scholarly journals XXI. Observations and experiments on a wax-like substance, resembling the Pé-la of the Chinese, collected at Madras by Dr. Anderson, and called by him white lac

1794 ◽  
Vol 84 ◽  
pp. 383-401 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Undescribed Species ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Trees And Shrubs

I. Some Observations relative to the natural History of the insect which secretes a Sort of wax, called white Lac. The matter which is the subject of the following observations and experiments, was first noticed by Dr. Anderson of Madras, about the year 1786, in a letter to the governor and council of that place, when he says, nests of insects resembling small cowry shells were brought to him from the woods by the natives, who eat them with avidity. These supposed nests he shortly afterwards discovered to be the coverings of the females of an undescribed species of coccus; and having noticed, in the Abbé Grosier's Account of China, that the Chinese collect a kind of wax, much esteemed by them, under the name of Pé-la, from a coccus deposited for the purpose of breeding on certain shrubs, and managed exactly in the same manner as the Mexicans manage the cochineal insect, he followed the same process with his new insects, and shortly found means to propagate them with great facility on several of the trees and shrubs growing in his neighbourhood. On examining the substance, he observed in it a very considerable resemblance to bees wax; and noticed, moreover, that the animal which secretes it provides itself, by some means or other, with a small quantity of honey, resembling that produced by our bees; and he complains in one of his letters, that the children whom he employed to gather it were tempted by its sweetness to eat so much of what they collected, as to diminish materially the produce of his crop. It is also believed that the white lac possesses medicinal qualities.

scholarly journals I. The Croonian Lecture.—On the theory of the vertebrate skull

1859 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 381-457 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Biological Science ◽  
The Other ◽  
Small Space ◽  
Half Century ◽  
Organic Structure ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Articles Of Faith ◽  
The Mind

The necessity of discussing so great a subject as the Theory of the Vertebrate Skull in the small space of time allotted by custom to a lecture, has its advantages as well as its drawbacks. As, on the present occasion, I shall suffer greatly from the disadvantages of the limitation, I will, with your permission, avail myself to the uttermost of its benefits. It will be necessary for me to assume much that I would rather demonstrate, to suppose known much that I would rather set forth and explain at length; but on the other hand, I may consider myself excused from entering largely either into the history of the subject, or into lengthy and controversial criticisms upon the views which are, or have been, held by others. The biological science of the last half-century is honourably distinguished from that of preceding epochs, by the constantly increasing prominence of the idea, that a community of plan is discernible amidst the manifold diversities of organic structure. That there is nothing really aberrant in nature; that the most widely different organisms are connected by a hidden bond; that an apparently new and isolated structure will prove, when its characters are thoroughly sifted, to be only a modification of something which existed before,—are propositions which are gradually assuming the position of articles of faith in the mind of the investigators of animated nature, and are directly, or by implication, admitted among the axioms of natural history.

Schweigger’s (1812) chelonian types from the extinct eighteenth century Portuguese “Royal cabinet of natural history of Ajuda”: some contributions for their identification and nomenclatural implications

Zootaxa ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 3395 (1) ◽  
pp. 18 ◽  
Author(s):  
LUIS M. P. CERÍACO ◽  
ROGER BOUR
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Natural History ◽  
Zoological Nomenclature ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Intense Debate

The work Prodromus Monographiae Cheloniorum, published by Schweigger in 1812, has recently been the subject ofseveral studies. One result of these studies—the rediscovery of the Testudo gigantea Schweigger, 1812holotype—triggered an intense debate in The Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature, where, among other issues in dispute,the identity and nature of the specimen indicated as the holotype for the species is put in question. Using historical sources,mostly unpublished, and analysis and comparison of taxidermic characteristics of the specimen with other specimens ofthe same nature, we can clearly trace its origin to the extinct Royal Cabinet of Natural History of Ajuda in Lisbon, fromthe “philosophical journey” of Alexandre Rodrigues Ferreira to the specimens transported to Paris by Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire in 1808, thus helping dispel any doubts regarding the identity and nature of what is being identified as the Testudogigantea holotype, along with other chelonian specimens. This information is of great importance in the current taxonomicdebate as well as in recognizing the historic importance of the Royal Cabinet of Natural History of Ajuda and Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire’s 1808 mission to Lisbon.

The Natural History of Whales

Polar Record ◽  
1942 ◽  
Vol 3 (24) ◽  
pp. 553-563
Author(s):  
N. A. Mackintosh
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Southern Hemisphere ◽  
Present State ◽  
Comparative Anatomy ◽  
Sperm Whale ◽  
Anatomy And Physiology ◽  
Right Whales ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Right

The purpose of this article is to give a general indication of the present state of our knowledge of whales, regarded as an element of the oceanic fauna, and to indicate some of the more important problems which still await solution. The term “whales” is used here to include only the largest of the Cetacea, which are the Right whales, the Rorquals and the Sperm whale; and the subject has to do with these whales in the collective sense, that is to say their habits as a community, and their breeding, growth and distribution, especially in the southern hemisphere, rather than with such matters as comparative anatomy and physiology.

The Natural History of Philosophy in Canada

Dialogue ◽  
1986 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-66
Author(s):  
Thomas Mathien
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Biological Species ◽  
History Of Philosophy ◽  
The Past ◽  
Evolutionary Study ◽  
Major Study ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The One ◽  
Intellectual Discipline

Some writers about the history of philosophy in Canada have wondered why it should be studied. That is a worthy question, but it is not the one I want to discuss here. I am going to assume there are good reasons for doing so because I want to consider some general features of the subject of such studies and to determine what has to be done to establish certain descriptive claims about it. I will also point out some concerns I have about the proper explanation of certain interesting features of Canadian philosophic activity, and I will present a brief evaluation of one major study. I will do this with the aid of a contention that the study of the history of an intellectual discipline is a little like an evolutionary study of a biological species, but I will close by pointing out one reason for doing history which goes beyond description, and even explanation, of the past.

scholarly journals Notes on some Glass Frogs (Anura: Centrolenidae) from Western Ecuador: Taxonomy, natural history and conservation status, with the description of a new species

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diego F Cisneros-Heredia ◽  
Roy W. McDiarmid
Keyword(s):  
New Species ◽  
Natural History ◽  
Conservation Status ◽  
Morphological Characters ◽  
Habitat Destruction ◽  
Undescribed Species ◽  
Science Center ◽  
Amphibian Species ◽  
Forest Remnants ◽  
History Of

Ecuador has the biggest number of amphibian species per unit of area in the world (425 species in 283,560 km2). In the last decade, conservative estimates indicate that at least 26 species of Ecuadorian amphibians have declined or gone extinct. The reasons for this crisis are not clear but have been related to habitat destruction, climate change, and/or diseases, such as chytridiomycosis. The Río Palenque Science Center (RPSC) was among the last remnants of tropical rainforest in the western lowlands of Ecuador. Twenty years ago, investigations done by R. McDiarmid, Ken Miyata and others lead to the discovery of an amazing herpetofauna, including several undescribed species. However, the expansion of the agricultural frontier and transformation of the forest remnants into oil palm and banana plantations destroyed this site. Among the species identified from RPSC were five species of glass frogs (family Centrolenidae): Centrolene prosoblepon, Cochranella spinosa, Hyalinobatrachium fleischmanni, Hyalinobatrachium sp. (cf. valerioi), and an undescribed species of the genus Centrolene. This research analyzed the morphological characters and natural history of the five glass frogs of RPSC in order to describe the new species of Centrolene from RPSC, which seems to be critically endangered, if not extinct. The new species is characterized by a combination of the following characters: 1) distinctive coloration in life with dark flecks and yellow dorsolateral stripes on a green dorsum; 2) parietal peritoneum white, covering about ½ of the venter, pericardium white, liver and stomach without guanophores, large intestine with guanophores; 3) presence of exposed prepollical spines; 4) humeral spines in males; 5) unique glandular nuptial pad between fingers I and II; and 5) reddish iris.

Dr John Brickell's Catalogue of American Trees and Shrubs (1739): A bibliographic misadventure

1994 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-72
Author(s):  
MARCUS B. SIMPSON
Keyword(s):  
North Carolina ◽  
Natural History ◽  
History Of ◽  
Trees And Shrubs

Dr John Brickell, the obscure author/compiler of the Natural History of North-Carolina (1737), has long been credited with a second work, commonly cited as A Catalogue of American Trees and Shrubs which will endure the Climate of England (1739). Careful review of the available data suggests that this attribution may have resulted from an error in Robert Watt's Bibliotheca Britannica, in which a broadside catalogue sheet bearing the title, issued by plant nurseryman Christopher Gray, was mistakenly credited to Brickell.

scholarly journals XXVII.—Account of Experimental Observations on the Development and Growth of Salmon-Fry, from the exclusion of the Ova to the age of two years

1840 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 547-566 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Shaw
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Salmon Fry ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject

That the facts which I communicate regarding the natural history of the salmon in its earlier stages, may not appear altogether undeserving of consideration, I may premise that my remarks have not proceeded from hasty or imperfect observation, but from the experience of many years sedulously devoted to the subject, the whole of my life, with the exception of a few seasons, having been spent on the banks of streams where salmon are in the habit of depositing their spawn, and where of course the parr is likewise abundant. My opportunities of observation have thus been as ample, as my efforts have been unremitting and laborious, to discover the true history of this invaluable species. I shall here present a brief abstract of my earlier proceedings in relation to the subject.

scholarly journals XIX.—The Alcyonaria of the Cape of Good Hope and Natal. Alcyonacea

1911 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 549-589 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Stuart Thomson
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Natural History ◽  
South African ◽  
Zoological Institute ◽  
Undescribed Species ◽  
Cape Of Good Hope ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Government

The following is the first of a series of papers which I intend to issue on South African Alcyonaria. During a lengthened residence at the Cape of Good Hope, I devoted special attention to the Alcyonaria collected on board the Government steam trawler Pieter Faure. Professor Hickson has contributed two papers on Cape Alcyonarians to the volumes Marine Investigations in South Africa; but since then a large number of forms have been dredged, and there still remain in the collection entrusted to me many unidentified and undescribed species. In this first instalment I have confined myself to the Alcyonacea. The present work has been carried on in the Zoological Institute and Museum of Natural History, Berne, and it would be difficult to overstate my indebtedness to Professor Studer, who, besides giving me much valuable advice, stimulus, and encouragement, placed the entire literature of the subject at my disposal.

scholarly journals XVI.—A Contribution to the Germ Theory of Putrefaction and other Fermentative Changes, and to the Natural History of Torulæ and Bacteria

1875 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 313-344 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Lister
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Filamentous Fungus ◽  
Alcoholic Fermentation ◽  
Organic Substances ◽  
Germ Theory ◽  
The Public ◽  
Typical Form ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject

Although the subject of the following communication has of late years attracted a great deal of attention among the public generally, it may, nevertheless, be well for me to preface my statements by a few elementary remarks.It is well known that organic substances, when left exposed under ordinary circumstances, undergo alterations in their qualities. For example, an infusion of malt experiences the alcoholic fermentation; a basin of paste prepared from wheaten flour becomes mouldy; or, again, a piece of meat putrefies when so treated. The microscope shows that each of these changes is attended by the development of minute organisms. In the fermenting sweet-wort the yeast which falls to the bottom of the containing vessel is found to consist of budding cells, constituting the yeast-plant, Torula Cerevisiæ, represented in Plate XXII. fig 2. In the mouldy paste the blue crust which is the most frequent appearance, owes its colour to the spores of a species of filamentous fungus, Penicillium Glaucum, the commonest of all moulds, of which fig. 1 in Plate XXII. represents a pencil of fructifying threads; and the putrid flesh will be probably found teeming with bodies which, in the most typical form, consist of two little rods, connected endways as by a joint, such as are seen at a, fig. 3, Plate XXII., characterised by astonishing powers of locomotion, and, from their rod-like form, termed Bacteria.

Teaching Field Ecology

2002 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Ehrenfeld
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Natural History ◽  
New Brunswick ◽  
Late Summer ◽  
Field Trips ◽  
Teaching Career ◽  
Final Exams ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Class Room

The first thing I did when I arrived at Rutgers in the late summer of 1974was to plan the courses I would teach. My principal fall course was to be based on one that I had helped teach for a few years at Barnard College: The Natural History of the New York Area. At Barnard, I had learned the subject by accompanying far more experienced colleagues—Tony Warburton, an evolutionary biologist, and Patricia Dudley, an ecologist—on their field trips. Now, in New Brunswick, I had a new teaching partner, Jim Applegate, a wildlife biologist, but I didn’t anticipate any changes. Jim listened to my plans for the course with gratifying attention and enthusiasm. He had only a few questions. “What are we going to call the course?” “‘The Natural History of the New York Area,’” I answered, “or may be ‘The Natural History of New Jersey.’ That’s what it is, isn’t it?” “Sure. But we already have our course in General Ecology, which you run. That’s mostly theoretical, indoor classroom learning. Why not call the new course ‘Field Ecology’ and design it to let students who have had General Ecology apply their knowledge to the real world? In other words, we want to teach them more than descriptive natural history—they should understand the ecological and human processes that make each place what it is.”This meant a pretty complete rethinking of the course, which I hadn’t expected to do, but I grudgingly agreed. Thus began what has be-come the most remarkable experience of my teaching career. For the first three or four years, we taught together: two different sections a week, each with the two of us and fourteen students crammed into a fifteen-passenger van for field trips that lasted from 1:00 to 6:30 P.M. From the start we decided that there would be almost no class-room teaching, just field trips, regardless of weather. And so we have witnessed the majestic silence of a white cedar swamp in the October sun-shine, have walked the springy, low-tide–bared Spartina salt marsh in torrential rain, and have given final exams on abandoned landfills during snowstorms.

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