First appearance of the word evolution in darwin's work. First edition, first issue of Darwin's application of evolution by natural selection to humans, with the first appearance of 'evolution' in any of his published works, preceding its appearance in the sixth edition of On the Origin of Species by a year. From the library of chemist and bibliophile Sydney Ross, with his bookplate in each volume.

This copy with all the first issue points as identified by Freeman: the correct number of errata on the list in volume II, the printer's note on the verso of the half title in volume II, the note on a 'serious and unfortunate error' tipped-in to volume II and, 'transmitted' as the first word on page 297 in volume I.

'In the Origin Darwin had avoided discussing the place occupied by Homo sapiens in the scheme of natural selection, stating only that "light will be thrown on the origin of man and his history". Twelve years later he made good on his promise with The Descent of Man, in which he compared man's physical and psychological characteristics to similar traits in apes and other animals, showing how even man's mind and moral sense could have developed through evolutionary processes. In discussing man's ancestry Darwin did not claim that man was directly descended from apes as we know them today, but stated simply that the extant ancestors of Homo sapiens would have to be classified among the primates; however, this statement, as misinterpreted by the popular press, caused a furor second only to that raised by the Origin. Darwin also added an essay on sexual selection, i.e., the preferential chances of mating that some individuals of one sex have over their rivals because of special structures, colors, and types of behaviors used in courtship, leading to the accentuation and transmission of those characteristics' (Hook and Norman, The Norman Library of Science and Medicine 599).

The previous owner of this volume, Sydney Ross (1915-2013), was raised in Glasgow, then attended McGill, the University of Illinois, and Stanford. In 1946 he joined the staff at Oak Ridge, where he 'made fundamental advances in the science of gas adsorption' (obituary, The Herald, Scotland, February 18th, 2014). In 1948 he joined the faculty of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where he remained for the rest of his career. Ross had a long-standing interest in the history of science, forming a large collection of early editions of key works, and published his own scholarship in the field, notably Nineteenth-Century Attitudes: Men of Science (1991) and the annotated Catalogue of the Herschel Library.

First edition, first impression, first issue; 2 vols, 8vo; 16-page publisher's ads at rear of each volume, publisher's list on the verso of the title in volume I, errata list on the verso of the title in volume II, author's postscript tipped-in in volume II, wood engravings within the text, bookplate to each volume, contents partially unopened, occasional spots and smudges but generally clean; original green cloth, titles to spine gilt, black coated endpapers, cloth rubbed with some wear at the extremities, upper corners of volume I bumped, very good condition; 423 and 475pp.

Freeman, The Works of Charles Darwin 936; Hook and Norman, The Norman Library of Science and Medicine 599.