“LET US CONSIDER FIRST OF ALL WHAT ARE THE MOST PROMINENT CHANGES WHICH MAN HAS EFFECTED IN THE LANDSCAPE OF OUR OWN COUNTRY…”

ROLLESTON, George. The Modifications of the External Aspects of Organic Nature Produced by Man’s Interference. London: William Clowes and Sons, 1880. Slim octavo, modern purple cloth, black morocco spine label. $750.

First edition of this early work discussing man’s impact on the environment.

Although Rolleston began his career as a physician in the Crimea, he went on to become the chair of anatomy and physiology at Oxford. A close friend of Joseph Dalton Hooker, Charles Lyell, John Phillips, Edmund Alexander Parkes, and Charles Darwin, Rolleston was “the last of a school of English natural historians or biologists in the widest sense of the term” and was known for penning scores of complex and thought-provoking papers that were read and studied by the most important scientists of his day (DNB). Ex-libris University of London, with armorial bookplate, withdrawal stamp, stamp on bound-in original wrappers, and gilt emblem at base of spine. A few faint marginal check marks.

About-fine condition.