London: Martin Secker, First edition 1916. 19.5 x 13 cm.

324 pages. Dust jacket 

Important first novel by Welsh author Herbert Millingchamp Vaughan, 1870-1948.  A rare dystopian science fiction work. A vellum scroll is found in a metal cylinder in the Andes which relates the dystopian history of the miniature planet Meleager, where the practice of eugenics ensures the death of defective children and where women have no power or political rights.  A rare book with a possible influence on Charlotte Haldane's Man's World and feminist dystopian literature generally, especially in the areas of eugenics and male patriarchy.