The variation of animals and plants under domestication (1890) by DARWIN, Charles (1809-1882)

London : John Murray, 1890. Second edition (revised). Seventh thousand. Two volumes, octavo, publisher's blind blocked dark green cloth, spines lettered in gilt, light flecking, Vol. I, pp. [ii], xiv, 474 (last adv.); 43 illustrations; Vol. II, pp. [ii], x, 496 (last blank), 32 (adv., dated March, 1893); index, a very good set. 'This represents the only section of Darwin's big book on the origin of species which was printed in his lifetime and corresponds to its first two intended chapters.' (Freeman). 'Its two volumes were intended to provide overwhelming evidence for the ubiquity of variation [...] Darwin showed that breeders indeed selected from a vast array of minute random variations. He gave numerous instances of the causes of variability, including the direct effect of the conditions of life, reversion, the effects of use and disuse, saltation, prepotency, and correlated growth.' (ODNB). Freeman 890. In this Second Edition, first issued in 1875, DARWIN first states his theory of PANGENESIS