Corrosive sublimate and its introduction as an insecticide for preserving natural history specimens in the eighteenth century

2021 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-41
Author(s):  
Stanislav Strekopytov
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Natural History ◽  
Mercuric Chloride ◽  
Corrosive Sublimate ◽  
Cimex Lectularius ◽  
Herbarium Specimens ◽  
Natural History Collections ◽  
History Of

By the mid-eighteenth century, the need to protect zoological and botanical collections from attacks of insects became pressing for the community of naturalists. Living ornamental and economically important plants and their seeds also needed to be protected from insects when transported by sail. John Ellis ( c.1710–1776), one of the pioneers of plant transportation, was instrumental in disseminating the knowledge of insecticidal properties of corrosive sublimate (mercury(II) chloride or mercuric chloride, HgCl2). Although the use of corrosive sublimate for the protection of zoological collections had been proposed by John Woodward (1665–1728) in 1696, it was probably not widely used by naturalists until Ellis had published his Directions for bringing over seeds in 1770, recommending this substance for the protection of living plants, seeds and specimens during transport. Ellis possibly learned about the insecticidal properties of corrosive sublimate from the emerging use of this compound to control bedbugs ( Cimex lectularius). The history of bedbug management in eighteenth-century London, and some early exterminators, including John Southall ( fl.1726–1738), George Bridges ( c.1695–1768) and Thomas Tiffin ( fl.1760–1783), are discussed. Only a few days after the Directions was printed, Ellis asked Thomas Davies ( c.1737–1812) to publish a method of preparing bird skins that involved corrosive sublimate and was probably involved in drafting it. Following these two publications, corrosive sublimate was frequently used for the preservation of natural history collections including bird skins and herbarium specimens.

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.

‘Promiscuous’ Planting

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-44
Author(s):  
Angma Dey Jhala
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Natural History ◽  
Soil Quality ◽  
East India Company ◽  
Border Region ◽  
Swidden Agriculture ◽  
Chittagong Hill Tracts ◽  
History Of ◽  
Hill Tribes

During the eighteenth century, the travelogue flourished as a genre and was used to describe peoples both familiar and unfamiliar to the western observer. Chapter 1 examines one such account, the 1798 travelogue of the Scottish doctor Francis Buchanan in the CHT. In his tour diary, he deployed the language of natural history to describe not only the region’s unusual soil quality, topography, and local jhum or swidden agriculture, but also the religious, cultural, and linguistic practices of the various hill tribes he encountered. In the process, he exposed the tumultuous history of this border region, which found itself at the crossroads of imperial ambition by both the East India Company and the kingdom of Burma. He is also an intriguing example of an Enlightenment era man of science and reason in the Chittagong Hill Tracts.

History of Religion as Critique of Religion?

2021 ◽  
pp. 10-30
Author(s):  
Hans Joas
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Natural History ◽  
David Hume ◽  
Religious Texts ◽  
History Of Religion ◽  
Universal History ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Literary Character ◽  
History Of

The Scottish eighteenth-century philosopher and historian David Hume can be considered a pioneer of the “natural history of religion” in the sense of a universal history of religion that is not based on theological presuppositions. This chapter offers a characterization of his methodological achievements and a reevaluation of his empirical claims concerning monotheism, polytheism, religion and tolerance. It also interprets the German reception of Hume in Herder and other eighteenth-century thinkers as a serious critical continuation that is free from Hume’s anti-Christian motives. This continuation opens the perspective of a serious study of the literary character of religious texts, in this case of the Bible. All simple contrasts between Enlightenment and religion are overcome as soon as we take this interaction of thinkers into account.

Three Eighteenth-Century Attempts to Map the Natural Order: Johann Herrmann – Georg Christoph Würtz – Paul Dietrich Giseke

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kees van Putten
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Natural History ◽  
Natural Order ◽  
Two Dimensional ◽  
History Of ◽  
A Chain

Abstract By the second half of the eighteenth century, the age-old concept of nature as a chain of being had been superseded by the idea that the order of nature was a two-dimensional whole. Carolus Linnaeus, for instance, stated that vegetal nature was ordered like a geographical map. Paul Dietrich Giseke, one of his followers, rendered this metaphor concrete by making a “genealogic-geographical map of the natural orders of plants.” Could mapping nature in this way help to produce a true image of it and thereby achieve a better understanding of nature’s order? I intend to answer this question by analyzing Giseke’s map along with two closely connected images of the order of nature, Johann Herrmann’s “Table of affinities between animals” and the hitherto unnoticed “geographical map” of medicines, designed by Georg Christoph Würtz. The article deals with the relation between these images, examines the respective advantages and drawbacks of their maps and situates them with respect to the models of the natural history of the time.

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.

Tracking changes in natural history collections utilization: A case study at the Museum of Southwestern Biology at the University of New Mexico

2015 ◽  
Vol 29 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 1-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bethany L. Abrahamson
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
University Of New Mexico ◽  
Research Fields ◽  
Fields Of Study ◽  
Natural History Collections ◽  
History Of ◽  
Data Source ◽  
History Of Use ◽  
The University

AbstractNatural history collections (NHCs) are used in many fields of study, but general knowledge regarding their uses is poor. Because of this, funding and support for NHCs frequently fluctuate. One way in which collections professionals can illustrate a collection’s contribution to a variety of fields is based on the collection’s history of use. Tracking NHC utilization through time can increase NHC value to others outside of the collection, allow for the analysis of changes in specimen-based research trends, and assist in effective collection management. This case study focuses on NHC usage records held by the Museum of Southwestern Biology (MSB), a currently growing university collection used in many research fields, and presents methods for quantifying collections utilization through time. Through an exploration of these data, this paper illustrates MSB’s growth and changes in research produced over time and offers explanations for the changes observed. Last, this study provides suggestions for how collections professionals can most greatly benefit from considering NHC records as a data source. Understanding NHC usage from “the collection’s perspective” provides a new way for NHC professionals to understand NHCs’ value in the context of the research it supports and demonstrates the importance of this key infrastructure to a broader audience.

scholarly journals The colonial legacy of herbaria

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
DA S Park ◽  
Xiao Feng ◽  
Shinobu Akiyama ◽  
Marlina Ardiyani ◽  
Neida Avendano ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Global Change ◽  
Inverse Relationship ◽  
Plant Biodiversity ◽  
Colonial Era ◽  
Colonial Legacy ◽  
Natural History Collections ◽  
History Of ◽  
Global North ◽  
Herbarium Collections

Herbarium collections shape our understanding of the world's flora and are crucial for addressing global change and biodiversity conservation. The formation of such natural history collections, however, are not free from sociopolitical issues of immediate relevance. Despite increasing efforts addressing issues of representation and colonialism in natural history collections, herbaria have received comparatively less attention. While it has been noted that the majority of plant specimens are housed in the global North, the extent of this disparity has not been rigorously quantified to date. Here, by analyzing over 85 million specimen records and surveying herbaria across the globe, we assess the colonial legacy of botanical collections and how we may move towards a more inclusive future. We demonstrate that colonial exploitation has contributed to an inverse relationship between where plant biodiversity exists in nature and where it is housed in herbaria. Such disparities persist in herbaria across physical and digital realms despite overt colonialism having ended over half a century ago, suggesting ongoing digitization and decolonization efforts have yet to alleviate colonial-era discrepancies. We emphasize the need for acknowledging the inconvenient history of herbarium collections and the implementation of a more equitable, global paradigm for their collection, curation, and use.

‘Just put it online’: The Taylor White Project as a digitization case study

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Zinger
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Natural History ◽  
History Of Science ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
Interactive Visualizations ◽  
Digital Collection ◽  
History Of ◽  
Source Materials

Creating access to digital surrogates of primary source materials has spurred the growth of history of science as a field. Enabling and supporting virtual access requires an understanding of the behind-the-scenes requirements of a digitization project. Using McGill's Taylor White Project as a case study, this article reveals how such a project is managed, to result in a unique digital collection that supports research in both the humanities and the sciences. The workflows described transformed a collection of 938 eighteenth-century natural history drawings from a relatively inaccessible archive to a searchable and browsable digital collection, complete with contextualizing interactive visualizations. Understanding this process reveals some of the ways in which digitized data can create new avenues for questioning and examining information.

THE CATALOG OF THE MINERALOGICAL COLLECTION OF THE EMPEROR LEOPOLD II (1747–1792): COLLECTING AND LEARNING IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY EUROPE

2019 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 173-203 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANNARITA FRANZA ◽  
ROSANNA FABOZZI ◽  
LETIZIA VEZZOSI ◽  
LUCIANA FANTONI ◽  
GIOVANNI PRATESI
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Economic Evaluation ◽  
Natural History ◽  
Metal Content ◽  
Natural History Museum ◽  
History Museum ◽  
Historical Archive ◽  
Natural History Collections ◽  
Private Collection ◽  
The University

ABSTRACT The Collectio Mineralium (1765) currently preserved at the Historical Archive of the Natural History Museum of the University of Firenze, is the unpublished catalog of the mineralogical collection that belonged to Emperor Leopold II (1747–1792). The catalog is a 110-page register, with the golden emblem of the House of Habsburg at the center of the binding, containing information about 242 mineralogical samples. Each specimen is carefully described (i.e., habit, metal content, product value) and its locality given. The interpretation of the text has also returned information on most of the mining deposits in the Austro-Hungarian territories in the eighteenth century. Therefore, the interpretation of this catalog—that on the basis of the literature appears to be the first catalog of a collection belonged to a Habsburg emperor—represents an important step toward enhancing our understanding of Habsburg natural history collections and reflected the transition from wonder-rooms to commodity collecting. Leopold's private collection was no longer an ‘instrument of wonder’ but it became representative of scientific collecting characterized by the establishment of systematic mineralogy, and by a careful economic evaluation of the mineralogical samples collected as a symbol of the power of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Resources for the History of Science in the Libraries of the British Museum (Natural History)

1988 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-97 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. E. R. Banks
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
History Of Science ◽  
British Museum ◽  
Human Biology ◽  
Blue Whale ◽  
The Public ◽  
Natural History Collections ◽  
History Of

Alfred Waterhouse's ornate Romanesque building at South Kensington, London, has contained the natural history collections of the British Museum since 1881. First opened to the public on Easter Monday, 18 April, in that year, the British Museum (Natural History) (BM(NH)) has become well-known for the excellence of its exhibition galleries, particularly for its dinosaurs, blue whale, and, more recently, for its revolutionary Hall of Human Biology.

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