Charles Darwin, Edward Blyth, and the Theory of Natural Selection Author(s): Loren C. Eiseley and A. Grote Source: Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 103, No. 1 (Feb. 28, 1959), pp. 94-158 Published by: American Philosophical Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/985383 . Accessed: 24/10/2013 12:44 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. American Philosophical Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 150.135.118.112 on Thu, 24 Oct 2013 12:44:27 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions CHARLES DARWIN, EDWARD BLYTH, AND THE THEORY OF NATURAL SELECTION LOREN C. EISELEY Professorof Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania CONTENTS voyage of the Beagle. On her deck, impatient PAGE for the sight of home was a tall, spare young I. Introduction.............................. 94 man with the brooding eyes of a philosopher. II. Edward Blyth............................. 96 He had looked much upon savage men and III. Clues to Darwin's knowledge of Blyth........ 97 animals in remote uncharted lands. What he IV. Blyth and natural selection................. 99 thoughtupon such matterswas destined,in turn, V. Blyth and the conservative aspect of natural selection................................. 104 to change the thinkingof the world. VI. Darwin and Malthus re-examined. 107 Already the lines which were to make that VI I. Breaking the species barrier. 108 face one of the saddest and most familiarof the VI I I. Darwin's dilemma........... .............. 111 Victorian era were beginningto show upon the man's countenance. Seasickness and in- Appendix: young somnia had marked him; in Chile he had A. Selected articles written by Edward Blyth, sufferedfrom some afflictionabout which he published in The Magazine of Natural History, 1835-1837 .............. .................. 115 was never to speak. It was Charles Darwin B. Memoir of Edward Blyth by Arthur Grote, back fromthe five-yearvoyage which had con- published in the Journal of theAsiatic Societyof vinced him of the enormous antiquity of the Bengal, August, 1875....................... 150 earth and of the changes time had wroughtin the lifewhich swarmed upon the planet's surface. ABBREVIATIONS USED IN FOOTNOTES With his own hands, Darwin had pried fromthe A: The Autobiographyof Charles Darwin, edited by Nora earth the bones of vanished creaturesrelated to Barlow, London, Collins, 1958. those of the present. He had seen man, in FO: Foundationsof theOrigin of Species, edited by Francis Darwin, Cambridge UniversityPress, 1909. almost bestial simplicity, wandering on the MLD: More Lettersof Charles Darwin, edited by Francis bleak shoresof Patagonia. Darwin and A. C. Seward, 2 vols., London, John Murray, In spite of his carefully stored specimens 1903. below decks, the young-manhad returnedfrom MNH: The Magazine of Natural History,London. ifnot completelybaffled. He N: Charles Darwin and the Voyage of the "Beagle," edited his travelspuzzled by Nora Barlow, New York, Philosophical Library, 1946 believed in evolution,or was at least impressed (this book contains the rough notebooks kept by Darwin by the theory. He had come to suspect the during the voyage). alteration of the formsof life fromage to age. 0: The Origin of Species, by Charles Darwin, 2nd edition, The mechanismwhich molded life to fitinnumer- Cambridge UniversityPress, 1935. however. PG: Principles of Geology,by Sir Charles Lyell, 4 vols., able strangeenvironments eluded him, thirdedition, London, John Murray, 1834. He had gone farenough to see that the explana- LLD: Life and Lettersof CharlesDarwin, edited by Francis tions ventured by the older discreditedevolu- Darwin, 3 vols., London, John Murray, 1888. tionistssuch as the FrenchmanLamarck would VAP: Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestica- not satisfactorilyaccount forall he had observed. tion, by Charles Darwin, 2 vols., Orange Judd & Co., New York, 1868. The delicate adaptations of organismto purpose, as seen in a hummingbirdor a woodpecker,could All of the three papers by Edward Blyth utilized ill this not be producedby such vague forcesas climate study will be indicated by date alone aftertheir first listing animal. since they were all published in The Magazine of Natural or interiorwilled effort on the part of the History. There must be something else, some other I. INTRODUCTION mechanismlying hidden beneath the surfaceof life.' ON a gloomyday in October,1836, a barnacle- etc.," encrusted ten-gun brigantine sailed into Fal- I"I came to think fromgeographical distribution, Darwin once remarked, "that species probably change; mouth Harbor, England. She was back from but foryears I was stopped dead by my utter incapability around the world in what was to become one of of seeing how every part of each creature . had become the century's most celebrated voyages-the adapted to its conditions of life" (MLD 1: 208). PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, VOL. 103,NO. 1, FEBRUARY, 1959 94 This content downloaded from 150.135.118.112 on Thu, 24 Oct 2013 12:44:27 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions VOL. 103, NO. 1, 1959] CHARLES DARWIN AND EDWARD BLYTH 95 Again and again, around and around,Darwin's of his achievement. If we are forcedby facts diaries and notebooks reveal his pursuitof the to acknowledge that a few men entertained subject. In his autobiographyhe says of the inspirationalflashes of similar thinkingbefore early period after his returnfrom the voyage: Darwin's time, we do so with discomfortand a "Nor did I ever intermitcollecting facts bearing feelingof guilt beforethat awe-inspiringfather- on the originof species; and I could sometimes image in our minds. We frequentlyprefer to do this when I could do nothingelse fromill- drop the subject or to repeat the old formulaof ness."2 Finally, by Darwin's own account, he total independentinvention. chanced to read the politicalphilosopher Thomas In being thus evasive, however,we are falsi- Malthus in October of 1838. He claimed to fying scientifichistory. We are making the have seen,in the latter'streatment of thestruggle assumptionthat one of the widest read natural- for existence among human beings, the key to ists of his day was incapable of perceivingin natural selectionin the animal world. books what he was so remarkably adept in seeing when he looked at tortoisesand finches. Being well preparedto appreciatethe strugglefor existencewhich everywhere goes on, [he said,] it To examine the sources of Darwin's thoughtis at once struckme that underthese circumstances not to deprecatethe magnitudeof his accomplish- favorablevariations would tend to be preservedand ment. It merely places that achievement in unfavorableones to be destroyed. The resultof properperspective, so that we can see how easily thiswould be the formationof new species. Here and imperceptiblythe flow of thought passes then, I had at last got a theoryby which to fromage to age, even when superficiallythere work.. .3 appear to be unrelated leaps or spectacular dissension. This account of the Darwinian discoveryhas been hallowed by tradition and reaffirmedby Darwin, with a slight twinkle,has recounted Darwin's descendants. It is true that as time how, afterthe deliveryof his and Wallace's joint has passed precursors have been located- papers beforethe Linnean Society in 1858, Pro- Darwin himselfwas led to attach an account of fessor Haughton of Dublin had commented themas a historicalintroduction to later editions "that all that was new in them was false, and of the Origin-but it has been generallyassumed what was true was old."4 Though we need not that Darwin arrived independentlyat his final join ProfessorHaughton in condemningwhat disclosure,natural selection. It was taken for was new in the papers, it is still interestingthat grantedthat Darwin was unacquainted with the the learnedgentleman seemed to catch echoes of minor anticipationsof his work which research somethingout of the past. Perhaps, after all, has revealed and that, like his great colleague his ear had not played him false. It is this very Wallace, his act of synthesiswas essentially a briefperiod, between the time when Darwin was strokeof individualgenius. rowed ashore fromthe Beagle and the opening of his firstnotebook Today, one hundredyears after the publication on the "species question" nine months later in 1837, that I wish to of the Origin, books and magazine articles by turn. In those months is contained the real the score continue to extol this point of view. secret of the Darwinian Because we are only a centuryaway froma great story. What came afterwardswas the reorientationin human thoughtit may be that merely long slow toil of buildinga greatbook. For we unconsciouslyprefer to see the formulatorof that task Darwin was preeminentlyfitted. He had the the evolutionaryhypothesis in solitarygrandeur indomitable building energy con- tained in one of his own and isolation, a modern-dayMoses descending reefsof coral. Like the with