The Project Gutenberg EBook of Darwinism (1889), by Alfred Russel Wallace

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Title: Darwinism (1889)

Author: Alfred Russel Wallace

Release Date: January 2, 2005 [EBook #14558]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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DARWINISM

AN EXPOSITION OF THE

THEORY OF NATURAL SELECTION

WITH SOME OF ITS APPLICATIONS

BY

ALFRED RUSSEL WALLACE

LL.D., F.L.S., ETC.

WITH A PORTRAIT OF THE AUTHOR, MAP AND ILLUSTRATIONS

MACMILLAN AND CO.
LONDON AND NEW YORK
[Second Edition] 1889

* * * * *

[Illustration: Alfred R. Wallace]

* * * * *

PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION

The present edition is a reprint of the first, with a few verbal
corrections and the alteration of some erroneous or doubtful statements.
Of these latter the following are the most important:--

_P._ 30. The statement as to the fulmar petrel, which Professor A.
Newton assures me is erroneous, has been modified.

_P._ 34. A note is added as to Darwin's statement about the missel and
song-thrushes in Scotland.

_P._ 172. An error as to the differently-coloured herds of cattle in the
Falkland Islands, is corrected.

PARKSTONE, DORSET
_August, 1889_.

PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION

The present work treats the problem of the Origin of Species on the same
general lines as were adopted by Darwin; but from the standpoint reached
after nearly thirty years of discussion, with an abundance of new facts
and the advocacy of many new or old theories.

While not attempting to deal, even in outline, with the vast subject of
evolution in general, an endeavour has been made to give such an account
of the theory of Natural Selection as may enable any intelligent reader
to obtain a clear conception of Darwin's work, and to understand
something of the power and range of his great principle.

Darwin wrote for a generation which had not accepted evolution, and
which poured contempt on those who upheld the derivatio