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Front Page Titles (by Subject) The Term, Struggle for Existence, used in a large sense. - The Origin of Species by means of natural selection or the preservation of favored races in the struggle for life, vol. 1
The Term, Struggle for Existence, used in a large sense. - Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species by means of natural selection or the preservation of favored races in the struggle for life, vol. 1 [1859]Edition used:The Origin of Species by means of natural selection or the preservation of favored races in the struggle for life, with additions and corrections from the sixth and last English edition, in two volumes (New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1896). Volume 1.
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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.
The Term, Struggle for Existence, used in a large sense.
I should premise that I use this term in a large and metaphorical sense including dependence of one being on another, and including (which is more important) not only the life of the individual, but success in leaving progeny. Two canine animals, in a time of dearth, may be truly said to struggle with each other which shall get food and live. But a plant on the edge of a desert is said to struggle for life against the drought, though more properly it should be said to be dependent on the moisture. A plant which annually produces a thousand seeds, of which only one of an average comes to maturity, may be more truly said to struggle with the plants of the same and other kinds which already clothe the ground. The mistletoe is dependent on the apple and a few other trees, but can only in a far-fetched sense be said to struggle with these trees, for, if too many of these parasites grow on the same tree, it languishes and dies. But several seedling mistletoes, growing close together on the same branch, may more truly be said to struggle with each other. As the mistletoe is disseminated by birds, its existence depends on them; and it may metaphorically be said to struggle with other fruit-bearing plants, in tempting the birds to devour and thus disseminate its seeds. In these several senses, which pass into each other, I use for convenience’ sake the general term of Struggle for Existence.
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