23 chapters
12 hour read
Selected Chapters
23 chapters
SELECTION IN RELATION TO SEX.
SELECTION IN RELATION TO SEX.
ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES BY MEANS OF NATURAL SELECTION; or, The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life ; Fifth Edition ( Tenth Thousand ), with Additions and Corrections. 1869. Murray . THE VARIATION OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS UNDER DOMESTICATION. In two vols. With Illustrations. 1868. Murray . ON THE VARIOUS CONTRIVANCES by which BRITISH AND FOREIGN ORCHIDS ARE FERTILISED BY INSECTS; and on the Good Effects of Crossing . With numerous Woodcuts. Murray . A NATURALIST‘S VOYAGE ROUND T
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SELECTION IN RELATION TO SEX.
SELECTION IN RELATION TO SEX.
The nature of the following work will be best understood by a brief account of how it came to be written. During many years I collected notes on the origin or descent of man, without any intention of publishing on the subject, but rather with the determination not to publish, as I thought that I should thus only add to the prejudices against my views. It seemed to me sufficient to indicate, in the first edition of my ‘Origin of Species,’ that by this work “light would be thrown on the origin of
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Part I.—THE DESCENT OF MAN.
Part I.—THE DESCENT OF MAN.
Nature of the evidence bearing on the origin of man—Homologous structures in man and the lower animals—Miscellaneous points of correspondence—Development—Rudimentary structures, muscles, sense-organs, hair, bones, reproductive organs, &c.—The bearing of these three great classes of facts on the origin of man. He who wishes to decide whether man is the modified descendant of some pre-existing form, would probably first enquire whether man varies, however slightly, in bodily structure and
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CHAPTER II.
CHAPTER II.
The difference in mental power between the highest ape and the lowest savage, immense—Certain instincts in common—The emotions—Curiosity—Imitation—Attention—Memory—Imagination—Reason—Progressive improvement—Tools and weapons used by animals—Language—Self-consciousness—Sense of beauty—Belief in God, spiritual agencies, superstitions. We have seen in the last chapter that man bears in his bodily structure clear traces of his descent from some lower form; but it may be urged that, as man differs so
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CHAPTER III.
CHAPTER III.
The moral sense—Fundamental proposition—The qualities of social animals—Origin of sociability—Struggle between opposed instincts—Man a social animal—The more enduring social instincts conquer other less persistent instincts—The social virtues alone regarded by savages—The self-regarding virtues acquired at a later stage of development—The importance of the judgment of the members of the same community on conduct—Transmission of moral tendencies—Summary. I fully subscribe to the judgment of those
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CHAPTER IV.
CHAPTER IV.
From these several facts we can to a certain extent understand the means through which the great size and more or less rounded form of the skull has been acquired by man; and these are characters eminently distinctive of him in comparison with the lower animals. Another most conspicuous difference between man and the lower animals is the nakedness of his skin. Whales and dolphins (Cetacea), dugongs (Sirenia) and the hippopotamus are naked; and this may be advantageous to them for gliding through
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CHAPTER V.
CHAPTER V.
The advancement of the intellectual powers through natural selection—Importance of imitation—Social and moral faculties—Their development within the limits of the same tribe—Natural selection as affecting civilised nations—Evidence that civilised nations were once barbarous. The subjects to be discussed in this chapter are of the highest interest, but are treated by me in a most imperfect and fragmentary manner. Mr. Wallace, in an admirable paper before referred to, 221 argues that man after he
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CHAPTER VI.
CHAPTER VI.
Position of man in the animal series—The natural system genealogical—Adaptive characters of slight value—Various small points of resemblance between man and the Quadrumana—Rank of man in the natural system—Birthplace and antiquity of man—Absence of fossil connecting-links—Lower stages in the genealogy of man, as inferred, firstly from his affinities and secondly from his structure—Early androgynous condition of the Vertebrata—Conclusion. Even if it be granted that the difference between man and
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CHAPTER VII.
CHAPTER VII.
The nature and value of specific characters—Application to the races of man—Arguments in favour of, and opposed to, ranking the so-called races of man as distinct species—Sub-species—Monogenists and polygenists—Convergence of character—Numerous points of resemblance in body and mind between the most distinct races of man—The state of man when he first spread over the earth—Each race not descended from a single pair—The extinction of races—The formation of races—The effects of crossing—Slight inf
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Part II.—SEXUAL SELECTION.
Part II.—SEXUAL SELECTION.
497 Schiödte, translated in ‘Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist.’ vol. xx. 1867, p. 37. 498 Westring has described (Kroyer, ‘Naturhist. Tidskrift,’ B. ii. 1848-49, p. 334) the stridulating organs in these two, as well as in other families. In the Carabidæ I have examined Elaphrus uliginosus and Blethisa multipunctata , sent to me by Mr. Crotch. In Blethisa the transverse ridges on the furrowed border of the abdominal segment do not come into play, as far as I could judge, in scraping the rasps on the
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LIST OF POPULAR WORKS.
LIST OF POPULAR WORKS.
THE PRINCIPAL SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES OF H.R.H. THE PRINCE CONSORT, with an Introduction giving some Outlines of his Character. With Portrait. MUSIC AND THE ART OF DRESS. Two Essays. By A LADY. THE FALL OF JERUSALEM. A Dramatic Poem. By DEAN MILMAN. THEODORE HOOK. A Sketch. By J. G. LOCKHART. HISTORY OF THE GUILLOTINE. By Rt. Hon. J. W. CROKER. Woodcuts. THE CHACE. A Descriptive Essay. By C. J. APPERLEY ( Nimrod ). With Woodcuts. REJECTED ADDRESSES; or, The New Theatrum Poetarum. By HORACE and JA
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POSTSCRIPT.
POSTSCRIPT.
Vol. I. pp. 297-299.—I have fallen into a serious and unfortunate error, in relation to the sexual differences of animals, in attempting to explain what seemed to me a singular coincidence in the late period of life at which the necessary variations have arisen in many cases, and the late period at which sexual selection acts. The explanation given is wholly erroneous, as I have discovered by working out an illustration in figures. Moreover, the supposed coincidence of period is far from general
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CHAPTER XII.
CHAPTER XII.
Fishes : Courtship and battles of the males—Larger size of the females—Males, bright colours and ornamental appendages; other strange characters—Colours and appendages acquired by the males during the breeding-season alone—Fishes with both sexes brilliantly coloured—Protective colours—The less conspicuous colours of the female cannot be accounted for on the principle of protection—Male fishes building nests, and taking charge of the ova and young. Amphibians : Differences in structure and colour
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CHAPTER XIII.
CHAPTER XIII.
Sexual differences—Law of battle—Special weapons—Vocal organs—Instrumental music—Love-antics and dances—Decorations, permanent and seasonal—Double and single annual moults—Display of ornaments by the males. Secondary sexual characters are more diversified and conspicuous in birds, though not perhaps entailing more important changes of structure, than in any other class of animals. I shall, therefore, treat the subject at considerable length. Male birds sometimes, though rarely, possess special w
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CHAPTER XIV.
CHAPTER XIV.
Choice exerted by the female—Length of courtship—Unpaired birds—Mental qualities and taste for the beautiful—Preference or antipathy shewn by the female for particular males—Variability of birds—Variations sometimes abrupt—Laws of variation—Formation of ocelli—Gradations of character—Case of Peacock, Argus pheasant, and Urosticte . When the sexes differ in beauty, in the power of singing, or in producing what I have called instrumental music, it is almost invariably the male which excels the fem
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CHAPTER XV.
CHAPTER XV.
Discussion why the males alone of some species, and both sexes of other species, are brightly coloured—On sexually-limited inheritance, as applied to various structures and to brightly-coloured plumage—Nidification in relation to colour—Loss of nuptial plumage during the winter. We have in this chapter to consider, why with many kinds of birds the female has not received the same ornaments as the male; and why with many others, both sexes are equally, or almost equally, ornamented? In the follow
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CHAPTER XVI.
CHAPTER XVI.
The immature plumage in relation to the character of the plumage in both sexes when adult—Six classes of cases—Sexual differences between the males of closely-allied or representative species—The female assuming the characters of the male—Plumage of the young in relation to the summer and winter plumage of the adults—On the increase of beauty in the Birds of the World—Protective colouring—Conspicuously-coloured birds—Novelty appreciated—Summary of the four chapters on Birds. We must now consider
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CHAPTER XVII.
CHAPTER XVII.
The law of battle—Special weapons, confined to the males—Cause of absence of weapons in the female—Weapons common to both sexes, yet primarily acquired by the male—Other uses of such weapons—Their high importance—Greater size of the male—Means of defence—On the preference shewn by either sex in the pairing of quadrupeds. With mammals the male appears to win the female much more through the law of battle than through the display of his charms. The most timid animals, not provided with any special
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CHAPTER XVIII.
CHAPTER XVIII.
Fig. 70. Head of Semnopithecus rubicundus . This and the following figures (from Prof. Gervais) are given to shew the odd arrangement and development of the hair on the head. Fig. 71. Head of Semnopithecus comatus . Fig. 72. Head of Cebus capucinus . Fig. 73. Head of Ateles marginatus . Fig. 74. Head of Cebus vellerosus . Quadrumana. —Before we conclude, it will be advisable to add a few remarks to those already given on the ornamental characters of monkeys. In most of the species the sexes rese
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CHAPTER XIX.
CHAPTER XIX.
Differences between man and woman—Causes of such differences and of certain characters common to both sexes—Law of battle—Differences in mental powers—and voice—On the influence of beauty in determining the marriages of mankind—Attention paid by savages to ornaments—Their ideas of beauty in woman—The tendency to exaggerate each natural peculiarity. With mankind the differences between the sexes are greater than in most species of Quadrumana, but not so great as in some, for instance, the mandril
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CHAPTER XX.
CHAPTER XX.
On the effects of the continued selection of women according to a different standard of beauty in each race—On the causes which interfere with sexual selection in civilised and savage nations—Conditions favourable to sexual selection during primeval times—On the manner of action of sexual selection with mankind—On the women in savage tribes having some power to choose their husbands—Absence of hair on the body, and development of the beard—Colour of the skin—Summary. We have seen in the last cha
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MR. MURRAY’S
MR. MURRAY’S
AIDS TO FAITH; a Series of Theological Essays. By various Writers. Seventh Edition. 8vo. 9 s. Miracles. — Dean Mansel. Evidences of Christianity. — Bishop of Killaloe. Prophecy—and the Mosaic Record of Creation. —Rev. Dr. M’Caul . Ideology and Subscription. —Canon F. C. Cook . The Pentateuch. —Rev. George Rawlinson . Inspiration. — Bishop of Ely. Death of Christ. — Archbishop of York. Scripture and its Interpretation. — Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol. AUSTIN’S ( John ) LECTURES ON JURISPRUDENC
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