‘There will hereafter be no further alterations in the “Origin”…’ (letter to John Murray, 30 January 1872)

Darwin first proposed a cheap, popular edition of Origin in April 1871, and publication was originally planned for November ofthat year (Correspondence vol. ig, letter to R. F. Cooke, 22 April [1871], and letter from R. F. Cooke, 26 April 1871. He began revising the text on 18 June 1871, but its appearance was delayed both by two months' illness on Darwin's part, and by the substantial changes he made to the text; it was finally published in February 1872, with the beginning of the title amended from ‘On the origin of species’ to ‘The origin of species’. It is the first edition in which the word ‘evolution’ appears. (Freeman ig77, p. 7g; Correspondence vol. ig, Appendix II, and this volume, CD's ‘Journal’ (Appendix II).)

In addition to a glossary of scientific terms commissioned from the indexer, William Sweetland Dallas, the volume included a new chapter, ‘Miscellaneous objections to the theory of natural selection’, which brought together material that had been in several different places in earlier editions with much new content (Origin 6th ed., pp. 168-204; see Correspondence vol. ig, letter to John Murray, 6 October [1871], and letter to R. F. Cooke, 13 October [1871]). The changes were made largely in response to criticisms levelled by the Catholic zoologist St George Jackson Mivart, to whom Darwin promised a copy and whose name is included in the presentation list, although it had once been deleted (letter to St G.J. Mivart, ii January [1872]; see n. 3, below).