Rethinking Darwin….

I had an RBR session yesterday for Dr. Jerry Putnam and two of his students studying Perspectives on Darwinism.  One of the items I had out from the collection is our first edition of his The Descent of Man, and selection in relation to sex.  Here’s some information on our copy.

The Descent of man, and selection in relation to sex.  By Charles Darwin.  London, J. Murray, 1871, 2v., 1^st edition.

Published 12 years after his famous On the Origin of Species, The Descent of Man was Darwin’s second work dealing with the theory of evolution and natural selection.  His first, On the Origin of Species, may be a more familiar title to many, but it is on page 2 of the 1^st edition of The Descent of Man that Darwin first used the term evolution.

The Rare Book Room has a copy of the 1^st edition, 1^st issue, which was published in 2 volumes in a run of 2500 copies on February 24, 1871.  It was given to the library by Dr. Carlton B. Chapman, Davidson class of 1936, and a collector in the area of medical history.  It is in its original green cloth binding,

and a bookseller’s note on the title page of volume 1 indicates that it is a “1^st edition as issued.”  The volumes are illustrated throughout with wood engravings.

 

 

 

 

 

An errata sheet on the verso (back) of the title page of volume 2 lists the errors noted but un-corrected in the text, such as the word mail for male, and a scrambled spelling of walruses as narwhals.  Darwin also noted in a postscript that he made a “serious and unfortunate error, in relation to the sexual differences of animals” on pages 297-299 of volume 1, and admits that “the explanation given is wholly erroneous.”

(Even great scientists sometimes make initial errors in discovery!)

Thanks, Dr. Chapman, for this great donation to the RBR collection.