One engraved plate & one folding printed table. xvi, 375 pp.; 2 p.l., 412 pp. Two vols. 8vo, cont. cat’s paw calf (light foxing & minor stains). Paris: Maradan, Seconde Année de la République [1794].

First edition. Lamarck (1744-1829), the noted biologist and evolutionist, had pronounced chemical theories and they were an important part of his ideas about nature and evolution. He was an adversary of Lavoisier’s anti-phlogistic theory and proposed the four-element theory (earth, air, water, and fire). Lamarck believed that these four elements “have no attraction for one another but tend to separate unless constrained by force…He proposed... More