[Printed handbill prospectus with specimen pages.] Uniform with Johnston's "Chemistry of Common Life." In Monthly Numbers, price SIXPENCE each. The Physiology of Common Life. By George Henry Lewes, Author of "Sea-side Studies," "Life of Goethe," &c.'

Author: 
[George Henry Lewes (1817-1878), writer and partner of the novelist 'George Eliot' [Marian Evans (1819-1880)]; W. Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh and London]
Publication details: 
W. Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh and London. [1858.]
£65.00
SKU: 13327

4pp., 16mo. Bifolium. Very good, on lightly-aged paper, with slight traces of glue to fold edge. The first two pages carry the 'Prospectus', beginning: 'NO Scientific subject can be so important to Man as that of his own life. No knowledge can be so incessantly appealed to by the incidents of the every day, as the knowledge of the processes by which he lives and acts. At every moment he is in danger of disobeying laws which, when disobeyed, may bring years of suffering, decline of powers, premature decay. Sanitary reformers preach in vain, because they preach to a public which does not understant the laws of life - laws as rigorous as those of gravitation or motion.' Further on Lewes comments that 'There is a daily-increasing desire for scientific knowledge. Science passes from its laboratories into the public thoroughfares.' Lewes describes the 'course of enquiry', concluding: 'The Work will be illustrated with Woodcuts to assist the exposition, and will be comprised in Two Volumes of the same size as the "Chemistry of Common Life." At the foot of the second page is the announcement: 'The First Number will be publishede on 31st December.' The third and fourth pages reproduce as specimens pp.35 and 36 (running titles 'LOSS OF WATER FROM THE SURFACE' and 'HUNGER AND THIRST'), with 'Specimen Page' at the foot of p.35. P.35 also carries a wood-cut diagram of a 'SWEAT-GLAND.' The work was published by Blackwoods from 1859 to 1860.