On the Origin of Species for Existence" Darwin includes "slow-breeding man" among other examples of Malthusian population growth. In his discussions on morphology, Darwin compares and comments on bone structures that are homologous between humans and other mammals. Darwin's early notebooks discussed how non-adaptive characteristics could be selected when animals or humans chose mates, with races of humans differing over ideas of beauty. In his 1856 notes responding to Robert Knox's "The Races of Man: A Fragment", he called this effect sexual selection. He added notes on sexual selection to his "big book on species", and in mid-1857 he added a section heading; "Theory applied
On the Origin of Species miles wide. His explanation was a combination of migration and descent with modification. He went on to say: "On this principle of inheritance with modification, we can understand how it is that sections of genera, whole genera, and even families are confined to the same areas, as is so commonly and notoriously the case." Darwin explained how a volcanic island formed a few hundred miles from a continent might be colonised by a few species from that continent. These species would become modified over time, but would still be related to species found on the continent, and Darwin observed that