Zoonomia or The Laws of Organic Life

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by Erasmus Darwin

Zoonomia or The Laws of Organic Life
DarwinZoonomia1801v1Title.jpg

Title page from Zoonomia or The Laws of Organic Life, George Wythe Collection, Wolf Law Library, College of William & Mary.

Author Erasmus Darwin
Editor {{{editor}}}
Translator {{{trans}}}
Published London: London: J. Johnson
Date 1801
Edition Third, corr.
Language English
Volumes 4 volume set
Pages {{{pages}}}
Desc. 8vo (22 cm.)
Location Shelf A-4
  [[Shelf {{{shelf2}}}]]

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]

Bookplate of H. L. Shapiro, front pastedown, volume one.


Zoonomia or the Laws of Organic Life comprises 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, an octavo two-volume set 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 first edition published in more than two volumes was the 3rd. ed. corr., published in London in 1801. With this information, the Wolf Law Library purchased an available copy of the four volume 3rd. ed. corr., an octavo set and the last edition published in Darwin's lifetime.

Description of the Wolf Law Library's copy

Bound in modern half green calf with marbled paper covered boards. Spines feature five single raised bands outlined with gilt and blind rules, second and third panels lettered in gilt, top edges in blue. Fore and bottom edge untrimmed. Volume one includes the bookplate of H. L. Shapiro on the front pastedown. Purchased with the George Wythe Boswell-Caracci Room Acquisition Fund.

Images of the library's copy of this book are available on Flickr. View the record for this book in William & Mary's online catalog.

Illustration of steel bow for straightening the spine, volume three, page 141

See also

References

  1. Jump up ↑ "Erasmus Darwin" in Erasmus Darwin House. accessed November 8, 2018.
  2. Jump up ↑ "Erasmus Darwin."; "Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802)" in UCMP: UC Museum of Palentology, accessed November 8, 2018.
  3. Jump up ↑ Ibid.
  4. Jump up ↑ Maureen McNeil, "Darwin, Erasmus (1731–1802)" in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, accessed May 3, 2023.
  5. Jump up ↑ "Erasmus Darwin."
  6. Jump up ↑ Erasmus Darwin, Zoonomia or the Laws of Organic Life (London: J. Hohnson, 1794), v-vi.
  7. Jump up ↑ Darwin, Zoonomia or the Laws of Organic Life, 1.
  8. Jump up ↑ Ibid.
  9. Jump up ↑ Darwin, Zoonomia or the Laws of Organic Life, 1-3.
  10. Jump up ↑ "Erasmus Darwin."
  11. Jump up ↑ 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. Jump up ↑ E. Millicent Sowerby, Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson(Washington, D.C.: The Library of Congress, 1952-1959), 1:487, [no. 896].
  13. Jump up ↑ LibraryThing, s.v. "Member: George Wythe", accessed on May 2, 2023.
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