Edging into the Wild

Abstract

In The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication, which appeared first in 1868 and in a revised edition in 1875, Charles Darwin developed a theme to which he had accorded great rhetorical and evidentiary significance. The first chapter of On the Origin of Species, published in 1859, had included a description of artificial selection as practiced by farmers, stock breeders, and pet fanciers. Domesticated animals and plants were numerous, familiar, and available for constant observation; they provided a readily available body of evidence.