Man's Place in Nature [Evidence of] and The Origin of Species [On the Origin of Species; or, The Causes of the Phenomena of Organic Nature. A Course of Six Lectures.] (The Humboldt Library of Popular Science)

[193]-254; [183]-231 pp., 48-page publisher catalog follows text. Possibly an academic offprint, give the odd pagination. Red cloth, gilt and black titles, two-column format, engraved illustrations. Two works in one volume. Nicknamed Darwin's Bulldog, Huxley was a staunch defender of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection. This volume combines two works, the first often called Evidence of Man's Place in Nature, which though Darwin's Origin of Species was published four years earlier, still stands as the first first book devoted fully to the topic of human evolution. It provided evidence linking the evolution of apes and humans from a common ancestor. Here he beat Darwin to the punch - Darwin's Descent of Man would present similar theories eight years later. The second work, whose full title is On the Origin of Species; or, The Causes of the Phenomena of Organic Nature, is a series of six lectures given as Professor of Natural History in the Jermyn Street School of Mines in London. In these he discusses Darwin's On the Origin of Species directly, offering his perspectives and criticisms based on his training as an anatomist. Huxley's advocacy for Darwinian theory put him at odds with Richard Owen, and their subsequent rivalry did not work in Owen's favor.