Conclusion
The central role played by Darwin's analogy between selection under domestication and that under nature has been adequately appreciated, but I have indicated how important the domesticated organisms also were to other elements of Darwin's theory of evolution-his recognition of “the constant principle of change,” for instance, of the imperfection of adaptation, and of the extent of variation in nature. The further development of his theory and its presentation to the public likewise hinged on frequent reference to domesticates.
We have seen that Darwin's reliance on the analogy between domesticated varieties and wild species was a bold and original step, in light of contemporary views on the nature of domesticates. However, as Darwin undoubtedly foresaw, his reliance on the analogy created difficulties as well as solving problems, and these began with his Malthusian codiscoverer of the principle of natural selection, Alfred Russel Wallace. Wallace's paper “On the Tendency of Varieties to Depart Indefinitely from the Original Type,” presented to the Linnean Scoiety along with the first public unveiling of Darwin's theory, states: We see, then, that no inferences as to varieties in a state of nature can be deduced from the observation of those occurring among domestic animals. The two are so much opposed to each other in every circumstance of their existence, that what applies to the one is almost sure not to apply to the other. Domestic animals are abnormal, irregular, artificial; they are subject to varieties which never occur and never can occur in a state of nature.62
Much has been made of the similarity of views of Darwin and Wallace, but this quotation surely reveals how utterly different their views were on what to Darwin was an important matter. Several critics of the Origin saw Darwin's reliance on the domesticates as his Achilles heel. As Young has pointed out, Samuel Wilberforce included the following passage in his attack on the Origin: Nor must we pass over unnoticed the transference of the argument from the domesticated to the untamed animals. Assuming that man as the selector can do much in a limited time, Mr. Darwin argues that Nature, a more powerful, a more continuous power, working over vastly extended ranges of time, can do more. But why should Nature, so uniform and persistent in all her operations, tend in this instance to change? Why should she become a selector of varieties?63
Another critic, Fleeming Jenkin, found the analogy a weakness in Darwin's theory because of the limited extent of variation in any one direction in domestic animals and plants.64 We have already seen that Darwin had confided a similar view to his notebook thirty years earlier, but changed his mind as a result of his profound study of domesticates. De Beer's reference to “an English country gentleman's knowledge of domestic plants and animals and their breeding”65 fails totally to recognize the originality and depth of Darwin's knowledge of domesticates.
Why did Darwin, against the currents of his time, rely so heavily on mankind's experience with domesticated organisms to shape his theory about species in nature? On reason is that only with domesticates was an approach that came close to experimental verification possible. Darwin fully realized the inadequacies of the experiment, as is emphasized by his repeated contrasting of selection under nature and selection by man. Yet the extensive experience and data of plant and animal breeders offered the only reliable base against which Darwin could continually challenge his views. As he wrote in the introduction to Variation, with domestication, “man ... may be said to have been trying an experiment on a gigantic scale.”66 Given Darwin's high opinion of the quantitative work of Malthus and Quetelet (as emphasized by Schweber),67 and his unremitting efforts to secure data by which to test his theories, it was inevitable that he should attach high significance to domesticated varieties. John Tyndall, in his Belfast address of 1874, said: “The strength of the doctrine of Evolution consists, not in experimental demonstration (for the subject is hardly accessible to this mode of proof), but in its general harmony with scientific thought.”68 Darwin would have agreed with the latter thought, but I think he would have challenged the preceding one on the grounds that long experience with domesticated varieties did provide an element of experimental demonstration. It gave him confidence in his theory, and he used his vast knowledge of artificial selection boldly and creatively.
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D.Kohn, “Theories to Work By: Rejected Theories, Reproduction and Darwin's Path to Natural Selection.” in Studies in History of Biology, ed. W.Coleman and C.Limoges (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1980), p. 70. However, in “Darwin's Conversion: The Beagle Voyage and its Aftermath,” (J. Hist. Biol., 15 [1982], 373 n64) F. J. Sulloway has pointed out that a footnote on the geographic distribution of species on the two sides of the Andes, probably drafted in mid-May 1837, hints at a possible evolutionary interpretation. It is also notable that the first sign of Darwin's evolutionary dialogue with himself, recorded in his Diary of the Voyage of H. M. S. Beagle (ed. N. Barlow, Cambridge University Press, 1933) during his trip to Bathurst, was one of the few significant diary passages omitted from his published journal. Contemplating the unique character of the marsupial fauna of Australia, Darwin exclaims: “Surely two distinct Creators must have been at work”; but then, contemplating the predatory technique of the local lion ant, he decides that no two workmen would “ever hit on so beautiful, so simple, and yet so artificial a contrivance” and concludes that “the one hand has surely worked throughout the universe” (p. 383).
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All references to Darwin's four Transmutation Notebooks (B-E) are to the page numbers indicated in the versions edited by de Beer and his colleagues, supplemented by the addenda, corrigenda, and recovered excised pages, but using Darwin's original labels (Part I=B, II=C, III=D, IV=E): G. de Beer, “Darwin's Notebooks on Transmutation of Species,” Part I. First Notebook (July 1837–February 1838). Bull. Brit. Mus. (Nat. Hist.) Hist. Ser., 2 (1960), 23–73; Part II. Second Notebook (February to July 1838), ibid., 2 (1960), 75–118; Part III. Third Notebook (July 15, 1838 – October 2, 1838), ibid., 2 (1960), 119–150; Part IV. Fourth Notebook (October 1838 – 10 July 1839), ibid., 2 (1960), 151–183; G. de Beer and M. J. Rowlands, Part V. Addenda and Corrigenda, ibid., 2 (1961), 185–200; G. de Beer, M. J. Rowlands, and B. M. Skaramovsky, Part VI, pages excised by Darwin, ibid., 3 (1967), 129–176.
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De Beer, “Darwin's Journal.” Kohn, Smith, and Stauffer, “New Light,” have recently reconstructed the sequence of drafts by Darwin of his “Sketch” and “Essay.” In doing so, they identify the draft published by Vorzimmer (“An Early Darwin Manuscript”) as Chapter I of Draft C of the “Sketch,” which became the original version of Chapter 1 of the 1844 “Essay.”
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Ibid., p. 35.
Ibid., p. 26; cf. also Ruse, The Darwinian Revolution, p. 184. The opinion expressed by de Beer is thoroughly challenged by Dov Ospovat in The Development of Darwin's Theory: Natural History, Natural Theology, and Natural Selection, 1838–1859 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981).
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Evans, L.T. Darwin's use of the analogy between artificial and natural selection. J Hist Biol 17, 113–140 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00397504
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00397504