An Essay towards a Natural History of the Earth
And Terrestrial Bodyes, Especially Minerals
Cambridge Library Collection - Earth Science Series

For the physician and natural historian John Woodward (c.1655?1728), fossils were the key to unlocking the mystery of the Earth's past, which he attempted to do in this controversial work, first published in 1695 and here reissued in the 1723 third edition. Woodward argues that the 'whole Terrestrial Globe was taken all to Pieces, and dissolved at the Deluge', and that fossilised remains were proof of the flood as described in the Bible. In the first part of the work, Woodward examines other theories of the Earth's history before presenting evidence - much of it based on his own fossil collection - in support of his theory. The work immediately prompted heated debate among his scientific contemporaries. Despite the controversy, Woodward was acknowledged as an expert on fossil classification, cementing this reputation with his influential Fossils of All Kinds (1728), which is also reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection.

Preface; An account of the observations upon which this discourse is founded; A dissertation concerning shells and other marine bodyes, found at land; 1. An examination of the opinions of former writers on this subject; 2. Concerning the universal Deluge; 3. Concerning the fluids of the globe; 4. Of the origin and formation of metals, and minerals; 5. Of the alterations which the terraqueous globe hath undergone since the time of the Deluge; 6. Concerning the state of the Earth and the productions of it, before the Deluge.