The Origin of Species and The Voyage of the 'Beagle': Introduction by Richard Dawkins (Everyman's Library Classics & Contemporary Classics) by Charles Darwin

Author:Charles Darwin [Darwin, Charles]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780307824202
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2012-08-14T16:00:00+00:00

1 It is remarkable how the same disease is modified in different climates. At the little island of St. Helena, the introduction of scarlet-fever is dreaded as a plague. In some countries, foreigners and natives are as differently affected by certain contagious disorders, as if they had been different animals; of which fact some instances have occurred in Chile; and, according to Humboldt, in Mexico. (Polit. Essay, New Spain, vol. iv.)

2 Narrative of Missionary Enterprise, p. 282.

3 Captain Beechey (chap. iv. vol. i.) states that the inhabitants of Pitcairn Island are firmly convinced that after the arrival of every ship they suffer cutaneous and other disorders. Captain Beechey attributes this to the change of diet during the time of the visit. Dr. Macculloch (Western Isles, vol. ii. p. 32) says, ‘It is asserted, that on the arrival of a stranger (at St. Kilda) all the inhabitants, in the common phraseology, catch a cold.’ Dr. Macculloch considers the whole case, although often previously affirmed, as ludicrous. He adds, however, that ‘the question was put by us to the inhabitants who unanimously agreed in the story.’ In Vancouver’s Voyage, there is a somewhat similar statement with respect to Otaheite. Dr. Dieffenbach, in a note to his translation of this Journal, states that the same fact is universally believed by the inhabitants of the Chatham Islands, and in parts of New Zealand. It is impossible that such a belief should have become universal in the northern hemisphere, at the Antipodes, and in the Pacific, without some good foundation. Humboldt (Polit. Essay on King of New Spain, vol. iv.) says, that the great epidemics at Panama and Callao are ‘marked’ by the arrival of ships from Chile, because the people from that temperate region, first experience the fatal effects of the torrid zones. I may add, that I have heard it stated in Shropshire, that sheep, which have been imported from vessels, although themselves in a healthy condition, if placed in the same fold with others, frequently produce sickness in the flock.

4 Travels in Australia, vol. i. p. 154. I must express my obligation to Sir T. Mitchell, for several interesting personal communications, on the subject of these great valleys of New South Wales.

5 I was interested by finding here the hollow conical pitfall of the lion-ant, or some other insect; first a fly fell down the treacherous slope and immediately disappeared; then came a large but unwary ant; its struggles to escape being very violent, those curious little jets of sand, described by Kirby and Spence (Entomol., vol. i. p. 425) as being flirted by the insect’s tail, were promptly directed against the expected victim. But the ant enjoyed a better fate than the fly, and escaped the fatal jaws which lay concealed at the base of the conical hollow. This Australian pitfall was only about half the size of that made by the European lion-ant.

6 Physical Description of New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land, p. 354.

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