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• Additions and Corrections to the Sixth Edition.
• An Historical Sketch of the Progress of Opinion On the Origin of Species.: Previously to the Publication of the First Edition of This Work.
• Origin of Species.
• Introduction.
• Chapter I.: Variation Under Domestication.
• Causes of Variability.
• Effects of Habit and of the Use Or Disuse of Parts; Correlated Variation; Inheritance.
• Character of Domestic Varieties; Difficulty of Distinguishing Between Varieties and Species; Origin of Domestic Varieties From One Or More Species.
• Breeds of the Domestic Pigeon, Their Differences and Origin.
• Principles of Selection Anciently Followed, and Their Effects.
• Unconscious Selection.
• Circumstances Favourable to Man’s Power of Selection.
• Chapter II.: Variation Under Nature.
• Individual Differences.
• Doubtful Species.
• Wide-ranging, Much Diffused, and Common Species Vary Most.
• Species of the Larger Genera In Each Country Vary More Frequently Than the Species of the Smaller Genera.
• Many of the Species Included Within the Larger Genera Resemble Varieties In Being Very Closely, But Unequally, Related to Each Other, and In Having Restricted Ranges.
• Summary.
• Chapter III.: Struggle For Existence.
• The Term, Struggle For Existence, Used In a Large Sense.
• Geometrical Ratio of Increase.
• Nature of the Checks to Increase.
• Complex Relations of All Animals and Plants to Each Other In the Struggle For Existence.
• Struggle For Life Most Severe Between Individuals and Varieties of the Same Species.
• Chapter IV.: Natural Selection; Or the Survival of the Fittest.
• Sexual Selection.
• Illustrations of the Action of Natural Selection, Or the Survival of the Fittest
• On the Intercrossing of Individuals.
• Circumstances Favourable For the Production of New Forms Through Natural Selection.
• Extinction Caused By Natural Selection.
• Divergence of Character.
• The Probable Effects of the Action of Natural Selection Through Divergence of Character and Extinction, On the Descendants of a Common Ancestor.
• On the Degree to Which Organisation Tends to Advance.
• Convergence of Character.
• Summary of Chapter.
• Chapter V.: Laws of Variation.
• Effects of the Increased Use and Disuse of Parts, As Controlled By Natural Selection.
• Acclimatisation.
• Correlated Variation.
• Compensation and Economy of Growth.
• Multiple, Rudimentary, and Lowly-organised Structures Are Variable.
• A Part Developed In Any Species In an Extraordinary Degree Or Manner, In Comparison With the Same Part In Allied Species, Tends to Be Highly Variable.
• Specific Characters More Variable Than Generic Characters.
• Chapter VI.: Difficulties of the Theory.
• Organs of Extreme Perfection and Complication.
• Modes of Transition.
• Special Difficulties of the Theory of Natural Selection.
• Organs of Little Apparent Importance, As Affected By Natural Selection.
• Utilitarian Doctrine, How Far True: Beauty, How Acquired.
• Summary: the Law of Unity of Type and of the Conditions of Existence Embraced By the Theory of Natural Selection.
• Chapter VII.: Miscellaneous Objections to the Theory of Natural Selection.
• Chapter VIII.: Instinct.
• Inherited Changes of Habit Or Instinct In Domesticated Animals.
• Special Instincts.
• Objections to the Theory of Natural Selection As Applied to Instincts: Neuter and Sterile Insects.
• Summary.

ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS

TO THE SIXTH EDITION.

Numerous small corrections have been made in the last and present editions on various subjects, according as the evidence has become somewhat stronger or weaker. The more important corrections and some additions in the present volume are tabulated on the following page, for the convenience of those interested in the subject, and who possess the fifth edition. The second edition was little more than a reprint of the first. The third edition was largely corrected and added to, and the fourth and fifth still more largely. As copies of the present work will be sent abroad, it may be of use if I specify the state of the foreign editions. The third French and second German editions were from the third English, with some few of the additions given in the fourth edition. A new fourth French edition has been translated by Colonel Moulinié; of which the first half is from the fifth English, and the latter half from the present edition. A third German edition, under the superintendence of Professor Victor Carus, was from the fourth English edition; a fifth is now preparing by the same author from the present volume. The second American edition was from the English second, with a few of the additions given in the third; and a third American edition has been printed from the fifth English edition. The Italian is from the third, the Dutch and three Russian editions from the second English edition, and the Swedish from the fifth English edition.

Down, Beckenham, Kent,

First Edition, November 24th, 1859.

Sixth Edition, Jan. 1872.