The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication
- Language:
- English
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- Clean text
- Extent:
- ~440,000 words · 2,098 passages
Cite this work
- APACharles Darwin. (n.d.). The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication. SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/charles-darwin/the-variation-of-animals-and-plants-under-domestication
- MLACharles Darwin. "The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication." SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/charles-darwin/the-variation-of-animals-and-plants-under-domestication.
- ChicagoCharles Darwin. The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication. SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/charles-darwin/the-variation-of-animals-and-plants-under-domestication.
What it is about
The book where Darwin unloads all the evidence he could only summarise in the Origin: breeds of pigeons, dogs, horses, wheat and garden plants, and what happens when the selector is a person.
Context and history
Published in 1868, it carries twenty years of notes. It contains 'pangenesis', Darwin's hypothesis of how characters are inherited: it is wrong, and he offered it as provisional. That is a reason to read it, not to skip it — nowhere is it clearer what he lacked, a theory of heredity, or how far he got without one.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
ANCIENT VARIETIES OF THE DOG—RESEMBLANCE OF DOMESTIC DOGS IN VARIOUS COUNTRIES TO NATIVE CANINE SPECIES—ANIMALS NOT ACQUAINTED WITH MAN AT FIRST FEARLESS—DOGS RESEMBLING WOLVES AND JACKALS—HABIT OF BARKING ACQUIRED AND LOST—FERAL DOGS—TAN-COLOURED EYE-SPOTS—PERIOD OF GESTATION—OFFENSIVE ODOUR—FERTILITY OF THE RACES WHEN CROSSED—DIFFERENCES IN THE SEVERAL RACES IN PART DUE TO DESCENT FROM DISTINCT SPECIES—DIFFERENCES IN THE SKULL AND TEETH—DIFFERENCES IN THE BODY, IN CONSTITUTION—FEW IMPORTANT DIFFERENCES HAVE BEEN FIXED BY SELECTION—DIRECT ACTION OF CLIMATE—WATER-DOGS WITH PALMATED FEET—HISTORY OF THE CHANGES WHICH CERTAIN ENGLISH RACES OF THE DOG HAVE GRADUALLY UNDERGONE THROUGH SELECTION—EXTINCTION OF THE LESS IMPROVED SUB-BREEDS. CATS, CROSSED WITH SEVERAL SPECIES—DIFFERENT BREEDS FOUND ONLY IN SEPARATED COUNTRIES—DIRECT EFFECTS OF THE CONDITIONS OF LIFE—FERAL CATS—INDIVIDUAL VARIABILITY. CHAPTER II.—HORSES AND ASSES. HORSE. DIFFERENCES IN THE BREEDS—INDIVIDUAL VARIABILITY OF—DIRECT EFFECTS OF THE CONDITIONS OF LIFE—CAN WITHSTAND MUCH COLD—BREEDS MUCH MODIFIED BY SELECTION—COLOURS OF THE HORSE—DAPPLING—DARK STRIPES ON THE SPINE, LEGS, SHOULDERS, AND FOREHEAD—DUN-COLOURED HORSES MOST FREQUENTLY STRIPED—STRIPES PROBABLY DUE TO REVERSION TO THE PRIMITIVE STATE OF THE HORSE. ASSES. BREEDS OF—COLOUR OF—LEG- AND SHOULDER-STRIPES—SHOULDER-STRIPES SOMETIMES ABSENT, SOMETIMES FORKED. CHAPTER III.—PIGS—CATTLE—SHEEP—GOATS. PIGS BELONG TO TWO DISTINCT TYPES, SUS SCROFA AND INDICUS—TORFSCHWEIN—JAPAN PIGS—FERTILITY OF CROSSED PIGS—CHANGES IN THE SKULL OF THE HIGHLY CULTIVATED RACES—CONVERGENCE OF CHARACTER—GESTATION—SOLID-HOOFED SWINE—CURIOUS APPENDAGES TO THE JAWS—DECREASE IN SIZE OF THE TUSKS—YOUNG PIGS LONGITUDINALLY STRIPED—FERAL
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