On the Classification and Geographical Distribution of the Mammalia, Being the Lecture on Sir Robert Reade's Foundation, Delivered Before the University of Cambridge, in the Senate-House May 10, 1859 by OWEN, Richard - 1859

London: John W. Parker and Son, 1859. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. 1st Edition. Hardcover. 8vo - over 7¾ - 9¾" tall. 8vo (222 x 142 mm). [4], 103 [1], [4] pp., some woodcut illustrations in text, 2 leaves of publisher's advertisements at end. Original publisher's blind-stamped cloth, upper board lettered in gilt (spine cracked and chipped at ends, corners bumped, extremities rubbed), pages untrimmed. Internally little age-toned only. Provenance: Henry William Poor (banker, stockbroker and book collector), his armorial bookplate to front pastedown. ---- FIRST EDITION. The volume also includes the appendix "On the Gorilla" and "On the Extinction and Transmutation of Species" Richard Owen, English biologist, comparative anatomist and paleontologist, who in 1842 coined the word 'dinosaur', published this book in the same year of Darwin's On the Origin of Species. "He reviews ancient and recent studies of mammals in Western science before going on to present his own updated categorisation of the class. Owen's eye for detail and range of scholarship are evident in this work, which is an extensive catalogue of mammals based on biological, geographical and anatomical characteristics. It incorporates, among other things, detailed classifications and sub-classifications of genus based on dental structures, food habits and cerebra. Owen's prose is lucid and precise and his investigations scrupulous, demonstrating the commitment that led him to become one of the foremost anatomists of his time. An appendix reveals Owen's views on the hotly debated theories of transmutation and extinction proposed by scientists such as Lamarck, Lyell and Darwin." (Owen, reprint, Cambridge library collection, 2009).