8vo. Half-title with quotations on verso, 32pp. publisher's catalogue at end, dated January 1860. Folding lithographic diagram by William West after Darwin facing p.117. (Some light spotting.) Original green cloth [Freeman variant b], covers decorated in blind, spine stamped and lettered in gilt, by Edmonds and Remnants with their ticket (two small splits to or near head of spine, hinges starting). Provenance: Amos Beardsley (bookplate).

SECOND EDITION, second issue with an 1860 imprint and “fifth thousand” on the title page. In actuality, only 3,000 copies were printed, bringing the total to 4,250 with several revisions to the text. Roughly two copies of the first issue exist with an 1859 imprint.

Darwin considered the second edition of On the Origin of Species an improvement upon the first because it allowed him to correct errors and respond to the immediate wave of criticism that followed the book’s publication in 1859. The first edition sold out on the day of publication and provoked widespread scientific and public debate. Preparing the second edition only months later, Darwin revised numerous passages, corrected mistakes, clarified several arguments concerning natural selection and variation, and added a new historical preface acknowledging earlier evolutionary thinkers.

Darwin himself noted the extent of these changes, writing in the preface to the new edition that “numerous corrections have been made” and that he had taken the opportunity to address points raised by reviewers and correspondents. Among the most notable additions was the acknowledgment of earlier writers who had proposed evolutionary ideas, including Jean-Baptiste Lamarck and Robert Chambers. Darwin also modified certain phrasing to clarify his arguments and temper misunderstandings, making the second edition, in his own view, a more accurate and carefully expressed presentation of his theory of natural selection. Freeman 376.

[With:] Duns, John, editor. "Review of On the Origin of Species.” In: The North British Review, No. LXIV, on pp.245-263. Edinburgh, May 1860, 4 issues in one, tall 8vo. Contemporary half morocco (extremes rubbed). Provenance: later ownership inscription on front free endpaper. AN IMPORTANT EARLY REVIEW OF DARWIN’S SECOND EDITION OF ORIGIN OF SPECIES, published only six months after the first edition. Appearing anonymously but written by John Duns, editor of the North British Review, the extensive review of the second edition ("fifth thousand") offered a sharply critical assessment of Darwin’s theory of natural selection. Darwin read it almost immediately, describing it in a letter to Charles Lyell on 22 May 1860 as a “savage” review.