DARWIN, Charles.

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On the origin of species by means of natural selection, Second edition, the usual issue correctly dated 1860 on the title page, of "the most influential scientific work of the 19th century" (Horblit) and "certainly the most important biological book ever written" (Freeman).Darwin's Origin was first published in 1859. The second edition substantially reprinted the text of the first edition with a few authorial changes, ranging from correction of the misprint "speceies" to the notable dilution of Darwin's "whale-bear" story, where he speculated that a bear scooping insects from the water may evolve into a whale-like creature. The hypothesis was seen as absurd at the time and was seized upon by Darwin's critics to ridicule and criticise both the scientist and his evolutionary theory; Charles Lyell advised him to remove it entirely. "This story is not found again in any printing, except in the American editions of 1860, until the end of copyright" (Freeman).All copies of the second edition, save for those few dated 1859, are marked "fifth thousand" on the title page, noting the total issue of copies from the first edition onwards; the edition is not otherwise noted as the second edition. It was published, in the form in which it is typically seen, on 7 January 1860 in a print run of 3,000 copies.

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