MAN'S ORIGIN BEFORE DARWIN. Autograph letter, signed, from James L. Cabell, University of Virginia, Charlottesville to Robert Carter & Brothers, Publishers, New York

1859. AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED FROM UVA PROFESSOR TO HIS NEW YORK PUBLISHER REGARDING HIS BOOK ON THE UNITY OF MANKIND PUBLISHED MONTHS BEFORE DARWIN'S ORIGIN OF SPECIES.

James L. Cabell, Professor of Anatomy and Surgery at the University of Virginia. Autograph letter signed to his New York publishers Robert Carter & Brothers, regarding proof corrections to his Testimony of Modern Science to the Unity of Mankind. 12.5 x 20 cm lightly age-toned leaf, closed tears to right and bottom edges, very good minus. Inscribed, "University of Va. Feb. 24, 1859/ My dear Sir/ The printed sheets sent by the same mail with this – from p. 153 to p. 248 – contains the passages which are to be transposed. I hope there will be no difficulty in understanding my wishes – I have endeavored to mark them intelligibly – partly on the margin of the printed sheets & partly on the accompanying MSS. copy./ Yours most truly J. L. Cabell/ Rob. Carter & Brothers/ 530 Broadway/ New-York."

JAMES LAWRENCE CABELL (1813–1889), descendant of a long line of physicians, enrolled in the University of Virginia in at the age of 16, only 4 years after it was opened by its founder, Thomas Jefferson. His mentor in the medical department was Professor Robley Dunglison, who found him a superior student. When Dunglison moved to the Medical College of Maryland in 1833, Cabell followed him and received his medical degree in Baltimore in 1834. In 1837, at the age of 24, he became professor of anatomy and surgery at the University of Virginia, teaching for more than fifty years, until 1889. In 1859, months before Charles Darwin's work On the Origin of Species appeared, Cabell published The Testimony of Modern Science to the Unity of Mankind. Based on his broad scientific knowledge, Cabell favored a monogenic origin for human races (descending from a single ancestral pair) rather than the polygenic theory promoted by many slaveholders claiming that the inferiority of the Black race justified their enslavement. He was therefore countering the claims of influential anthropologists and biologists of the time, including George R. Gliddon, Josiah Clarke Nott, and Louis Agassiz. During the American Civil War, Cabell served as the surgeon in charge of the Confederate military hospitals in Charlottesville and Danville. After the war, he helped to found the Medical Society of Virginia and served as its president from 1876 to 1877. He was the first president of the Virginia State Board of Health, and in 1879 became president of the new National Board of Health. SOURCE: Dubose J and Tribble C. James Lawrence Cabell, One of the Most Influential of America's Early Surgeons. The American Surgeon 81:331-335, 2015.

ROBERT CARTER (1807-1889) was a native of Scotland. He came to New York in 1831 and after a short teaching career purchased a bookseller's stock and opened a store. Shortly thereafter he moved to 58 Canal Street address and began his publishing career with religious and theological books. Subsequently in 1849 he moved to 285 Broadway and in 1856 to his final publishing address at 530 Broadway where he stayed until 1889. His brothers Walter (1823-1897) and Peter joined him in 1848 necessitating the name change from Robert Carter to Robert Carter & Brothers. Robert died in 1889 and the firm's stock and plates were sold at auction in 1890.