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On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection or the Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life
On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection or the Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life Author:Charles Darwin General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1864 Original Publisher: Murray Subjects: Science / Life Sciences / Biology / General Science / Life Sciences / Evolution Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Bo... more »oks edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: CHAPTER III. STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE. Bears on natural selection -- The term ucd in a wide sonee -- Geometrical powers of lncrease -- Rapid inoreaae of naturalised animals and planta -- Nature of tho checks to increase -- Competition universal -- Effects of climate -- Protection from the number of individuals -- Complex relations of all animals and plants throughout nature -- Struggle for life most severe between individuals and varieties of the same species - often severe between species of the same genus -- The relation of organism to organism the most important of all relations. Before entering on the subject of this chapter, I must make a few preliminary remarks, to show how the struggle for existence bears on Natural Selection. It has been seen in the last chapter that amongst organic beings in a state of nature there is some individual variability; indeed I am not aware that this has ever been disputed. It is immaterial for us whether a multitude of doubtful forms be called species or sub-species or varieties; what rank, for instance, the two or three hundred doubtful forms of British plants are entitled to hold, if the existence of any well-marked varieties be admitted. But the mere existence of individual variability and of some few well-marked varieties, though necessary as the foundation for the work, helps us but little in understanding how species arise in nature. How have all those exquisite adaptations of one part of the organisation to another part, and to the condition...« less