Darwin, Charles

2 volumes, 8vo, FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE (with 5 lines of errata in vol. 1 and 7 lines in vol. 2), woodcut illustrations, 32pp. publisher's adverts dated April 1867 at end of vol. 1 and 2pp. dated February 1868 in vol. 2, original green cloth, ruled in blind and lettered in gilt on spine (with publisher's imprint in one line), small chip from upper edge of title page in vol. 1 (resulting from the opening of the gathering), bindings a little worn at extremities

Sir George Murray Humphry, ownership signature on title page; thence by descent

Freeman 877

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing, where appropriate.
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Murray published the first edition of Darwin's Variation in an initial run of only 1,500 copies, most of which were already accounted for when the book appeared in late January. Within a month another issue was in the press. This title represents the only published section of Darwin's intended "big book" on the origin of species, although a second section, transcribed from his manuscript notes, appeared in 1975.

FROM THE LIBRARY OF SIR GEORGE MURRAY HUMPHRY (1820-1896)

Professor Sir George Murray Humphry was a renowned surgeon and anatomist. Despite coming from a modest background without connections, he became the youngest hospital surgeon in England when he was appointed to  Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge at the age of 22. In 1847 he became a lecturer in Human Anatomy at Cambridge University, was appointed Professor of Human Anatomy in 1866, and he ended his life as “one of the most influential people in the University of Cambridge” (ODNB). Humphry was acquainted with Darwin’s son George, who had entered the university in 1863. The first edition Origin of Species offered here reflects Humphry’s participation in the most important scientific debates of his time: when invited in 1880 to deliver the Rede Lecture, he chose as his subject “Man, past, present and future”. In 1866, Humphry founded the Journal of Anatomy and Physiology, which he co-edited. The Journal regularly reviewed recent publications, and naturally its editor received copies of Darwin’s works in their earliest editions.