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ALFRED RUSSEL WALLACE (1823-1913)
Island Life: or, the phenomena and causes of insular faunas and flora. London: Macmillan and Co., 1880. 8° (223 x 150mm). 3 maps and various illustrations. (Very occasional soiling.) Original green cloth, blind-stamped boards, gilt spine and top edge (some rubbing, joints cracked). Provenance: Henry. H. Tasmania (booklabel and ownership inscription on half-title) -- David Cabot (booklabel).
FIRST EDITION 'OF ONE OF THE FOUNDATION WORKS ON ZOOGEOGRAPHY' (Norman). The work focuses on the problem of animal dispersal and speciation. Like Darwin, Wallace classified islands as either oceanic (no previous connection to a land mass) or continental (previously connected to a land mass). Wallace was the first to use the new knowledge of pleistocene ice ages to explain certain phenomena of animal distribution, and he speculated about the possible causes of glaciation: he was one of the few 19th-century scientist to realize that astronomical causes alone would not suffice, but had to be combined with a corresponding elevation in the northern land mass. Macmillan, p.388; Norman 2179; Wood p. 617.
Island Life: or, the phenomena and causes of insular faunas and flora. London: Macmillan and Co., 1880. 8° (223 x 150mm). 3 maps and various illustrations. (Very occasional soiling.) Original green cloth, blind-stamped boards, gilt spine and top edge (some rubbing, joints cracked). Provenance: Henry. H. Tasmania (booklabel and ownership inscription on half-title) -- David Cabot (booklabel).
FIRST EDITION 'OF ONE OF THE FOUNDATION WORKS ON ZOOGEOGRAPHY' (Norman). The work focuses on the problem of animal dispersal and speciation. Like Darwin, Wallace classified islands as either oceanic (no previous connection to a land mass) or continental (previously connected to a land mass). Wallace was the first to use the new knowledge of pleistocene ice ages to explain certain phenomena of animal distribution, and he speculated about the possible causes of glaciation: he was one of the few 19th-century scientist to realize that astronomical causes alone would not suffice, but had to be combined with a corresponding elevation in the northern land mass. Macmillan, p.388; Norman 2179; Wood p. 617.