The Descent of Man,
and Selection in Relation to Sex
Charles Darwin
Second edition, revised and augmented, twenty-fifth thousand. First published in 1871, the book applies evolutionary theory to human evolution, and details his theory of sexual selection, a form of biological adaptation distinct from, yet interconnected with, natural selection. This was the first of Darwin's works to contain the word "evolution", on page two of the first volume of the first edition, preceding the term's appearance in the sixth edition of the Origin of Species the following year.
London: John Murray, 1889. Original green cloth, spine lettered in gilt; patterned endpapers, pp. xvi, 693. A very good or better copy. Minor shelfwear to boards with a scratch to the front. Binding remains remarkably tight and sturdy. Offsetting to endpapers, catalogue number sticker to front endpaper and first blank, small stamp to first blank. Else internally clean and fine. A nice copy.