Peter Bichsel   Fine Books

Darwin, Charles. The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex. 2 vols.

With 76 wood-engr. illus. in the text. VIII, 423, (1) pp., 16 pp. publisher’s ads; VIII, 475, (1) pp., 16 pp. publisher’s ads. 8vo. Orig. green cloth with gilt title on spines. – London, John Murray, 1871 (resp. January 1872).

First edition, eighth thousand (i.e. fourth issue). With date „January 1872“ at the head of the publisher’s advertisements. In his preface to the second edition of 1874, Darwin declares that during the successive reprints of the 1871 edition he was able to do several important textual corrections. In his „Descent of Man”, Darwin „compared man’s physical and psychological characteristics to similar traits in apes and other animals, showing how even man’s mind and moral sense could have developped through evolutionary processes” (Norman). – Freeman 938; Norman 599; Osler 1572; Garrison/Morton 170. – Some minor rubbing to extremities of boards. Inner hinges getting somewhat loose but still firm. Some foxing to endpapers. Good copy in all. – Best.-Nr. 24730