Cordier, Pierre Louis Antoine; An Essay on theTemperature of the Interior of the Earth. Amherst, John S. & Charles Adams, 1828. Octavo, pp. 94.

The work is complete and in the original cloth over marbled boards with a modern title label on the cover. Binding is tight with minor soiling, text is clean with 1833 signature on end sheet, a note at the rear on two well borings in France and the temperatures of the waters. Perforated library stamp on lower part of title page. In very good condition. A scarce work.
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Cordier (1777-1861) was a French mineralogist and petrologist. The mineral cordierite is named in his honor. He accompanied the scientific expedition to Egypt under Napoleon in 1798 and then worked at the Jardine des Plantes. He formulated a classification of rocks by mineralogical composition and structure, treating them as aggregates of minerals regardless of origin and age. The above essay was presented as a lecture before the Royal Academy in 1827 and then translated from the French at the request of Edward Hitchcock by students at Amherst College and published in 1828. Cordier argued that with depth the temperature in the earth increased and the earth's deep interior is thus a fluid mass of melted rocks. He uses data from deep mines throughout Europe as part of his proof.