Lyell, Charles Principles of Geology

Lyell, Charles Principles of Geology Being an Attempt to Explain the Former Changes of the Earth's Surface, by Reference to Causes now in Operation. London: John Murray, 1832-32-33. 3 volumes, 8vo (21.3 x 13cm), xvi 586, xii 330, [iii]-xxxi [1] 398 109 [1], later calf, volume 1 with engraved frontispiece, plate and folding map, volume 2 with hand-coloured aquatint frontispiece and hand-coloured folding map, volume 3 with hand-coloured aquatint frontispiece, 4 engraved plates of shells, and hand-coloured map of south-east England, bound without half-titles, volume 1 plates spotted and offset, volume 2 sig. M with light staining in gutter, spotting to map and adjacent leaves, volume 3 shell plates spotted, map offset, short closed marginal tear in text-leaf K5, bookplates of Thomas Swanwick M.D. (c.1790-1859) to each volume (reimposed), his ownership inscription to versos of volume 1-2 title-pages, bookplate of Henry and Carol Faul to volume 3 [Cf. PMM 344; Ward & Carozzi 1408] Qty: (3) Note: Second edition of volume one, first editions of volumes two and three; volume one was first published in 1830. Lyell's revolutionary work is considered the foundational statement of what came to be known as the 'uniformitarian' school of geology, which in attributing geological phenomena to immutable laws challenged the prevailing 'catrastrophist' view which assumed the literal truth of the biblical narrative and found explanations in supernatural interventions, such as the great flood. The second volume concerned the organic realm and paved the way for Darwin in rejecting Lamarck's theory of the incessant mutability of species, 'arguing instead that they were real stable entities, and that they appeared and became extinct in a piecemeal manner in time and space' (ODNB).