ON THE ALTERNATION OF GENERATIONS; Or, The Propagation and Development of Animals Through Alternate Generations: A Peculiar Form of Fostering the Young in the Lower Classes of Animals.

First English edition. Publisher's original blue cloth with decorative monogram in gilt to the upper cover and titles in gilt to the spine. Top edge gilt. Illustrated with three engraved folding plates. A very good copy, the binding secure with a split to the cloth at the head of the rear joint, cracking to the hinge between pp.16-17, and some rubbing and marking to the boards. The contents with an engraved armorial bookplate to the front pastedown, a neat previous owner's name in ink to the front endpaper, a water mark to the front pastedown/endpaper, and some spotting to the preliminary pages and engraved plates are otherwise in good order.

One of the key works by the Danish biologist and correspondent of Charles Darwin, Johannes Japetus Smith Steenstrup (1813-1897), outlining his theory of the 'alternation of generations'. Through this study, Steenstrup demonstrated "that certain animals produce offspring which never resemble them but which, on the other hand, bring forth progeny which return in form and nature to their grandparents or more distant ancestors". [Garrison and Morton, 217].