1889 CHARLES DARWIN Evolution ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES

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THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES BY MEANS OF NATURAL SELECTION OR THE PRESERVATION OF FAVORED RACES IN THE STRUGGLE FOR LIFE BY CHARLES DARWIN, M. A., LL. D., F.R.S. === IN TWO VOLUMES === This auction is for an original 1897 1ST EDITION! of " THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES " by Charles Darwin. Y OU'LL LOVE THIS BOOK!!! I t is a contentious work of scientific literature which is considered to be the foundation of evolutionary biology. A scientific bombshell in its day, it remains a much-discussed work 152 years later. The book was both popular and controversial: although Darwin was a religious man himself and once considered a career in the church, his theory of evolution was attacked by those who felt it was contrary to the teachings of the Bible. Today Darwin's theories are embraced by nearly all scientists and his theories are the starting point for the modern study of evolutionary biology, even as the religious arguments continue. D arwin was the official naturalist aboard the British ship H.M.S. Beagle during its world voyage of 1831-36. His observations during the journey led him to develop a theory of evolution: the notion that species evolve as the fittest members survive and pass their traits on to future generations. Darwin announced his initial ideas of natural selection in 1858, and in 1859 he formally published The Origin of Species . Darwin's book introduced the scientific theory that populations evolve over the course of generations through a process of natural selection. It presented a body of evidence that the diversity of life arose by common descent through a branching pattern of evolution. Darwin included evidence that he had gathered on the Beagle expedition in the 1830's and his subsequent findings from research, correspondence, and experimentation. T he book was written for non-specialist readers and attracted widespread interest upon its publication. As Darwin was an eminent scientist, his findings were taken seriously and the evidence he presented generated scientific, philosophical, and religious discussion. The debate over the book contributed to the campaign by T.H. Huxley and his fellow members of the X Club to secularise science by promoting scientific naturalism. Within two decades there was widespread scientific agreement that evolution, with a branching pattern of common descent, had occurred, but scientists were slow to give natural selection the significance that Darwin thought appropriate. During the "eclipse of Darwinism" from the 1880's to the 1930's, various other mechanisms of evolution were given more credit. With the development of the modern evolutionary synthesis in the 1930's and 1940's, Darwin's concept of evolutionary adaptation through natural selection became central to modern evolutionary theory, now the unifying concept of the life sciences. D arwin's theory of evolution is based on key facts and the inferences drawn from them, summarized as follows: Every species is fertile enough that if all offspring survived to reproduce the population would grow (fact). Despite periodic fluctuations, populations remain roughly the same size (fact). Resources such as food are limited and are relatively stable over time (fact). A struggle for survival ensues (inference). Individuals in a population vary significantly from one another (fact). Much of this variation is inheritable (fact). Individuals less suited to the environment are less likely to survive and less likely to reproduce; individuals more suited to the environment are more likely to survive and more likely to reproduce and leave their inheritable traits to future generations, which produces the process of natural selection (inference). This slowly effected process results in populations changing to adapt to their environments, and ultimately, these variations accumulate over time to form new species (inference). P ublished in 1889, it is in FINE CONDITION! for its age and especially to be 122 YEARS OLD!!! ALL PAGES ARE PRESENT!!! and t... read more

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