A controversial and largely discredited theory of the earth in which Woodward believed that the earth had originally been submerged under a universal deluge suspending stones, minerals and animals. The matter then subsided into an order determined by the specific gravity of the component leading to a stratigraphic succession. His work is however important for his use of methodology and for the fact that its strong argument in favour of the organic origin of fossils led to a much wider interest in the subject.