Inscribed presentation copy. First edition, presentation copy inscribed 'from the author' on the title and 'B Cockray, March 20, 1860, from Mr. Owen' on the front pastedown, in the same hand as the digitised Owen manuscripts at Temple University library. The text also contains a few contemporary notes in pencil and a number of exclamation points highlighting certain passages.

Richard Owen (1804-1892) was 'the most important and most influential natural scientist of his generation' (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography). And though his reputation has been overshadowed by his disputes with Charles Darwin, 'It was indeed by standing on his shoulders that his successors were able to see further. As significant as any of his more particular contributions... was his ability to bring order out of the accumulating chaos of the collectors' cabinets and the conflicting methodologies used to account for them. His annual series of Hunterian lectures at the College of Surgeons, his review of the whole of comparative anatomy, his compilations of his works in palaeontology and, in particular, the initial ordering of the fossil reptiles and mammals of Britain, the virtual creation of a comparative vertebrate osteology and odontology, and his design for the Natural History Museum—all laid the groundwork for others who, as intended in the assumption of a progressing science, would alter their shape and challenge their substance' (ODNB).

The present volume brought together much of Owen's work of the preceding decades, and is a general overview of palaeontology and the different orders of extinct creatures that had so far been identified, from invertebrates to mammals. It reiterates Owen's rejection of Darwinian evolution, promoting his theory of 'the continuous operation of the ordained becoming of living things' (p. 3).

First edition, inscribed presentation copy; 8vo; folding plate, engravings throughout the text, ownership inscription on the front pastedown, some contemporary pencilled notes, occasional light spotting and marks; original burgundy diaper grain cloth rebacked with the original spine laid down, hinges strengthened, boards blocked in blind, titles to spine gilt, brown coated endpapers, Burns binder's ticket to rear pastedown, spine rolled and a little faded, cloth rubbed with some loss of size, corners bumped, some abrasions on the endpapers a very good copy; 420pp.