# On the Origin of Species *By Charles Darwin (1809 to 1882). First published in London by John Murray, 24 November 1859.* > I did not read all of this book for this note. I opened the Project Gutenberg texts of the first edition (1859, #1228), the second edition (1860, #22764) and the sixth edition (1872, #2009), and read the contents lists, the introduction's opening and the passages the videos quote. The chapter outline comes from the first edition's contents page. The rest of the summary rests on Wikipedia and the quoted passages. ## 1. Book facts | | | |---|---| | Title | *On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life* | | Author | Charles Darwin | | Publisher | John Murray, London | | First published | 24 November 1859 (Wikipedia; the first-edition text on Gutenberg gives the same date in an editor's note) | | First printing | 1,250 copies, of which about 1,170 were available for sale (Wikipedia) | | Editions | Six in Darwin's lifetime. The first (1859), the second (7 January 1860) and the sixth (1872, "with additions and corrections") are all on Gutenberg | | ISBN | None. It predates ISBNs | | Language | English | | Status | Public domain (published 1859) | **Where it came up.** Joel is Curious cites Darwin and this book in three of his "Is evolution true?" videos: - [How could an eye have evolved (Is evolution true Part 1)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoUDma3w3P0&t=17s), 0:17, on Darwin's "absurd" remark about the eye. Vault note: [[Video Summaries/Joel is Curious/How could an eye have evolved (Is evolution true Part 1)]] - [Where's the missing link? Her name is Lucy (Part 3)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eN1no70ENA8). Vault note: [[Video Summaries/Joel is Curious/Where's the missing link Her name is Lucy. (Is evolution true Part 3)]] - [Just a theory (Part 4)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBjVHgQ_Y9s). Vault note: [[Video Summaries/Joel is Curious/Just a theory (Is evolution true Part 4)]] ## 2. Book resources **Free full text (public domain, legal).** - First edition, 1859: [Project Gutenberg #1228](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1228) - Second edition, 1860: [Project Gutenberg #22764](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/22764) - Sixth edition, 1872, the last Darwin revised: [Project Gutenberg #2009](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2009) - [Wikisource](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/On_the_Origin_of_Species) also hosts the text; I did not check which edition it follows. **Free audiobooks (LibriVox, public domain).** - [Version 1](https://librivox.org/the-origin-of-species-by-charles-darwin/), read by LibriVox volunteers, 24 h 22 min. Its online-text link points to Gutenberg #2009, the sixth edition. - [Version 2](https://librivox.org/the-origin-of-species-by-natural-selection-by-charles-darwin/), read by Michael Armenta, 23 h 44 min, the sixth edition (per its description). **Which edition to read.** The first edition is the text Darwin published; the sixth added a chapter and changed some wording (see section 5). ## 3. Author biography Charles Robert Darwin (12 February 1809 to 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist and biologist. He studied medicine at Edinburgh, then went to Christ's College, Cambridge (1828 to 1831). His five-year voyage on HMS *Beagle* (1831 to 1836) established him as a geologist, and *The Voyage of the Beagle* (1839) made him a popular author. His work on coral reefs and barnacles won him the Royal Medal in 1853. He and Alfred Russel Wallace presented the theory of natural selection jointly in 1858. He is buried in Westminster Abbey. Source: [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Darwin). ## 4. Author interviews and talks Darwin died in 1882, so there are no interviews. His own account is the [*Autobiography of Charles Darwin* (Gutenberg #2010)](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2010), also on [LibriVox](https://librivox.org/the-autobiography-of-charles-darwin-by-charles-darwin/). His letters are catalogued by the [Darwin Correspondence Project](https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/); I opened its home page only. I found no modern interview or talk to cite. ## 5. Summary **Thesis.** Species were not separately created. They descend with modification from common ancestors, and the main mechanism is natural selection: individuals vary, much variation is inherited, more offspring are born than survive, and those better suited to their surroundings leave more descendants. Ernst Mayr's list of key facts and inferences, as summarised on Wikipedia, gives the same logic. **Chapter outline (first edition, 1859, from the Gutenberg contents list).** 1. Variation under Domestication 2. Variation under Nature 3. Struggle for Existence 4. Natural Selection 5. Laws of Variation 6. Difficulties on Theory 7. Instinct 8. Hybridism 9. On the Imperfection of the Geological Record 10. On the Geological Succession of Organic Beings 11. Geographical Distribution 12. Geographical Distribution, continued 13. Mutual Affinities of Organic Beings: Morphology: Embryology: Rudimentary Organs 14. Recapitulation and Conclusion The sixth edition has fifteen chapters. It adds "Miscellaneous Objections to the Theory of Natural Selection" as Chapter VII, and retitles Chapter IV "Natural Selection; or the Survival of the Fittest". The first edition does not use that phrase as a heading; the sixth does. **Key ideas.** - Artificial selection by breeders (pigeons especially) shows how much variation is possible, and Darwin uses it as an analogy for selection in nature. - A struggle for existence follows from overproduction of offspring. - Gradual change over long time, with the geological record admittedly incomplete (Chapter 9). - Shared structures (homology), embryos and rudimentary organs point to common descent (Chapter 13). - On human origins the first edition's closing chapter says only: "Light will be thrown on the origin of man and his history." Darwin took the subject up in *The Descent of Man* (1871). - The first edition ends: "There is grandeur in this view of life, ... from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved." The sixth edition also contains "There is grandeur in this view of life"; I did not compare its final words. ## 6. Fact-check Overall verdict: **supported**. Every quotation I could check in the Gutenberg texts is accurate. One wording difference between editions is noted. | Claim | Verdict | Evidence | |---|---|---| | Darwin wrote that the eye's formation by natural selection "seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest possible degree" (video 1) | Supported for the 1859 and 1860 editions | In [#1228](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1228) and [#22764](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/22764). The sixth edition ([#2009](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2009)) drops "possible": "absurd in the highest degree" | | The sentence is cut off from what follows | Supported | #1228 continues "Yet reason tells me, that if numerous gradations ... can be shown to exist ... then the difficulty of believing that a perfect and complex eye could be formed by natural selection, though insuperable by our imagination, can hardly be considered real" | | Darwin noted the same limb bones in a man's hand, a porpoise's paddle and a bat's wing (video 4) | Supported | #1228: "should all be constructed on the same pattern, and should include the same bones, in the same relative positions". The sixth edition says "similar bones" | | Darwin noted teeth in foetal whales that lose them as adults (video 4) | Supported | #1228: "the presence of teeth in foetal whales, which when grown up have not a tooth in their heads" | | Darwin "predicted" in 1871 that humans arose in Africa (video 3) | Not from this book | The statement is in *The Descent of Man* (1871), where he hedged it; the video note checked it on [Wikisource](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Descent_of_Man_(Darwin)/Chapter_VI). Not in the *Origin* as far as I read | | Darwin and Wallace presented natural selection jointly in 1858 (video 4) | Supported | Wikipedia's Darwin article; the first-edition text refers to "Mr. Wallace's excellent memoir" | | First printing of 1,250 copies, 24 November 1859 | Supported (secondary) | Wikipedia; the date also appears in the Gutenberg editor's note | | The book is the foundation of evolutionary biology | Supported as widely stated | Wikipedia opening paragraph. A characterisation, not a testable fact | ## 7. Citations and references - Project Gutenberg: [#1228](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1228), [#22764](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/22764), [#2009](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2009), [#2010](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2010) - [Wikipedia, On the Origin of Species](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Origin_of_Species); [Wikipedia, Charles Darwin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Darwin) - LibriVox: [version 1](https://librivox.org/the-origin-of-species-by-charles-darwin/), [version 2](https://librivox.org/the-origin-of-species-by-natural-selection-by-charles-darwin/) - [Darwin Correspondence Project](https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/) - [Wikisource: Descent of Man, Chapter VI](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Descent_of_Man_(Darwin)/Chapter_VI)