RECORD: Darwin, C. R. [c.1841]. 'the percentage system takes no account of relationship of organisms, when all species different'. (copy by Francis Darwin (1909) and original MS). CUL-DAR205.9.323. Edited by John van Wyhe (Darwin Online, http://darwin-online.org.uk/)
REVISION HISTORY: Transcribed and edited by John van Wyhe 11.2022. RN1
NOTE: Francis Darwin gave the original manuscript to T. D. A. Cockerell in July 1909 during the Darwin commemoration at Cambridge. (Now in AMNH-47-D) Francis made a copy to replace it which is now in the Darwin Archive at Cambridge University Library. A facsimile of the original manuscript was published in T. D. A. Cockerell, The Darwin celebration at Cambridge. Popular Science Monthly 76 (January 1910): 23-31 (F3515), and is transcribed below.
Reproduced with permission of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library and William Huxley Darwin. The volume CUL-DAR205.9 contains notes on palaeontology and geology [regarding theory of evolution].
[323]
[In Francis Darwin's hand:]
From portfolio on ex Palæontology & extinction (original given to Cockerells brother
Southern S. America has probably a percentage of Birds specifically the same as intertropics S of Equator, compared with Europe, hence it is closer allied by percentage system, but this can hardly be considered the case ????
If North America had no mammal identical with Europe, in same way as S. America has not, then the percentage system would not show that N. America is was incomparably closer allied with Mammifers to Europe than S. America is
It comes to this (may we not perceive a closer) that the percentage system takes no account of relationship of relationship of organisms, when all species different For instance Galapagos land Birds all different from S. America yet certainly closest alliance.
xd < > = introduced by copiest ( ) = erased by CD
[Francis Darwin used square brackets [] in his transcription which are here, as usual, changed to parentheses in scholarly transcriptions to avoid confusion with editorial square bracekts.]
[facsimile of original MS:]
[From a facsimile of the original manuscript published in Cockerell, T. D. A. 1910. The Darwin celebration at Cambridge. Popular Science Monthly 76 (January): 23-31, p. 30. In Charles Darwin's hand:]
Southern South America has probably a larger percentage of Birds, specifically same, as inter tropic S. of Equator; compared with Europe, hence it is closer allied by percentage system, but this can hardly be considered the case—????1
—
(22)2
If North America had no Mammal identical with Europe, in same way as S. America has not, then the percentage system would not show that N. America was incomparably closer allied in its Mammifers to Europe than S. America is.—
—
It comes to this may we not percieve a closer that the percentage system takes no account of relationship of organisms, when all species different.—
—
For instance Galapagos land Birds all different from S. American. Yet certainly closest alliance
—
1 Darwin also noted the "percentage system" in abstracts of Lyell's Elements of geology 2d ed. (1841) in CUL-DAR205.9.59; 130 and discussed the issue in Origin, p. 312. The original manuscript has not been located in the T.D.A. Cockerell Collection at the University of Colorado Boulder, USA.
2 The number '22' indicates that this document was filed by Darwin in his portfolio for the subject of Palaeontology: extinction.
Citation: John van Wyhe, ed. 2002-. The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online. (http://darwin-online.org.uk/)
File last updated 18 October, 2023