LYELL, Charles (1797-1875). Geological Evidences of the Antiquity of Man with Remarks on Theories of the Origin of Species by Variation, London, 1863, 8vo, 2 plates, illustrations, later half calf gilt. FIRST EDITION.

LYELL, Charles (1797-1875).  The Geological Evidences of the Antiquity of Man with Remarks on Theories of the Origin of Species by Variation. London: John Murray, 1863. 8vo (215 x 135mm). Half title, 2 wood-engraved plates, illustrations, diagrams and maps, 32-pages of publisher's advertisements at the end dated January 1863 (half title browned at edges and spotted, occasional light mainly marginal spotting and staining, a few darker spots and stains). Later half calf, spine gilt with red morocco lettering-piece, later endpapers. Provenance: From the Collection of Professor Jonathan Brostoff, D.M., D.Sc., FRCP, FRCPath (1934-2020). FIRST EDITION of a work whose "evidence in favour of assigning an extreme antiquity to the human remains found in certain caves and gravels made a deep impression on the public mind" (DNB). Although the wording of Lyell's title refers to 'theories' in the plural, passages in the book clearly show their debt specifically to Darwin's On the Origin of Species, published just three years before, both in Chapter XXL which is dedicated to a discussion of Darwin's magnum opus, and on pp.472-473, for example, where Lyell's own words seem to accord with Darwin's theories: "But will not transmutation, if adopted, require us to include the human race in the same continuous series of developments, so that we must hold that man himself has been derived by an unbroken line of descent from some one of the inferior animals? We certainly cannot escape from such a conclusion without abandoning many of the weightiest arguments which have been urged in support of variation and natural selection, considered as the subordinate causes by which new types have been gradually introduced into the earth." Challinor 192; Freeman Natural History 2369; Garrison & Morton 204.1; Norman 1400; Sabin 42758; Ward & Carozzi Geology Emerging 1439.