Notes on Darwin's Theory

1. Henceforth referred to simply as Origin. All quotations from this work, except otherwise indicated, are taken from the first edition, published 1 October 1859; a pdf version of this work is available from ###

2. This still found a repeat in Rebecca Stott's otherwise excellent book, Darwin's Ghosts. The Secret History of Evolution (New York: Spiegel & Grau, 2012), 4. All the publisher's stock were reserved by distributors but this is obviously very different from saying the book was "sold out." Darwin, for better or worse, did not, and does not, need this kind of inflation.

3. See, e.g., Sir Arthur Keith's enthusiastic claim that "the book which contains the most complete demonstration that the law of evolution is true"; Introduction to Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species (Everyman's Library; London: Dent, 1928). Emphasis mine.

4. I am not sure if there was any fan who wished to model his home after Down House, Darwin's residence in Kent. I did.

5. Origin, 484. Darwin did not seem to have made up his mind when he concluded the book, saying, "There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that . . ." (italics mine). Or was Darwin hedging his bets, as suggested by Stephen Meyer (Darwin's Doubt (New York: HarperOne, 2013), 415 n1).