Chamber’s Vestiges was first published in 1844. It quickly went through several editions, all of them preserving the anonymity of the author until this, the twelfth edition. The edition retains the illustrations first included with the tenth edition of 1853, and the long appendix containing “Proofs, Illustrations, Authorities Etc.” New to this edition is a 30pp. introduction by Alexander Ireland telling the “Story of the authorship of the “Vestiges” told for the first time” (Ireland had been instrumental in the original publication of the book in 1844). The twelfth edition also adds a portrait of Robert Chambers, taken from his original portrait by J. Watson-Gordon.