An Account of the Regular Gradation in Man : and in Different Animals and Vegetables, and From the Former to the Latter. Illustrated with Engravings Adapted To The Subject
London: Printed for C. Dilly, in the Poultry, 1799. 1st Edition. Hardcover. 4to. Near Fine. Item #005360
First edition. Contemporary half calf, green marbled paper boards. Red morocco spine label, gilt lettering. Marbled edges. xii, 138, cxl-clxvi, 139-146 pp. Four engraved plates, three of which are fold-outs. Rubbing to extremities. Light foxing to interior commensurate with age, a few small rust stains. Ink smear to p. 69, text remains legible. Some light offsetting to plates. Damp stain to tail edge in gutter. A well-preserved copy. Bookplate of Burghwallis Hall to front pastedown. Burghwallis Hall, aka St. Anne's Convent, is located in rural south Yorkshire, and is reputedly haunted. Charles White was a physician in Manchester, England, and was responsible for founding the Manchester Royal Infirmary. He published the earliest proper "scientific" studies of human races, favouring the theory of polygeny (that the different human races are of different origins). The polygenic model has since been replaced by the favoured monogenic "Out of Africa" model. This book, published when he was 71, is not, as the title might suggest, a direct precursor to the modern theory of evolution, but rather a demonstration of "progress in creation" of fixed species. Darwin was apparently unfamiliar with the work. [Encylopedia Britannica; British Medical Journal, Behr 1978].
Price: $2,450.00