Studies on the Variation, Distribution, and Evolution of the Genus Partula. Vol. 1, The Species Inhabiting Tahiti, 1916; Vol. 2, The Species of the Mariana Islands, Guam and Saipan, 1925; Vol. 3, The Species Inhabiting Moorea, 1932

Washington, DC: Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1916, 1925, 1932. First edition.

EARLY 19TH CENTURY LANDMARK ILLUSTRATED EVOLUTIONARY STUDY OF LAND SNAILS REVEALED THE IMPORTANCE OF GENETICS OVER ADAPTATION.

Three 11 1/2 inches tall hardcover volumes, Vol 1 bound in red buckram, gilt title to spine, with library call letters at bottom of spine, canceled institutional library bookplate and handstamp to front paste-down and title page, 311 pp, 19 plates including folding tinted maps, 15 color plates containing over 700 images of Partula. Minimal wear to covers, binding tight, occasional marginal note, pages crisp and clean. Vol. 2 with black cloth spine and marbled paper covers, unmarked, binding tight, 116 pp, 10 black & white plates, 4 color plates containing over 200 images of Partula; Vol. 3 with black cloth spine, marbled paper covers, binding tight, inscription to Herr Professor Schwanitz on second flyleaf, pages crisp and clean, 16 plates of photographs and island topography (2 folding plates cut during binding, laid in), 5 color plates containing over 400 images of Partula. Very good minus.

HENRY EDWARD CRAMPTON (1875 - 1956) was an American evolutionary biologist and malacologist who specialized in the study of land snails. Crampton undertook the first major study of evolution in nature in his research in the Society Islands. Crampton made twelve separate expeditions over the course of his career to Moorea near Tahiti to study the land snail genus Partula, while years more were spent measuring and cataloguing his specimens. In all, he dedicated nearly half-a-century to the study. Crampton served as professor of zoology at Columbia University and Barnard College from 1904 to 1943. He was the curator of invertebrate zoology at the American Museum of Natural History. Stephen Jay Gould has cited Crampton as "an inspiration, both for his evolutionary observations on Partula, and the enormous dedication and effort required to undertake them. This research was central to much of the development of the science of genetics. Crampton's monographs remain some of the most remarkable publications on any species, for their meticulous detail and the beautiful illustrations they contain." Cited by SJ Gould in Eight Little Piggies, Unenchanted Evening, "I rank Crampton's Partula studies among the most important in the history of evolutionary biology for three major reasons. First, he was probably right in his central claim about the nonadaptive nature of most small scale differences in form and color among snails of adjacent valleys. Evolutionary biology went through a phase of strong belief in strict adaptationism in the generation just following Crampton, and his works did suffer a temporary eclipse. But his three great monographs are winning new respect and attention in our current, more pluralistic climate of opinion. Second, Crampton must gain our highest admiration, verging on appropriate awe, for the sheer dedication and effort of his immense labors. Crampton spent months on twelve separate expeditions, all in an age of ships and horses. Moreover, Crampton's labor only began with collecting. He then spent years measuring his snails (some 80,000 for the Tahiti monograph, and a whopping 116,000 for the Moorea work) and calculating statistics-all of which he did personally and by hand! Three of the world's finest biologists of land snails took up the study of Partula in the next generation, building explicitly on Crampton's work: Bryan Clarke of the University of Nottingham, Jim Murray of the University of Virginia, and Mike Johnson of the University of Western Australia. Achatina fulica reached Tahiti in 1967 and soon spread to neighboring islands. By the mid-1970s, the infestation had become particularly serious on Moorea." In 1988 Murray, Johnson and Clarke published The Extinction of Partula on Moorea (Pacific Science, 1988), documenting how Crampton's life's work of establishing a baseline for future studies of Partula evolution was being wiped out by an invasive species.

PROVENANCE: Volume 3 likely presented to Franz Schwanitz, co-editor of a history of evolution celebrating the centennary of publication of Darwin's Orgin of Species.

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