The Natural History of the Human Species, Its Typical Forms, Primaeval Distribution, Filiation's, and Migrations
Edinburgh: W. H. Lizars, 1848. First edition. Hardcover. Lrg. 12mo. xvi, [1], 18-464, 34pp. Original gold- and blind-stamped red cloth with richly gold decorated spine. Top edge gilt. Deckled fore- and bottom edges. Frontispiece engraving of author, half-title page with engraving of a Blackfoot Indian. Illustrated with 27 chromolithographic plates and 7 b/w plates, each protected by tissue-guard. Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Hamilton Smith was an English naturalist, illustrator, antiquary, soldier and spy. He also was a believer in polygenism, claiming that races had been created separately. In The Natural History of the Human Species, he maintains that there always had been three fundamentally distinct human types: the Caucasian, the Mongolian and the Negro. The author refers to the races as American type, wooly-haired type, beardless type, bearded or caucasian type. Chromolithographic plates with captions such as abnormal race, guanche race, Ethiopian mixed race, Indo-China Garrows, Polynesian with elevated foreheads, Australian mixed race, Mongolic races, hyperboreans or Finns, etc. Other color plates show North American Indians, peoples from New Zealand, South America, and others. Age wear and staining on binding. Tail of spine and corners bumped. Binding in fair, interior in very good condition. Complete with all 34 plates. g. Item #30668
Price: $400.00