Important scientific volume of the Geological Society’s journal containing papers by Lyell, Murchison, Owen and Sedgwick, illustrated with numerous geological plates, fossil diagrams and a folding geological map of the Quebec region.
Bibliographic Details
Title: The Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, Volume IX (1853).
Publisher: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, London.
Date: 1853.
Pagination: viii, xcii, 370, iv, 35, [1], [8] pp.
Illustrations: 15 lithographic plates (several folding), including fossil diagrams, geological sections and a folding geological map of the vicinity of Quebec.
Binding: Contemporary half calf over marbled boards with gilt spine.
Size: 22.2 × 14.7 × approx. 4.5 cm.
Provenance: Bookplate of David Llewellin (1826–1880), engineer and mineral agent in South Wales and Fellow of the Geological Society, responsible for the construction of several important colliery railways.
Condition
Very Good to Good overall. Some rubbing to leather edges and corners. Minor foxing to endpapers and title pages. Plates show occasional foxing or age-toning as typical. Binding firm and contents complete.
Description
The Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society was one of the most important scientific publications of the nineteenth century, serving as the primary forum for new geological discoveries and debates among Britain’s leading natural philosophers.
This 1853 volume contains numerous papers by some of the most influential figures in Victorian science, including Sir Charles Lyell, Sir Roderick Murchison, Richard Owen, Adam Sedgwick, and others such as John Phillips, T. Rupert Jones, the Duke of Argyll and Andrew Ramsay.
Among the notable contributions are studies of fossil forests in Nova Scotia by Lyell and Dawson, investigations of Silurian and Devonian formations by Murchison, palaeontological work by Owen, and reports on glacial phenomena in North Wales by Ramsay. The volume is further enriched with lithographic plates and geological maps illustrating fossils, strata, and field observations from across Europe and North America.
Notes
Charles Darwin had been elected a Fellow of the Geological Society in 1836, and through his association with figures such as Lyell, Sedgwick and Murchison he developed the crucial understanding of geological time that underpinned his theory of evolution. Publications such as this journal represent the collaborative scientific environment from which modern geology emerged.
An attractive and historically important volume documenting the development of nineteenth-century geological science.