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First edition, first issue, of the first of Darwin's works to use the famous evolutionary phrase, preceding by a year its first appearance in Origin of Species (fifth edition, 1869). "Survival of the fittest" was coined by the philosopher and sociologist Herbert Spencer on reading Origin and remains the most succinct summary of Darwin's theory of natural selection. Variation under Domestication represents "the first two chapters of the projected 'big book' on the origin of species of which Origin was an abstract; this was the only section of the 'big book' published during Darwin's lifetime" (Norman). It was "intended to provide overwhelming evidence for the ubiquity of variation, although [it] would also incidentally answer Lyell and Gray, who maintained that variations had not occurred purely by chance but were providentially directed. Darwin showed that breeders indeed selected from a vast array of minute random variations. He gave numerous instances of the causes of variability, including the direct effect of the conditions of life, reversion, the effects of use and disuse, saltation, prepotency, and correlated growth. Variation also addressed a key criticism of Origin: that it lacked an adequate understanding of inheritance" (ODNB). As such, Variation is a full statement of the facts on which the theories of Origin were based, leaving aside an account of human evolution for Descent of Man (1871). This is the only Darwin title published by Murray to appear in the larger format of demy octavo. The first issue was published in a run of 1,500 copies, for which this copy has all the relevant points: five errata in Volume I, nine errata on seven lines in Volume II, and the spine imprint on one line. The second issue, with substantial textual variations, was published in a run of 1,250 copies in February and is distinguished by a single erratum in Volume I, no errata in Volume II, and a two-line imprint on the spine. Freeman 877; Garrison-Morton 224.1; Norman 597. 2 vols, demy octavo. With 43 woodcuts in text. Vol. I with 32 pp. of publisher's advertisements dated April 1867, vol. II with 2 pp. of advertisements dated February 1868. Original green cloth, spines lettered and decorated in gilt, covers panelled in blind, dark green coated endpapers, binder's ticket of Edmonds & Remnants to rear pastedown of vol. I. Bookplates and markings of the Ashmolean Natural History Society to front pastedowns and title pages. Spine ends and corners bumped, spine panel of vol. II creased at centre, cloth lightly cockled and with damp stain to rear cover, rear inner hinge of vol. II split but holding, gathering 2C of same starting, cords occasionally visible, contents clean: a very good copy.
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