The Descent of Man - 1st edition - 1871

Description: The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sexby Charles Darwin First edition, third/fourth printing-Publisher and Year: John Murray (London, UK): 1871-Edition: First edition, third/fourth printing. Volume 1 is a fourth printing per the "eighth thousand" on the title page, and Volume 2 is a third printing (seventh thousand). In the Origin of Species (1859), Darwin withheld applying his theories regarding the evolution of animals to humans. He waited 12 years for someone else to take up the thorny issue but ended up tackling the topic himself in the Descent of Man. Darwin first uses the word "evolution" in any of his works on the second page of Volume 1 (he thereafter included the term in the subsequent edition of The Origin in 1872). Bibliographic reference: Freeman, the Works of Charles Darwin (1977). -Provenance (prior owner): Dr. Thomas William Nassau Greene (1844), a doctor and surgeon from Kildare, Ireland. Thomas Greene is best known for being the sole doctor on the famous clipper ship, Mimosa, on its 1865 voyage to South America. The ship gained fame for carrying the first Welsh emigrants to South America (the Patagonia region in Argentina). The settlers intended to establish a colony to preserve the Welsh language and culture. He subsequently settled in Uruguay in 1869, where he took a position as a physician in the British hospital. Greene traveled back to Ireland in 1872, where he married Lucy Day, and thereafter returned to Montevideo. He likely purchased the Descent of Man during his stay on the British Isles in 1872 and carried the book back with him to South America, as he stamped the second volume in Spanish with his name and addresses of streets in Montevideo that still exist to this day. Greene later settled back in his home country. See, The Mimosa: The life & times of the ship that sailed to Patagonia (2007) by Susan Wilkinson.-Condition and Description: Two volumes, octavo, 7.5" x 5", in publisher's green cloth with gilt titling and ornamental rules on the spine. Blank embossed front boards. Black endpapers. Advertisements for other books in the rear of each volume. 76 woodcut illustrations. Both volumes have bumped tips. Volume 1: Front and rear hinge beginning to crack and separate at the gutters, but still firmly attached. Binding firm in the interior, though perhaps over-opened in a few places. No writing, underlining, etc. Minor wear to pages. Volume 2: Front hinge starting to split at the endpaper, but well attached. Rear hinge fine. Interior binding firm. Stamps of a surgeon practicing in Uruguay, Thomas W. N. Greene, on the half title and first page of text. Otherwise, the text is free and clear of any other owner's marks, and there is no writing, underlining, etc. Foxing on the first leaves of up until the title page, and then again on the last two leaves of the book, but otherwise hardly present throughout the book. Minor wear to pages.-“As man advances in civilization, and small tribes are united into larger communities, the simplest reason would tell each individual that he ought to extend his social instincts and sympathies to all members of the same nation, though personally unknown to him. This point being once reached, there is only an artificial barrier to prevent his sympathies extending to the men of all nations and races.” ― Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man -Inventory ID: C - 535 - 173 - 067

Price: 1200 USD

Location: North Haven, Connecticut

End Time: 2024-09-12T10:30:42.000Z

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