Pierre Louis Moreau de Maupertuis - Venus Physique. Dissertation sur l'origine des hommes et des animaux - 1745

In-12°, 2 ff + 194 pages. Full marbled calf, spine with five nerves and a nice gilt fleur-de-lis with fish motif. Missing leather at the top of the spine, worn corners. Red edges. Ex-libris. Very fresh and complete.

The work is divided into two parts: 'Dissertation on the origin of men and animals' up to page 115, which was initially published a year earlier under the title 'Physical Dissertation on the occasion of the Black White' and was written after the appearance of a black albino in Paris, containing significant contributions to the science of heredity. Maupertuis rightly asserts that the white color of the black is a hereditary anomaly.

The second part, 'Dissertation on the origin of Blacks,' appears here for the first time. A pioneer of transformism, Maupertuis paves the way for genetics by opposing the theory of preformation of the embryo.