WOODWARD, John.

Geographie Physique, ou Essay sur l'Histoire Naturelle de la Terre, traduit de l'Anglois,...par M. Noguez...avec la Réponse aux Observations de M. le Docteur Camerarius; plusieurs Lettres écrites sur la même matiere; & la Distribution méthodique des Fossiles, traduits de l'Anglois, du même M. Woodward, par le R.P. Niceron...

Folding engraved plate. xiv, 389, [2] pp. Large 4to, cont. mottled sheep (rubbed, occasional light foxing), spine gilt, red morocco lettering piece on spine. Paris: Briasson, 1735. First edition in French of Woodward's An Essay toward a Natural History of the Earth (1695), a celebrated and influential contribution to the advancement of geological knowledge. Woodward (1665-1728), believed that "the earth formerly had been submerged beneath a universal deluge...These waters had dissolved, or disintegrated and held in suspension, all the stony and mineral matter forming the outer crust of the earth...From the confused mass that had formed, the matter in suspension, both organic and inorganic, subsided in an order determined, so far as was possible, by the specific gravity of the individual components. Thus a stratigraphic succession was formed."­D.S.B., XIV, p. 501. His Essay also contributed toward establishing that strata throughout the world are, generally speaking, similar in character, a conclusion necessary before an acceptable theory of the origin of the rocks of the crust of the earth could be formulated. Appended are Woodward's responses to one of his most violent geological opponents, Elias Camerarius, professor at Tübingen. These responses, in a series of letters and essays, were translated by Benjamin Holloway. Some appear to be hitherto unpublished. At the end is the first translation into French of Woodward's Fossils of all Kinds digested into a Method (1728). Woodward divided all minerals into six classes with many subdivisions. Here he described some 200 minerals, together with their modes of occurrence in some cases. Some specimens were examined under the microscope. "Woodward was the first British author to publish a systematic classification and description of minerals based on his own observations."­D.S.B., XIV, p. 502. Very good copy. 18th century signature of F. Allamand on free front-endpaper.

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