On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin, 1859 - Part 1

For me, the ideas contained within the Origin of Species are so ingrained and logical that it’s not surprising the hardest thing about finally reading this book is to grasp and put into context the tenets that Darwin challenged.  The first one that whalloped me is that at the time of its writing people believed that every species bred true.  And that for every domestic species there was a correlating wild one.

What?

Think about that for a second.  Every domestic species had a wild counterpart that also bred true.  I think this bears repeating.

What?

So that meant there were wild poodles, right?  OMG.  It’s hard to fathom anyone laboring under this idea.  First of all...where were they then, the wild poodles?  And couldn’t anyone see what they were doing to domestic species?  I mean really, were they blind?  Darwin used an example of a King Charles Terrier (I think or some similar breed) that was painted with its owner in the 1600s.  Another painting done in the 1800s features the same dog, but you’d be hard pressed to guess that without knowing.  Couldn’t they see that even when we tried to breed them true, animals changed?

Here’s another example; there is no wild corn.  

Nope.  None.  It’s entirely a man-made plant.  And an American-man-made plant at that.

Using pigeons as examples, Darwin set out to experiment with the birds to understand the dynamics of heredity, variation and mutation.  Amidst protests he declared there was but one wild pigeon - the Rock Pigeon - and then proved it by a series of experiments and observation.  Now through genetic profiling we know that all pigeon breeds descended from this species, but back then it was tougher.  One of the major proofs is that if you let any domesticated species go feral, they will lose the special features cultivated by man and revert to a much wilder form.  Markings and proportions of the Rock Pigeon came out after only a few generations of cross breeding in Darwin’s aviary.  You can see the same thing happen with feral populations all around the world; pigs, dogs most especially. 

Up to this point I understood things well and reading wasn’t too difficult.  Then in Chapter 4 I started having to read things over and over to grasp them.  I even read passages out loud several times.  Sometimes the word usage has changed enough over the last 150 years to obscure things and makes some sentences hard to figure out.  With larger context I was able to get to the bottom of things, but it wasn’t easy sometimes.  

There are some funny asides Darwin puts into the book that are either norms for the day or his particular personality quirks.  He insisted that this book was a mere abstract of a much larger work he intended to publish one day and so many times he says that while he could go into a lot more detail, he wouldn’t because he hadn’t the time or space.  Funny.  He also calls out other scientists, naturalists and authors, sometimes to good, sometimes to ill.  The main force of these asides is to illustrate how serious he took the work and how rigorous his approach as compared to some others.  Even though he intended this book to be read by a general audience, he was propping up his findings with good scientific practices and documenting that they indeed took place.

I’ve learned not to read the accompanying side-bars along with the main text right when they appear.  They’re usually excerpts from the Voyage of the Beagle and are interesting in their own right, but disrupt the scientific flow of ideas.  Now I save them to a logical break point.  I believe they are placed in a chronological way that has some tie to the main narrative; that certain ideas or points of clarity had their origins at that place or time.  I think most or all of that book is included with this one and the illustrations as well.  It really makes this edition very special.

As I go, I’m also taking notes to summarize his ideas and declarations so that I have them fully understood.  Reminds me of being in school again, only this time I understand note-taking better and can do a more effective job.  So far this has been a rewarding experience.  Not without effort though, that’s for sure.  This is not an effortless read, but an effortful one.   I don’t know how  many other people like this approach to a book.  I so often hear that people just want an easy escape from reality, but I am happy that I’m working on something like this.  That it does make me discipline my reading and understanding.  

Anyway, that’s it for now.  If you want me to put the notes I was talking about here, let me know.