A New System of Geology in Which the Great Revolutions of the Earth and Animated Nature are reconciled at once to Modern Science and Sacred History by URE, Andrew - 1829

London: Longman, Rees, et al., 1829. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. 1st Edition. Hardcover. 8vo - over 7¾ - 9¾" tall. 8vo (218 x 135 mm). [2], lv [1], 619, [1] pp., 7 steel engraved plates (6 of them engraved in copper, the other a lithograph), 51 woodcuts in the text (two of them hand-colored). Contemporary calf, spine rebacked, two-line gilt tooled border on sides (light wear to boards and extremities), cut edges gilt. Internally very light age-toning, scattered minor foxing to first 3 leaves, otherwise crisp and unstained. A fine, unmarked copy with ample margins. ---- DSB XIII, 547-8. FIRST EDITION. Ure (1778-1857) "studied medicine at the University of Glasgow, receiving his degree in 1801. In 1804, he was elected to the Chair of Natural Philosophy in the Andersonian Institution. He became a consulting chemist when he moved to London in 1830. Ure was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1822" (Mineralogical Record). "A pioneer in the teaching of science to artisans, Ure was also one of the first scientists to earn his living as a consultant. Apart from his teaching and some improvements in the techniques of chemical analysis, he made no significant contributions to the advancement of science [...] In 1829 Ure published his System of Geology, an outdated attempt to reconcile contemporary geological discoveries with the Mosaic account of the Creation. He thought that geologists, by questioning the latter, were undermining the bases of religion and morality. The book was the subject of a devastating attack by Adam Sedgwick at a meeting of the Geological Society of London in 1830 (Proceedings of the Geological Society of London,1 [1834], 208-210), Quite apart from defending a lost cause, Ure had not kept himself up to date and many old errors had been repeated. Moreover, he included considerable extracts from other works without any indication of quotation. Sedgwick concluded that Ure had 'shown neither the information nor the industry which might justify him in becoming an interpreter of the labours of others, or the framer of a system of his own.'" (DSB XIII, p.547-8).