Abstract
The chapter about hybridism written by Darwin falls in the cluster of The Origin of Species which deals with the main difficulties of the theory of descent with modification through natural selection. Darwin’s goal in analyzing the phenomenon of hybridism was to debate the validity of the existence of a fundamental distinction between species and varieties; thus, this discussion addresses an integral part of the so-called species problem, which includes a set of questions about the definition of the concept of species, that is, of what a species is. In this chapter, we analyze the historical background of this debate, from Linnaeus to Kölreuter and Gärtner, and discuss the structure and arguments present in Origin’s Chapter VIII, in which Darwin tackles the problem at hand.
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02 March 2024
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Notes
- 1.
As is known, the first edition of the Origin does not contain footnotes or bibliographical references. However, the original long manuscript work on Natural Selection (edited by Stauffer in 1975), of which Origin would be the new abstract of his views, does. We will indicate in corresponding footnotes when Darwin refers to primary literature mentioned in this chapter.
- 2.
Darwin (1859) mentions Knight and in Stauffer (1975) he refers to his work. Seton and Goss are not mentioned in either Darwin (1859) or in Stauffer (1975). Darwin (1863) refers to Goss and his work. Darwin does not refer to Seton either in Darwin (1859) or Stauffer (1975). However, we find a reference to Goss’ and Seton’s results in a work referred by Darwin (Stauffer, 1975), Gärtner (1849, p. 85), but without saying that the publication (simply signed by “G,” and with changed indications of the years of experiments) is actually a German translation of Goss’ and Seton’s papers (G, 1837).
- 3.
In Darwin (1859), he mentions Linnaeus, Kölreuter, Gärtner, Herbert, and Sageret (even though erroneously named “Sagaret”; erratum corrected after the fourth edition of 1866). In Stauffer (1975), Darwin refers to the aforementioned works of Kölreuter, Sageret, Wiegmann, Herbert, Puvis, Lecoq, and Gärtner; he also refers to other works by Linnaeus.
- 4.
Darwin does not mention Linnaeus’ followers or their works.
- 5.
Nor does another hybridist who knew Darwin’s work, even if Darwin did not know his own, and who favored hybridism as a theory of speciation through hybridization, Johann (Gregor) Mendel. For the (asymmetrical) relations between Darwin and Mendel, see Lorenzano (2011).
- 6.
Furthermore, Kölreuter used the last three results against of the variants “espermatist” and “ovist” of the “preformationism” and of Linnaeus’ “two-layer theory,” and in support to the belief in the necessity of both seeds – the maternal and the paternal one – for the fecundation.
- 7.
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Lorenzano, P. (2023). Origin’s Chapter VIII: Darwin for and Against Hybridism. In: Elice Brzezinski Prestes, M. (eds) Understanding Evolution in Darwin's "Origin". History, Philosophy and Theory of the Life Sciences, vol 34. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-40165-7_19
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