Zoonomia or The Laws of Organic Life

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by Erasmus Darwin

Zoonomia or The Laws of Organic Life
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Title not held by The Wolf Law Library
at the College of William & Mary.
  
Author Erasmus Darwin
Editor
Translator
Published :
Date
Edition Precise edition unknown
Language
Volumes 3 volume set
Pages
Desc. 8vo


Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802), was a doctor, poet, inventor, and botanist, who also provided insights in physics, chemistry, geology, meteorology, and biology.[1] He was a leader in the intellectual communities, such as the Lunar Society, which contributed to many areas including industrialization.[2] Some of his intellectual peers included James Watt, Matthew Boulton, Joseph Priestly, and Josiah Wedgwood.[3] One of his greater achievements was his work in biology, which included his theories on natural selection and evolution.[4] Over a 25 year period, Erasmus came up with one of the first coherent theories of evolution, a full 70 years before his grandson, Charles Darwin, which he published in Zoonomia or the Laws of Organic Life in 1794.[5]

Zoonomia or the Laws of Organic Life is made of forty sections describing different motions, anatomy, and diseases.[6] In this work, Erasmus Darwin classified animal life into classes, orders, genera, and species through comparing them with each other.[7] Through these classifications, Erasmus was hoping to discover more about the theory of diseases.[8] Erasmus wanted to provide better patient care through the betterment of the theory of diseases.[9] At the time this book was published, it was well-received, with one reviewer comparing Erasmus Darwin's contributions to medicine with Sir Isaac Newton's contributions to natural philosophy.[10]

Evidence for Inclusion in Wythe's Library

Listed on the Jefferson Inventory as "[Darwin's] Zoonomia. 3.v. 8vo." and given by Thomas Jefferson to his son-in-law Thomas Mann Randolph. Brown's Bibliography[11] lists the 1st American edition published in Philadelphia in 1797 based on the copy Thomas Jefferson sold to the Library of Congress in 1815.[12]. George Wythe's Library[13] on LibraryThing indicates "Precise edition unknown." The English Short Title Catalogue lists only two volume editions published before 1800. OCLC Worldcat lists only four volume sets published after 1800 and before Wythe's death in 1806. With this information, the Wolf Law Library purchased a copy of the four volume 3rd. ed. corr., published in London in 1801.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Erasmus Darwin." Erasmus Darwin House.http://www.erasmusdarwin.org/learning/erasmus-darwin/ (accessed November 8, 2018)
  2. ↑ "Erasmus Darwin."; "Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802)." Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802).http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/Edarwin.html (accessed November 8, 2018).
  3. ↑ Ibid.
  4. ↑ Ibid.
  5. ↑ "Erasmus Darwin"
  6. ↑ Darwin, Erasmus. Zoonomia or the Laws of Organic Life. (London:J. Hohnson, 1794), v-vi.
  7. ↑ Darwin, Zoonomia or the Laws of Organic Life, 1.
  8. ↑ Ibid.
  9. ↑ Darwin, Zoonomia or the Laws of Organic Life,1-3.
  10. ↑ "Erasmus Darwin."
  11. ↑ Bennie Brown, "The Library of George Wythe of Williamsburg and Richmond," (unpublished manuscript, May, 2012) Microsoft Word file. Earlier edition available at: https://digitalarchive.wm.edu/handle/10288/13433
  12. ↑ E. Millicent Sowerby, Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson(Washington, D.C.: The Library of Congress, 1952-1959), 1:487, [no. 896].
  13. ↑ LibraryThing, s.v. "Member: George Wythe", accessed on May 2, 2023.
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