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Two Essays: One upon Single Vision with Two Eyes; the Other on Dew. A Letter to the Right Hon. Llloyd, Lord Kenyon and an Account of a Female of the White Race of Mankind, part of whose Skin resembles that of a Negro; with some observations of the causes of the differences in colour and form between the White and Negro Races of Men. With a Memoir of his Life, Written by Himself.

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Two Essays: One upon Single Vision with Two Eyes; the Other on Dew. A Letter to the Right Hon. Llloyd, Lord Kenyon and an Account of a Female of the White Race of Mankind, part of whose Skin resembles that of a Negro; with some observations of the causes of the differences in colour and form between the White and Negro Races of Men. With a Memoir of his Life, Written by Himself.

by WELLS, William Charles

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About This Item

London and Edinburgh: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown; Archibald Constable and Co. 1818, 1818. First and only collected edition. 8vo (225x135mm). pp. [viii, versos blank], vii-lxxiv, [i] bl., 439, (1) imprint. Occasional light spotting, some early leaves with light dampstain at upper inner margin. Uncut and partly unopened. Blue grey paper covered boards, backed with beige paper and with paper label on spine. ffep has the ownership inscription of G (?) Falconer, Edinburgh, 1825. A very good copy. Wells's "Two essays" contains important contributions in the fields of ophthalmology, meteorology, ventilation, and evolution. "In his "Essay upon single vision with two eyes", originally published in 1792, Wells presents a new theory of binocular vision based on the concept of visible direction and experimental evidence on the duration of impressions on the retina. Wells's theory of visible direction had a great influence on the science of spectacle making in the early part of the nineteenth century". (Becker) The other contributions found here are also significant. The "Essay on dew", first published in 1814, was of "major importance in the development of the science of ventilation, particularly in its relation to relative humidity and the influence of the latter on the comfort of the occupants of factories, ships, theatres, etc". (Garrison-Morton 1604). His paper on a woman with patchy skin, on the other hand, is: "The first statement of the theory of natural selection...an almost complete anticipation of Darwin's theory...although it was completely ignored until it was resurrected by a correspondent of Darwin in the 1860s". (Garrison-Morton 216.2)

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Voewood Rare Books

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About the Seller

Voewood Rare Books

Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Biblio member since 2018
Holt, Norfolk

About Voewood Rare Books

Simon Finch has been a Rare Book Dealer since 1980. He has had shops in Notting Hill Gate, Mayfair and Holt, Norfolk. His firm has handled a wide variety of material from the First Folio of Shakespeare to the wilder shores of the counterculture and everything in between. In 1998, Simon bought Voewood, one of the finest Arts and Crafts and houses and brought it back to life with an eight-year programme of renovation and restoration. Voewood Rare Books, which operates from Voewood, is the continuation for Simon of a long career in the book trade. It also represents an important link with the House. Voewood is always beautiful, surprising, mysterious and perhaps a little disorientating and we aim to bring something of this spirit to the bookshop. Whilst our focus in on the visual arts, literature and the counter-culture, we deal also in a broad range of antiquarian and modern rare books across all subject areas. Our collection can be found here at Biblio and on our website. We are open by appointment and can always be contacted by email.

Glossary

Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:

Unopened
A state in which all or some of the pages of a book have not been separated from the adjacent pages, caused by a traditional...
FFEP
A common abbreviation for Front Free End Paper. Generally, it is the first page of a book and is part of a single sheet that...
Leaves
Very generally, "leaves" refers to the pages of a book, as in the common phrase, "loose-leaf pages." A leaf is a single sheet...
G
Good describes the average used and worn book that has all pages or leaves present. Any defects must be noted. (as defined by AB...
New
A new book is a book previously not circulated to a buyer. Although a new book is typically free of any faults or defects, "new"...
Spine
The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
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