The Origin of Species · Chapter
VII: Miscellaneous Objections to the Theory of Natural Selection explained
Darwin addresses a range of objections to natural selection, including the supposed inutility of certain structures, the difficulty of explaining incipient stages of useful organs, and the argument from stasis in Egyptian fauna.
What happens
Darwin addresses a range of objections to natural selection, including the supposed inutility of certain structures, the difficulty of explaining incipient stages of useful organs, and the argument from stasis in Egyptian fauna. He defends his theory by emphasizing the role of use and disuse, spontaneous variability, and the gradual accumulation of slight variations through selection, citing examples such as the giraffe's neck, Niata cattle, orchid flowers, and dimorphic plants. He also responds to critics like Mivart, Bronn, and Nageli, reaffirming that natural selection acts on beneficial variations under favorable conditions.
Themes in this chapter
Natural Selection and the Struggle for Existence
Darwin defends natural selection against objections, illustrating its action through examples like the giraffe's neck and Niata cattle during droughts.
Variation and Inheritance
Darwin discusses spontaneous variability and the importance of slight individual differences as the raw material for selection.
Adaptation and the Utilitarian Doctrine
The chapter examines the utility of structures previously thought useless, such as orchid flowers and dimorphic plant organs, showing they are adaptive.
Characters to notice
- Mr. Mivart
Darwin responds to Mivart's collected objections, particularly the claim that natural selection cannot account for incipient stages of useful structures.
- Bronn
Bronn's objections regarding the coexistence of varieties with parent species and the simultaneous modification of multiple parts are discussed.
- Dr. Hooker
Hooker is cited regarding the fertilization of ovules in relation to their position within the ovarium.
- Nägeli
Nageli's essay on plant structures is referenced as a source of objections about the inutility of morphological differences.
- Mr. E. Ray Lankester
Lankester's discussion on longevity and its relation to the scale of organization and natural selection is noted.
Key passages
“The giraffe, by its lofty stature, much elongated neck, fore legs, head and tongue, has its whole frame beautifully adapted for browsing on the higher branches of trees.”
The giraffe's tall body, long neck, and other features are perfectly suited for feeding on tree tops.
Darwin uses the giraffe as a prime example of adaptation through natural selection.
“All Mr. Mivart’s objections will be, or have been, considered in the present volume.”
All of Mivart's criticisms are addressed somewhere in this book.
Darwin asserts that he has systematically responded to Mivart's arguments.
“I can no more believe in this than that the well-adapted form of a racehorse or greyhound, which before the principle of selection by man was well understood, excited so much surprise in the minds of the older naturalists, can thus be explained.”
I find it as hard to accept that complex adaptations arise from chance alone as older naturalists found it to explain the form of racehorses without understanding artificial selection.
Darwin argues that natural selection, not spontaneous variability alone, explains adaptive structures.