Hutton.Theory of the Earth,3v,1795-1899

Hutton (James) Theory of the Earth, with proofs and illustrations,

3 vol. including the posthumous third part edited by Sir Archibald Geikie for the Geological Society, first edition, half-titles, 6 folding engraved plates, small embossed stamp to upper outer corner of title and a few other leaves of vol.1 & 2, vol.1 & 2 foxed, plates quite severely, large plate of Mont Blanc defective in sky area (skilfully repaired and fairly unobtrusive with c.4 x 3cm. section supplied in pen and ink like clouds), modern half calf, by Bayntun of Bath, spines with gilt rules and black morocco labels, original printed wrappers to vol.3 laid down and bound in at end (backstrip rubbed and soiled), very slight fading to spines, [PMM 247], 8vo, Edinburgh and London, 1795-1899.

***Very rare; classic work on geology. "His fundamental conception - now accepted as a matter of course, but then entirely new - was the doctrine of uniformatarianism. The formation of the surface of the earth is one continuous process which can be studied entirely from terrestrial materials without cosmological or supernatural intervention...Hutton had no clear idea of the significance of fossils for the theory of gradual evolution and not all his theories are now accepted, but his central ideas of uniformatarianism and of the effect of small changes in nature leading eventually to gigantic transformations have had far-reaching consequences in their influence on Charles Lyell and Darwin." PMM.