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More than 150 years after the publication of On the Origin of Species, Darwin's 'dangerous idea' continues to spark impassioned scientific, philosophical and theological debates. This series includes key texts by precursors of Darwin, his supporters and detractors, and the generations that followed him. They reveal how scholars and philosophers approached the evidence in the fossil record and the zoological and botanical data provided by scientific expeditions to distant lands, and how these intellectuals grappled with topics such as the origins of life, the mechanisms that produce variation among life forms, and heredity, as well as the enormous implications of evolutionary theory for the understanding of human identity.

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63 results in Cambridge Library Collection - Darwin, Evolution and Genetics

Page 2 of 4

Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley
  • Volume 2
  • Leonard Huxley, Thomas Henry Huxley
  • Published online:
    05 May 2012
    Print publication:
    22 December 2011
    First published in:
    1903
  • Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95), the English biologist and naturalist, was known as 'Darwin's Bulldog', and is best remembered today for his vociferous support for Darwin's theory of evolution. He was, however, an influential naturalist, anatomist and religious thinker, who coined the term 'agnostic' to describe his own beliefs. Almost entirely self-educated, he became an authority in anatomy and palaeontology, and after the discovery of the archaeopteryx, he was the first to suggest that birds had evolved from dinosaurs. He was also a keen promoter of scientific education who strove to make science a paid profession, not dependent on patronage or wealth. Published in 1903, this three-volume work, edited by his son Leonard Huxley, is the second and most complete edition of Huxley's biography and selected letters. Volume 2 covers the period 1870–86, including Huxley's American lecture tour, and the death of his friend Charles Darwin in 1882.

Mendel's Principles of Heredity
  • A Defence, with a Translation of Mendel's Original Papers on Hybridisation
  • William Bateson, Gregor Mendel
  • Published online:
    07 September 2010
    Print publication:
    20 July 2009
    First published in:
    1902
  • William Bateson (1861–1926) began his academic career working on variation in animals in the light of evolutionary theory. He was inspired by the rediscovery in 1900 of the 1860s work on plant hybridisation by the Austrian monk Gregor Mendel (included here as an appendix) to pursue further experimental work in what he named 'genetics'. He realised that Mendel's results could help to solve difficult biological questions and controversies and to challenge the status quo in evolutionary studies. Annoyed by the 'apathetic' stance of his evolutionist colleagues, and incensed by a scathing critique of Mendel by the Oxford professor Raphael Weldon, Bateson incorporated an English translation of Mendel's work into this 1902 book along with a defence of Mendel's statistical experiments and the principles of heredity derived from them. His book is an impassioned appeal for scientists to adopt this 'brilliant method' which he felt could revolutionise both scholarship and industry.

Darwin, and after Darwin
  • An Exposition of the Darwinian Theory and Discussion of Post-Darwinian Questions
  • Volume 3, Post-Darwinian Questions – Isolation and Physiological Selection
  • George John Romanes
  • Published online:
    05 May 2012
    Print publication:
    03 November 2011
    First published in:
    1897
  • George John Romanes (1848–94), evolutionary biologist, was one of the most zealous supporters of Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection in the nineteenth century. He met Darwin in 1874 and became a firm friend and follower, applying Darwinian theory to his work on animal intelligence and mental evolution. Romanes was elected to the Royal Society in 1879 at the age of 31, having produced his own influential research on the evolution of the nervous system. This three-volume study of Darwin's work and its implications was first developed as a series of lectures given in Edinburgh and London between 1886 and 1890. Controversially, Romanes deviates from Darwin's assertion of the significance of geographical isolation, contending that physiological differences among the same species were central to evolutionary change. Published posthumously in 1897, Volume 3 considers the 'post-Darwinian question' of isolation, incorporating Romanes' own theories on physiological selection.

The Life and Letters of George John Romanes
  • Edited by Ethel Duncan Romanes
  • George John Romanes
  • Published online:
    05 May 2012
    Print publication:
    20 October 2011
    First published in:
    1896
  • George John Romanes (1848–94) was an influential evolutionary biologist whose work focused on the evolution of mental faculties. Although criticised for his anecdotal method, he is credited as being one of the pioneers of comparative psychology for his work on animal intelligence, and he also contributed to the development of the theory of natural selection. Romanes and Charles Darwin (1809–82) were close friends, and Darwin gave Romanes his notes on psychology for use in his studies. First published in 1896, this biography was written by his wife Ethel (1856–1927), also an author on religious topics. This reissue is of the second printing (also 1896): including correspondence between Darwin and Romanes, it is a rich source of information on both men and the development of their work. This book is also fascinating for its account of Romanes' mental conflict between his Christian faith and belief in evolution.

Darwin, and after Darwin
  • An Exposition of the Darwinian Theory and Discussion of Post-Darwinian Questions
  • Volume 2, Post-Darwinian Questions – Heredity and Utility
  • George John Romanes
  • Published online:
    05 May 2012
    Print publication:
    03 November 2011
    First published in:
    1895
  • George John Romanes (1848–94), evolutionary biologist, was one of the most zealous supporters of Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection in the nineteenth century. He met Darwin in 1874 and became a firm friend and follower, applying Darwinian theory to his work on animal intelligence and mental evolution. Romanes was elected to the Royal Society in 1879 at the age of 31, having produced his own influential research on the evolution of the nervous system. This three-volume study of Darwin's work and its implications was first developed as a series of lectures given in Edinburgh and London between 1886 and 1890. Controversially, Romanes deviates from Darwin's assertion of the significance of geographical isolation, contending that physiological differences among the same species were central to evolutionary change. Published posthumously in 1895, Volume 2 focuses on the 'post-Darwinian questions' of heredity and utility in organisms.

Materials for the Study of Variation
  • Treated with Especial Regard to Discontinuity in the Origin of Species
  • William Bateson
  • Published online:
    05 May 2013
    Print publication:
    09 August 2012
    First published in:
    1894
  • Building on the work of Darwin and Mendel, the biologist William Bateson (1861–1926) was the first scientist to combine the study of variation, heredity and evolution, and to use the term 'genetics'. This book was first published in 1894 after many years of experimental and theoretical work - particularly in the embryology of the acorn worm genus Balanoglossus - which had been guided by the principle that embryonic developmental stages replay the evolutionary transitions of adult forms of an organism's ancestors. Bateson was the first to challenge this theory, which made him unpopular among the scientific establishment of the time, but he was proved right. Organising his material by anatomical sections, Bateson explores speciation, phylogeny and discontinuous and continuous variation among a wide range of species, including vertebrates, invertebrates and plants. This pioneering work offers great insight into how the study of genetics and inheritance itself evolved.

Darwin, and after Darwin
  • An Exposition of the Darwinian Theory and Discussion of Post-Darwinian Questions
  • Volume 1, The Darwinian Theory
  • George John Romanes
  • Published online:
    05 May 2012
    Print publication:
    03 November 2011
    First published in:
    1893
  • George John Romanes (1848–94), evolutionary biologist, was one of the most zealous supporters of Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection in the nineteenth century. He met Darwin in 1874 and became a firm friend and follower, applying Darwinian theory to his work on animal intelligence and mental evolution. Romanes was elected to the Royal Society in 1879 at the age of 31, having produced his own influential research on the evolution of the nervous system. This three-volume study of Darwin's work and its implications was first developed as a series of lectures given in Edinburgh and London between 1886 and 1890. Controversially, Romanes deviates from Darwin's assertion of the significance of geographical isolation, contending that physiological differences among the same species were central to evolutionary change. First published in 1892, Volume 1 focuses on the Darwinian theory itself. This second edition appeared in 1893.

Essays upon some Controverted Questions
  • Thomas Henry Huxley
  • Published online:
    29 August 2010
    Print publication:
    20 July 2009
    First published in:
    1892
  • Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95) became known as 'Darwin's bulldog' because of his forceful and energetic support for Darwin's theory, most famously at the legendary British Association meeting in Oxford in 1860. In fact, Huxley had some reservations about aspects of the theory, especially the element of gradual, continuous progress, but in public he was unwavering in his allegiance, saying in a letter to Darwin 'As for your doctrines I am prepared to go to the Stake if requisite'. In his 1892 Essays upon Some Controverted Questions, Huxley collected some of his previously published writings, of which the titles alone give some flavour of his pugnacious stance in debate: 'The interpreters of Genesis and the interpreters of Nature'; 'Science and pseudo-science'; 'Agnosticism and Christianity'. The passion for scientific truth which underlies everything he writes is well demonstrated in this lively and still-relevant collection.

The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals
  • 2nd edition
  • Charles Darwin
  • Edited by Francis Darwin
  • Published online:
    07 September 2010
    Print publication:
    20 July 2009
    First published in:
    1890
  • This second edition of The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals was edited by his son Francis Darwin and published in 1890. As Sir Francis notes in his brief preface, because the first edition did not sell out in Charles Darwin's lifetime, 'he had no opportunity of publishing the material collected with a view to a second edition.' This material, in the form of 'a mass of letters, extracts from and references to books' was utilised in the second edition, as were Darwin's pencilled corrections in his own volume of the first. The book is a study of the muscular movements of the face (both human and animal) triggered by the emotions being felt - a 'physical' response to a 'mental' sensation. Darwin's detailed analysis of what actually happens to a body in a state of fear, or joy, or anger is illustrated by photographic images.

Darwinism
  • An Exposition of the Theory of Natural Selection, with some of its Applications
  • Alfred Russel Wallace
  • Published online:
    29 August 2010
    Print publication:
    20 July 2009
    First published in:
    1889
  • Alfred Russel Wallace (1823–1913) is regarded as the co-discoverer with Darwin of the theory of evolution. It was an essay which Wallace sent in 1858 to Darwin (whom he greatly admired and to whom he dedicated his most famous book, The Malay Archipelago) which impelled Darwin to publish an article on his own long-pondered theory simultaneously with that of Wallace. As a travelling naturalist and collector in the Far East and South America, Wallace already inclined towards the Lamarckian theory of transmutation of species, and his own researches convinced him of the reality of evolution. On the publication of On the Origin of Species, Wallace became one of its most prominent advocates, and Darwinism, published in 1889, supports the theory and counters many of the arguments put forward by scientists and others who opposed it.

Mental Evolution in Man
  • Origin of Human Faculty
  • George John Romanes
  • Published online:
    05 May 2012
    Print publication:
    20 October 2011
    First published in:
    1888
  • George John Romanes (1848–94) was considered by The Times to be 'the biological investigator upon whom in England the mantle of Mr. Darwin has most conspicuously descended'. Incorporating some of Darwin's unpublished notes, this book explores the question of whether human intelligence evolved. In a stance still often considered controversial at the time of its first printing in 1888, the first half establishes a link between humans and animals, and introduces some of the most important issues of nineteenth-century evolutionary psychology: the impact of relative brain sizes of humans and primates, the origin of self-consciousness and the possible reasons behind the apparent mental stasis of what Romanes terms 'savage man'. Following the argument that one of the main factors to be considered is language, the second half focuses on philology. Romanes' earlier work, Mental Evolution in Animals (1883), is also reissued in this series.

The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin
  • Including an Autobiographical Chapter
  • Volume 3
  • Charles Darwin
  • Edited by Francis Darwin
  • Published online:
    29 August 2010
    Print publication:
    20 July 2009
    First published in:
    1887
  • This book, the third of three-volumes detailing the life of Charles Darwin, published five years after his death, was edited by his son Francis, who was his father's collaborator in experiments in botany and who after his death took on the responsibility of overseeing the publication of his remaining manuscript works and letters. In the preface to the first volume, Francis Darwin explains his editorial principles: 'In choosing letters for publication I have been largely guided by the wish to illustrate my father's personal character. But his life was so essentially one of work, that a history of the man could not be written without following closely the career of the author.' Among the family history, anecdotes and reminiscences of scientific colleagues is a short autobiographical essay which Charles Darwin wrote for his children and grandchildren, rather than for publication. This account of Darwin the man has never been bettered.

The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin
  • Including an Autobiographical Chapter
  • Volume 1
  • Charles Darwin
  • Edited by Francis Darwin
  • Published online:
    29 August 2010
    Print publication:
    20 July 2009
    First published in:
    1887
  • This book, the first of three-volumes detailing the life of Charles Darwin, published five years after his death, was edited by his son Francis, who was his father's collaborator in experiments in botany and who after his death took on the responsibility of overseeing the publication of his remaining manuscript works and letters. In the preface to the first volume, Francis Darwin explains his editorial principles: 'In choosing letters for publication I have been largely guided by the wish to illustrate my father's personal character. But his life was so essentially one of work, that a history of the man could not be written without following closely the career of the author.' Among the family history, anecdotes and reminiscences of scientific colleagues is a short autobiographical essay which Charles Darwin wrote for his children and grandchildren, rather than for publication. This account of Darwin the man has never been bettered.

The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin
  • Including an Autobiographical Chapter
  • Volume 2
  • Charles Darwin
  • Edited by Francis Darwin
  • Published online:
    29 August 2010
    Print publication:
    20 July 2009
    First published in:
    1887
  • This book, the second of three-volumes detailing the life of Charles Darwin, published five years after his death, was edited by his son Francis, who was his father's collaborator in experiments in botany and who after his death took on the responsibility of overseeing the publication of his remaining manuscript works and letters. In the preface to the first volume, Francis Darwin explains his editorial principles: 'In choosing letters for publication I have been largely guided by the wish to illustrate my father's personal character. But his life was so essentially one of work, that a history of the man could not be written without following closely the career of the author.' Among the family history, anecdotes and reminiscences of scientific colleagues is a short autobiographical essay which Charles Darwin wrote for his children and grandchildren, rather than for publication. This account of Darwin the man has never been bettered.

Mental Evolution in Animals
  • With a Posthumous Essay on Instinct by Charles Darwin
  • George John Romanes
  • Appendix by Charles Darwin
  • Published online:
    05 May 2012
    Print publication:
    20 October 2011
    First published in:
    1883
  • George John Romanes (1848–94), considered by The Times to be 'the biological investigator upon whom in England the mantle of Mr. Darwin has most conspicuously descended', wrote this influential work on the evolution of the mental faculties of animals in 1883. The two scientists were close friends, and Darwin gave Romanes his notes on psychology to use in his studies. Much of the book is devoted to instinct, and contained in the appendix is a posthumous essay by Darwin on the subject, originally intended for a later edition of On the Origin of Species. Romanes' method of using anecdotal evidence over empirical research has been criticised, but this book stands as an influential work in the history of evolutionary biology; it was followed in 1888 by his Mental Evolution in Man (also reissued in this series), which discussed some of the most important issues of nineteenth-century evolutionary psychology.

The Power of Movement in Plants
  • Charles Darwin
  • In collaboration with Francis Darwin
  • Published online:
    29 August 2010
    Print publication:
    20 July 2009
    First published in:
    1880
  • Written in collaboration with his son Francis, a notable botanist, this 1880 book builds on Darwin's earlier investigations into climbing plants, orchids, insectivorous plants, flower variety, and the processes of fertilisation. This detailed study of many species from seed to mature plant further develops Darwin's work on adaptation and evolution, with the aim of collating the results of individual studies into common factors applicable to plants in general. Particular emphasis is given to analysis and investigation of the process here termed circumnutation, the movement of the stem of the plant in order to direct the head in certain directions. This is seen as of paramount importance, with the conclusion that it is modification of this feature that has enabled plants to adapt and evolve so diversely. The authors also note similarities between plants and animals, such as sensitivity to touch and habit of action at certain times.

Erasmus Darwin
  • Ernst Krause, Charles Robert Darwin
  • Translated by William Sweetland Dallas
  • Published online:
    29 August 2010
    Print publication:
    24 September 2009
    First published in:
    1879
  • The author of this life of Erasmus Darwin, published in 1879, is given as Ernst Krause (1839–1903) a German biologist, but in fact more than half the book is a 'preliminary notice' by Charles Darwin, who explains in the preface that he has written it because of his access to family papers which add 'to the knowledge of Erasmus Darwin's character'. Krause wrote his original article in a German periodical because, in turn, he was intrigued by a reference made by Charles Darwin in the later editions of On the Origin of Species to his grandfather's anticipation in his Zoonomia (also reissued in this series) of Lamarckian theory: 'I thought immediately ... that this ancestor of his must certainly deserve considerable credit in connection with the history of the Darwinian theory.' The German text was translated by W. S. Dallas, who had previously collaborated with Darwin as both indexer and translator.

Tropical Nature and Other Essays
  • Alfred Russel Wallace
  • Published online:
    05 March 2014
    Print publication:
    06 June 2013
    First published in:
    1878
  • Sometimes referred to as 'the grand old man of science', Alfred Russel Wallace (1823–1913) was a naturalist, evolutionary theorist, and friend of Charles Darwin. In this study of tropical flora and fauna, he takes the reader on a tour of the equatorial forest belt - the almost continuous band of forest that stretches around the world between the tropics. There, chameleon-like caterpillars alter the colours of their cocoons, parasitical trees override their hosts with spectacular aerial root systems, and some of the most pressing questions of Victorian evolutionary science arise: how do animals and plants come to be brightly coloured? Can their adaptations provide clues about past geological eras? And was Darwin wholly correct in his theory of sexual selection? First published in 1878, Wallace's book is a skilfully written reflection of contemporary naturalism, still highly readable and relevant to students in the history of science.

Life and Habit
  • Samuel Butler
  • Published online:
    29 August 2010
    Print publication:
    20 July 2009
    First published in:
    1878
  • William Bateson claimed at the Darwin Centenary in 1909 that Samuel Butler (1835–1902) was 'the most brilliant and by far the most interesting of Darwin's opponents, whose works are at length emerging from oblivion.' Best remembered today as the author of the novels Erewhon and The Way of All Flesh, he also wrote on a range of subjects from translations of Homer to studies of evolutionary thought. In his Life and Habit (published in 1878) Butler contended that much of inheritance was based on habit making a feature ingrained, to the extent that it could pass between generations. However, he strongly contests Darwin's views on natural selection, and supports those of Lamarck – who he felt was unjustly overlooked in the scientific rush to acclaim Darwin – and of St George Mivart, whose On the Genesis of Species, published in 1871, was another blast against natural selection by a disenchanted Darwinist.

The Different Forms of Flowers on Plants of the Same Species
  • Charles Darwin
  • Published online:
    05 July 2011
    Print publication:
    30 September 2010
    First published in:
    1877
  • After the publication of On the Origin of Species in 1859 Darwin became fascinated with the potential for botanical experiments to provide evidence for the process of evolution. First published in 1877, this volume is based on a series of papers concerning heterostylous plants (species which produce different types of flowers) originally published in the Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnaen Society in 1862. Linnaeus had divided the sexual relations of flowers into four groups, which Darwin uses as the structure for this volume. Darwin examines in detail plants which produce different flower forms, presenting his conclusions in terms of adaptive evolution and so providing the first functional interpretation of heterostyly. He demonstrates that these plants are adapted for cross-fertilisation, not self-fertilisation as was widely believed. The concepts which Darwin introduces in this volume continue to provide the basis for research into plant reproductive biology.

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