Milestones of Science Books

DARWIN, Charles.

The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex.

London: John Murray, 1871.

1st Edition. Hardcover. Near Fine. Item #002010

2 volumes. 8vo. Original publishers cloth, half-titles, publisher's catalogue at end of each volume, volume one without front free endpaper. ----

Garrison-Morton 170; Freeman 245, Norman 599, Sparrow 48 - First edition, vol. 1 seventh thousand (4th printing), vol. 2 eighth thousand. Twelve years after the publication of the Origin, Darwin made good his promise to "throw light on the origin of man and his history" by publishing the present work, in which he compared man's physical and psychological traits to similar ones in apes and other animals, and showed how even man's mind and moral sense could have evolved through processes of natural selection. In discussing man's ancestry, Darwin did not claim that man was directly descended from apes as we know them today, but stated simply that the extinct ancestors of Homo sapiens would have to be classed among the primates. This statement was (and is) widely misinterpreted by the popular press, however, and caused a furor second only to that raised by the Origin. Darwin also added an essay on sexual selection, i.e. the preferential chances of mating that some individuals of one sex have over their rivals because of special characteristics, leading to the accentuation and transmission of those characteristics (Norman).

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