Introduction to JavaScript Object Notation

This book, the second of three-volumes detailing the life of Charles Darwin, published five years after his death, was edited by his son Francis, who was his father's collaborator in experiments in botany and who after his death took on the responsibility of overseeing the publication of his remaining manuscript works and letters. In the preface to the first volume, Francis Darwin explains his editorial principles: 'In choosing letters for publication I have been largely guided by the wish to illustrate my father's personal character. But his life was so essentially one of work, that a history of the man could not be written without following closely the career of the author.' Among the family history, anecdotes and reminiscences of scientific colleagues is a short autobiographical essay which Charles Darwin wrote for his children and grandchildren, rather than for publication. This account of Darwin the man has never been bettered.

This book, the third of three-volumes detailing the life of Charles Darwin, published five years after his death, was edited by his son Francis, who was his father's collaborator in experiments in botany and who after his death took on the responsibility of overseeing the publication of his remaining manuscript works and letters. In the preface to the first volume, Francis Darwin explains his editorial principles: 'In choosing letters for publication I have been largely guided by the wish to illustrate my father's personal character. But his life was so essentially one of work, that a history of the man could not be written without following closely the career of the author.' Among the family history, anecdotes and reminiscences of scientific colleagues is a short autobiographical essay which Charles Darwin wrote for his children and grandchildren, rather than for publication. This account of Darwin the man has never been bettered.

Initially published by the Linnean Society, this 1865 essay was Darwin's first foray into the study of climbing plants. He was inspired to produce this work by a paper on the tendrilled Cucurbitacean plant by American botanist Asa Gray, with whom he had a firm intellectual friendship. Darwin examines in detail those plants which climb using a twisting stem, such as the hop; leaf-climbers, such as the clematis; tendrilled plants such as the passion flower; and hook and root climbers such as ivy. The conclusions reached by his study are presented in terms of the adaptations of various species to their environments, a continuation of the theories that Darwin had propounded in his On the Origin of the Species six years earlier. His passion for the design of the plants and fascination with the diversity of their powers of movement are clear in this accessible example of the process of evolution.

Darwin had long been fascinated by insectivorous plants, from the native British sundews and bladderworts to the exotic pinguiculas and nepenthes which he encountered during the Beagle voyage. Growing in environments low in soil nutrients, their highly specialised ways of obtaining enough food, including the capability for fast movement in the case of the Venus flytrap, were evidence of evolutionary adaptation. But he was also interested in what food they needed, and whether they would be selective when offered a varied diet; and how did the flytrap close its trap on its prey? Darwin conducted a range of simple but ingenious experiments on his collection of insectivores and observed and noted the results of each with his customary meticulousness. The results can be seen in this book, which remains of enormous interest to anyone whose imagination has been fired by these strange and beautiful plants.

The development of Charles Darwin's views on evolution by natural selection has fascinated biologists since the 1859 publication of his landmark text On The Origin of Species. His experiences, observations and reflections during and after his pivotal journey on the Beagle during 1831–36 were of critical importance. Darwin was not, however, a man to be rushed. While his autobiography claims that the framework of his theory was laid down by 1839, its first outline sketch did not emerge until 1842. That essay was heavily edited, with many insertions and erasures. It formed the vital kernel of his more expansive but also unpolished and unpublished essay of 1844. Following careful editing by his son Francis, both essays were published in 1909, and are reproduced here. Reading these side by side, and together with the Origin, permits us to scrutinise selection and evolution truly in action.

Even before Charles Darwin changed the world with his theory of natural selection, he was recognised as an eminent scientist and natural historian. Published in 1840, his Journal of Researches into the Geology and Natural History of the Various Countries Visited by H.M.S. Beagle reveals him as a writer of formidable intelligence and a keen observer of natural and human life. Darwin's journal encompasses every observable detail of the animals, birds and plants he encountered on the five-year voyage. It includes minute descriptions and even sketches of the movements and habits of hitherto unfamiliar species. Accompanying the entries are his own conclusions, analyses and classificatory notes that demonstrate his skill and talent as a naturalist. Darwin's entries on natural phenomena are interspersed with anecdotes of the indigenous peoples he encountered, transforming his journal from an impersonal scientific record to a book of true human interest.

This sixth edition of The Origin of Species was published in 1876. It is the last edition on which Darwin himself worked before his death in 1882, and offers a useful complement to the 2009 scholarly edition, edited by Jim Endersby and published by Cambridge University Press in Darwin's bicentennial year. The sixth edition contains a 'historical sketch' in which Darwin reviews the many works by eminent European and American scientists – beginning with Lamarck in 1801 – in which ideas of evolutionary species change and of natural selection were touched on but not developed. This edition, like all from the second onwards, contains the words 'by the Creator', controversially added to the famous last sentence in the book: 'There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into one...'

Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species, published on 24 November 1859, is a work of scientific literature which is considered to be the foundation of evolutionary biology. Its full title was On the

This transcription of notes made by Charles Darwin during the voyage of H. M. S. Beagle records his observations of the animals and plants that he encountered, and provides a valuable insight into the intellectual development of one of our most influential scientists. Darwin drew on many of these notes for his well known Journal of Researches (1839), but the majority of them have remained unpublished. This volume provides numerous examples of his unimpeachable accuracy in describing the wide range of animals seen in the course of his travels, and of his closely analytical approach towards every one of his observations. Only at the very end of the voyage were his first doubts about the immutability of species expressed consciously, but here are to be found the initial seeds of his theory of evolution, and of the fields of behavioural and ecological study of which he was one of the founding fathers.

Charles Darwin's health improved substantially in 1866 under a dietary and exercise regime prescribed by his physician Henry Bence Jones. With renewed vigour, he worked steadily on his manuscript of Variation of Plants and Animals under Domestication, submitting all but the final chapter to his publisher in December. He also worked on the fourth, and much revised, edition of Origin which was delivered to printers in July, and preparations were begun for a third German edition of Origin. His improved health allowed him a more active social life. At Down, Darwin entertained a number of scientific colleagues whom he had known previously only through correspondence. He also made his first appearance in London scientific society in many years, touring the Zoological Gardens at Regent's Park, and appearing at a soirée at the Royal Society.

Applying his controversial theory of evolution to the origins of the human species, Charles Darwin's The Descent of Man was the culmination of his life's work. This Penguin Classics edition is edited

The Correspondence of Charles Darwin provides, for the first time, full, authoritative texts of all known and available letters to and from Charles Darwin. The letters are accompanied by detailed explanatory footnotes and supplementary materials, and offer unparalleled insight into Darwin's experiments, thoughts, friendships, and family life. Volume 13 of this continuing series contains letters for 1865, when Darwin published his long paper on climbing plants and continued working on his book, The Variation of Plants and Animals under Domestication. In this year, Robert FitzRoy, former captain of HMS Beagle, committed suicide; Darwin's great friend Joseph Dalton Hooker became director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; and Charles Lyell and John Lubbock quarrelled over an alleged incident of plagiarism. The volume also contains a supplement of over 100 letters discovered or redated since the series began publication, including a fascinating collection of letters written when Darwin was

The Beagle departed from England for Patagonia in 1831 on a voyage to map the coast of South America. Charles Darwin, the ship's naturalist, began the voyage with scientific and theological objectio

Charles Darwin's book about his grandfather, The Life of Erasmus Darwin, is curiously fascinating. Before publication in 1879, it was shortened by 16%, with several of the cuts directed at its most provocative parts. The cutter, with Charles's permission, was his daughter Henrietta - an example of the strong hidden hand of meek-seeming Victorian women. Originally published in 2003, this first unabridged edition, edited by Desmond King-Hele, includes all that Charles originally intended, the cuts being restored and printed in italics. Erasmus Darwin was one of the leading intellectuals of the eighteenth century. He was a respected physician, a well-known poet, a keen mechanical inventor, and a founding member of the influential Lunar Society. He also possessed an amazing insight into the many branches of physical and biological science. Most notably, he adopted what we now call biological evolution as his theory of life, 65 years prior to Charles Darwin's Origin of Species.

The Correspondence of Charles Darwin provides, for the first time, the full, authoritative texts of all known and available letters to and from Charles Darwin, the originator of the theory of evolution by natural selection. The letters are accompanied by detailed explanatory footnotes and relevant supplementary materials, and offer unparalleled insight into Darwin's experiments, thoughts, friendships, and family life. Volume 12 of this continuing series contains letters for 1864, when Darwin, despite continuing illness, was carrying out botanical experiments and working on his book, The Variation of Plants and Animals under Domestication. The volume also sheds light on the worldwide reception of Darwin's theory, with letters from correspondents in the United States and Germany, and also on the continuing controversy in Britain, especially with the award of the Royal Society's prestigious Copley Medal to Darwin at the end of the year.

On 27th December 1831, HMS Beagle set out from Plymouth under the command of Captain Robert Fitzroy on a voyage that lasted nearly 5 years. The purpose of the trip was to complete a survey of the southern coasts of South America, and afterwards to circumnavigate the globe. The ship's geologist and naturalist was Charles Darwin. Darwin kept a diary throughout the voyage in which he recorded his daily activities, not only on board the ship but also during the several long journeys that he made on horseback in Patagonia and Chile. His entries tell the story of one of the most important scientific journeys ever made with matchless immediacy and vivid descriptiveness.

This volume includes many letters not previously published, and chronicles a year that was enlivened by scientific controversy and filled with scientific queries and discussions relating to Darwin's transmutation theory. His love of botany and his expanding experimental programme is well depicted by correspondence with professional botanists, horticulturalists, and hobbyists. Nine appendixes complement the letters by providing additional information from the Darwin Archive and from nineteenth-century publications. The letters also provide glimpses of life among the Victorian gentry, and reveal the practical and emotional support Darwin received from his family. Awarded the Founder's Medal of the Society of the History of Natural History, and the Modern Language Association of America's first Morton N. Cohen Award for a distinguished edition of letters.

The publication of Darwin’s The Origin of Species in 1859 marked a dramatic turning point in scientific thought. The volume had taken Darwin more than twenty years to publish, in part because he envis

As the sheer volume of his correspondence indicates, 1862 was a very productive year for Darwin. This was not only the case in his published output (two botanical papers and a book on the pollination mechanisms of orchids), but more particularly in the extent and breadth of the botanical experiments he carried out. The promotion of his theory of natural selection also continued: Darwin's own work on it expanded, Thomas Henry Huxley gave lectures about it, and Henry Walter Bates invoked it to explain mimicry in butterflies. As well as monitoring the progress of his scientific work, the correspondence also records the continuing effects of Darwin's ill-health. Serious illness in two of his children also disrupts his work.

The correspondence in this volume reveals Darwin carefully monitoring the response to The Origin of Species. Early in 1861 he completed the preparation of a third and much-revised edition, using the opportunity to answer his critics. As these letters make clear, Darwin understood the importance of support from younger scientists for the future of his theory. Darwin's long-time supporters - including Asa Gray, Charles Lyell and Joseph Dalton Hooker - also feature largely in his correspondence. Escaping the confines of collating and writing up his work on variation in domesticated animals and plants, Darwin plunged into detailed studies of insectivorous plants and orchid pollination. On a more personal side, the correspondence details Darwin in the role of solicitous father ensuring a secure future for his son William. The letters in Volume 9 provide another indispensable collection for those interested in Darwin's life, work and world.

This volume covers the culmination of Darwin's work on species. From early in 1856, when he was persuaded that the time had come to publish an account of his heterodox theories, through 1857, Darwin's letters document the labour involved in composing his 'big species book', his zest for research, and his unflagging determination to succeed. As always, old friends and more recent acquaintances were drawn into the project. Darwin writes for the first time to Alfred Russel Wallace seeking specimens of Malayan fowls. Joseph Dalton Hooker is his sounding-board for botanical speculations and Thomas Henry Huxley soon takes up a similar role in matters of comparative anatomy and embryology. William Bernhard Tegetmeier is the provider of pigeons and poultry and Asa Gray dispatches from Massachusetts invaluable botanical data. Darwin fully exploits his gift for drawing the best from his correspondents and, collectively, their letters provide a remarkable survey of what was - and was not - believ

The correspondence in this volume reveals the two sides of Darwin's life in a new intensity. It opens with a family tragedy in the death of Darwin's oldest and best loved daughter, Anne, and goes on to show how Darwin sought relief from his loss through work, with a single-minded but increasingly weary commitment to the completion of his cirripede monographs. In September 1854, as soon as the final proofs of the last barnacle volume had been returned to the printer, Darwin threw himself into a resumption of his species work. He followed up old ideas by initiating new experiments and establishing a worldwide correspondence that encompassed geographical distribution, variation, and plant and animal breeding. The wealth of letters through 1855 makes evident the frenzy of intellectual activity that followed Darwin's terse announcement in his diary: 'Sept. 9th (1854) began sorting notes for Species Theory …'

This is the second volume of the complete edition of The Correspondence of Charles Darwin. For the first time full authoritative texts of Darwin's letters are available, edited according to modern textual editorial principles and practice. The letters in this volume were written during the seven years following Darwin's return to England from the Beagle voyage. It was a period of extraordinary activity and productivity in which he became recognised as a naturalist of outstanding ability, as an author and editor, and as a professional man with official responsibilities in several scientific organisations. During these years he published two books and fifteen papers and also organised and superintended the publication of the Zoology of the Voyage of HMS Beagle, for which he described the locations of the fossils and the habitats and behaviour of the living species he had collected. Busy as he was with scientific activities, Darwin found time to re-establish family ties and friendships, a

In the current resurgence of interest in the biological basis of animal behavior and social organization, the ideas and questions pursued by Charles Darwin remain fresh and insightful. This is especia

Published on 24 November 1859, this is a work of scientific literature by Charles Darwin which is considered to be the foundation of evolutionary biology. Darwin's book introduced the scientific theor

On the Origin of Species, published on 24 November 1859, is a work of scientific literature by Charles Darwin which is considered to be the foundation of evolutionary biology. Its full title was On th

One of Darwin's books explaining and further developing his theories, it is a classic of science for many and worth reading.

Series: Critical Issues in Modern PoliticsThis volume is a facsimile of one of the original copies sent to the eminent geologist Leonard Horner. The volume also includes sample pages from Darwin's ori