ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE HUTTONIAN THEORY OF THE EARTH.

Edinburgh, Caddell & Davies; William Creech, 1802.. FIRST EDITION 1802. 8vo, approximately 210 x 130 mm, 8 x 5 inches, pages: xx, 1-528, bound in full modern speckled calf, gilt lettered maroon label to spine, gilt decoration to spine, double black rules to edges of covers, modern cream endpapers before original endpaper at front and rear, marbled edges, housed in a marbled slip case. Pale browning and foxing to title page, pale age-browning throughout, occasional fox spot, 2 corner tips missing, not near text, tiny neat repair to top of inner margin on blank side of title page and tiny repair to inner margin of last page, not near text, otherwise a very good copy. John Playfair was a Scottish mathematician and geologist best known for his defence of James Hutton's geological theories. This highly influential book, first published in 1802, contains Playfair's clarification and summary of Hutton's geological concepts. Playfair explains Hutton's theories on erosion and geothermal heat in rock formation and the concept of uniformitarianism in geology, illustrating these theories with his own observations on types of rock strata. Playfair's explanation was instrumental in popularising Hutton's geological theories, many of which are now recognised as key principles of modern geology. See: The History of British Geology by John Challinor, page 16; The Christie's sale catalogue of the Haskell F. Norman Library of Science and Medicine, Volume 2, page 370, No. 727; Diana Hook & Jeremy Norman Haskell F. Norman Library of Science and Medicine, Volume 2, page 621, No. 1717; Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Volume XI, pages 34-36. MORE IMAGES ATTACHED TO THIS LISTING, ALL ZOOMABLE, FURTHER IMAGES ON REQUEST. POSTAGE AT COST.