JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post
I stumbled across this today, in volume of a series of volumes here of the journal The Athanaeum. I have a dozen or so volumes between 1839 and 1866, luckily including 1839 (with a number of articles about the new invention of photography) and 1859 (which includes a number of contributions on Darwin’s On the Origin of Species1), and also including the following short notice:
I’ve included some links to review of Darwin’s Origin below. I’d like to point out the closing of the Saturday Review (London) pieces, which in its final paragraphs begins its summation not very hopefully:
“In regard to that which is peculiar to Mr. Darwin’s theory, we are far from thinking that the fruits of his labour and research will be useless to natural science.”
Happily, the author gains a little steam, becoming happier with the work as he/she speeds to the end:
“On the contrary, we are persuaded that natural selection must henceforward be admitted as the chief mode by which the structure of organized beings is modified in a state of nature.”
From the great website DARWIN-ONLINE (Darwinonline.org.uk):
Anon. 1859. Charles Darwin on the origin of species. Chambers’s Journal 11: 388-391. Text Image A507
Anon. 1859. [Review of] On the origin of species. Saturday Review (London) (24 December): 775-776. Text Image [Including 15 October 1859 advertizement for Origin of species] A514
Anon. 1860. Darwin on the Origin of Species. New Englander 18 (70) (May): 516-519. Text Image A561 [This for the first American edition of 1860.]
Anon. 1860. Natural selection. All the Year Round 3 no. 63 (7 July): 293-299. Text Image A509
Anon. 1860. [Review of] On the Origin of Species, by Means of Natural Selection. Charles Darwin. Living Age 66, Issue 848 (1 September): 474-506. Text Image A58
Notes:
1. On the Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection or the Preservation of Favored Races in the struggle for life. By CHARLES DARWIN, M. A., Fellow of the Royal Geological, Linnæan, &c. Societies.