Two Lectures on the Connection between the Biblical and Physical History of Man

Slim hardcover. Boards show some rubbing and wear to spine ends; front endpaper has pencil ownership markings and bears bookplate of the Waring Historical Library of the Medical University of South Carolina; rear endpaper has been neatly excised; many pages show foxing (see photos); pen ownership signature on title page. Foldout world map, tipped opposite title page, is complete with an edge tear and some wrinkling. Nott was a surgeon and anthropologist whose pro-slavery pseudoscience work, including the 1854 textbook 'Types of Mankind,' laid the groundwork for three generations of scientific racism. 'Two Lectures' argues that the human 'races' are immutable and hierarchical and created separately, as opposed to the biblical single-ancestor notion. (Darwin's 'On the Origin of Species' didn't appear for another eleven years.) A fascinating, utterly appalling, and startlingly uncommon title in any condition. 146 pages.