An Essay toward a Natural History of the Earth: and Terrestial Bodies, especially Minerals: as also of the Sea, Rivers, and Springs. With an Account of the Universal Deluge: and of the Effects that it had upon the Earth, Woodward (John) Sciences

FIRST EDITION, imprimatur leaf and terminal blank; a crisp copy with occasional pencil annotations in the margins, pp. [16], 277, [3], 8vo, contemporary panelled dark English calf, gilt roll to board edges, speckled text block edges; wanting one of two front free endpapers, upper joint tender, spine ends a little chipped; stamp of the recently dispersed Lawes Agricultural Trust library on inside front and back cover, good. A very clean copy of the groundbreaking work in which the geologist, fossil hunter and physician John Woodward (1665-1728) ventured a new theory of the earth and the origin of fossils. Woodward posited that in order for fossils to get inside the solid crust of the earth, the crust must once have been liquid. He suggests that this can only have occurred during the Old Testament flood. Woodward's Essay contributed towards establishing the theory that geological and fossil strata throughout the world are similar in character. 'Woodward's attention was attracted to fossils while he was staying with his tutor Barwick's son-in-law, Sir Ralph Dutton, in Gloucestershire. He subsequently took the subject up and travelled in various parts of England, making notes and collecting specimens, the result of his observations being embodied in his still celebrated work' (ODNB).