History), and to Miss Maria Skramovsky, my secretary, for their unremitting assistance in transcribing Darwin's handwriting and tracing references. Gavin de Beer HIST. 2,5. 30§ DARWIN'S FOURTH NOTEBOOOK ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES 1838-1839 Inside front cover. Finished July 10th 1839. — Selected Dec 15 1856 | 1-2 excised. 3 Epidemics 1 seem intimately related to famine, yet very inexplicable. — ditto p. 529 " It accords with the most liberal ! spirit of philosophy to believe that no stone can fall, or plant rise, without the immediate agency of the deity. 2 But we know from experience ! that these operations of what we call nature, have been conducted almost ! invariably according to fixed laws : and since the world began, the causes of population & depopulation have been probably as constant as any of the laws of nature with which we are acquainted ". — This applies to one species — I would apply it not only to population & depopulation, but extermination & production of new forms. — this number & correlations | 4 Octob. 4 th . [1838] It cannot be objected to my theory, that the amount of change within historical times has been small — because change in form is solely adaptation of whole of one race to some change of circumstances ; now we know how slowly & insensibly such changes are in progress — we feel interest in discovering a change of level of a few feet during the last two thousand years in Italy, 3 but what change would such a change produce in climate vegetation &c. — It is the circumstance of small physical changes & oscillations, not affecting organic forms, that the whole value of the geological chronology depends that most sublime discovery of the genius of man. | 5-14 excised. 15 sorts come up from it, lately saw a nonpareil sowed by Mr Toilet 4 so produce. — thinks it probable that great part of those varieties may be due to impregnation from other apple trees. — now seeds of crab produce crab, so that some effect from apple trees is produced. — Thinks probably experiment was never tried of separating apple tree entirely from all others & so my experiment of strawberry 5 not so absurd. — 16 Thinks that such variety as red cabbage | produced from passage from many varieties, & probably would take long before all the stain would be got out of it. — Now this is curiously different from primrose suddenly produce cowslip, one is tempted to think here some anomaly — I can fancy cowslip producing primrose return to old stock, but not primrose producing cowslip | 17 Uncle J. 6 says common belief that female plant impresses main features on off- spring & male the lesser peculiarities, — brilliancy of inflorescence Gardeners by chance sometimes graft pears on apples they will live, but not flourish — a medlar may be grafted on pear. Mountain-ash & white Thorn ! 1 Thomas Robert Malthus. An Essay on the Principle of Population, 6th edition, London 1826, vol. i, especially book I, chapter 6 ; and book II, chapter 13. 2 Thomas Robert Malthus. Ibid. vol. i, p. 529. Malthus wrote " divine power " instead of " the deity ". 3 The reference is to the submergence and re-emergence of Roman buildings at Pozzuoli described by Charles Lyell : Principles of Geology, London, vol. 1, 1830, pp. 449, ff. 4 Mr. Toilet of Betley Hall, cattle breeder, cf. Variation of Animals and Plants, London 1868, vol. 2, p. 199. 5 The reference to Darwin's experiments with strawberries has not been traced. ' John Hensleigh Allen of Cresselly. DARWIN'S FOURTH NOTEBOOK ON TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES 161 Species not being observed to change is very great difficulty in thick strata, can only be explained by several strata being merely leaf. 1 if one river did form sediment in one spot, for many epochs such changes would be observed. — | 18 G. W. Earl's Eastern Seas, p. 206 — shot a monkey, ceased their cries, " many of them descending to examine their defunct companion ". 2 — p. 229 Borneo — only animals he heard of pigs, small bears or badgers, deer, apes, baboons, monkey & an animal probably a tapir. 3 — p. 233. dogs in Borneo brought probably by Chinese 4 " the breed 5 of the latter being the same as the fox-like animals which are met with near Canton ". 6 " Here as in all Malay countries, I noticed a peculiarity 7 | 19-22 excised. 23 Macleay 8 says it is nonsense to say take a tooth of any animal (as Toxodon) & say its relations, — if we know its congeners then we can. — Now on my theory this certainly can be accounted for, on any other it is the will of God. — Octob. 16 th . A very strong passage might be made — why seeing great variation in external form of varieties, do we suppose bones will not change in number (even species do not this), because it has been so pronounced ex cathedra. Let us look at facts, considering few domestic animals few that have not. 9 cows hornless (horses not) I 24 If they give up infertility in largest sense as test of species, — they must deny species which is absurd. — Their only escape is that rule applies to wild animals only, from which plain inference might be drawn that whole infertility of hybrid receive no explanation was consequent on mind or instinct now this is directly incor- rect. The case of my mice 10 is good, because it is an involuntary variation made by man. common to every individual & therefore effect of climate. — | 25-30 excised. 31 Did man spread over world as early as Elephants &c. — if in next 20 years none of his remains found in the Americas probably did not. — Octob. 25th. I observed in Windsor Park — the Fallow Deer which were of a nearly 1 Darwin's meaning is that many of the individual strata are as thin as a leaf of a book and contain no fossils. It is an adaptation of LyelPs analogy between Geological formations and a book with most of its leaves torn out and lost. 2 George Windsor Earl. The Eastern Seas or Voyages and Adventures in the Indian Archipelago in 1832-33-34, London 1837, p. 206. The author uses the word " comrade " instead of " companion " as quoted by Darwin. 8 George Windsor Earl. Ibid. p. 229. 4 The words " brought probably by Chinese " were crossed out by Darwin in the MS. 8 In the MS. the word " being " is inserted here. • George Windsor Earl. Ibid. p. 233. 7 George Windsor Earl. Ibid. p. 233 : " Here ,as in all Malay countries I noticed a peculiarity in the cats, which I never heard satisfactorily accounted for. The joints near the tip of the tail are generally crooked, as if they had been broken ". 8 William Sharp Macleay. Presumably personal communication. Darwin is contending that the relatives of a form can be identified by similarities in the structure of parts and that this can be accounted for on the theory of descent by modification from common ancestors. 9 The word "not " is repeated here in the MS. after the word "which " crossed out. 10 " My mice ": cf. G. R. Waterhouse. " Species of the Genus Mus, forming part of the collection presented to this Society by Charles Darwin, Esq." Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., vol. 5, 1837, p. 15. 162 DARWIN'S FOURTH NOTEBOOK uniform blackish brown yet retained a trace of horizontal mark on flanks ; & tail & kind of semi-lunar mark 1 on each side darker, so that whole colour is changed, these best marked characters are partly retained, therefore colours vary in same manner as they would vary, if in wild state : thus mark on ear