While I would never presume - as some reviewers might - to misstate what is said in this classic volume and then presume to suggest that "now you don't need to read the book," I will say that this is an excellent edition of a classic work. All who have any interest in the history of Darwinian evolution and particularly the historical views of the evolution of man will find this fascinating reading, particularly if the context can be juxtaposed with what has been discovered since Darwin's time. Of course, times have changed, our hopefully less euro-centric views have been altered and there has been considerable progress through the generations since the original publication by Darwin, and that makes the progress of human knowledge all the more fascinating, as well as the insight Darwin obviously possessed in his day. This one's a "must-read" for anyone interested in the history of science.

Although there are many racist and sexist ideas, this was the climate in which Darwin wrote this book. Many of the details are grossly in error, but the book was written over 100 years ago. Many advances in knowledge have been made since then. The basic premise, and the fact that Darwin looked to the African apes as a point of origin for humans is the real beauty of the book. Darwin is many times falsely blamed for "Social Darwinism" which he never proposed nor advocated. Just because someone uses Darwin as a justification for negative ideas and or actions, does not mean that Darwin should be vilified for it. Descent was not a social commentary, but a scientific treatise, and should be treated as such.

This book contains a wealth of facts, compiled during Darwin's life on matters which were highly controversial at the time. His prior book, Origin of Species, provided the scientific framework for thinking that mankind might, in some way, be a descent from the animal kingdom. For personal reasons, there was some doubt, at the time, whether it would ever be diplomatic to admit such a thing to the human beings themselves, right in their very faces. The title which Darwin placed on this book showed how easy it would be to imagine that the fundamental distinction was closely linked to the question of whom an individual might choose to have sex with, given the great parallels to a wide range of behavior in the animal kingdom. I have looked in this book for evidence that philosophy is a set of ideas adopted mainly in relation to sex, but the philosophy of the fittest for that kind of activity seems to be a bit more modern than Darwin. On a scale of stillborn to born with a brain, Darwin was definitely born with a brain, but it didn't make him crazy enough to suggest that which we may imply ourselves. There are a lot of facts in this book, compared to the number of suggestions, but it shows a considerable amount of thought.

This book is a BASIC book for optometrists who want to dabble in low vision. It is not for the low vision specialist! I found a lot of the information to be useful, but there are better books available.

A seasoned "specialist" is not going to buy this book (i.e. retina specialist does not go out and buy a text book on retina, but rather searches out more current and complex research articles). As a general practitioner, I found this book to be an excellant resource for those who would like to become low vision specialists. It gives the "nuts and bolts" approach; everything from low vision exam and training forms to equipment, treatment options, and low vision optics. In addition, the appendices list many low vision resources, related organizations, and optical reference tables. There is a growing need for low vision services and this book is one step towards enabling many optometrists to meet those needs.