ENGLISH

The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication

By Charles Darwin

Book information

Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Year
2010
ISBN
9780511709500, 9781108014229
DOI
10.1017/CBO9780511709500
Google Books ID
hAwP6_TuluMC
Language
english
Format
PDF
Filesize
9 MB (9442509 bytes)
Series
Cambridge Library Collection - Life Sciences
Volume
Volume 1
Pages
424\424
Orientation
yes
Scanned
yes
Time added
2011-08-31 04:54:40

Description

Charles Darwin (1809-1882) first published this work in 1868 in two volumes. The book began as an expansion of the first two chapters of On the Origin of Species: 'Variation under Domestication' and 'Variation under Nature', and it developed into one of his largest works; Darwin referred to it as his 'big book'. Volume 1 deals with the variations introduced into species as a result of domestication, through changes in climate, diet, breeding and an absence of predators. He began with an examination of dogs and cats, comparing them with their wild counterparts, and moved on to investigate horses and asses; pigs, cattle, sheep, and goats; domestic rabbits; domestic pigeons; fowl; and finally cultivated plants. The work is a masterpiece of nineteenth-century scientific investigation; it is a key text in the development of Darwin's own thought and of the wider discipline of evolutionary biology.

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