BURMEISTER, Carl Hermann Conrad.

Geschichte der Schöpfung. Eine Darstellung des Entwicklungsganges der Erde und ihrer Bewohner.Leipzig, Otto Wigand (colophon: printed by Breitkopf und Härtel), 1843. 8vo. Contemporary paste-paper boards, gold-tooled spine with label.

      - 6, 485, (2), (1 blank) pp. BMC NH, p. 289 (wanting); Poggendorff I, col. 348; OCLC WorldCat (3 copies).First edition of an account of the physical history of the earth and of life on the earth, by the German naturalist Hermann Burmeister (1807-1892), a follower of Humboldt and Cuvier and fierce opponent of Darwin. More than half the book is devoted to the origin, structure and nature of the earth, paying particular attention to vulcanism, which played a central role in Cuvier's catastrophic theories. These form a background for disscussion of emergence and development of plants and animals (Burmeister was best known as an entymologist and zoologist at this time). This is one of Burmeister's earlier major publlications and went through seven editions up to 1867 as well as a French translation in 1870: Histoire de la Création. From 1850 he spent most of his life in Argentina as a pioneering palaeontologist.With an owner's inscription by a medical student, Zimmermann. In very good condition. Binding rubbed. First edition of Hermann Burmeister's physical history of the earth and its creatures.