[Rarebooks] fa: SEBRIGHT - THE ART OF IMPROVING THE BREEDS 1809 - (Influence on Darwin)

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auctions ending Sunday, October 23. More details and  
images can be found at the URL below or by searching under the seller  
name arch_in_la.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/arch_in_la/m.html?_trksid=p4340.l2562

Thanks,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.

"Sir J. Sebright pamphlet most important showing effects of  
peculiarities being long in blood. — ... bad effects of incestuous  
intercourse.—excellent observations of sickly offspring being cut off  
so that not propagated by nature..." —Notebook of Charles Darwin, 1838.


Sir John Saunders Sebright: The Art of Improving the Breeds of  
Domestic Animals, in a Letter Addressed to the Right Hon. Sir Joseph  
Banks, K.B. London: Printed for John Harding, 1809. FIRST EDITION.  
Hardcover 8vo in modern paper-covered boards; 31 + [1] pp.

An important and influential pamphlet on the keeping and breeding of  
animals. Darwin found it significant for its thoughts concerning what  
would come to be known as artificial and natural selection, and he  
referred to Sebright's breeding experiments in his Origin of the  
Species. Sir John Sebright (1767–1846) was an agricultural reformer  
who, among other achievements, developed the Sebright chicken, the  
first breed of poultry "to have its own specialist club for  
enthusiasts" (Wikipedia). Stain and small hole to the title-page which  
has a small ink stamp on the verso ("Verwijderd Uit Bibl. I.I.S.G.");  
toning and light soiling to  the first and last leaf; a few scattered  
light spots; otherwise clean and sound, firmly bound.