Antiquity Of Man

The "Antiquity of Man" was published in 1863, and ran into a third edition in the course of that year. The cause of this is not far to seek. Darwin's "Origin of Species" appeared in 1859, only four years earlier, and rapidly had its effect in drawing attention to the great problem of the origin of living beings. The theories of Darwin and Wallace brought to a head and presented in a concrete shape the somewhat vague speculations as to development and evolution which had long been floating in the minds of naturalists.

Charles Lyell's argument in this classic volume is that the processes of nature are slow and uniform, and that the Earth is in consequence hundreds of millions of years old. This work includes his prediction that if our nearest relatives are great apes, then the places to look for human fossils will be central Africa and Indonesia.

"The Geological Evidence of The Antiquity of Man" from Charles Lyell. British lawyer and geologist (1797-1875).