Owen, Richard; Key to the Geology of the Globe: an essay designed to show that the present geographical, hydrographical, and geological structures, observed on the earth's crust, were the result of forces acting according to fixed, demonstrable laws, analogous to those governing the development of organic bodies. Nashville, 1857. Quarto, pp. viii, 256, folded colored map, 6 folded plates and diagrams.

The text is complete and in the original cloth, spine faded and lightly re-tinted outside of title area. 1860 obituary notice of Owen on front paste down. The text and plates are very clean. In very good condition.
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Richard Owen (1810-1890) was born in Scotland and immigrated to America settling in New Harmony Indiana in 1828. He was a geologist, soldier, and first president of Purdue University. Owen spent much of his first earlier years in the company of his brother, the noted geologist David Dale Owen. In his later years he replaced his brother as State Geologist of Indiana. He spent much of his early life as a teacher, served for a time in the Mexican War where he commanded a company under General Taylor. After the war he became his brother's chief assistant, and was the first geologist to explore the northern shore of Lake Superior. He held a professorship in the Western Military Institute in Kentucky, and afterward a similar position in a college in Nashville until he resigned to become his brother's successor as State Geologist of Indiana in 1860. He resigned from that position when the Civil War began, and he became lieutenant colonel of the Fifteenth Indiana regiment. In 1864, he was appointed Professor of Natural Science at Indiana University, and in 1872 Richard Owen was elected President of Purdue University. This position he accepted, but he never assumed the duties of the office.
Owen's research were marked by originality and his conclusions were often bold and controversial. He was an authority on earthquakes, and on the location of epicenters. His text book "Geology of the Globe" is one of the earliest books to suggest the possibility that the continents may have drifted away from each other. The work received a fair amount of attention at the time but was soon forgotten. Indeed Owen was bold in his thinking. His death on March 25, 1890 was odd to say the least. During the 1880s, his health began to suffer; he often consumed mineral water as some relief from his distress. On March 25, 1890, he was mistakenly served embalming fluid instead of mineral water at the local grocery store and Owen died the same day.