Histoire Generale et Particuliere des Anomalies de l'organisation Chez l'homme et les Animaux (4 tomes)

 Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire

Bruxelles : Societe Belge de Librairie, 1837

4 volume set.  Octavos, 23 cm. Includes Atlas with 20 lithograph plates. Bound in later blue cloth with gilt lettering.  Darkening to the edges of two of the text volumes.   Foundational work in teratology, the study of congenital abnormalities.  "Isidore ... organized all known human and animal malformations taxonomically. Many principles governing abnormal development were enunciated for the first time in this work." - Garrison-Morton 534.58; Nissen ZBI 1529; Waller 3474. One of the practical results of Isidore's work was the development of the theory of biological criminology. Geoffroy's evolutionary concepts did much to create a receptive scientific audience for Charles Darwin's arguments. "Ouvrage comprenant des recherches sur les caracteres, la classification, l'influence physiologique et pathologique, les rapports generaux, les lois et les causes des monstruosites, des varietes et vices de conformation, ou traite de teratology."