scholarly journals XXI. An account of some observations relating to the production of the Terra Tripolitana, or Tripoli. Humbly addressed to the Royal Society of London, by Martin Hubner, Fellow of the Royal Society Professor of History in the University of Copenhagen, and Member of the Royal Academy of inscriptions and belles lettres of Paris. translated from the French, by Emanuel Mendes da Costa, F. R. S

1759 ◽  
Vol 51 ◽  
pp. 186-194

During a journey I made, in the autumn of the year 1755, through several provinces of France, principally in Britany, I made the natural history of that province, which has plenty of productions worthy the attention of a naturalist, one of the objects of my researches.

2009 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 189-217 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dale R. Calder

Thomas Hincks was born 15 July 1818 in Exeter, England. He attended Manchester New College, York, from 1833 to 1839, and received a B.A. from the University of London in 1840. In 1839 he commenced a 30-year career as a cleric, and served with distinction at Unitarian chapels in Ireland and England. Meanwhile, he enthusiastically pursued interests in natural history. A breakdown in his health and permanent voice impairment during 1867–68 while at Mill Hill Chapel, Leeds, forced him reluctantly to resign from active ministry in 1869. He moved to Taunton and later to Clifton, and devoted much of the rest of his life to natural history. Hincks was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1872 for noteworthy contributions to natural history. Foremost among his publications in science were A history of the British hydroid zoophytes (1868) and A history of the British marine Polyzoa (1880). Hincks named 24 families, 52 genera and 360 species and subspecies of invertebrates, mostly Bryozoa and Hydrozoa. Hincks died 25 January 1899 in Clifton, and was buried in Leeds. His important bryozoan and hydroid collections are in the Natural History Museum, London. At least six genera and 13 species of invertebrates are named in his honour.


Sir Hans Sloane (1660-1753) is remembered more for his activities in the spheres of science and medicine than for his original contributions to these fields. His large treatise on the natural history of Jamaica (2 vols., 1707- 1725) and other writings were useful additions to the scientific literature, but they were overshadowed by his activities as President of both the Royal Society (1727-1741) and the Royal College of Physicians (1719-1735) and by his having provided the collections which became the foundation of the British Museum. There is no definitive study on him, but the two recent biographies by De Beer and Brooks provide a good picture of his life and work (1). Sloane carried on a voluminous correspondence, and most of the letters written to him are preserved in the British Museum—largely unpublished (2). Among them are a dozen letters from Richard Bradley (1688?—5 November 1732), which throw somewhat more light on Bradley than on Sloane. They also illustrate the adverse conditions under which men without wealth have sometimes worked when pursuing scientific activities. Bradley was a prolific author of books on agriculture, horticulture, biology, and medicine. As will appear from his letters, he was often the pawn of booksellers, and John Martyn (1699-1768), his malicious rival, commented shortly after his death that ‘The booksellers have lost a good easy pad’ (3). Bradley was at times only a popularizer or a hack, but he also produced writings having scientific merit (4). Furthermore, he was a Fellow of the Royal Society and the first Professor of Botany at the University of Cambridge. His correspondence with Sloane is therefore of interest for adding to our knowledge of both men and the scientific activities of their time.


Author(s):  
Eva Malainho ◽  
Fernando Jorge Simões Correia ◽  
Cristiana Vieira

Resumo A obra “Iconografia Selecta da Flora Portuguesa”, de Gonçalo Sampaio (botânico) e Sara Cabral Ferreira (ilustradora), foi editada pela primeira vez em 1949. Contendo cento e cinquenta estampas de espécies da flora portuguesa, este livro destacou-se na literatura botânica nacional, embora fosse uma edição póstuma e incompleta. Os seus desenhos originais, realizados em técnica monotonal (tinta-da-china), integram atualmente a coleção de ilustração científica do Museu de História Natural e da Ciência da Universidade do Porto (MHNC-UP). Uma vez que nenhum texto, além do prefácio e dos nomes científicos das plantas, acompanha as imagens no livro, as razões que sustentaram a seleção das espécies a ilustrar, assim como a sua relevância botânica, permaneceram desconhecidas. Neste artigo, tentamos reconstruir a história desta iconografia, com base na análise de documentos epistolares e manuscritos. Focamo-nos também na importância da ilustração científica e no seu uso como ferramenta para a representação visual de espécies botânicas e para a comunicação de ciência. Assim, analisamos a metodologia empregue, quer na tipologia do arquétipo, quer na técnica de execução, bem como as eventuais restrições que conduziram a essas opções. Ao analisar estas ilustrações botânicas da primeira metade do séc. XX, procurou-se ainda explorar a pertinência destas iconografias em estudos botânicos anteriores e contemporâneos, bem como o seu potencial enquanto instrumentos de difusão de ciência. Palavras-chave: Ilustração Científica; Flora Portuguesa; História da Botânica. Abstract The book “Iconografia Selecta da Flora Portuguesa”, by Gonçalo Sampaio (botanist) and Sara Cabral Ferreira (illustrator), was first published in 1949. Containing one hundred and fifty prints of Portuguese flora species, this book stood out in the national botanical literature, although it was a posthumous and incomplete edition. The original book drawings, made in a monotonic technique, are part of the scientific illustration collection of the Museum of Natural History and Science of the University of Porto (MHNC- UP). Since no text, besides preface and the scientific names of the plants, accompanies the images in the book, the reasons which supported the selection of the species to be illustrated, as well as their botanical relevance, remained unknown. In this article, we attempted to reconstruct the history of this iconography, based on the analysis of epistolary documents and manuscripts. We also focus on the importance of scientific illustration and on its usage as a tool for the visual representation of botanical species and for science communication. Therefore, we analyzed the methodology used both in the typology of the archetype as in the execution techniques, as well as the restrictions that led to those options. By analyzing these botanical drawings of the first half of the twentieth century, it was also sought to explore the relevance of these iconographies in earlier and modern botanical studies, as well as their potential as instruments of diffusion of science. Keywords: Scientific Illustration; Portuguese Flora; History of Botany.


Author(s):  

In the original charter of the Royal Society, it was provided that the collections of the Society should be deposited, if belonging to Natural History, in the Museum of the University, and if to Antiquities, in the Library of the Faculty of Advocates. Much inconvenience, however, could hardly fail to result from this arrangement, especially when the researches of the Society, having, as of late, been much turned to Geology, it became an object to collect together the specimens which served to illustrate the subjects under discussion, and to have them at hand when reference should be necessary.


Author(s):  
S. Kusukawa

In 1686, just as Newton was preparing for the publication of the Principia , the Historia Piscium was being printed under the auspices of The Royal Society. The Historia Piscium was a work begun by Francis Willughby (1635–1672, F.R.S. 1663), completed by John Ray (1627–1705, F.R.S. 1667) and brought into print with the financial support of The Royal Society. The text and illustrations of the Historia Piscium reflect the 17th-century origins of the enterprise: Ray's quest to recover the knowledge and language lost in the Fall, and The Royal Society's support for establishing a reformed natural history of fish through publication. Ray's biblical belief in the corruption of human language and knowledge led him to reform natural history through ‘characteristic marks’. He sought to define, classify and depict fishes through their external features, which when matched up, would yield the same nature, and thus allow humans to identify and give a name to a fish. The Royal Society helped Ray's task by confirming the validity or uselessness of a given author on the subject, suggesting other authorities and sources for illustrations, organizing the printing, checking the corrections and paying for the cost of the printing. Subscriptions were sought for the illustrations and the inscriptions of subscribers reflect the Society's concern to promote its institutional identity and its supporters. Some Fellows of the Society also helped Ray with identities and classification of fishes, and changes were made in response to suggestions and objections of other Fellows. Without the intellectual and financial support of the Society, especially Pepys, Lister and Robinson, the Historia Piscium would not have been published in the way that it was. Despite the subscription, however, the Historia Piscium was a costly venture, largely due to its lavish illustrations, and the subsequent flop of sales of the book meant that The Royal Society faced serious financial problems. This is perhaps the main reason why it could not meet the cost of publishing Newton's Principia .


1748 ◽  
Vol 45 (486) ◽  
pp. 248-262

By Direction of the late Empress of Russia , several Members of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Petersburg undertook a Journey into Sibiria , in order to inquire into the Natural History of that Country, and to make such Experiments and Observations, as might tend to give a just Idea of that almost unknown Region, and to the Improvement of Physics in general.


2011 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 220-228 ◽  
Author(s):  
Spencer G. Sealy ◽  
Mélanie F. Guigueno

For centuries, naturalists were aware that soon after hatching the common cuckoo (Cuculus canorus) chick became the sole occupant of the fosterer's nest. Most naturalists thought the adult cuckoo returned to the nest and removed or ate the fosterer's eggs and young, or the cuckoo chick crowded its nest mates out of the nest. Edward Jenner published the first description of cuckoo chicks evicting eggs and young over the side of the nest. Jenner's observations, made in England in 1786 and 1787, were published by the Royal Society of London in 1788. Four years before Jenner's observations, in 1782, Antoine Joseph Lottinger recorded eviction behaviour in France and published his observations in Histoire du coucou d'Europe, in 1795. The importance of Lottinger's and Jenner's observations is considered together.


1828 ◽  
Vol 118 ◽  
pp. 153-239 ◽  

In the year 1790, a series of trigonometrical operations was carried on by General Roy, in co-operation with Messrs. De Cassini, Mechain, and Legendre, for the purpose of connecting the meridians of Paris and Greenwich. In England, the work commenced with a base measured on Hounslow Heath, whence triangles were carried through Hanger Hill Tower and Severndroog Castle on Shooter’s Hill, to Fairlight Down, Folkstone Turnpike, and Dover Castle on the English coast; which last stations were connected with the church of Notre Dame at Calais, and with Blancnez and Montlambert upon the coast of France. An account of these operations will be found in the Philosophical Transactions for 1790. In the year 1821, the Royal Academy of Sciences and the Board of Longitude at Paris communicated to the Royal Society of London their desire, that the operations for connecting the meridians of Paris and Greenwich should be repeated jointly by both countries, and that commissioners should be nominated by the Royal Academy of Sciences and by the Royal Society of London for that purpose. This proposal having been readily acceded to, Messrs. Arago and Matthieu were chosen on the part of the Royal Academy of Sciences, and Lieut.-Colonel (then Captain) Colby and myself were appointed by the Royal Society to co-operate with them.


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