On his return to England in 1836 and for the next 17 years,
Darwin worked diligently on the notes and specimens he had collected
and made new observations. He was particularly interested
in the obvious success of breeders in developing desired variations
in plant and animal stocks. He wondered if this artificial
selection of traits could have a parallel in the natural world.
Initially, Darwin was unable to find a natural process similar
to artificial selection. However, in 1838, he read an essay by
Thomas Malthus (1766–1834) entitled Essay on the Principle of
Population. Malthus believed that the human population has the
potential to increase geometrically. However, because resources
cannot keep pace with the increased demands of a burgeoning
population, population-restraining factors, such as poverty, wars,
plagues, and famine, begin to have an influence. Darwin realized
that a similar struggle to survive occurs in nature. This struggle,
when viewed over generations, could be a means of natural selection.
Traits that were detrimental for an animal would be eliminated
by the failure of the animal containing them to reproduce.
No comments:
Post a Comment