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Genetics and the Origin of Species. Third Edition Revised, 1959, 364 pages with illustrations.
extremely rare,very good condition
Hardcover
Published January 1, 1959
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About the author
Theodosius Dobzhansky
68 books31 followersTheodosius Grygorovych Dobzhansky (Ukrainian: Теодо́сій Григо́рович Добжа́нський; Russian: Феодо́сий Григо́рьевич Добржа́нский) , Ph.D. (University of Leningrad, 1927; B.S., Biology, University of Kiev, 1921), was a prominent geneticist and evolutionary biologist, one of the central figures in modern evolutionary synthesis; his major work concerning the latter is "Genetics and the Origin of Species", published in 1937. He emigrated to the USA in 1927 on a scholarship from the Rockefeller Foundation.
Dobzhansky was the recipient of the National Medal of Science in 1964 and the Franklin Medal in 1973.
Dobzhansky was the recipient of the National Medal of Science in 1964 and the Franklin Medal in 1973.
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January 13, 2025
A ‘CLASSIC’ OF EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY AS CONCERNED WITH GENETICS
Theodosius Dobzhansky (1900-1975) was a Russian-American geneticist. He wrote in the Preface to the 3rd edition (1951) of this 1937 book, “Ten years have elapsed since the publication of the second edition of this book. This decade witnessed the convulsion of the War and the gloom of the postwar reaction. And yet, it has proved to be the most fruitful decade in the history or evolutionary thought since the appearance of Darwin’s classic in 1959… we are now witnessing the emergence of a new science of life unified by the great evolutionary idea… But biology is becoming more than a branch of technology concerned with organic materials and processes. It aspires towards understanding life and man… Evolutionary biology is a study of the dynamics of life.”
He says in the first chapter, “Man has always been fascinated by the great diversity of organisms which live in the world around him… All this diversity is at first sight staggering and bewildering. The greatest achievement of biological science to date is the demonstration that the diversity is not fortuitous. It has not arisen from a whim or caprice of some deity. It is the product of evolution, an outcome of a long historical process of development… Biology cannot fathom whether life may be a part of some Cosmic Design. But biology does show that the evolution of life on earth is governed by causes that can be understood by human reason. Darwin was the first to infer that organic diversity of environments on our planet.” (Pg. 3)
He states, “Evolutionists of the 19th century were interested primarily in demonstrating that evolution has actually taken place…. [Today] evolution as a historical process is established as thoroughly and completely as science can establish facts of the past witnessed by no human eyes. At present, an informed and reasonable person can hardly doubt that evolution has occurred. The very rare exceptions … prove only that some people have emotional biases and preconceptions strong enough to make them reject even completely established scientific findings… the mass of evidence ... to show that evolution has indeed taken place … does not concern us in this book; we take it for granted.” (Pg. 11)
He observes, “mutations induced by X-rays are different from spontaneous ones, the former being chiefly minute deficiencies due to destruction of genes. Ultraviolet-induced mutations appear to be more like those arising spontaneously… In Drosophila, X-ray induced mutations were … similar to the spontaneous mutants… however … the effects of X-rays on Drosophila genes are mostly destructive.” (Pg. 40)
He notes, “[Darwin] was able to satisfy himself that hereditary variations are always present… But the mode of their origin remained obscure to Darwin… A solution… has been arrived at in the present century. Gene mutations and chromosome changes are the sources of variation. Studies of these phenomena have been of necessity confined to the laboratory and to organisms that are satisfactory as laboratory materials. Nevertheless there can be no reasonable doubt that the same agencies have supplied the materials for the actual historical process of evolution.” (Pg. 50)
He explains, “the preservation of a living species demands a store of concealed genetic variability. This store will contain variants which under no conditions will be useful, other variants which might be useful under a set of circumstances which may never be realized, and still other variants which are neutral or harmful at the time when they arise but which will prove useful later on. Mutations which are unfavorable in a given environment may be valuable in a changed environment… species or races which become ‘well adapted’ to the point of abolishing mutability do not respond to the challenges of a shifting environment. Evolution viewed in historical perspective tends to perpetuate types which are, in a sense, not too well adapted. This long range process is a kind of selection sub specie aeternitatis.” (Pg. 74-75)
He says, “the discovery of the origin of hereditary variation through mutation accounts for the presence in natural populations of the material upon which selection acts. The greatest difficulty in Darwin’s theory of evolution, of the existence of which Darwin himself was well aware, is hereby removed.” (Pg. 76)
He states, “Races [all of them, not just human] may be defined as Mendelian populations of a species which differ in the frequencies of one or more genetic variants, gene alleles, or chromosomal structures. Race differences of diverse orders of magnitude are observed. The populations of the elevational belts in the Sierra Nevada of California are racially distinct… although they live only a few miles apart and contain qualitatively the same genetic variants.” (Pg. 138-139)
He notes, “early ideas about the role of isolation confused two different problems. First, the differences between individuals and populations may be due to a single gene or a single chromosome change. Such differences can not be swamped by crossing, since, in the offspring of a hybrid, segregation takes place and the ancestral traits reappear unmodified... The second class of differences is genetically more complex. Races and species usually differ from each other in many genes and chromosomal alterations. Interbreeding of races and species results in a breakdown of these systems, although the gene differences as such are preserved. Hence, the maintenance of species and races as distinct populations without isolation is impossible.” (Pg. 179)
He observes, “In sexual and cross-fertilizing species, a great difficulty is encountered in the establishment of any reproductive isolating mechanism in a single mutational step. Since mutants appear in populations at first as heterozygotes, inviable and sterile heterozygotes are eliminated, regardless of how well adapted might be the corresponding homozygotes. This consideration is fatal to Goldschmidt’s theory [in ‘The Material Basis of Evolution’] of evolution by ‘systemic’ mutations.” (Pg. 203)
He summarizes, “organic diversity may be considered an outcome of the adaptation of life to the diversity of the environments on our planet. This is, in fact, the cardinal working hypothesis of the modern evolutionary thought. The evidence furnished by genetics and by other biological disciplines bears out, in the opinion of most evolutionists, the validity of the hypothesis. The symbolic representation … of the relationships between the environment and the genetic systems of its inhabitants suggests further corollaries of the basic hypothesis.” (Pg. 254)
He points out, “Biologists are justly impressed by the convergent formation of similar adaptive types, such as American cacti and the African euphorbias, in similar biota in different parts of the world. No less impressive is the fact that such adaptive types are often absent in environments where they could be formed. Their absence shows that evolutionary history, like human history, is essentially unrepeatable and irreversible.” (Pg. 279)
In the final chapter, he asserts, “Ostensibly there is a basic clash in human nature. Mankind is a biological species which belongs to the animal kingdom. But man is also the creator and the creature of his society and of his cultural heritage. And, finally, the inspiration of the mystics sees man in still a third light---that of the Son of God. The intellectual history of mankind can be written in terms of shifting emphasis on one or the other of these aspects of the human nature. And the history of human error could well be portrayed in terms of attempts to understand everything, instead of something, about man by investigation of only one of these aspects to the exclusion of the others. In particular, the study of human evolution has often been handicapped by this ... blindness. Darwin’s affirmation that man is a part of nature seemed to many of his contemporaries, and still seems to some misguided souls, downright blasphemy. Ninety years after the publication of ‘The Origin of Species’ a school of dialectical materialism has proclaimed a dogma that considering man a biological species ‘degrades him to the level of a beast.’” (Pg. 303-304)
He concludes, “students of culture are in substantial agreement that the interpersonal relationships established in a given culture are the most important determinants of an individual’s personality… Since these relationships are highly variable, the more so the more advanced becomes a culture, an endless diversity of human personalities is the outcome. The biological meaning of the diversity on the biological level, is adaptation to the variety of the environments which the organism encounters or creates. The evolution of life has only one discernible goal, and that is life itself.” (Pg. 309)
This influential book will be of great interest to students of evolutionary theory.
Theodosius Dobzhansky (1900-1975) was a Russian-American geneticist. He wrote in the Preface to the 3rd edition (1951) of this 1937 book, “Ten years have elapsed since the publication of the second edition of this book. This decade witnessed the convulsion of the War and the gloom of the postwar reaction. And yet, it has proved to be the most fruitful decade in the history or evolutionary thought since the appearance of Darwin’s classic in 1959… we are now witnessing the emergence of a new science of life unified by the great evolutionary idea… But biology is becoming more than a branch of technology concerned with organic materials and processes. It aspires towards understanding life and man… Evolutionary biology is a study of the dynamics of life.”
He says in the first chapter, “Man has always been fascinated by the great diversity of organisms which live in the world around him… All this diversity is at first sight staggering and bewildering. The greatest achievement of biological science to date is the demonstration that the diversity is not fortuitous. It has not arisen from a whim or caprice of some deity. It is the product of evolution, an outcome of a long historical process of development… Biology cannot fathom whether life may be a part of some Cosmic Design. But biology does show that the evolution of life on earth is governed by causes that can be understood by human reason. Darwin was the first to infer that organic diversity of environments on our planet.” (Pg. 3)
He states, “Evolutionists of the 19th century were interested primarily in demonstrating that evolution has actually taken place…. [Today] evolution as a historical process is established as thoroughly and completely as science can establish facts of the past witnessed by no human eyes. At present, an informed and reasonable person can hardly doubt that evolution has occurred. The very rare exceptions … prove only that some people have emotional biases and preconceptions strong enough to make them reject even completely established scientific findings… the mass of evidence ... to show that evolution has indeed taken place … does not concern us in this book; we take it for granted.” (Pg. 11)
He observes, “mutations induced by X-rays are different from spontaneous ones, the former being chiefly minute deficiencies due to destruction of genes. Ultraviolet-induced mutations appear to be more like those arising spontaneously… In Drosophila, X-ray induced mutations were … similar to the spontaneous mutants… however … the effects of X-rays on Drosophila genes are mostly destructive.” (Pg. 40)
He notes, “[Darwin] was able to satisfy himself that hereditary variations are always present… But the mode of their origin remained obscure to Darwin… A solution… has been arrived at in the present century. Gene mutations and chromosome changes are the sources of variation. Studies of these phenomena have been of necessity confined to the laboratory and to organisms that are satisfactory as laboratory materials. Nevertheless there can be no reasonable doubt that the same agencies have supplied the materials for the actual historical process of evolution.” (Pg. 50)
He explains, “the preservation of a living species demands a store of concealed genetic variability. This store will contain variants which under no conditions will be useful, other variants which might be useful under a set of circumstances which may never be realized, and still other variants which are neutral or harmful at the time when they arise but which will prove useful later on. Mutations which are unfavorable in a given environment may be valuable in a changed environment… species or races which become ‘well adapted’ to the point of abolishing mutability do not respond to the challenges of a shifting environment. Evolution viewed in historical perspective tends to perpetuate types which are, in a sense, not too well adapted. This long range process is a kind of selection sub specie aeternitatis.” (Pg. 74-75)
He says, “the discovery of the origin of hereditary variation through mutation accounts for the presence in natural populations of the material upon which selection acts. The greatest difficulty in Darwin’s theory of evolution, of the existence of which Darwin himself was well aware, is hereby removed.” (Pg. 76)
He states, “Races [all of them, not just human] may be defined as Mendelian populations of a species which differ in the frequencies of one or more genetic variants, gene alleles, or chromosomal structures. Race differences of diverse orders of magnitude are observed. The populations of the elevational belts in the Sierra Nevada of California are racially distinct… although they live only a few miles apart and contain qualitatively the same genetic variants.” (Pg. 138-139)
He notes, “early ideas about the role of isolation confused two different problems. First, the differences between individuals and populations may be due to a single gene or a single chromosome change. Such differences can not be swamped by crossing, since, in the offspring of a hybrid, segregation takes place and the ancestral traits reappear unmodified... The second class of differences is genetically more complex. Races and species usually differ from each other in many genes and chromosomal alterations. Interbreeding of races and species results in a breakdown of these systems, although the gene differences as such are preserved. Hence, the maintenance of species and races as distinct populations without isolation is impossible.” (Pg. 179)
He observes, “In sexual and cross-fertilizing species, a great difficulty is encountered in the establishment of any reproductive isolating mechanism in a single mutational step. Since mutants appear in populations at first as heterozygotes, inviable and sterile heterozygotes are eliminated, regardless of how well adapted might be the corresponding homozygotes. This consideration is fatal to Goldschmidt’s theory [in ‘The Material Basis of Evolution’] of evolution by ‘systemic’ mutations.” (Pg. 203)
He summarizes, “organic diversity may be considered an outcome of the adaptation of life to the diversity of the environments on our planet. This is, in fact, the cardinal working hypothesis of the modern evolutionary thought. The evidence furnished by genetics and by other biological disciplines bears out, in the opinion of most evolutionists, the validity of the hypothesis. The symbolic representation … of the relationships between the environment and the genetic systems of its inhabitants suggests further corollaries of the basic hypothesis.” (Pg. 254)
He points out, “Biologists are justly impressed by the convergent formation of similar adaptive types, such as American cacti and the African euphorbias, in similar biota in different parts of the world. No less impressive is the fact that such adaptive types are often absent in environments where they could be formed. Their absence shows that evolutionary history, like human history, is essentially unrepeatable and irreversible.” (Pg. 279)
In the final chapter, he asserts, “Ostensibly there is a basic clash in human nature. Mankind is a biological species which belongs to the animal kingdom. But man is also the creator and the creature of his society and of his cultural heritage. And, finally, the inspiration of the mystics sees man in still a third light---that of the Son of God. The intellectual history of mankind can be written in terms of shifting emphasis on one or the other of these aspects of the human nature. And the history of human error could well be portrayed in terms of attempts to understand everything, instead of something, about man by investigation of only one of these aspects to the exclusion of the others. In particular, the study of human evolution has often been handicapped by this ... blindness. Darwin’s affirmation that man is a part of nature seemed to many of his contemporaries, and still seems to some misguided souls, downright blasphemy. Ninety years after the publication of ‘The Origin of Species’ a school of dialectical materialism has proclaimed a dogma that considering man a biological species ‘degrades him to the level of a beast.’” (Pg. 303-304)
He concludes, “students of culture are in substantial agreement that the interpersonal relationships established in a given culture are the most important determinants of an individual’s personality… Since these relationships are highly variable, the more so the more advanced becomes a culture, an endless diversity of human personalities is the outcome. The biological meaning of the diversity on the biological level, is adaptation to the variety of the environments which the organism encounters or creates. The evolution of life has only one discernible goal, and that is life itself.” (Pg. 309)
This influential book will be of great interest to students of evolutionary theory.
Displaying 1 of 1 review