On the Origin of Species On the Origin of Species On the Origin of Species (or more completely, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life), published on 24 November 1859, 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 theory that populations evolve over the course of generations through a process of natural selection. It presented a body of evidence that the diversity of life arose by common descent through a branching pattern of evolution. Darwin
On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties; and on the Perpetuation of Varieties and Species by Natural Means of Selection of science on which they bear". Years later, Darwin could only recall one review; Professor Haughton of Dublin claimed that "all that was new in them was false, and what was true was old." Despite illness, Darwin pressed on with writing the "abstract" of his "big book" on "Natural Selection"; this condensed version was published in November 1859 as "On the Origin of Species". In a largely overlooked passage from Wallace's essay, he says of the evolutionary principle: The action of this principle is exactly like that of the centrifugal governor of the steam engine, which checks and corrects any