EVOLUTION

[Sir Richard Owen, palaeontologist who coined the term ‘Dinosaur’, first Director of Natural History Museum, London.] Autograph Signature cut from document.

Author: 
Sir Richard Owen (1804-1892), biologist, comparative anatomist, paleontologist, first Director of Natural History Museum, opponent of Charles Darwin
Owen
Publication details: 
No place or date.
£45.00
Owen

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. A small item whose size lends it a certain charm. Simply the signature 'Rd. Owen.', on 4 x 1.5 cm piece of paper. In good condition, lightly aged, laid down on piece of grey paper torn from an album. See Image

[Grant Allen [Charles Grant Blairfindie Allen], British novelist and writer on science, born in Canada.] Heavily-revised Autograph Manuscript of part of essay on literary obscurity, with reference to George Meredith, presented to Meredith’s daughter.

Author: 
Grant Allen [Charles Grant Blairfindie Allen] (1848-1899), British novelist and writer on science, born in Canada, atheist and proponent of evolution [George Meredith, Victorian man of letters]
Publication details: 
Without place or date (1880s?).
£220.00

See the entries on Allen and Meredith in the Oxford DNB. On one side of 20 x 18 cm piece of paper, in good condition, with two vertical folds, laid down on 4to leaf of thick gilt-edged paper removed from an autograph album of Meredith's daughter Marie Eveleen (Mariette; 1871-1933), later the wife of Henry Parkman Sturgis (1847-1929), American-born banker and Liberal politician. Sixteen lines of heavily-revised text, in Allen’s close hand, with interpolation by him in the right-hand margin. The place of publication of the text has not been traced, but it is highly complimentary to Meredith.

[Sir Richard Owen, palaeontologist who coined the term ‘Dinosaur’, first Director of Natural History Museum, London.] Autograph Signature and address to William Gregson of the Temple.

Author: 
Sir Richard Owen (1804-1892), palaeontologist who coined the term ‘Dinosaur’, first Director of Natural History Museum, London, opponent Darwin and Huxley and the theory of evolution
Owen
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£56.00
Owen

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 9 x 5.5 cm rectangle cut from front of envelope. In good condition, lightly aged, laid down on part of leaf from album, with the following in a contemporary hand: ‘R. Owen. the naturalist’. Light postmarking over address. Reads as follows: ‘Wm. Gregson, Esq: / 2 Tanfield Court, / Temple.’ Small signature at bottom left: ‘R. Owen.’ See image.

[Henry Fairfield Osborn, paleontologist] Typed Letter Signed Henry Fairfield Osborn ro Dr. W.B. Crow. botanist, expressing pleasure at receiving Crow's paper (phylogeny, the evolutionary history of species).

Author: 
Henry Fairfield Osborn [(1857 -1935), American paleontologist, geologist and eugenics advocate. He was the president of the American Museum of Natural History for 25 years].
Publication details: 
[Headed] American Museum of Natural History New York, Office of the President, 6 January 1927
£75.00

One page, 12mo, good condition. Text: A great number and variety of activities delayed my reply to your letter. | I was delighted to receive your paper and much interested in your subject. Few scientific workers devote sufficient thought to the real factors entering into a phylogenetic arrangement. | I am very glad to forward to you some of my studies on the phylogeny of the elephants and trust that you may find them useful to you in your future work [...]

[George Henslow, botanist, opponent of Darwinian evolution.] Autograph Letter Signed ('G Henslow') to George St Clair, thanking him for his book ('Darwinism and Design'), and sending a book and paper in return.

Author: 
George Henslow (1835-1925), botanist, opponent of Darwin, proponent of a form of Lamarckianism which he called 'the true Darwinism', son of John Stevens Henslow (1796-1861) [George St Clair]
Publication details: 
'140 Kensington Pk Rd | Nottinghill W. [London]' 4 January 1873.
£50.00

See Henslow's biography in his father John Stevens Henslow's entry in the Oxford DNB. (Botany ran in the family: in addition to father and son, George's sister married J. D. Hooker.) 1p, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged, laid down with light glue staining on a leaf from an autograph album, carrying a biographical caption in a nineteenth-century hand. Henslow writes the recipient's name ('G S Clair') at bottom left. He thanks him for his book (presumably 'Darwinism and Design', London, 1873), and is sending his own in return, 'also a paper on Natural Theology to wh.

[Julian Huxley, biologist, first director of UNESCO, as Secretary of Zoological Society of London.] Typed Note with cyclostyled signature, informing Dr Maurice Ernest that he does not consider the 'main thesis' of his book 'biologically justified'.

Author: 
Julian Huxley [Sir Julian Sorell Huxley] (1887-1975), evolutionary biologist, eugenicist, first director of UNESCO, brother of Aldous Huxley, grandson of Thomas Henry Huxley [Dr Maurice Ernest]
Publication details: 
15 March 1941. On letterhead of the Zoological Society of London, Regent's Park, London, N.W.8.
£50.00

1p, 4to. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded three times. Cyclostyled signature: 'Julian S. Huxley'. Addressed to 'Dr. Maurice Ernest, | New Court, | Esher, | Surrey.' He apologises for having been unable to read his book, adding: 'I am afraid I cannot feel that your main thesis is biologically justified'. It is obvious why Huxley did not look beyond the title, as the book he is clearly referring to is Ernest's 'Lives of 300 years and continual rejuvenation' (1942).

[Julian Huxley, biologist, first director of UNESCO, as Secretary of Zoological Society of London.] Typed Note with cyclostyled signature, informing Dr Maurice Ernest that he does not consider the 'main thesis' of his book 'biologically justified'.

Author: 
Julian Huxley [Sir Julian Sorell Huxley] (1887-1975), evolutionary biologist, eugenicist, first director of UNESCO, brother of Aldous Huxley, grandson of Thomas Henry Huxley [Dr Maurice Ernest]
Publication details: 
15 March 1941. On letterhead of the Zoological Society of London, Regent's Park, London, N.W.8.
£50.00

1p, 4to. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded three times. Cyclostyled signature: 'Julian S. Huxley'. Addressed to 'Dr. Maurice Ernest, | New Court, | Esher, | Surrey.' He apologises for having been unable to read his book, adding: 'I am afraid I cannot feel that your main thesis is biologically justified'. It is obvious why Huxley did not look beyond the title, as the book he is clearly referring to is Ernest's 'Lives of 300 years and continual rejuvenation' (1942).

[James Cowles Prichard, Commissioner in Lunacy who introduced the term 'senile dementia'.] Autograph Letter Signed ('J. C. Prichard M.D. F.R.S. | Senior Physician to the Bristol Infirmary'), a testimonial for his student Robert T. H. Bartley.

Author: 
J. C. Prichard [James Cowles Prichard] (1786-1848), physician and ethnologist who published an influentical work on evolution, Commissioner in Lunacy who introduced the term 'senile dementia'
Publication details: 
Bristol; 2 July 1841.
£500.00

1p, 4to. Bifolium. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn, with thin strip of paper from mount adhering to the reverse of the blank second leaf, the recto of which has laid down upon it the letter's envelope, with penny red stamp and postmarks, addressed to 'Robert T. H. Bartley Esq | Surgeon | West Hackney | London', with manuscript annotation by post official official stating that Bartley is 'not known' in the area. Folded several times. The letter reads: 'I have much pleasure in certifying that Mr Robert T. H.

[ 'A New Work on Evolution.' ] Prospectus for the second edition of 'Fallen Angels, A Disquisition upon Human Existence - An Attempt to Elucidate some of its Mysteries, especially those of Evil and Suffering.' With printed publicity card.

Author: 
'One of Them' [ i.e. Frederick Braby ] [ Gay and Bird, London publishers ]
Publication details: 
London: Gay and Bird, 5 Chandos Street, Strand. [ 1894. ]
£35.00

Four pages, 4to, bifolium, some foxing but mainly good condition.The work was hugely popular, going through numerous editions between 1894 and 1907. The title is (deliberately) misleading. The work is an exploration of theological rather than biological questions, with the author stating that 'The How, Why, and Wherefore have not received the full amount of profound and reverent study that the ineffably intrinsic importance of the subject to ourselves warrants.' Lewis Carroll had a copy in his library.

[ 'A New Work on Evolution.' ] Prospectus for the second edition of 'Fallen Angels, A Disquisition upon Human Existence - An Attempt to Elucidate some of its Mysteries, especially those of Evil and Suffering.' With printed publicity card.

Author: 
'One of Them' [ i.e. Frederick Braby ] [ Gay and Bird, London publishers ]
Publication details: 
London: Gay and Bird, 5 Chandos Street, Strand. [ 1894. ]
£35.00

The work was hugely popular, going through numerous editions between 1894 and 1907. The title is (deliberately) misleading. The work is an exploration of theological rather than biological questions, with the author stating that 'The How, Why, and Wherefore have not received the full amount of profound and reverent study that the ineffably intrinsic importance of the subject to ourselves warrants.' Lewis Carroll had a copy in his library.

[ Thomas Henry Huxley, biologist ('Darwin's Bulldog'). ] Autograph Note Signed ('T H Huxley') to 'Jones', regarding the whereabouts of 'Montagu I' and 'Montagu II'.

Author: 
Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-1895), English biologist, friend of Charles Darwin and supporter of the theory of evolution ('Darwin's Bulldog')
Publication details: 
Without place or date.
£220.00

1p., 12mo. In fair condition, lightly aged and spotted, with traces of mount adhering to reverse. Reads: 'My dear Jones | Montagu II is in the Fruit Room | You have Montagu I I think? | Yours sincerely | T H Huxley'. Note: A Google search throws up the Fruit Room in the Topkapi Palace (Istanbul) associated with Lady Mary Wortley MONTAGU. Would the association be presumptious.

[ William Henry Dallinger, astronomer. ] Autograph Note Signed ('W. H. Dallinger') enclosing payment in stamps for a number of Ramsay's 'Scientific Roll'.

Author: 
W. H. Dallinger [ William Henry Dallinger ] (1839-1909), microscopist, the first scientist to carry out a controlled experiment on Darwin's theory of evolution [ Wesley College, Sheffield ]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of Wesley College, Sheffield. 26 May 1881.
£65.00

1p., 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. The letterhead incorporates an attractive engraved front elevation of the College, of which Dallinger was Governor, 1879-1888. The note reads: 'Dear Sir | Please find enclosed 12 stamps for No 3 of Scientific Roll and oblige | Yours truly | W. H. Dallinger'.

[ St. George Jackson Mivart, eventually anti-Darwinian biologist. ] Autograph Note Signed about a ticket.

Author: 
St. George Jackson Mivart (1827-1900), biologist who promoted Darwin's theories, then repudiated them
Publication details: 
No place. 29 June [ no year ].
£250.00

1p., 12mo. On aged and norn paper. Written in a difficult hand. Appears to read: 'Dear Mr Woodrow | I send you the enclosed (my ticket) till the end of July. Please let me <?> it at 71 Seymour St on the evening of July 31st.' A Catholic convert, Mivart was increasingly disenchanted with his friend Thomas Henry Huxley's anti-papist stance, and repudiated his initial support for the theory of evolution. This did not, however, endear him the the Roman Catholic authorities.

[ George John Romanes, evolutionary biologist. ] Autograph Letter Signed ('G. J. Romanes') to 'Mr. Harborough', regarding the application of Arthur Nicols to be a lecturer.

Author: 
G. J. Romanes [ George John Romanes ] (1848-1894), evolutionary biologist, born in Canada, friend and colleague of Charles Darwin [ Arthur Nicols ]
Publication details: 
18 Cornwall Terrace, Regents Park [ London ]. 7 May 1883.
£180.00

2pp., 12mo. On bifolium with mourning border. In fair condition, aged and worn, with the second leaf laid down on part of a leaf cut from an autograph album. He is enclosing 'a Lecture Syllabus from Mr. Nicol, whom you may perhaps remember having seen meet me in the committee room on the day of my lecture'. Nicols wants Romanes to recommend him as a lecturer, but he only knows him 'from his book "Zoological Notes" which I reviewed in Nature.

[ Printed pamphlet. ] "Breaking the Fetters." A powerful Discourse delivered to immense Audiences in America, by Colonel Ingersoll. The Great American Orator and Wit.

Author: 
Colonel Ingersoll [ Colonel R. G. Ingersoll; Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899), 'The Great Agnostic' ]
Publication details: 
'Fifteenth Edition.' London: Robert Forder, 28, Stonecutter Street, Farringdon Street, E.C.
£50.00

18pp., 12mo. Disbound. In grey printed wraps, with engraved portrait of Ingersoll on front cover. In good condition, lightly aged. An attack on religion, also taking in slavery and the theory of evolution. No copy of this fifteenth edition on COPAC, and only four copies of any edition, and none at the British Library.

[ Darwinism and Huxley ] Protoplasm, Powheads, Porwiggles; and the Evolution of the Horse from the Rhinoceros; illustrating Professor Huxley's Scientific Mode of Getting up the Creation and Upsetting Moses.

Author: 
Anonymous [ John Allan ] Darwinism; Evolution; T.H. Huxley ]
Publication details: 
Aberdeen: A. Brown & Co., Edinburgh & London, 1875.
£280.00

Sub-title "A Guide for Electors in Choosing Lord Rectors". Pamphlet, [iv].35pp., 8vo, disbound, lacking wraps, minor defects, good condition. Ascribed to a 'John Allan' in COPAC entries. Note: A contribution to the background of Victorian science and Darwin, a lampoon of Huxley when seeking election as Rector of the University of Aberdeen and an attack on Darwinism. Scarce.

[ Evolution; Darwinism ] The Comet: or, Letters to Bon-Accordians &c. [...] No.III. "Creation v. Evolution," &c To The Rev. James Stark, Minister of the Congregational Chapel, Belmont Street, Aberdeen

Author: 
"Bearing-Rein" [ Robert Beveridge? ][ Rev. James Stark, Minister of the Congregational Chapel, Belmont Street, Aberdeen ].
Publication details: 
Aberdeen: George Middleton and all booksellers [ c.1885 ]
£200.00

12pp., 8vo, disbound, lacking wraps, sl. grubby, mainly good condition. NO other copy traced on COPAC or WorldCat.

[John Birkbeck Nevins, Consulting Physician to the Stanley Hospital, Liverpool, and anti-Darwinian.] Three autograph chapters presenting the teleological argument, with reference to meteorology, botany and surgery, with emendations and illustrations.

Author: 
John Birkbeck Nevins (1818-1903), surgeon and zoologist, Consulting Physician to the Stanley Hospital, Liverpool [Charles Darwin; Darwinism; theory of evolution]
Publication details: 
No place or date. [Liverpool, post 1854.]
£1,500.00

Nevins was a passionate opponent of Darwinism, and the present item, composed any time after 1854 (the latest date of the various works referred to in the text), reflects the crisis of faith in the period leading up to the publication of the 'Origin of Species'. Nevins would set out his position on 'Natural Selection, Sexual Selection, Evolution' in his 1872 inaugural address as President of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Liverpool (Proceedings, No. 26, 1872, pp.1-26), attacking the 'imperfect and one-sided view' put forward by 'the advocates of man's lowly origins'.

[Charles Janet] Autograph Note Signed 'Ch Janet' to [W.B. Crow, biologist]

Author: 
Charles Janet (849–1932), French engineer, company director, inventor and biologist.
Publication details: 
[Printed headed notepaper] Charles Janet, Ingénieur de Arts et Manufactures, Voisinlieu-les-Beauvais, Par Alonne (Oise), 10 Juillet 1923. En francais.
£135.00

One page, 12mo, good condition. He acknowledges receipt of a letter from Crow [identified through this letter being with a batch of letters addressed to him] "et des deux publications que vous avez bien voulu m'envoyer et qui sont intéressantes pour moi. | Je vous ai envoyé hier le 2me Memoire sur le Volvox | Vous recevez prochainement le 3me Mémoire qui traite de l'outogénèse de la blastea volvocéenne."

Autograph Letter Signed ('Willm. B Carpenter') from the English zoologist William Benjamin Carpenter, explaining to Rev. John Page Hopps why he cannot address a meeting.

Author: 
William Benjamin Carpenter (1813-1885), English physician, zoologist, physiologist, and Registrar of the University of London from 1856 to 1879 [Rev. John Page Hopps (1834-1911), spiritualist]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of the University of London, Burlington Gardens, W. 17 February 1875.
£75.00

2pp., 12mo. In good condition, on aged paper, tipped in onto a card mount. He explains that he is 'obliged to return to London immediately after the delivery of my Lecture in Glasgow', and so will not be able 'to address the audience you bring together'. If he is 'asked to take part in the Glasgow Science Lectures' the following year, he will bear Hopps's wish in mind. Hopps was both an evolutionist and spiritualist, while Carpenter considered the claims of spiritualism 'epidemic delusions'.

Eight Autograph Letters Signed from the Scottish anatomist Sir Arthur Keith to Grace Norbury, wife of Lionel Norbury, Professor of Surgery.

Author: 
Sir Arthur Keith (1866-1955), Scottish anatomist and anthropologist [Lionel Norbury (1882-1967)]
Sir Arthur Keith (1866-1955), Scottish anatomist and anthropologist
Publication details: 
Between 1948 and 1954. Six on his letterhead at Homefield, Downe, Farnborough, Kent; two on letterheads of Buckston Browne Research Farm.
£120.00
Sir Arthur Keith (1866-1955), Scottish anatomist and anthropologist

A total of twelve 12mo pages and two 4to pages. All texts clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. The first letter addressed to 'Mrs Norbury', and the others to 'Grace'. After a first letter of 1948, in which he complains that he is 'becoming more & more a home dweller', the correspondence continues in 1951, with Keith thanking Mrs Norbury for a gift of sugar ('Its arrival made my housekeeper Miss Holman quite elated'), and sending Lionel Norbury encouragement on his Hunterian Oration ('My heart goes out to the Orator & to his Better Half').

Broadside titled 'Mr. W. J. Bryan. Speech at Thanksgiving Day Banquet, Hotel Cecil, November 26.' Inscribed by Bryan to Cecil Harmsworth.

Author: 
William Jennings Bryan (1860-1925), American politician, Democratic Party nominee for President of the United States, 1896, 1900 and 1908 [Cecil Harmsworth (1869-1948), 1st Baron Harmsworth]
Publication details: 
[1903.] [London?]
£180.00

In three columns of small type, on one side of a piece of paper 41.5 x 26.5 cm. Fair, on aged and lightly-worn laid paper, with a little offsetting from the ink of the inscription. Reproduces the text of Bryan's speech without editorial interpolation. A report on the banquet (held by the American Society in London and with 'over 400 covers') in the New York Times, titled 'Bryan and Choate in a duel of repartee. Former Guest of Honor at Thanksgiving Day Banquet in London.

Seven Sonnets and A Psalm of Montreal.

Author: 
Samuel Butler [R. A. Streatfeild, ed.]
Publication details: 
Cambridge: Printed for Private Circulation. 1904.
£95.00

12mo, 15 pp. In original green printed wraps. Disbound. Vertical fold. On aged paper with fading to wraps and slight damage to spine from disbinding. As Streatfeild explains in his two-page introductory 'Note', five of the seven poems appear here for the first time. Uncommon. COPAC lists copies at Cambridge, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Oxford and the British Library.

Three Autograph Letters Signed (all 'G V Reed') to Benjamin Harrison, Archdeacon of Maidstone.

Author: 
George Varenne Reed (1816-1886), anglican clergyman, tutor to Charles Darwin
Publication details: 
3 November 1875, 16 October 1879 and 30 July 1881; all three from Hayes Rectory, Beckenham.
£100.00

All three items are good, though lightly aged, each with a thin strip from previous mounting adhering to the blank reverse of the second leaf of the bifolium. Letter One (12mo, 1 p). Thanking Harrison 'for the copy of your Charge' ['Prospects of peace for the Church in the Prayer Book and its rules']. He would have written the day before 'but we went to the opening of the Memorial Church at Langton yesterday'. Letter Two (12mo, 2 pp): Thanks him for 'so kindly sending me your last Charge ['The memories of departed brethren, and the sacredness of their earthly resting places'].

Autograph Letter Signed ['J. Arthur Thomson'] to an unnamed firm of publishers.

Author: 
Sir John Arthur Thomson (1861-1933), Professor of Natural History at the University of Aberdeen, 1899-1930
Publication details: 
10 August 1914; his letterhead from the Natural History Department, Marischal College, The University, Aberdeen.
£100.00

One page, octavo. On aged paper, with slight chipping to corners, but text clear and entire. He is afraid that he 'did not answer your second letter in regard to a book on Sex.' 'After careful consideration', Thomas and 'Prof. Geddes' [Sir Patrick Geddes, 1854-1932] have come to the conclusion that 'if we wrote another book on that subject it should be published either by "Walter Scott" (who has 'The Evolution of Sex') or by Williams and Norgate (who have 'Sex')' [both books, 1889 and 1914 respectively, also by Geddes and Thomson].

Autograph note signed to [?] Bowerbank,

Author: 
Samuel Wilberforce
Publication details: 
April 11 [no year], with letterhead Cuddesdon Palace, Wheatley, Oxon.
£30.00

Bishop of Oxford (1805-73), celebrated opponent of the theory of evolution, nicknamed for his slippery arguments "Soapy Sam". One page, 12mo, on mourning paper. "I cannot fail to pay the greatest attention to your recommendation of Mr P Chabot". Signed "S Oxon". Minor discolouration to paper.

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