How To Read A Book- A Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading - Mortimer J. Adler, Charles Van Doren [187]
On the slow and successive appearance of new species. On their different rates of change. Species once lost do not reappear.
Groups of species follow the same general rules in their appearance and disappearance as do single species. On extinction. On simultaneous changes in the forms of life throughout the world. On the affinities of extinct species to each other and to living species. On the state of development of ancient forms. On the succession of the same types within the same areas. Summary of preceding and present chapters.
CHAPTER XII. GEOGRAPIDCAL DISTRIBUTION
Present distribution cannot be accounted for by differences in physical conditions. Importance of barriers. Affinity of the productions of the same continent. Centres of creation. Means of dispersal by changes of climate and of the level of the land, and by occasional means. Dispersal during the glacial period. Alternate glacial periods in the north and south.
CHAPTER XIII. GEOGRAPIDCAL DISTRIBUTION, continued Distribution of fresh-water productions. On the inhabitants of oceanic islands. Absence of batrachians and of terrestrial mammals.
On the relation of the inhabitants of islands to those of the nearest mainland. On colonisation from the nearest source with subsequent modification. Summary of the last and present chapters.
CHAPTER XIV. MUTUAL AFFINITIES OF ORGANIC BEINGS, MORPHOLOGY, EMBRYOLOGY, RUDIMENTARY ORGANS
Classification, groups subordinate to groups. Natural system.
Rules and difficulties in classification, explained on the theory of Appendix B 399
descent with modification. Classification of varieties. Descent always used in classification. Analogical or adaptive characters. Affinities, general, complex, and radiating. Extinction separates and defines groups. Morphology, between members of the same class, between parts of the same individual. Embryology, laws of, explained by variations not supervening at an early age, and being inherited at a corresponding age. Rudimentary organs: their origin explained. Summary.
CHAPTER XV. RECAPITULATION AND CoNCLUSION
Recapitulation of the objections to the theory of natural selection. Recapitulation of the general and special circumstances in its favour. Causes of the general belief in the immutability of species.
How far the tlieory of natural selection may be extended. Effects of its adoption on the study of natural history. Concluding remarks.
Test E : Questions about Darwin and
about The Origin of Species
1. In The Origin of Species Darwin undertakes to describe the origin and evolution of man. ( True or False? ) 2. The work is divided into ( a ) 12 ( b ) 15 ( c ) 19 chapters.
3. The book emphasizes the role of domestication in natural selection. ( True or False? ) 4. Darwin asserts that the struggle for life is ( a ) more severe ( b ) less severe between individuals of the same species than it is between individuals of different species.
5. Darwin takes no account of, and does not try to answer, difculties of and objections against his theory. ( True or False?)
6. Darwin was unable to complete The Origin of Species, and the book therefore lacks a chapter summing up his theory and his conclusions. ( True or False? )
7. Darwin enjoyed taking part in the disputes that developed as a consequence of his work. ( True or False? ) 8. In the famous debate at Oxford between T. H. Huxley and Bishop Wilberforce, which man defended Darwin and his theory?
400 HOW TO READ A BOOK
9. Darwin described as ''by far the most important event in my life" ( a ) his reading of Malthus' s Essay on the Principle of Population ( b ) his youthful study of medicine ( c ) his voyage on the Beagle.
10. Darwin thought that "a law ought to be passed"
against ( a ) novels ( b ) pornographic novels ( c ) novels having scientists as their main characters ( d ) novels with unhappy endings.
Tum to p. 415 for the answers to Test E.
Those questions were all very easy ones. Now take another twenty minutes to read the table of contents of The Origin of Species ( see p. 395 ) superficially, and then we will ask you