Darwin

1868 · Best.-Nr. 151873 — London: John Murray 1868. First edition first issue of Darwin's hypothesis of pangenesis in which he first uses the phrase "survival of the fittest" for the first time. First issue without publisher's advertisements errata with five items in six lines in the first volume on page vi and nine items in seven lines in the second volume on page viii. Octavo two volumes bound in full contemporary calf with titles and tooling to the spine double gilt ruling to the front and rear panels all edges marbled marbled endpapers illustrated with numerous in-text illustrations and a chart. In very good condition bookplates to the front pastedowns. Darwin's Variation Under Domestication “took up in detail that subject which had been confined to one chapter of the Origin. It contained Darwin’s hypothesis of pangenesis by means of which he tried to frame an explanation of hereditary resemblance inheritance of acquired characters atavism and regeneration. It was a brave attempt to account for a number of phenomena which were beyond the bounds of scientific knowledge in his day such as fertilization by the union of sperm with egg the mechanism of chromosomal inheritance and the development of the embryo by successive cell division. His hypothesis of pangenesis could not therefore give a permanently acceptable account of the multitude of phenomena it was designed to explain. It was however a point of departure for particulate theories of inheritance in the later 19th century” DSB. John Murray unknown