June 2021 Catalogue

N a t u r a l H i s t o r y 9 Galton’s Law Of Ancestral Heredity 7. GALTON, Francis. The Average Contribution of Each Several Ancestor to the Total Heritage of the Offspring. IN: Proceedings of the Royal Society. Vol. 61, No. 376, pp. 401-13. London, 1897. Octavo, original printed paper wrappers. $850. Click for more info First edition of Galton’s paper on genetics, attempting to prove his law of ancestral heredity, in the original July, 1897 issue of the Proceedings of the Royal Society in original wrappers. According to Galton’s “law” of ancestral heredity, in a newborn the average contribution of each parent is 1/4, of each grandparent 1/16, and so on, the total of these amounts summing one or close (DSB). However, Galton adds that “a wide though limited range of observation assures us that the occupier of each ancestral place may contribute something of his own personal peculiarity, apart from all others, to the heritage of the offspring” (page 403). While he proposed this law in his 1889 book Natural Inheritance , as he notes in this paper: “I stated it briefly and with hesitation… because it was then unsupported by sufficient evidence” (page 403). In this paper he sets out to provide proof of his law via a study of coloration in Basset hounds. Index slip laid in. Owner ink signature on front wrapper. Interior clean, spine largely perished, stitching intact and sound. A very good copy, scarce in original wrappers. “The keynote to Francis Galton’s influence over the science of the last 50 years lies in those words: suggestion and inspiration.”— Pearson, Nature