AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 78523-632 (1989)

Book Reviews

CHARLES DARWIN’S NOTEBOOKS, 1836-1844: GEOLOGY, TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES, METAPHYSICAL ENQUIRIES. Transcribed and edited by Paul H. Barrett, Peter J. Gautrey, Sandra Herbert, David Kohn, and Sydney Smith. London and Ithaca, NY: British Museum (Natural History) and Cornell University Press. 1987. viii + 747 pp., notes, bibliography, index. $75.00 (cloth).

This volume contains annotated editions of 15 of Charles Darwin’s notebooks and manu- scripts that span the period from mid-1836 to the early 1840s. It was from these notes that Darwin developed many of the ideas found in his later publications.

Since the notes were intended for the author’s eyes only, they are informal and completely devoid of the usual conventions and refinements generally associated with works for public consumption. To the casual reader they will appear to be nothing more than a disjointed sequence of observations, questions, speculative thoughts, or notes on something either read or discovered in con- versation with the likes of Charles Lye11 or Richard Owen. However, on closer inspec- tion, this seeming jumble of notes is seen to be the vestiges of a n intense creative effort that has both form and direction. While these notebooks do not reveal the whole story, they do provide many important clues as to how Darwin came upon his revolutionary view of the natural world.

The first notebook in this collection is the so-called “Red Notebook,” which covers the period from May 1836, when Darwin was homeward bound aboard HMS Beagle, until early 1837, by which time he was safely en- sconced in Cambridge. The focus of these notes is largely geological. In March 1837, Darwin quit his Cambridge digs and moved to London, evidently in order to be nearer the main bulk of the enormous collection of natu- ral history specimens he had assembled dur- ing the Beagle’s cruise around the world. It was during these early months in London that he took stock of his life and ambitions. Apparently, after much agonizing introspec-

tion, he finally resolved to abandon his theo- logical studies in favor of the pursuit of science. It was at this juncture that Darwin embarked on his investigation of an idea that had surfaced in the Red Notebook, namely the notion that species are not fixed biologi- cal entities. The agenda of this protracted inquiry is revealed in subsequent notebooks.

The “A” and “B” notebooks were com- menced at roughly the same time. The former spans the period from June 1837 to the close of 1839, while the latter encompasses the time from “about July 1837” to early March 1838. Notebook A documents Darwin’s continuing concern with geological matters, and many of the entries were subsequently incorporated into his later writings, such as the Geological Observations on South America (1846). Dur- ing the Notebook A period, Darwin made an important field trip to Scotland. The details of this excursion are recorded in the “Glen Roy” notebook. In Notebook B, the first in a series devoted exclusively to “Transmutation of Species,” Darwin established the central question of his inquiry: how to explain adap- tation over time by natural means. Emerging from these initial notes is the recognition of the complex relationship between reproduc- tion and geographic isolation, together with the role this equation had played in the development of varieties or species from a common ancestor. The nascent transformist vision of Notebook B is carried forward and developed in Notebook C, which Darwin began late in February 1838, and whose completion coincided with his excursion to Scotland in June of the same year.

“Once granted that species one genus may pass into each other [sic] . . . ,” Darwin hur- riedly scribbled in Notebook C , “[the] whole fabric totters & falls.” And with it the human species? Darwin made no exceptions: “[Hle is not a deity . . .-he possesses some of the same general instincts, . . . & moral feelings as animals . . . [but] What circumstances may have been necessary to have made man!” Throughout Notebook C, Darwin re- turns to this question and, eventually, in an effort to establish an empirical base for his analogical reconstruction of human origins, he opened a second, parallel series of note-

@ 1989 ALAN R. LISS, INC.

624 BOOK REVIEWS

books, labelled “M’ and “N,” plus a collec- tion of miscellaneous papers grouped under the general title “Old & Useless Notes” (OUN). This entire set of notes is devoted to the general subject of the biological origin of behavior and contains a number of original observations on monkeys and other animals at the London Zoo. Notebook M was begun in midJuly 1838 and completed on October 2, 1838-the same day he opened Notebook N. The bulk of the entries in this latter notebook were evidently written in 1839, with sporadic entries being made into April 1840. The OUN collection dates from 1838 to 1840.

Meanwhile, in July 1838, Darwin began Notebook D, the third in the transmutation series, which was completed on September 29, 1838. It was during this period, while reading Malthus’ Essay on the Principle of Population (1826), that he found the key to the species puzzle: descent and divergence by modification through the adaptive role of competition. The concept of natural selection is developed more fully in Notebook E, which was started on October 2,1838 and completed on July 10, 1839. While formulating this new theory, Darwin embarked on a study of its philosophical implications, as shown in his abstract of John Macculloch’s Proofs and Illustrations of the Attributes of God (1837). These latter notes are included in this volume, along with a miscellaneous collection of manuscripts and notebooks dealing with the subject of transmutation and written during the same time period. These include: the “Torn Apart Notebook” [TAN] (1839-1842), the “Summer 1842 Notes,” the “Edinburgh [Zoology] Notebook” (EZN) (1827, containing entries made after the voyage of the Beagle), and a notebook labelled “Questions & Exper- iments” (QE) (circa 1839-1844). After 1844, Darwin stopped using notebooks to record his ideas. Material from Notebooks B, C , D, and E were later incorporated into two pre- liminary drafts of his theory-the 1842 Sketch and the 1844 Essay. It was largely from these drafts that the Origin of Species (1859) was finally wrenched. Much of the material in Notebooks M and N eventually appeared in The Descent of Man (1871) and The Expres- sion of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1872).

As the editors note, this volume is simul- taneously a work of fresh publication and restoration. As a fresh work, it includes sev- eral previously unpublished manuscripts, namely Notebook A, the Glen Roy Note- book, EZN, QE, and the 1842 Notebook.

Although the Notebooks B, C, D, and E were first published in 1960, they did not include the numerous pages excised by Darwin for use in his later writings. These pages were subsequently located and published sepa- rately.

In the present volume, the editors provide restored versions of these notebooks, which appear in approximate chronological order. Each transcription is prefaced by a brief, but authoritative history, as well as a descriptive analysis of the text. To further assist the reader, each notebook is fully annotated. These explanatory notes are excellent, pro- viding, among other things, valuable infor- mation on persons and references cited in the text. Indicative of the care and trouble the editors have lavished on their annotations is the fact that whenever possible they have employed Darwin’s own copy of the work he has cited, and, where appropriate, his margi- nal comments have been included.

The editors have also provided a comprehen- sive subject index and a very useful bio- graphical listing of all those individuals men- tioned in the notebooks. For obvious reasons, the editors have restricted the bibliography to primary sources, which, incidentally, is cross-referenced with the texts of the manu- scripts. As for the price, it is a steal. No library worth its salt should be without this book. It is, without doubt, a major contribu- tion not only to Darwinian scholarship but also to the general literature of the history of science. The editors and their sponsors should be justly proud of this magnificent volume.

FRANKSPENCER Department of Anthropology Queens College CUNY New York, New York

LITERATURE CITED

Darwin CR (1842) [1958] Charles Darwin’s Sketch of 1842. In: C Darwin and AR Wallace Evolution by Natural Selection (with a foreword by Sir Gavin de Beer). Cam- bridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 89-254.

Darwin CR (1844) [1958] Charles Darwin’s Essay of 1844. In: C Darwin and AR Wallace (eds): Evolution by Natu- ral Selection (with a foreword by Sir Gavin de Beer). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 89-254.

Darwin CR (1846) Geological Observations on South America: Being the Third Part of the Geology of the Voyage of the “Beagle,” Under the Command of Capt. FitzRoy, During the Years 1832 to 1836. London: Smith Elder.

Darwin CR (1859) On the Origin of Species by Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. London: Murray.

Darwin CR (1871) The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex. 2 vols., London: Murray.

BOOK REVIEWS 625

Malthus TR (1826) An Essay on the Principle of Popula- tion; or, a View of its Past and Present Effects on Human Happiness; With an Inquiry Into our Present Prospects Respecting the Future Removal or Mitigation of the Evils Which it Occasions, 6th ed., ~ v o ~ s . , London: Murray.

Darwin CR (1872) The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. London: Murray.

Macculloch J (1837) Proofs and Illustrations of the Attri- butes of God, From the Facts and Laws of the Physical Universe: Being the Foundation of Natural and Re- vealed Religion. 3 vols., London.

TOWARD A NEW PHILOSOPHY OF BIOLOGY, OBSERVATIONS OF AN EVOLUTIONIST. By Ernst Mayr. Cambridge, M A Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. 1988. vii + 564 pp., notes, references, index. $35.00 (cloth).

Toward a New Philosophy of Biology: Observations of an Evolutionist is a collec- tion of 28 essays by Ernst Mayr. Most of these are reprinted, lightly edited, or abridged versions of papers that Mayr published rela- tively recently elsewhere. Only five of the essays were written for this volume.

Mayr, one of the major architects of the modern evolutionary synthesis, continues the theme he began in his earlier collection of essays, Evolution and the Diversity of Life (Mayr, 1976). The essays in Toward a New Philosophy of Biology are organized around nine motifs that range from philosophy and history to macroevolution. They cover topics that only loosely relate to the book’s title. As is typical for anthologies of essays written at different times and for different purposes, the papers do not “hang” together very well. Mayr introduces each major section and attempts to put the papers in context, but the book would have profited from short introductions to each article that placed each in its proper historical context and in relation to others in the book.

The book offers few surprises for those familiar with Mayr’s work. Nevertheless, for physical anthropologists interested in prob- lems of macroevolution, the evolutionary synthesis, and punctuated equilibrium, five of the last six essays justify the book’s modest cost. Two of these papers are original for this volume (23,28) and one (26) appeared just before the book itself. These essays undoubtedly will provoke some lively discus- sion among evolutionists and historians of science, as Mayr uses them to detail his own

thoughts on these issues and tries to reclaim turf unwillingly surrendered to others. Be- cause of this, some historians of science may charge Mayr with attempting to rewrite history.

One theme that prevails throughout the book, and especially in the later chapters, is that the “modern synthesis” means different things to different people. Mayr points out that the geneticists involved with the modern synthesis (i.e., Fisher and Haldane) defined evolution as “genetic change through time,” while the naturalists (i.e., himself, Simpson, Rensch, and Huxley) saw evolution as “a problem of adaptive change and the origin of diversity.” According to Mayr, it was the failure of these opposing groups to bridge their differences that resulted in the synthe- sis being “incomplete,” rather than unsuc- cessful. Mayr argues that those who lament the impending collapse of the “modern syn- thesis” base their concerns on the shortcom- ings of the narrow Fisher-Haldane reduction- ist view of evolution, which was never widely accepted and which Mayr readily admits is limiting. Worse still, he alleges that most crit- ics of the synthesis “. . . quite conspicuously misrepresent the views of its leading spokes- men” (p. 535, my emphasis), ascribing to them an interpretation of the modern syn- thesis that they themselves argued against.

Mayr notes that after the synthesis emerged during the 1940s, evolutionary biologists had the fundamental task of converting the coarse-grained theory of evolution into a finer, more realistic one. To this end, workers paid more attention to stochastic processes, began to recognize different modes of specia- tion, and began to understand that the indi- vidual as a whole is the target of natural selection. These discoveries led to revisions in the synthesis itself, not to its rejection.

Many readers will be surprised by some of Mayr’s statements about modifications to the synthesis that followed after the 1940s. Mayr