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
The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals and a "geologizing expedition" – but actually spent some of his time re-exploring the old haunts of his undergraduate days. On the day of the coronation, 28 June 1838, Darwin was in Edinburgh. A few weeks later, he opened a private notebook with philosophical and psychological speculation – the "M Notebook" – and, over the next three months, filled it with his thoughts about possible interactions of hereditary factors with the mental and behavioural aspects of life.It should also be noted that Darwin made his first attempt at autobiography in August 1838. The critical importance of the "M Notebook" has