[Science, Medicine & Mathematics] Darwin, Charles. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection...

London: John Murray, 1860. Second edition, second issue ("Fifth Thousand"). 8vo. ix, (i), 502, 32 pp. (ads, dated January 1860), including half-title. With one folding lithographic chart. Publisher's green cloth-covered boards (Freeman variant b), decorated in blind and and in gilt, wear to spine ends, short splitting in cloth of rear joint, wear to corners, lightly soiled; all edges trimmed; text block slipping; light brown endpapers; by Edmonds & Remnants, London (their label on rear paste-down); front and rear hinges split; ownership signature in pencil on front free endpaper; scattered light spotting to text; scattered wear to lower gutter and fore-edge. Freeman 376

Unsophisticated second edition, second issue of the most important and influential biological work ever produced. The first edition, printed in 1,250 copies, sold out the first day of its release. This second edition was quickly printed to meet the public's frenzied demands, and was published in two issues, one without the “thousand” notation and one, as seen here, with "thousand".