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.

VOLUME: VIII: I. INTRODUCTION. II. RECENT PERIOD-DANISH PEAT AND SHELL MOUNDS-SWISS LAKE DWELLINGS. III. FOSSIL HUMAN REMAINS AND WORKS OF ART OF THE RECENT PERIOD. IV. POST-PLIOCENE PERIOD BONES OF MAN AND EXTINCT MAMMALIA IN BELGIAN CAVERNS. V. POST-PLIOCENE PERIOD FOSSIL HUMAN SKULLS OF THE NEANDERTHAL AND ENGIS CAVES. VI. POST-PLIOCENE ALLUVIUM AND CAVE DEPOSITS WITH FLINT IMPLEMENTS. VII. PEAT AND POST-PLIOCENE ALLUVIUM OF THE VALLEY OF THE SOMME. VIII. POST-PLIOCENE ALLUVIUM WITH FLINT IMPLEMENTS OF THE VALLEY OF THE SOMME-concluded. IX.WORKS OF ART IN POST-PLIOCENE ALLUVIUM OF FRANCE AND ENGLAND. X. CAVERN DEPOSITS, AND PLACE OF SEPULTURE OF THE POST-PLIOCENE PERIOD. XI. AGE OF HUMAN FOSSILS OF LE PUT IN CENTRAL FRANCE AND OF NATCHEZ ON THE MISSISSIPPI, DISCUSSED. XII. ANTIQUITY OF MAN RELATIVELY TO THE GLACIAL PERIOD AND TO THE EXISTING FAUNA AND FLORA. XIII. CHRONOLOGICAL RELATIONS OF THE GLACIAL PERIOD AND THE EARLIEST SIGNS OF MAN'S APPEARANCE IN EUROPE. XIV. CHRONOLOGICAL RELATIONS OF THE GLACIAL PERIOD AND THE EARLIEST SIGNS OF MAN'S APPEARANCE IN EUROPE-continued. XV. EXTINCT GLACIERS OF THE ALPS AND THEIR CHRONOLOGICAL RELATION TO THE HUMAN PERIOD. CHAPTER XVI. HUMAN REMAINS IN THE LOESS, AND THEIR PROBABLE AGE. XVII. POST-GLACIAL DISLOCATIONS AND FOLDINGS OF CRETACEOUS AND DRIFT STRATA IN THE ISLAND OF MÖEN, IN DENMARK. XVIII. THE GLACIAL PERIOD IN NORTH AMERICA. XIX. RECAPITULATION OF GEOLOGICAL PROOFS OF MAN'S ANTIQUITY. XX. THEORIES OF PROGRESSION AND TRANSMUTATION. XXI. ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES BY VARIATION AND NATURAL SELECTION. XXII. OBJECTIONS TO THE HYPOTHESIS OF TRANSMUTATION CONSIDERED. XXIII. ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF LANGUAGES AND SPECIES COMPARED. XXIV. BEARING OF THE DOCTRINE OF TRANSMUTATION ON THE ORIGIN OF MAN, AND HIS PLACE IN THE CREATION.