The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection: Or, the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, 6th EditionDarwin, Charles
History
The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection: Or, the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, 6th Edition
Darwin, Charles
Evolution (Biology); Natural selection
Changed habits produce an inherited effect as in the period of the
flowering of plants when transported from one climate to another. With
animals the increased use or disuse of parts has had a more marked
influence; thus I find in the domestic duck that the bones of the wing
weigh less and the bones of the leg more, in proportion to the whole
skeleton, than do the same bones in the wild duck; and this change may
be safely attributed to the domestic duck flying much less, and walking
more, than its wild parents. The great and inherited development of the
udders in cows and goats in countries where they are habitually milked,
in comparison with these organs in other countries, is probably another
instance of the effects of use. Not one of our domestic animals can be
named which has not in some country drooping ears; and the view which
has been suggested that the drooping is due to disuse of the muscles of
the ear, from the animals being seldom much alarmed, seems probable.
Many laws regulate variation, some few of which can be dimly seen, and
will hereafter be briefly discussed. I will here only allude to what
may be called correlated variation. Important changes in the embryo or
larva will probably entail changes in the mature animal. In
monstrosities, the correlations between quite distinct parts are very
curious; and many instances are given in Isidore Geoffroy St. Hilaire’s
great work on this subject. Breeders believe that long limbs are almost
always accompanied by an elongated head. Some instances of correlation
are quite whimsical; thus cats which are entirely white and have blue
eyes are generally deaf; but it has been lately stated by Mr. Tait that
this is confined to the males. Colour and constitutional peculiarities
go together, of which many remarkable cases could be given among
animals and plants. From facts collected by Heusinger, it appears that
white sheep and pigs are injured by certain plants, while dark-coloured
individuals escape: Professor Wyman has recently communicated to me a
good illustration of this fact; on asking some farmers in Virginia how
it was that all their pigs were black, they informed him that the pigs
ate the paint-root (Lachnanthes), which coloured their bones pink, and
which caused the hoofs of all but the black varieties to drop off; and
one of the “crackers” (_i.e._ Virginia squatters) added, “we select the
black members of a litter for raising, as they alone have a good chance
of living.” Hairless dogs have imperfect teeth; long-haired and
coarse-haired animals are apt to have, as is asserted, long or many
horns; pigeons with feathered feet have skin between their outer toes;
pigeons with short beaks have small feet, and those with long beaks
large feet. Hence if man goes on selecting, and thus augmenting, any
peculiarity, he will almost certainly modify unintentionally other
parts of the structure, owing to the mysterious laws of correlation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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