Bonn, Henry & Cohen, 1859. 8vo (21.5 x 13.3 cm). 23 pp. One fine, lithographed plate. Contemporary grained half cloth over marbled boards. Spine with gilt title.

The rare first treatise on the Neanderthal Man, by German anthropologist Johann Carl Fuhlrott (1803-1877). DSB: "In August 1856, Fuhlrott received an assortment of fossilized bones found by two quarry workers in the Feldhover cave of the Neander Valley. These men had uncovered what they thought to be the skeleton of a cave bear and were carelessly discarding it when the quarry owner persuaded them to save some of the remains for the Elberfeld teacher. Portions of the skull and pelvis, along with the larger limb bones, were delivered to Fuhlrott. He studied the specimens and began to suspect that they were not bear bones but the remains of an ancient and primitive form of human being. It was physically built smaller than that of modern man, this creature with low, retracted forehead had plodded along on bowed legs, its head and chest hunched forward. Fuhlrott recognized the importance of this find and rushed to the grottoes in time to retrieve some ribs, the right radius, the left ulna, and part of the right scapula - all that remained of the probably perfect skeleton. They gained an important ally in Sir Charles Lyell, who journeyed from England in 1860 to investigate the discovery site of the disputed fossils. His visit to Fuhlrott convinced Lyell that the specimen was authentically human, Homo neanderthalensis. But it was not until after Fuhlrott's death and the discovery of fossils at Spa, Belgium, and at Gibraltar, that opposition to the notion of Neanderthal man was finally silenced. Published on behalf of the Naturhistorische Verein der Preussischen Rheinlanden und Westphalens. We offer here the complete volume 16 of the society's Verhandlungen, in two parts with three lithographed plates, and including the Sitzungsberichte and the Correspondenzblatt. A very good, clean copy, with the Neanderthal plate in excellent condition. DSB 5, p. 206; PMM 342.