Darwin The Origin Of Species example essay topic

On the Origin of Species, by Darwin, is a scientific abstract about revolutionary ideas on evolution and the diversity of species from the evolutionary process. This book was originally a personal journal while Darwin was touring onboard the ship H.M.S. Beagle as the naturalist. The ship sailed along the west coast of South America and stopped by islands that were later called the Galapagos Islands. Darwin discovered new sub-divisions of species that were on mainland South America and started hypothesizing on how so many different kinds of sub-divisions could occur. He eventually formed the journal into an informal scientific abstract and let colleagues, who later urged Darwin to publish the abstract, read and critique his ideas. The book was published in 1859 and within fifteen years of the publication the majority of the scientific community accepted Darwin's ideas as fact.

Darwin wrote on his ideas that included new insights on the processes of evolution, gradualism, population speciation, common descent, and natural selection. Natural selection is probably the most unique and radical idea about which Darwin wrote, but his other insights were also to play an important role in how the scientific community would view evolution and heredity from that period onward. In The Origin of Species, Charles Darwin presented his idea that species evolve from more primitive species through the process of natural selection, which occurs spontaneously in nature. In his theory of how natural selection occurs, known as Darwinism, he pointed out that not all individuals of a species are exactly the same. But, rather that individuals have variations and that some of these variations make their bearers better adapted to particular ecological conditions.

He pointed out that most species have more chances of surviving and producing young than do less adapted, and that over the passage of time, are slowly weeded out. The accumulation of adaptations to a particular ecological system leads into the development of separate species, each adapted to its own ecological area. In 1837, Darwin began work on the concept that evolution is essentially brought about by three principles. The first being variation which is present in all life forms. However, he did not attempt to define it. The second principle is heredity, the conservative force which transmits similar organic forms from one generation to another (2: 57).

Lastly, the struggle for existence determines which variations will survive in a given environment, thus altering life through a selective death rate (2: 57-58). He concluded that with all three factors combined that life will alter slowly and unnoticeably. Francis Galton, cousin of Charles Darwin, first used the term Eugenics in his book Inquiries into Human Faculty and Development published in 1883. The word Eugenics is described as the science of improving the population by controlled breeding for desirable inherited characteristics and comes from the Greek for good breeding or good life.

Although Galton initially studied medicine, he later chose to study mathematics and he also became a fervent advocate of social policies which encouraged supposedly superior beings to have children and discouraged lesser people from doing so. Galton first became interested in Eugenics after reading Darwin The Origin of Species. In the book, successful breeding is judged by the number of offspring an organism produces. However, based on this theory, it seemed to Galton that it was the inferior people who had the largest amount of offspring and he thought that this seemed to spoil and not improve our breed. Galton wrote two books- Hereditary Genius (1869) and Natural Inheritance (1889). He examined the family trees of various families of importance and recorded the occurrence of men appearing in the same lines.

Galton never even thought about the fact that social opportunities were more readily available to the upper class- he just presumed that genius was passed on through genes. Galton was not just merely interested in the subject though. He wholeheartedly believed that there should be a system put in place to eradicate, what was is his mind, the inferior race. He proposed that a register of suitable families should be made so that the superior offspring could marry and reproduce and even went as far to suggest a financial incentive should be offered to help create a worthier race.

In previous decades there was a large shift in population as people migrated into the countryside. This was believed to have reduced the negative effects of crowded city life on peoples health and mentality etc. however, towards the end of the century these migrations became less common and people feared that the lower classes would settle and breed, re-opening the previous fears / problems. The main concerns for the Eugenicists were a group referred to as the residuum. They were a nineteenth century version of the underclass that was thought to have been a product of industrialization. They were described as dangerous, work-shy, drunken and riotous. They were also blamed for Britains failure to maintain its economic supremacy and the lack of recruits entering the army.

What the Eugenicists found most disturbing was that the condition was though to be inheritable. As a solution, The Eugenic Society suggested segregation of the mentally defective, alcoholics and chronic poor into institutions to prevent them from breeding and this was not seen as extreme. Because the Eugenicists believed that the residuum were a hereditary group they argued that controlling them through scientific methods was a more modernized version of natural selection and they thought they would be making a breakthrough by using artificial selection. Surprisingly, the Governments were not totally adverse to this. For example, in 1913 the Mental Deficiency Act allowed the compulsory detention of defectives in whose case it is desirable in the interests of the community that they be deprived of the opportunity for procreating children.