John Hunter's Directions for preserving animals

2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 335-349 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stanislav Strekopytov
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Natural History ◽  
Royal College ◽  
Unpublished Manuscript ◽  
Bibliographic Analysis ◽  
Linnean Society ◽  
John Hunter ◽  
Richard Owen

Directions for preserving animals, an undated anonymous pamphlet, privately published by the famous anatomist John Hunter (1728–1793), has not been a subject of a dedicated study so far in spite of its importance as a set of instructions influencing zoological collecting throughout the nineteenth century. A donation entry in the 1788 edition of Regulations and laws of the Lyceum Medicum Londinense allowed assigning 1788 as the most probable publication year of Hunter's pamphlet. The bibliographic analysis of Hunter's private press publications shows that the pamphlet was likely to have been produced by the same press. The pamphlet was reprinted in an amended form in 1809, and further amendments were done for the 1826 and 1835 editions published by the Royal College of Surgeons in London. In spite of Richard Owen (1804–1892) claiming a (co-)authorship of the 1835 edition, there is no evidence that his role exceeded minor editorial corrections. Since Owen made a reference in his correspondence to Hunter's manuscript instructions that he supposedly used in the preparation of the 1835 edition, an attempt was made to trace published and unpublished manuscript instructions for zoological collecting that could be attributed to Hunter. Manuscripts of the Society for Promoting Natural History preserved at the Linnean Society of London showed involvement of John Hunter and Everard Home (1756–1832) in the preparation of a hitherto undescribed comprehensive set of instructions for natural history collectors that was planned to be published by the Society.

Edward Blyth, John M'Clelland, the curatorship of the Asiatic Society's collections and the origins of the Calcutta journal of natural history

2015 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 265-278 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Mathew
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Natural History ◽  
Asiatic Society ◽  
Part Time

This paper explores the origins of the Calcutta journal of natural history (1841–1848) and the search from the 1830s for a permanent curator for the collections of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. Edward Blyth (1810–1873) was appointed, even though John M'Clelland (or McClelland) (1805–1883), who founded the Calcutta journal of natural history, had acted as part-time curator of the collections for two years before Blyth's arrival in Calcutta. An analysis of the Society and the journal allows reconsideration of the significance of natural history in India in the mid-nineteenth century.

The Dupont family: collectors, dealers and naturalists in nineteenth-century Paris

2016 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 191-207 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Mearns ◽  
Laurent Chevrier ◽  
Christophe Gouraud
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Family History ◽  
Natural History ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Special Interest ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Anatomical Models ◽  
The Family ◽  
Small Collection

In the early part of the nineteenth century the Dupont brothers ran separate natural history businesses in Paris. Relatively little is known about their early life but an investigation into the family history at Bayeux corrects Léonard Dupont's year of birth from 1795 to 1796. In 1818 Léonard joined Joseph Ritchie's expedition to North Africa to assist in collecting and preparing the discoveries but he did not get beyond Tripoli. After 15 months he came back to Paris with a small collection from Libya and Provence, and returned to Provence in 1821. While operating as a dealer-naturalist in Paris he published Traité de taxidermie (1823, 1827), developed a special interest in foreign birds and became well known for his anatomical models in coloured wax. Henry Dupont sold a range of natural history material and with his particular passion for beetles formed one of the finest collections in Europe; his best known publication is Monographie des Trachydérides (1836–1840). Because the brothers had overlapping interests and were rarely referred to by their forenames there has been confusion between them and the various eponyms that commemorate them. Although probably true, it would be an over-simplification to state that birds of this era named for Dupont refer to Léonard Dupont, insects to Henry Dupont, and molluscs to their mother.

Peeping at nature with the Reverend Charles A. Hall FRMS (1872–1965)

2015 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 10-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. G. Moore
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Natural History ◽  
Production Costs ◽  
Visual Appeal ◽  
Young Readers ◽  
Simple Language ◽  
Quality Production

Attention is drawn to the contents, pedagogic style and visual appeal of the 17-volume “Peeps at nature” series published by A. & C. Black between 1911 and 1935. Edited by the Reverend Charles Albert Hall (a Swedenborgian minister), who also contributed most of the titles, this series was a quality production but one that was cheap enough to be readily accessible to young readers. Its volumes were written in simple language and included colour pictures. With time, the flamboyant artistry of the covers that so characterized the earlier volumes was replaced by more muted designs, possibly to reduce production costs. Later contributors abandoned anthropomorphism and the moralizing tone of many nineteenth-century popularizers of natural history, although styles of writing varied between the early and later contributors to the series, becoming less technical with time.

Correspondence between Adolphe Brongniart and Robert Schomburgk: trading natural history collections for honours

2002 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 333-336
Author(s):  
PIOTR DASZKIEWICZ ◽  
MICHEL JEGU
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Natural History ◽  
Dominican Republic ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Herbarium Specimens ◽  
British Guiana ◽  
Natural History Collections ◽  
History Of ◽  
Source Of Information ◽  
German Naturalist

ABSTRACT: This paper discusses some correspondence between Robert Schomburgk (1804–1865) and Adolphe Brongniart (1801–1876). Four letters survive, containing information about the history of Schomburgk's collection of fishes and plants from British Guiana, and his herbarium specimens from Dominican Republic and southeast Asia. A study of these letters has enabled us to confirm that Schomburgk supplied the collection of fishes from Guiana now in the Laboratoire d'Ichtyologie, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris. The letters of the German naturalist are an interesting source of information concerning the practice of sale and exchange of natural history collections in the nineteenth century in return for honours.

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