Beschreibung:

DARWIN -- INFLUENCES]. DARWIN, Erasmus (1731-1802). The Botanic Garden. A Poem, in Two Parts . London: J. Johnson 1791. 2 volumes in one, 4 o. Engraved frontispiece by Anker Smith after H. Fuseli (Part I), engraved frontispiece by S. Alken after Emma Crewe (Part II), 18 engraved plates by W. Blake after H. Fuseli, and F. Nodder, 2 folding. Quarter cloth, marbled boards. Erasmus Darwin, Charles Darwin's grandfather, was a notable physician of the late eighteenth century. His poetry, often more scientific than poetical, suggests an awareness of ideas of evolution; Samuel Butler later acknowledged his part in saying: "Buffon planted, Erasmus Darwin and Lamarck watered, but it was Mr. Darwin who said 'That fruit is ripe' and shook it into his lap" (R.Clark, The Survival of Charles Darwin , New York, 1984, p. 165). FIRST EDITION of Part I, third edition of Part II. Hunt 754 (4th edition); Nissen BBI 451 -- LYELL, Charles (1797-1875). Principles of Geology, being an attempt to explain the former changes of the earth's surface by reference to causes now in operation . London: John Murray 1835. 8 o. Contemporary blind-tooled calf. Fourth edition. "When the Beagle expedition sailed in 1831 Henslow presented Darwin with the first volume of Lyell's Principles of Geology , which had been published in 1830, with the strong injunction that he should 'on no account accept the views therein advocated'. Lyell had established once and for all the uniformitarian theory of geology, which dispensed with the notion of supernatural intervention. The second volume of Lyell's book reached Darwin in Montevideo and his constant references to the enormous influence on his thinking of this great work are typified by a letter from him to Leonard Horner saying 'I always feel as if my books came half out of Lyell's brain'" (PMM 344b). -- MALTHUS, Thomas Robert (1766-1834). An Essay on the Principle of Population . London: Johnson, 1807. 8 o. Later speckled calf. Fourth edition. Darwin "clearly acknowledged Malthus as a source of the idea of 'the struggle for existence'" (PMM 251). In his autobiography he wrote "In October 1838 I happened to read for amusement Malthus on population, and being well prepared to appreciate the struggle for existence which everywhere goes on ... it at once struck me that under these circumstances favourable variations would tend to be preserved and unfavourable ones to be destroyed. The result of this would be formation of new species". -- WALLACE, Alfred Russel (1823-1913). The Malay Archipelago. The Land of the Orang-Utang and the Bird of Paradise . London & New York: Macmillan, 1898. 8 o. 2 folding maps, partly printed in color, 8 plates, numerous text illustrations. Original cloth. "In June 1858 Darwin received a letter from Wallace, then in the Malay Archipelago, which, in Darwin's own words, 'contained exactly the same theories as mine ... If Wallace had my manuscript sketch written in 1842, he could not have made a better abstract'. It was clear that Wallace had been thinking along the same lines as Darwin, though without his wealth of observed evidence" (PMM 344). The two subsequently wrote a joint paper, presented to the Linnean Society and published in 1858. (8)