Histoire naturelle des races humaines : du nord-est de l'Europe, de l'Asie boréale et orientale, et de l'Afrique australe
Paris: Méquignon-Marvis, 1826.
Illustrated by 6 litho plates by Langlumé and folding table. First Edition. Hardcover. Very Good- with no dust jacket. Item #14515
Library markings/spine label, random foxing, 1" edge tear pp 25-32, head chipping, light shelfwear. Solid hardcover. Contemporary binding with gilt spine rulings and lettering. Wonderful San Francisco Earthquake institutional label: "Given to the California Academy of Sciences by The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia After the Earthquake and Fire of April, 1906." ; French language text. Subtitle concludes: d'après des recherches spéciales d'antiquités, de physiologie, d'anatomie et de zoologie, appliquée à la recherche des origines des anciens peuples, à la science étymologique, à la critique de l'histoire etc. ; Suivie d'un mémoire lu, en 1823, a l'académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres de l'institut. "The physician-anthropologist Louis-Antoine Desmoulins (1796-1828), influenced by the phrenologists' correlation between anatomical structure and mental ability, ideas, feelings, divided the human genus into sixteen species. These were in turn divided into races, which, despite interbreeding and population mixture, retained their typical characteristics." - John P. Jackson, Nadine M. Weidman; Race, Racism, and Science; 2004 ABC-CLIO, page 42. Those sixteen species are delineated in the enclosed fold-out table "Physique et Géographique des Espèces et des Races du Genre Humain". An uncommon copy of this seminal work in 19th-century French race theory, with its un-related yet desirable post-San Francisco Earthquake gift bookplate. ; Ex-Library; 392 pages.
Price: $299.95