Darwin, Charles | The first appearance of the word "evolution" in any of Darwin's works

Darwin, Charles 

The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex. London: John Murray, 1871

2 volumes, 8vo (191 x 217 inches). Half-titles, publisher's advertisements, dated January 1871, at rear of both volumes. Publisher's green cloth, covers stamped in blind, spine gilt-lettered, dark blue endpapers.

First edition, second issue: the first appearance of the word "evolution" in any of Darwin's works

In The Descent of Man, Darwin "compared man's physical and psychological characteristics to similar traits in apes and other animals, showing how even man's mind and moral sense could have developed through evolutionary processes" (Norman). 2,500 copies of the first issue were published on 24 February, and sold at £1.4s. The second issue was published the following month.

"The book, in its first edition, contains two parts, the descent of man itself, and selection in relation to sex. The word 'evolution' occurs, for the first time in any of Darwin's works, on page 2 of the first volume of the first edition, that is to say before its appearance in the sixth edition of 'The Origin of Species' in the following year. The last chapter is about sexual selection in relation to man, and it ends with the famous peroration about man's lowly origin, the wording of which differs slightly in the first edition from that which is usually quoted" (Freeman).

REFERENCE

Freeman 938; Garrison Morton 170