RECORD: Darwin, C. R. [1858.10.23-11.13]. Draft of Origin of species, Sect. VI, folio 204. AMNH-RF-18-H. Edited by John van Wyhe (Darwin Online, http://darwin-online.org.uk/)
REVISION HISTORY: Transcribed by Christine Chua and John van Wyhe, edited by John van Wyhe 11.2022. RN3
NOTE: See record in the Darwin Online manuscript catalogue, enter its Identifier here. Reproduced with permission of the American Museum of Natural History (Asset ID: 100080387, AMNH Library) and William Huxley Darwin. The manuscript was given to Henry Fairfield Osborn, president of the American Museum of Natural History, by Darwin's son, Leonard Darwin, on 21 September 1922. It was first published in 1924 in Natural History 24, no. 1 (January-February): 116-17. F3520 PDF: "The manuscript, as well as the copy of the original edition of The Origin of Species, has been mounted and placed on exhibition in Darwin hall, American Museum, beside the bust of the great naturalist." The AMNH library catalogue states "Gift of H.E. Litchfield, Charles Darwin's daughter, Feb. 1916. Gift note (on verso of sheet) signed Leonard Darwin, Aug. 1922. In portfolio, 49 x 33 cm.; in box (35 x 60 x 5 cm.) with Erasmus Darwin's letter to Joseph Banks." The inconsistency between Litchfield 1916 and Darwin 1922 is not explained.
See the introduction to the Origin of species drafts by John van Wyhe
The text of the draft corresponds to Origin, Chapter VI, Difficulties on theory, pp. 187-8. [word at page break in green]
[204]
(204
Sect VI. Highly perfect organs
, branching off in two fundamentally different lines, can be shown to exist, until we reach the eyes a high stage of perfection. in c Certain crustacea have, for instance, have a double cornea, the inner one divided into facets, within each of which there is a lens-shaped swelling; in other cases, also, the transparent cones also not rarely coated by pigment, which properly act only by excluding all lateral pencil pencils of light, are rounded convex at their upper extremities, & must com act by convergence; & at their lower extremities there seems to be sometimes a vitreous substance. With these facts, (here only just alluded to) & bearing in mind how small the number of living animals must be are to those which have become extinct, I can see no very great difficulty, not more than in the case of many other structures, in natural selection converting an optic nerve merely coated by pigments, & inverted by transparent membranes, into as perfect an optical instrument as is possessed by any member of the great articulate class.)
He who will go thus far; if on finishing this treatise he thinks, large bodies of facts otherwise inexplicable are explained by the theory of descent & natural selection, ought not to hesitate even when he considers even such a structure as the eye of the eagle; though in
[204v]
[Gift note signed Leonard Darwin, Aug. 1922]
Citation: John van Wyhe, ed. 2002-. The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online. (http://darwin-online.org.uk/)
File last updated 24 November, 2023