Milestones of Science Books

DARWIN, Charles.

The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection... Sixth edition (Eleventh Thousand), with Additions & Corrections.

London: John Murray, 1872.

6th Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. Item #002528

8vo (182 x 117 mm). xxi [1], 458 pp. Includes half-title and one folding lithographed plate facing p.91. Original publisher's green cloth, gilt spine, lettering, embossed border at covers (inner hinges partly cracked, slight fraying of spine ends, very light rubbing of extremities). Owner's signature to upper blank margin of title, occasional scattered spotting (mostly to first and last leaves), otherwise clean and unmarked. All in all a fine copy. ----

THE VERY RARE FIRST PRINTING OF THE SIXTH EDITION. "The sixth edition, which is usually regarded as the last, appeared in February 1872. Murray's accounts show that 3,000 copies were printed, but this total presumably included both those with eleventh thousand on the title page and those with twelfth, the latter being notably less common. It is again extensively revised and contains a new chapter, VII. This was inserted to confute the views of the Roman Catholic biologist St George Mivart. The edition was aimed at a wider public and printed in smaller type, the volume shorter again and giving the general impression of a cheap edition, which at 7s. 6d. it was. The title changes to The origin of species, and a glossary, compiled by W. S. Dallas, appears. It is in this edition that the word 'evolution' occurs for the first time. It had been used in the first edition of The descent of man in the previous year, but not before in this work. 'Evolved' had been the last word of the text in all previous editions, but 'evolution' had been omitted, perhaps to avoid confusion with the use of the word by Herbert Spencer or with its more particular embryological meaning. The word had however been used in its transformist sense by Lyell as early as 1832 (Principles of geology, Vol. II, p. 11). In this edition it occurs twice on page 201 and three times on page 424." (John van Wyhe, ed. 2002-. The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online).

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