86 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 



hydropathic establishment at Moor Park. I ab- 

 stracted the MS. begun on a much larger scale in 

 1856, and completed the volume on the same re- 

 duced scale. It cost me thirteen months and ten 

 days' hard labour. It was published under the title of 

 the * Origin of Species,' in November 1859. Though 

 considerably added to and corrected in the later 

 editions, it has remained substantially the same 

 book. 



It is no doubt the chief work of my life. It was 

 from the first highly successful. The first small 

 edition of 1250 copies was sold on the day of publica- 

 tion, and a second edition of 3000 copies soon after- 

 wards. Sixteen thousand copies have now (1876) 

 been sold in England ; and considering how stiff a 

 book it is, this is a large sale. It has been translated 

 into almost every European tongue, even into such 

 languages as Spanish, Bohemian, Polish, and Russian. 

 It has also, according to Miss Bird, been translated 

 into Japanese,* and is there much studied. Even an 

 essay in Hebrew has appeared on it, showing that the 

 theory is contained in the Old Testament ! The 

 reviews were very numerous ; for some time I col- 

 lected all that appeared on the ' Origin ' and on my 

 related books, and these amount (excluding news- 

 paper reviews) to 265 ; but after a time I gave up the 

 attempt in despair. Many separate essays and books 

 on the subject have appeared ; and in Germany a 

 catalogue or bibliography on " Darwinismus " has 

 appeared every year or two. 



* Miss Bird is mistaken, as I learn from Prof. Mitsukuri. F.D. 



