书名：The Origin of Species物种起源

难度：Lexile蓝思阅读指数1430
作者：Charles Darwin
出版社名称：Harper Collins
出版时间：2011
语种：英文
ISBN：9780007902231
商品尺寸：11.1 x 4.1 x 17.8 cm
包装：简装
页数：604 （以实物为准）

达尔文是在“贝格尔号”舰上担任博物学家时进行的五年航海考查时期，通过考查和对比各地的物种性状，得到了物种渐变的结论。航海结束后，达尔文又通过搜集动物和植物在家养条件下发生变异的材料，根据人工选择的原理得到了自然选择的思想。遗传变异、生存斗争、自然选择学说是《物种起源》一书的主要内容。
推荐理由：
1.《物种起源》是进化与遗传的全面考察和经典阐述；
2.《物种起源》让生物学建立在完全科学的基础上，彻底推翻了“神创论”和“物种不变论”，成为震撼世界的十部杰作之一；
3.美国《生活》杂志评为有史以来很值得读的图书，法国《读书》杂志推荐的理想传世藏书；
4.柯林斯经典系列，含历史背景及作者介绍（Life & Times），后附英语词汇注释（Glossary of Classic Literature），生词表采用《柯林斯英语词典》的解释，有助于读者学习理解；
5.轻型环保纸印刷，小巧轻便，方便随身携带阅读。
“How fleeting are the wishes and efforts of man! how short his time! and consequently how poor will his products be, compared with those accumulated by nature during whole geological periods.” 
Still considered one of the most important and groundbreaking works of science ever written, Darwin’s eminently readable exploration of the evolutionary process challenged most of the strong beliefs of the Western world. Forced to question the idea of the Creator, mid-nineteenth century readers were faced with Darwin’s theories on the laws of natural selection and the randomness of evolution, causing massive controversy at the time. However, Darwin’s theories remain instrumental in providing the backbone to modern biology today. 
HarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics.
Features:
·Life & Times— a fascinating insight into the author, their work and the time ofpublication
·Glossary of Classic Literature—useful words and phrases at your fingertips, taken fromCollins English Dictionary 
Review:
“The most influential book in science gets a face-lift with some amazing graphics and Quammen’s erudite editing.” ——Library Journal (The Best Sci-Tech books of 2008)
“The perfect way to become acquainted with the authentic voice of the greatest biologist of all time, in a context provided by one of the finest scientific writers of today.” ——Gregory A. Petsko, European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) Journal

Charles Darwin查尔斯•达尔文，英国博物学家、生物学家，进化论的奠基人。达尔文曾以博物学家的身份参加了英国派遣的环球航行，做了五年的科学考察。经过潜心研究，出版了震动整个学术界的《物种起源》，提出了“生物进化论”学说，从而摧毁了各种唯心的“神造论”和“物种不变论”。“进化论”被学界誉为19世纪自然科学的三大发现之一。其著作还有《人类起源与性选择》《人类和动物情感的表达》《贝格尔号航行期内的动物志》《贝格尔号航行期内的地质学》等。
Charles Darwin (1809–19 April 1882) is considered the most important English naturalist of all time. He established the theories of natural selection and evolution. His theory of evolution was published asOn the Origin of Species in 1859, and by the 1870s it was widely accepted as fact. 

Chapter One   Variation Under Domestication
Causes of Variability—Effects of Habit—Correlation of Growth—Inheritance—Character of Domestic Varieties—Difficulty of distinguishing between Varieties and Species—Origin of Domestic Varieties from one or more Species—Domestic Pigeons, their Differences and Origin—Principle of Selection anciently followed, its Effects—Methodical and Unconscious Selection—Unknown Origin of our Domestic Productions—Circumstances favourable to Man’s power of Selection
WHEN WE look to the individuals of the same variety or sub-variety of our older cultivated plants and animals, one of the first points which strikes us, is, that they generally differ much more from each other, than do the individuals of any one species or variety in a state of nature. When we reflect on the vast diversity of the plants and animals which have been cultivated, and which have varied during all ages under the most different climates and treatment, I think we are driven to conclude that this greater variability is simply due to our domestic productions having been raised under conditions of life not so uniform as, and somewhat different from, those to which the parent species have been exposed under nature. There is, also, I think, some probability in the view propounded by Andrew Knight, that this variability may be partly connected with excess of food. It seems pretty clear that organic beings must be exposed during several generations to the new conditions of life to cause any appreciable amount of variation; and that when the organisation has once begun to vary, it generally continues to vary for many generations. No case is on record of a variable being ceasing to be variable under cultivation. Our oldest cultivated plants, such as wheat, still often yield new varieties: our oldest domesticated animals are still capable of rapid improvement or modification.
It has been disputed at what period of life the causes of variability, whatever they may be, generally act; whether during the early or late period of development of the embryo, or at the instant of conception. Geoffroy St. Hilaire’s experiments show that unnatural treatment of the embryo causes monstrosities; and monstrosities cannot be separated by any clear line of distinction from mere variations. But I am strongly inclined to suspect that the most frequent cause of variability may be attributed to the male and female reproductive elements having been affected prior to the act of conception. Several reasons make me believe in this; but the chief one is the remarkable effect which confinement or cultivation has on the functions of the reproductive system; this system appearing to be far more susceptible than any other part of the organization, to the action of any change in the conditions of life. Nothing is more easy than to tame an animal, and few things more difficult than to get it to breed freely under confinement, even in the many cases when the male and female unite. How many animals there are which will not breed, though living long under not very close confinement in their native country! This is generally attributed to vitiated instincts; but how many cultivated plants display the utmost vigour, and yet rarely or never seed! In some few such cases it has been found out that very trifling changes, such as a little more or less water at some particular period of growth, will determine whether or not the plant sets a seed. I cannot here enter on the copious details which I have collected on this curious subject; but to show how singular the laws are which determine the reproduction of animals under confinement, I may just mention that carnivorous animals, even from the tropics, breed in this country pretty freely under confinement, with the exception of the plantigrades or bear family; whereas, carnivorous birds, with the rarest exceptions, hardly ever lay fertile eggs. Many exotic plants have pollen utterly worthless, in the same exact condition as in the most sterile hybrids. When, on the one hand, we see domesticated animals and plants, though often weak and sickly, yet breeding quite freely under confinement; and when, on the other hand, we see individuals, though taken young from a state of nature, perfectly tamed, long-lived, and healthy (of which I could give numerous instances), yet having their reproductive system so seriously affected by unperceived causes as to fail in acting, we need not be surprised at this system, when it does act under confinement, acting not quite regularly, and producing offspring not perfectly like their parents or variable.
Sterility has been said to be the bane of horticulture; but on this view we owe variability to the same cause which produces sterility; and variability is the source of all the choicest productions of the garden. I may add, that as some organisms will breed most freely under the most unnatural conditions (for instance, the rabbit and ferret kept in hutches), showing that their reproductive system has not been thus affected; so will some animals and plants withstand domestication or cultivation, and vary very slightly—perhaps hardly more than in a state of nature.
A long list could easily be given of ‘sporting plants;’ by this term gardeners mean a single bud or offset, which suddenly assumes a new and sometimes very different character from that of the rest of the plant. Such buds can be propagated by grafting, &c., and sometimes by seed. These ‘sports’ are extremely rare under nature, but far from rare under cultivation; and in this case we see that the treatment of the parent has affected a bud or offset, and not the ovules or pollen. But it is the opinion of most physiologists that there is no essential difference between a bud and an ovule in their earliest stages of formation; so that, in fact, ‘sports’ support my view, that variability may be largely attributed to the ovules or pollen, or to both, having been affected by the treatment of the parent prior to the act of conception. These cases anyhow show that variation is not necessarily connected, as some authors have supposed, with the act of generation.