Beschreibung:

DARWIN, Charles Robert (1809-1882) and Alfred Russel WALLACE (1823-1913). 'On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties; and on the Perpetuation of Varieties and Species by Natural Means of Selection', in: Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society. Zoology , volume III, number 9, pp.45-62. London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans & Roberts, and Williams and Norgate [for the Linnean Society], 20 August 1858. 8° (223 x 142mm). Original light-pink printed wrappers (spine and fore-edge of lower wrapper slightly darkened, 5mm tear at foot of upper hinge), modern morocco-backed box. Provenance : pencilled [?]accession number on margin of p.1 -- Jeremy Norman ('Darwin's Century: The Jeremy Norman Collection', sale Sotheby's London, 11 December 1992, lot 108, to:) -- Bassignana (buyer of record). FIRST EDITION, ZOOLOGY ISSUE. A FINE, UNOPENED COPY OF 'THE FIRST PRINTED EXPOSITION OF THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION BY NATURAL SELECTION' (Norman 591). Darwin's theory of evolution -- drawn from his geological studies during the voyage of the Beagle ( cf . previous lot) and clarified by Malthus's concept of the self-regulation of population growth -- crystallised in 1838. However, he did not publish or debate it at that time, and, after writing an unpublished essay on the subject between 1839 and 1844 which was shown to a limited circle of friends, he did little further work on it. In April 1856 he described the theory to Sir Charles Lyell (whose Principles of Geology had been a major influence on the geological studies that led Darwin to the question of evolution), who urged Darwin to publish his hypothesis. Darwin began to write a book on evolution and natural selection in the summer of 1858, but the work -- which was to become On the Origin of Species -- progressed slowly. In February 1858 Wallace had independently developed the same theory as Darwin, and on 18 June 1858, Darwin received a letter from Wallace 'containing a perfect summary of the views which he had worked out in the preceding twenty years' ( DSB III, p.573). Lyell and Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker suggested that Wallace publish his paper, prefaced by Darwin's essay of 1844 and a letter from Darwin to Asa Gray on natural selection dated 5 September 1857, which demonstrated that Darwin's theory had 'remained unaltered from 1839 to 1857' ('On the Tendency of Species...', p.46). Thus, on 1 July 1858, Lyell read Darwin's essay and letter, and Hooker read Wallace's 'On the Tendency of Varieties to depart indefinitely from the Original Type' to the Linnean Society, publishing them in the present issue of the Journal , and preparing the way for the publication of On the Origin of Species on 24 November 1859. The Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society was available in three forms: the Zoology section; the Botany section; or both together. All three were printed from the same setting of type, and both issues of volume III, number 9 bear the date 20 August 1858; both have priority over the two subsequent volume issues of the Journal (i.e. Zoology and Botany ), which bear reset titles. Freeman 347; Garrison and Morton 219; Grolier Science 23a; Norman 592; PMM 344.