L'anti-Venus physique. Ou critique de la dissertation sur l'origine des hommes et des animaux [...] [- [...] Seconde partie. Contenant la critique de la dissertation sur l'origine des noirs [...]].

2 parts with continued pagin. in 1 vol., 12mo: [4]-1/144-[2]-145/219 pp. (occ. foxing).

Contemp. marbled calf, gilt orn. spine with raised bands, red edges (head missing).

Rare first edition of these critics by G. Basset Des Rosiers, Professor of Philosophy, on two works on reproduction and heredity by the mathematician and philosopher Pierre Louis Moreau de Maupertuis (1698-1759). Maupertuis defended the epigenetics theory of reproduction and the contribution of both parents, against the more generally accepted theory of embryonic preformation. His theories anticipated those of Darwin, Mendel and de Vries. The 1st part is a critic to the "Dissertation physique à l'occasion du nègre blanc" (1744; publ. in 1745 under the title "Venus physique") which evocates the case of albinos among black people.
Ref. Barbier I:225. - Quérard I:208.