skip to content

Darwin Correspondence Project

To G. D. Campbell   23 September 1878

Down, Beckenham,

September 23, 1878.

Dear Duke of Argyll,—

The problem which you state so clearly is a very interesting one, on which I have often speculated.1 As far as I can judge, the improbability is extreme that the same well-characterized species should be produced in two distinct countries, or at two distinct times. It is certain that the same variation may arise in two distinct places, as with albinism or with the nectarine or peach-trees.2 But the evidence seems to me overwhelming that a well-marked species is the product, not of a single or of a few variations, but of a long series of modifications, each modification resulting chiefly from adaptation to infinitely complex conditions (including the inhabitants of the same country) with more or less inheritance of all the preceding modifications. Moreover, as variability depends more on the nature of the organism than on that of the environment, the variations will tend to differ at each successive stage of descent. Now it seems to me improbable in the highest degree that a species should ever have been exposed in two places to infinitely complex relations of exactly the same nature during a long series of modifications. An illustration will perhaps make what I have said clearer, though it applies only to the less important factors of inheritance and variability, and not to adaptation—viz. the improbability of two men being born in two countries identical in body and mind. If, however, it be assumed that a species at each successive stage of its modification was surrounded in two distinct countries or times by exactly the same assemblage of plants and animals, and by the same physical conditions, then I can see no theoretical difficulty to such a species giving birth to the new form in the two countries. If you will look to the sixth edition of my ‘Origin,’ at p. 100, you will find a somewhat analogous discussion perhaps more intelligible than this letter.3

Yours faithfully, | Charles Darwin.

Footnotes

Campbell’s letter to CD has not been found, but when Campbell later had this letter published in Nature, he prefaced it by saying that he had ‘put the direct question, why it was that he [CD] did assume the unity of mankind as descended from a single pair?’ (Nature, 5 March 1891, p. 415).
On the repeated production of peaches from nectarines (Prunus persica), see Variation 2d ed. 1: 361–3.
Origin 6th ed., pp. 100–2, is a discussion of convergence of character.

Bibliography

Origin 6th ed.: The origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. 6th edition, with additions and corrections. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1872.

Variation 2d ed.: The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2d edition. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1875.

Summary

Doubts that "the same well-characterized species should be produced in two distinct countries, or at two distinct times".

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-11706
From
Charles Robert Darwin
To
George Douglas Campbell, 8th duke of Argyll
Sent from
Down
Source of text
Nature, 5 March 1891, p. 415

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 11706,” accessed on 29 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-11706.xml

letter