Darwin from Descent of Man to Emotions Darwin from Descent of Man to Emotions Between 1868 and 1872, the life and work of Charles Darwin from "Descent of Man" to "Emotions" continued with aspects of his intended "Big Book" on evolution through natural selection. He had by then hurriedly published an "abstract" of this work as "On the Origin of Species" in 1859, and following the immediate reaction to Darwin's theory his earlier work included demonstrating the utility of the flowers of Orchids in directing insect pollination to achieve cross fertilisation, and a summing up of thirteen years of experiments in "The Variation of Animals and Plants
Darwin from Descent of Man to Emotions our work; and of these you rank as the first." With "the little strength left in me" he reopened his enquiries into earthworms, requesting information from correspondents. The 6th edition of "Origin of Species" was published by Murray on 19 February 1872 at a price kept down to 7s. 6d. by using minute print, and sales increased from 60 to 250 a month. Through the spring Darwin pressed on with "The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals", pointing to shared evolution in contrast to Charles Bell's "Anatomy and Physiology of Expression" which claimed divinely created muscles to express