Harvey Joy
University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73019, USA.
Endeavour. 2003 Jun;27(2):57-62. doi: 10.1016/s0160-9327(03)00066-8.
Darwin came to realize that he could never devise an experiment that would demonstrate the development of new species by crossing hybrids. Instead, he turned to the problem of sterility within a species. The difference between Darwin's experimental and theoretical approach and that of French scientists working in the Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris can be shown most vividly by tracking Darwin's experiments in botany and his interest in those of Charles Naudin on hybrid plants. In his discussion of Mendel, Robert Olby has provided an interesting analysis of Naudin's hereditary concepts. I have approached some of the same work here with an emphasis on the question of sterility raised by Darwin, not simply between hybrids but within members of the same species and the light that he thought this could throw on both heredity and the origin of species.
达尔文开始意识到，他永远无法设计出一个实验来证明通过杂交培育新物种的过程。于是，他转而研究物种内部的不育问题。通过追溯达尔文在植物学方面的实验以及他对巴黎自然历史博物馆的查尔斯·诺丹关于杂交植物实验的兴趣，可以最生动地展现出达尔文的实验和理论方法与在巴黎自然历史博物馆工作的法国科学家的方法之间的差异。在对孟德尔的讨论中，罗伯特·奥尔比提供了对诺丹遗传概念的有趣分析。我在这里探讨了一些相同的研究工作，重点关注达尔文提出的不育问题，不仅是杂交种之间的不育，还包括同一物种成员之间的不育，以及他认为这可能为遗传和物种起源所带来的启示。
