Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Price: US$100.00 + shipping
Condition: Fair
Description: 2 vols.: xiv, 473; x, 495 p. 22 cm. Green cloth. Second volume has extremely worn top front corner with cloth missing, dent in spine, bumped corners, and worn bottom fore-edges. Vol. I looks better with stain on front, worn fore-edges, bumped corners. A bit of softening to spine ends both volumes. Ink inscription from 1899 on front endpaper vol. I. A front endpaper torn out of vol. II. This work began as an expansion of the first two chapters of Darwin's "On the Origin of Species." A large proportion of the book contains detailed information on the domestication of animals and plants but it also contains, in Chapter XXVII, a description of Darwin's theory of heredity which he called pangenesis. In this chapter he proposed that each part of the body continually emitted its own type of small organic particles called gemmules that aggregated in the gonads, contributing heritable information to the gametes. Darwin was worried as to whether anyone would even read these large volumes, let alone accept his theory. Then an anonymous review by George Henry Lewes in the Pall Mall Gazette praised the work's "noble calmness . undisturbed by the heats of polemical agitation," making the far from calm Darwin laugh. Second Edition, revised, Eighth thousand.
Seller: Attic Books (ABAC, ILAB), London, ON, Canada
Price: US$265.29 + shipping
Description: Volumes I and II (complete), original cloth boards with gilt to spine and blindstamped rule boards. Second edition revised, eighth thousand. Insect damage and discolouration to spine and edges of boards, however, gilt titles generally still bright with very little loss to lettering. Most pages unopened at top edge. Contents clean, very good condition. First published in 1868, Darwin's discussion of the mechanisms of variation. Iincludes in chapter XXVII a description of Darwin's theory of heredity which he here called pangenesis.
Seller: Muir Books -Robert Muir Old & Rare Books - ANZAAB/ILAB, PERTH, WA, Australia