PRINCIPLES OF GEOLOGY

Being an Inquiry How Far the Former Changes of the Earth's Surface are Referable to Causes now in Operation.

In four volumes

Fifth edition: Vol.1 xviii, 462 pages; vol. 11 442 pages; vol. 111 447 pages, vol. 1V 447 pages, frontispiece, 15 maps and plates including 4 hand-coloured, half brown calf with matching marbled paper boards, end papers and edges, titled gilt with gilt decoration on the spines – the titles have completely faded, light foxing throughout, a good set.

First published in three volumes in 1830–1833 by John Murray, the Principles of Geology established Lyell's credentials as an important geological theorist and popularized the doctrine of uniformitarianism (first suggested by James Hutton in Theory of the Earth published in 1795) The central argument in Principles was that "the present is the key to the past": that geological remains from the distant past could, and should, be explained by reference to geological processes now in operation and thus directly observable.

The book is notable for being one of the first to use the term "evolution" in the context of biological speciation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principles_of_Geology