Charles Darwin and the Theory of Natural Selection.

copy presented by the lords of the admiralty

First edition of this early biography of Darwin by a prominent evolutionary biologist. Prize copy presented by the Lords of the Admiralty, with bookplate and presentation stamp, to Major Henry James Jones, O.B.E., R.A.O.C. who served in the Navy as an Engineer rising to be Chief Inspector of of Ordnance Machinery and was at one time technical adviser to the Inter-Allied Military Commission of Control for Austria.

As a student, Oxford zoologist Edward Poulton (1856-1943) 'had been warned off Darwinism by John Obadiah Westwood, leading entomologist and first Hope professor of zoology at Oxford, because it was too speculative. But under the inspiration of Wallace and Weismann, Poulton made the study of evolution more rigorous by using both careful fieldwork and experiments to analyse adaptation. These methods advanced a newer ecological approach to the study of evolution' (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography). He did important work on mimicry and sexual selection, and contributed to the development of the modern synthesis of Mendelian genetics and natural selection.

First edition; 8vo (18.5 x 12.5 cm); portrait frontispiece, prize bookplate to front endpaper signed by an Admiral, discreet stamp of the Lords of the Admiralty to verso of title, touch of spotting; contemporary half calf, cloth boards, gilt spine in six compartments with gilt red morocco lettering piece, all edges speckled red, touch of rubbing, a very good copy; viii, 224 pp.