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Bulletin of the [ 2i 7 J

British Museum (Natural

Historical series

Vol 6 No 1 29 September 1977

Emanuel Mendes da Costa (1717-91) and
the Conchology, or natural history of shells
P. J. P. Whitehead

British Museum (Natural History)
London 1977

The Bulletin of the British Museum {Natural History), instituted in 1949, is issued in four
scientific series, Botany, Entomology, Geology and Zoology, and a Historical series.

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World List abbreviation : Bull. Br. Mus. nat. Hist. (hist. Ser.)

© Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History), 1977

ISSN 0068-2306 Historical series

Vol 6 No 1 Pp 1-24
British Museum (Natural History)
Cromwell Road
London SW7 5BD Issued 29 September 1977

Emanuel Mendes da Costa (1717-91) and the
Conchology, or natural history of shells

I 2 8 SEP J977
P. J. P. Whitehead W, library a.

Department of Zoology, British Museum (Natural History), Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD

Contents

Introduction .
Sources .

George Humphrey .
E. M. da Costa
King's Bench Prison
Later years
The Conchology

Authorship

Illustrations

Dating
Acknowledgements
References

1
2
5
6
11
13

16
19
20

22
22

Introduction

To earn a respected place in both the Society of Antiquaries and the Royal Society was not, in
the eighteenth century, an uncommon achievement; but to be then expelled from the one and
sent to prison by the other is altogether rare. Such was the fate of Emanuel Mendes da Costa
(1717-91), 'that wayward Hebrew genius . . . whose scientific enthusiasm atoned for less honour-
able traits of character' (Fox, 1919:212). Da Costa has so far received only brief biographical
treatment although, like many of his colleagues, he was an avid letter-writer and his carefully
preserved correspondence (over two thousand letters) still survives. His life and career are here
explored in connection with his authorship of the Conchology, or natural history of shells.

The true authorship of the Conchology - said to have been the first work in which this term
was used (Dance, 1966 : 271) - has always been a puzzle since the book is undated and merely
'By a Collector'. Two possible authors have been suggested. The first is George Humphrey
(? 1745-1825), collector and dealer in shells. Among those who have favoured his authorship
have been Sherborn (1904) and Jackson (1937: 333). The second possibility, more frequently
cited, is da Costa and among those who put his name to the work were Schroter (1774: 156),
Chemnitz (1795 : 181, 184-8), Roding (1798 : 1-7), Maton & Racket (1804 : 200-1), and Iredale
(1915 : 307 & 1922 : 86). Dillwyn (1817 : ix) settled for joint authorship and Swainson (1840a :
154) implied it, while Sherborn (1902 : xx, xxx) had initially been even more cautious and given
the work under each of these two authors, but with a reference to possible authorship by the
other. Dance (1966 : 271), who enjoyed such enigmas but never explored this one, opted for joint
authorship.

In spite of this difference of opinion, no very convincing arguments have been offered. Certainly,
Humphrey himself once claimed authorship, referring to the work as 'HUMPHREY'S Con-
chology' in his sale catalogue, the Museum Humfredianum (1779, 36th day). Da Costa, on the
other hand, actually disclaimed authorship, giving the work as 'A new anonymous Conchology'
(da Costa, 1776 : 51) or as merely the 'Anon. Conch.' (da Costa, 1778b : 1-24). However, there
are reasons for believing that the statements of both Humphrey and da Costa are misleading.

The key to the mystery lies in the highly unusual circumstances that attended the production
of the work, for it was during this time that da Costa fell into disgrace, being convicted of em-

Bull. Br. Mus. nat Hist. (hist. Ser.) 6 (1): 1-24

Issued 29 September 1977

bezzlement and spending four years in prison. In itself, this merely suggests that anonymity is
more consistent with da Costa's authorship than with Humphrey's. It does not explain what
role Humphrey played and why he attached his name to it. The real solution to the puzzle, and
a source that seems to have been overlooked by previous writers on the subject, can be found in
the eleven volumes of da Costa's correspondence in the British Library.

On the basis of these da Costa letters, a number of which were written from prison during the
critical period when the Conchology was being produced, together with hints in letters to other
naturalists, the conclusion is reached here that the true author was da Costa and not Humphrey.
The latter saw the work through the press and acted as editor, but it was actually written by da
Costa as an unrepentant debtor in the King's Bench Prison.

Sources

The principal source for information on da Costa is the collection of his letters in eleven bound
volumes in the Manuscript Department of the British Library. A note on the flysheet of the first
volume states:

This Collection, bound in Eleven Volumes, chiefly on Subjects of Natural history - addressed
to Emanuel Mendes Da Costa, F.R.S. Author of a Natural History of Fossils, 4to 1757,
with copies of his answers, in his own handwriting - from 1737 to 1787 - contains Two
Thousand Four Hundred and Eighty seven Autographs. I purchased them from the late
John Nichols, Author of the History of Leicestershire - who procured them from J & B
White's Catalogue, Fleet Street - in exchange for other books.
1831 William Upcott

On a subsequent page is written 'Presented by the Rt. Hon. the Earl of Derby 8 Oct. 1870'.

This collection of letters is notable for its size, range of correspondents, variety of topics and
frequent inclusion of drafts of da Costa's replies. No biographer could wish for better. Da Costa
had a rather distinctive, angular, even childish hand and his drafts are easily read. Unfortunately,
rather fewer letters date from the prison period (1768-72) and one gains the impression that many
of his earlier correspondents fell silent when the blow fell.

The first to have this collection, Messrs J. & B. White, were the booksellers who, as B. White,
had retailed the Conchology many years earlier. This was Benjamin White (1725-94), publisher
at the 'Horace's Head' in Fleet Street, brother of Gilbert White and publisher of the first edition
of 'Selborne'. White may have bought part or all of da Costa's library, possibly in 1787 when the
letters cease.

There is no record of when the da Costa correspondence came to John Nichols (1745-1826),
its next owner, but it apparently remained at the booksellers until at least 1812. Thus, in the
third volume of Nichols' Literary anecdotes (1812b: 757) it is stated that 'Messrs. White and
Cochrane possess in fifteen large portfolios, a very curious collection of letters to Mr da Costa
from men of the first literary character of the time'. In the same year, Nichols published a
genealogical manuscript of da Costa's family, drawn up by da Costa himself and also some 'brief
memorials of contemporary Virtuosi' written by da Costa (Nichols, 1812a & b). Six years later
Nichols had evidently acquired the da Costa letters, as noted in the Advertisement of volume 3
of his Illustrations of literary history (1818 : viii). In that and in subsequent volumes he printed a
large number of letters to and from da Costa, as well as the 'brief memorials' where they were
appropriate to the letters.

Nichols' library was sold at Sotheby's on 16-19 April 1828, but apparently it was not at that
time that William Upcott (1779-1845) bought the da Costa letters (not in sale catalogue). Upcott,
natural son of Ozias Humphrey and a passionate autograph hunter, died without issue and his
huge collection of manuscripts, books, prints and drawings was sold at Sotheby's in June 1845
(priced catalogue, formerly owned by Dawson Turner, in the British Library). The da Costa
letters were amongst several important lots which the British Museum declined to buy. Instead,
they were bought by the Earl of Derby, to be presented to the British Museum in 1870.

Da Costa himself arranged his letters chronologically in 'large folio volumes of strong blue
papers on which the Originals are pinned (not pasted) & uniformly bound'; at the time that da
Costa wrote this (June 1782) there were eleven of these volumes (fide Add. Ms. 9389, f. 28). The
correspondence to 1787 when the letters end must have occupied a further four volumes, making
the fifteen bought by John Nichols. The letters are now alphabetically arranged, having pre-
sumably been rearranged and rebound by Upcott in 1831.

In addition to the main da Costa correspondence, the British Library manuscript catalogues
give ten other da Costa items. There are seven letters to the Rev. Thomas Birch (Add. MS. 4303),
a letter to Hans Sloane (Add. MS. 4439), an application for the post of Clerk to the Royal
Society (Add. MS. 4441), da Costa's diploma from the Academiae Naturae Curiosorum (Add.
MS. 6180), da Costa's catalogue of his library (Add. MS. 9389), a letter to him from Linnaeus (Add.
MS. 23102, f. 123), da Costa's genealogy and notes on collectors, being those used by John
Nichols (Add. MS. 29867), some historical notes on Jews (Add. MS. 29868), and his minutes
from the Royal Society, 1757-62 (Eg. MS. 2381).

Another useful source for information on the Conchology and its author is the letter-book of
his contemporary, the entomologist Dru Drury (1725-1804). Cockerell (1922) discovered this
book, then owned by Messrs Power, Drury & Co, wine merchants of Funchal, Madeira, and he
cited from thirty letters from Drury to Linnaeus, Moses Harris, Pallas and others, of which three
to Peter Simon Pallas (1741-1811) are relevant here (12 November 1767, 28 February 1768 and
14 January 1770). These report da Costa's intention to publish natural history plates and they
describe his subsequent disgrace. Parts of the second letter were also quoted by Iredale (1922).
The letter-book was presented to the British Museum (Natural History) in 1937 by Charles Dru
Drury, together with some other Drury papers and the latter's account book for the first two
volumes of his Illustrations of natural history (Drury, 1770-83), which shows translation fees paid
to da Costa. Sherborn (1937) reported this gift and indexed the recipients of the letters.

Pallas had met da Costa during his visit to England in 1761-62. Urness (1967) reproduced
seventeen letters written by Pallas to Thomas Pennant (1726-98) in the period 1766 and 1777-81
and in two of these Pallas speaks of having seen da Costa's collection and admiring especially his
Brazilian emeralds, specimens of which he later solicited but in vain. What would be of the
greatest interest would be the main body of Pallas' letters since he corresponded as widely as did
da Costa, but it does not seem to have survived. He did not leave his correspondence in Lenin-
grad, apart from a few letters to him now in the Archives of the Academy of Sciences (none rele-
vant here), and most probably he took all his papers with him when he retired to Berlin in 1810.
There are a few letters in the Manuscript Department of the Staatsbibliothek at Dahlem (West
Berlin). These include two from Pennant to Pallas (15 May 1753 and 26 November 1784 -see
Sig. Darmst. Lc(l) 1771), four long and interesting letters from John Ledyard (1787 and 1788 -
see Ms. Germ., f. 788), and six other letters (to Tilesius, to his mother-in-law and to four
unknowns). Of equal importance is Pallas' day book for 1762-63 (Sig. Darmst. Asien (4) 1768)
which contains, in German, French and English, Pallas' itineraries, the people he met, poems,
anecdotes and book titles (with five pages devoted to some of the most salacious literature then
purveyed by the Dutch bookshops!). There are references here to two letters and a parcel (of
amber) sent to da Costa (14 October and 28 November 1762, 12 February 1763); the final one is
in the da Costa collection.

The Zentralkartei der Autographen of the Staatsbibliothek in Dahlem has records of only five
other Pallas letters in the forty-six libraries so far covered (one letter in the Bayerische Staats-
bibliothek in Munich, the rest in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Niirnberg). Pallas letters
are not included in the East German catalogue Gelehrten- und Schriftstellernachldsse in den
Bibliotheken der Deutsch-Demokratischen Republik.

There must be da Costa letters in very many libraries and institutions, but an exhaustive search

has not been attempted here. However, the following items have been noted:

a. British Museum (Natural History), London. Twelve da Costa letters (? 1774 and 1776-78) are

in a bound volume of letters to Richard Pulteney entitled 'R. Pulteney Letters from Bryer,

da Costa, et al. 1776-1800'. There are no da Costa letters in the Joseph Banks collection, but a

letter from Thomas Pennant to Banks refers to da Costa's frauds (Dawson, 1958 : 662).

b. Linnean Society, London. The Linnaean correspondence includes two letters from da Costa
to Linnaeus and two of the latter's replies. There is also a letter from Peder Ascanius to
Linnaeus referring briefly to da Costa's earlier term in prison. All these were reproduced by
Smith (1821 : 482, 488-492 and comment on da Costa, p. 495). There is also a letter from da
Costa to John Ellis (1755, Ellis Correspondence, calendared by Savage, 1948) and in the
Pulteney Correspondence is one from Humphrey to da Costa concerning the purchase of
shells (31 January 1782).

c. Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, London. Three letters (1748-62) addressed to
Antoine Reamur, Isaac Romilly and A. P. Schrader.

d. Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. In the Perceval Collection (L90, 91 and 93) is a letter from
da Costa to William Hunter, a copy of the latter's reply, and one from da Costa to Dru Drury.

e. Bodleian Library, Oxford. Reference to da Costa's possession of Edward Lhwyd's papers is
in a letter from John Fothergill to William Huddesford, Ashmole MSS. 1822, ff. 225-6.

f. Royal Society, London. There are fourteen letters or documents by da Costa, none relevant
here.

g. Haverford College, Pennsylvania. There is an oblique reference to da Costa in a letter from
John Fothergill to John Morgan in the Charles Roberts Autograph Collection (this and the
preceding Bodleian letter are reproduced, with footnotes, by Corner & Booth, 1971 : 250-1
and 294-6).

h. Mocatta Library, University College, London. There is no original da Costa material, but
amongst the Lucien Wolf papers are transcripts of wills and family records, of which four files
under the headings B 20 Cos and B 20 Men deal with the da Costas and Mendes da Costas
(including da Costa's will and that of his father). & \ j

i. National Library, Edinburgh. A letter from Peter Collinson to da Costa (No. 583, f. 695).

j. Derbyshire County Library, Derby. About sixty papers, including a number of letters, many
of which refer to Derbyshire minerals; about half the notes are written in Latin or French and
very few are signed (Parcel 9X).

Another useful source has been the Public Records Office in London. For the dates of da
Costa's second sojourn in prison a record appears in volume 4 (p. 203) of the Commitment
Books of the King's Bench Prison, together with a note of the indictment and a margin entry
recording his discharge. His name does not appear, however, in a book of admissions and dis-
charges (King's Bench and Fleet Prisons, Miscellanea, 1696-1862, PRO. PRIS. 7, 1776-1862,
79 bundles). For some reason his case was not recorded in the Great Doggett of the King's Bench
Crown Rolls (PRO. IND. 6660-1), nor in the Controlment Roll of that Court, nor in the King's
Bench Indictments (PRO. K.B. 10. 36 for Michaelmas Term, 1768). The Judgement Rolls (Plea
side) of the King's Bench for 1768 (PRO. IND. 6229-30) were also searched without success.

For details of da Costa's downfall there is a record in Lyons (1944), but the best source is the
Minute Book (vol. 5, 1763-68) of the Council of the Royal Society, which gives a blow-by-blow
account of the discovery of his frauds and the actions taken against him. Towards the end of the
affair, however, the Council's attention was increasingly diverted to the arrangements for obser-
vations of the transit of Venus by Captain Cook and others. One almost senses the relief with
which the Council turned from the last report on the da Costa affair (his imprisonment) to a
cheerful letter from Cook in Madeira blithely announcing his use of Society funds to purchase
wine for himself and Mr Green the astronomer.

For convenience when citing these sources, the following abbreviations have been used in the
text:

Add. MS. Additional Manuscripts, British Library

Banks Corr. Correspondence of Sir Joseph Banks (copies) in the British Museum (Natural History);

these letters are calendared by Dawson (1958)
DC. Corr. Da Costa's correspondence bound in 1 1 volumes, Manuscript Department, British

Library, Add. MSS. 28534-44; a number of these letters were published by John Nichols

{Lit. Anec. and ///. Lit. Hist., see below)
DC. Gen. Da Costa's genealogy, written by himself, in Add. MS. 29867; published by Nichols (1812a)
DC. Lib. Catalogue of da Costa's library, written by himself (final date, June 1782), Add. MS. 9389

Drury Corr. Letter-book of Dru Drury, British Museum (Natural History); 30 letters quoted by

Cockerell (1922), indexed by Sherborn (1937)
Drury AB. Dru Drury's account book for the Illustrations of natural history, British Museum (Natural

History)
///. Lit. Hist. Illustrations of literary history - see Nichols (1817-31)
Linn Corr. Linnaean correspondence. Linnean Society ; letters of Ascanius to Linnaeus, da Costa to

Linnaeus and replies - quoted by Smith (1821); also, Rev. J. Goodenough to J. E. Smith

mentioning da Costa - quoted by Smith (1832 : 267)
Linn. Arch. Linnean Society archives, containing records of members; also rule books and other

papers of the Society for Promoting Natural History
Lit. Anec. Literary anecdotes - see Nichols (1812-16)
Moc. Lib. Lucien Wolf papers in Mocatta Library, University College, London; wills of da Costa

and his father
Pult. Corr. Da Costa letters in Pulteney correspondence, British Museum (Natural History)
Perc. Corr. Da Costa letters in Perceval Collection, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
PRO.PRIS.4 King's Bench Prison Commitment Books, volume 4 for 1767-72, Public Records Office,

London
Well. Inst. Da Costa letters in Wellcome Institute, London.

George Humphrey

Of the two possible authors of the Conchology, George Humphrey was certainly the less qualified
to write it, at least at that time, since he was essentially a London dealer and collector of natural
history specimens and other 'curiosities', only later becoming a compiler of sale catalogues and
eventually an amateur conchologist. Humphrey has never found a biographer although he well
deserves one, having been at the centre of natural history transactions throughout the exciting
period when Captain Cook's ships were bringing back rarities from the Pacific (see, for example,
Whitehead, 1969). A summary of his career will be given elsewhere (Whitehead & Kaeppler, in
prep.).

Humphrey's sole scientific publication was a short note on the gizzard of Bulla lignaria =
Scaphander lignaria Linnaeus (Humphrey, 1794). Although he dealt in all manner of curiosities,
shells seem to have held a special attraction for him, at least in the latter part of his career. A
letter written by Humphrey to J. T. Swainson in 1815 (quoted by Jackson, 1937) is full of criticism
of da Costa and gives a list of errors in the Conchology. It was this that convinced Jackson of
Humphrey's authorship (although the reverse could be better argued). Towards the end of his
life Humphrey met John Edward Gray (1800-79), later Keeper of Zoology at the British Museum.
T recollect him well', wrote Gray, 'and was strongly impressed with his knowledge not only of
species of shells, but also of the affinities which the groups bore to each other. Though compara-
tively an uneducated person, he was far in advance of the state of natural history of his time'
(Gray, 1858). When the Conchology was being produced, however, Humphrey was most likely
a beginner, with a good collector's knowledge but no more. He certainly sought da Costa's
opinion in one instance when he was puzzled by a specimen in the British Museum.

Enclosed is a drawing of a small unperforated Ear which they have at the Museum - They
class it as such, perhaps you may think it a snail. If it is an ear please return it [symbol for
per] Bearer.

(Humphrey to da Costa, 6 March 1771, DC.Corr.)

Humphrey's first recorded address was 48 Long Acre, London, from at least 1769 and during
the period that he wrote to da Costa, as well as 30 St Martin's Lane from at least 1770 (DC. Corr.)
In May 1778 he opened his Museum Humfredianum at the second address, but he seems to have
kept the Long Acre residence since he wrote from that address again (at least in 1782) some years
after the museum was sold in 1779. Thereafter, he dealt in curiosities and he catalogued many
sales of mainly natural history specimens (Fothergill sale, 1782; Calonne sale, 1797; and many
minor sales). In about 1786 he moved to 4 Leicester Street, off Leicester Square. His final sale,
marking his retirement, took place in 1823 (all shells).

5

It has been suggested by Jackson (1937) that the abrupt cessation of the Conchology (in the
middle of the text for plate 5) stemmed from a quarrel between Humphrey and da Costa. This
may be so, and certainly the letters break off after April 1771, but their tone is always amicable.
In view of da Costa's authorship of the work and Humphrey's later claims to it, however, one
cannot help wondering if Humphrey even at this early date was not trying to reap more credit for
the work than da Costa cared to grant. Thus, da Costa's references to this 'Anonymous Con-
chology' may have been more pointed than modest.

E. M. da Costa

Emanuel Mendes da Costa (1717-91) came from a family of Sephardic Jews that had emigrated
to England from France (his father's side) and from Portugal (his mother's side) in the seventeenth
century. Like many such families, the genealogy of the da Costas and Mendes lines is complicated
by marriage between cousins or with uncles, but fortunately the family relationships were care-
fully detailed by da Costa himself in a manuscript (Add. MS. 29867) which many years later was
published by John Nichols in the Gentleman's magazine (Nichols, 1812a : 21-22).

Da Costa's paternal grandfather, Moses alias Philip Mendes da Costa, came to England from
Rouen in Normandy in about 1692. His son Abraham alias John (also born in Rouen, 1683)
came to England when he was 13 and in 1702 he married his first cousin Esther alias Johanna of
Budge Row, London, daughter of Alvaro da Costa (who had come to London in about 1660 and
whose sister had married da Costa's grandfather). This appears to have been the more successful
side of the family, for Alvaro's son Moses alias Anthony rose to a high position in the Bank of
England; he married his first cousin Catherine Mendes, who was born at Somerset House and
was named after her godmother, Catherine of Braganza, wife of Charles II. Joseph Salvador,
who later stood bond for da Costa, may have been the same that married Leonor, daughter of
Emanuel's first cousin on his mother's side, Isaac 2nd Baron of Auverne le Gras; da Costa's
aunt (on his father's side) also married a Salvador. The da Costa family, or at least the Alvaro
branch, was of sufficient standing for a grant of arms to be made on 20 February 1723; in a pun-
ning reference to their name, the shield is blazoned with six ribs (Rubens, 1949 : 90, pi. 9, fig. 34 -
da Costa's book-plate, of which examples are in Add. MSS. 9389 and 29867).

Emanuel da Costa was the eighth of Abraham and Esther's ten children (DC. Gen.). His
father claimed to have given him a good education (Moc. Lib.) and according to Goodwin (1887)
he was destined for 'a lower branch of the legal profession' and for period at least served in the
office of a notary. I cannot find any other reference to him before 1740 when Nichols {Lit. Anec.
3 : 757) recorded that da Costa, then 23, was a member of the Aurelian Society which met at the
Swan (afterwards King's Arms) in Cornhill. In 1746 da Costa was elected an Extra Regular
Member of the Spalding Society and in their lists is cited as a 'merchant' (history and list of
members, Lit. Anec. 6 : 81). By now he seems to have made his mark in quite high circles, for in
November the following year he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society, being recommended
as 'a Gentleman well skilled in Philosophical Learning and Natural Knowledge, particularly in
what relates to the Mineral and Fossil parts of the Creation'. His sponsors were the Duke of
Montagu, Martin Folkes (President of the Royal Society), Henry Baker, Peter Collinson and
several others.

In 1752 da Costa was also elected Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries; he is said to have been
something of an authority on old silver and jewellery (Lyons, 1944 : 169). He later presented the
Society with a sepulchral tablet of micaceous stone which was inscribed with the words 'Manilius /
Hilarius vixit / Annos L'. In a footnote, Way (1847 : 10) commented dryly, 'The authenticity of
this inscription may appear questionable'.

Da Costa was more than just a 'clubable' man and good talker. In 1752 he drew up an invitation
to subscribers for his first book, the Natural history of fossils, to be issued in two volumes at a
guinea each (Maty, 1752 : 236-238; also, Lit. Anec. 2 : 292), although the book was not finally
published until five years later (da Costa, 1757). However, even before seeing it, and on the basis
merely of a letter from da Costa, Linnaeus in his generous way was full of enthusiasm. He saw
to it that da Costa's letter (of 5 April 1757) was read to a full meeting of the Royal Academy of

Sciences in Uppsala and he reported how da Costa's 'unparalleled knowledge and rare learning
have excited so much esteem and respect in all those who were present' (English from Latin,
9 November 1757, Linn. Corr. ; quoted in Smith, 1821 : 488). In a subsequent letter, Linnaeus
claimed that in his preparation of the tenth edition of the Systema naturae he could not dispense
with da Costa's work 'as I intend to quote it with due commendation, throughout the fossil
kingdom' (Smith, 1821 : 489). Elated, da Costa basked in this praise and hinted that election to the
Royal Academy of Sciences would be gratifying; however, even a second and more pointed hint
the following year had no success (10 February 1758 and 5 October 1759, Smith, 1821 : 489, 492).
John Edward Smith commented on da Costa's subsequent antipathy to Linnaeus 'which the
writer of this has often heard him express' (Smith, 1821 : 495) and it may have been partly for
this reason that da Costa later castigated Linnaean terminology so strongly, insisting that he had
to 'explode the Linnaean obscenity in his characters of the Bivalves; not only for their licentious-
ness, but also that they are in no ways the parts expressed'. He went on (with perhaps just a hint
of a Pope couplet in mind)

Ribaldry at times has been passed for wit;

but Linnaeus alone passes it for terms of science.

{Elements of conchology : iv)

By 1763, at the age of 46, da Costa was already a well-known and much respected member of
the antiquarian and scientific worlds. In addition to his book on fossils, he also published eight
short papers in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society and he was in correspondence
with many of the prominent literary and scientific figures of his day. For example, as early as
1747, Sir Hans Sloane (1660-1753) wrote to da Costa promising 'to entertain you without inter-
ruption with the sight of anything in the power of your humble servant . . .' (///. Lit. Hist. 4 : 84).
In the same year Martin Folkes (1690-1754), later President also of the Society of Antiquaries,
urged da Costa to join him at the Duke of Richmond's seat in order to help embellish a 'wild
receptacle and grotto' with fossils (///. Lit. Hist. 4 : 635-6). Another close acquaintance was the
antiquarian William Stukeley (1687-1765), whose command of Hebrew da Costa had once
criticized; Stukeley was obviously much impressed with da Costa's learning (///. Lit. Hist. 4 : 505,
566). Andrew Ducarel, the antiquary,' after visiting Paris in 1752, wrote to da Costa saying that
he had been to see the great Buffon 'at whose house your name was mentioned, and some other
handsome things said . . .' (///. Lit. Hist. 4 : 608). In fact, a review of the names in the volumes of
the da Costa correspondence shows the extent to which he was integrated into the intellectual
circles of his time.

By all accounts, da Costa was a devout Jew, receiving some good-natured teasing on one
occasion when Folkes suggested that the lobsters of Chichester might prove 'a temptation, by
which a weaker man might be seduced' during a visit to the Duke of Richmond (///. Lit. Hist.
4 : 635). Thomas Birch (1705-66) felt that 'your religious profession might possibly be a prejudice
to you with some persons; but ought not, I think, to discourage you from offering yourself as
Candidate [for Clerk]' (///. Lit. Hist. 4 : 540). The Jews Naturalization Act had been passed, but
rapidly repealed (due to ecclesiastical and commercial opposition) in 1753, but there was probably
little discrimination in the scientific community. Da Costa was able to assure Birch that he found
'no Objection on Account of Religion' (Add. MS. 4303, f. 182). The general tone of the letters
written in this period suggests that da Costa was genuinely popular among both scientists and
antiquarians and that he was considered to be something of an authority on a wide range of
subjects, from Hebrew inscriptions and Jewish uniforms, to volcanoes, rocks and fossils.

Da Costa married in 1750, within the Portuguese Jewish community, his wife being Leah the
third daughter of Samuel de Prado (on 14 Nisan 5510, being 20 April 1750 - Barnett, 1949 : 91).
They had no children and Leah died in 1763 (DC. Gen., date not given). In the same year he also
lost his father, on 1 1 February in his own records (DC. Gen.), but 1 1 January in the transcript of
his father's will (Moc. Lib.). The latter date is more likely since he wrote to Thomas Birch on
20 January and spoke of 'My Greif on this Occasion . . .' (Add. MS. 4303, f. 184). He married
again, about three years later, his second wife being Elizabeth Skillman (possibly Stillman) and

they had one daughter (Goodwin, 1887); his wife was a Gentile, but da Costa is said to have kept
the faith {Encyclopedia Judaica 5 : 986).

There seems to have been only one small peccadillo, small enough at the time but in retrospect
all too clear a pointer of what was to come. On the surface, or at least in the eyes of most of da
Costa's scientific and antiquarian friends, his career held fair promise. At another level, how-
ever, there were undertones, not yet of dishonesty, but of a recklessness over money that could -
and indeed would - lead to it. In a letter to Linnaeus of 7 April 1755, Peder Ascanius (1723—
1803) said that da Costa had been sent to prison for debt. Da Costa, he wrote, 'certainly possesses
an excellent collection of minerals; or rather, I should say, he did possess it; for he is at present
in prison for debt. But his collection is in the hands of a friend, who allows him partial use of it'
(Linn. Corr.; quoted in Smith, 1821 : 482). Peter Collinson (1694-1768) once exclaimed 'Thou
art the archest wag alive', referring to the way that da Costa had relieved an old don of fossils
and a hortus siccus (Fox, 1919:212), but it would seem that da Costa's passion for specimens
and books was already outrunning his resources.

The real indictment of the da Costa of this period is found in his father's will, a rambling
document in which the old man complains bitterly of the 'shocking misfortunes' he has had to
bear in his business life 'and not one son to give a helping hand for to retrieve, but, on the con-
trary, they have all set their hands who should destroy most and also their credit, which I had
taken so much care to settle and advise them to take care to keep' (Moc. Lib.). Emanuel and
David 'have done very bad' and he wishes they had followed his advice and found wives with
fortunes, for it shocks him to think of bringing so many beggars into the world in his family;
'you were all young and healthy and no father mother nor sister to maintain but your own sweet
selves and that you would not do'. The will is undated, but the first part appears to have been
written before 1752 when his brother Jacob died and then completed shortly afterwards, by which
time his son David is cut off with almost nothing (and only 5 shillings if he proves in any way
troublesome). If this dating is correct, then da Costa's imprisonment in 1754 must have marked
the end of his father's financial help.

Nevertheless, da Costa's personal troubles were either ignored or little known to his scientific
friends, for in 1763 the high regard in which he was held culminated in his election to the respon-
sible post of Clerk to the Royal Society. Among those who supported his application was
Stukeley, who wrote to a friend T know he has many friends. All my corner of the room unani-
mous: Sir William Browne, Collinson, Parsons, Baker, Clark, Van Rixtel &c. &c'. (///. Lit. Hist.
4 : 566). Thomas Birch appears to have backed him (presumed from Add. MS. 4303) and there
must have been many others. Rarely can the members of a society have so misjudged their man.

On 3 April 1763 da Costa was duly elected Clerk of the Royal Society, as well as its Librarian,
Keeper of the Repository and Housekeeper. He and his family were provided with rooms at the
Society's premises at Crane Court, off Fleet Street, and he received £50 a year for his duties. The
salary was not high, although Dr Johnson once pronounced £50 to be 'undoubtedly more than
the necessities of life require', but there was no rent to pay and he also received some small sums
for book-keeping and cataloguing. In addition - and ironic in the light of subsequent events - da
Costa was encouraged to solicit members' dues by a grant of a shilling in the pound for all he
collected. As a precaution, he was required 'to give a Security of One thousand pounds for the
performance of the Duty assigned to him'. The Minute Book of the Council, from which this
account is taken, shows that in June that year Joseph Salvador (his cousin^e letter to Salvador,
20 January 1786, DC. Corr.) and Samuel Felton, both Fellows of the Society, signed his bond,
little realizing that even before the bond was delivered, da Costa had already misappropriated
the first of what would eventually be more than a hundred members' subscriptions. In 1763 he
pocketed a dozen subscriptions; in the next two years he annually helped himself at twice that
rate; in 1767 nearly forty subscriptions failed wholly or partly to reach John West, the Treasurer.
Hilarius vixit no doubt, but it could hardly last. The wonder is that he was not found out sooner.

In a letter to Joseph Priestley of 14 June 1766, congratulating him warmly on election to the
Society, da Costa outlined the two methods by which dues could be paid (///. Lit. Hist. 4 : 541-2).
The first was by a five guinea admission fee and the signing of a bond for annual payments of
£2.12.0; the second was by a single payment of 25 guineas. 'The latter way is the most eligible,

and more agreeable to the Society', wrote da Costa, and the unsuspecting Priestley duly obliged.

According to Drury (28 February 1768, Drury Corr.), it was John Hope, Professor of Botany
at Edinburgh, who first asked why his name did not appear in the list of perpetual members.
Hope then asked someone to investigate this for him, and he too found that his name was given
as an annual and not a perpetual member. Questions began to be asked and an enquiry was
instigated. Da Costa must surely have been aware of this, but he seems to have been unprepared
when, on Thursday, 3 June 1 767, the axe fell. That morning the Council met, called in their Clerk,
and demanded an explanation for omissions in the books amounting to no less than five hundred
pounds. The unfortunate da Costa, 'after several excuses and prevarications', which were of
little avail, was finally forced to admit his guilt. He was then suspended from his duties and told
to hand over his keys of the Libraries, Repositories and Closets to William Kirkby, the Society's
solicitor. Kirkby was then instructed to contact da Costa's two bondsmen, Felton and Salvador.
The latter wrote back in evident astonishment and mortification, but he assured the Society that
he was ready to honour his covenant; Felton, with perhaps slight reluctance, agreed to do like-
wise. They then instructed their own solicitor, a Mr Le Breton, to have a Judgement entered
against da Costa and 'Execution issued against his effects'. As yet, they had no inkling of the true
extent of da Costa's frauds and were clearly determined to rescue their bonds at da Costa's
expense.

Meanwhile, however, the Council had probed further back into the accounts and had dis-
covered additional omissions which totalled the equally enormous sum of £472.10.0. On 14
December da Costa was brought once again before the Council and he now admitted what he
had previously denied, that Sir John Naesmith's was also one of the subscriptions that he had
appropriated. He also gave a brief list of his possessions (specimens - including, one supposes,
the Brazilian emeralds that Pallas so coveted - books, papers, etc.), being those on the Society's
premises. In return the Council handed him an account of their claims against him, which now
reached a grand total of £1090.19.0. Da Costa clearly saw the hopelessness of his position. He
came before the Council the next day, queried two small items in the list, but pleaded guilty to the
rest and said that he could not recall any further omissions. Two more were promptly cited and
he meekly agreed them.

By now the debt had exceeded the bond and the Council, fearing that worse might come,
demanded an account of his resources. Da Costa spoke of his personal possessions, now in the
process of being seized and sold by his bondsmen, and of a very small annuity, a life policy and
a copyhold in his wife's name, 'but no cash or any other effect'. His bonds were then taken from
the Iron Chest and handed to Kirkby.

Thoroughly alarmed, but determined to fathom the depths of these frauds, the Council heard
Kirkby report on 17 December that he had examined the official Checque Book and had dis-
covered another £266.10.0 not accounted for. Kirkby then showed the Council a bill of sale,
dated from the previous Sunday, for some four hundred books from da Costa's own library sold
to Dr John Letch, F.R.S. (and another whose subscription da Costa had appropriated). Letch
was called for and told firmly that the Society had no powers to deliver the books. The Council
then formally dismissed da Costa from his various posts and that afternoon the affair was made
generally known to the Society's members. Pennant was outraged and wrote to Joseph Banks that
T expect daily to see our Society in the Bankrupt's list, since the trick my worthy friend da Costa
has served us' (25 December 1767, Banks Corr.).

To what extent da Costa was able to call on his relatives and friends is not recorded, but it
must have been a bleak Christmas. The family moved out of Crane Court on Christmas Eve and
their possessions were taken across to Samuel Paterson the auctioneer at Essex House in Essex
Street off the Strand. As da Costa complained to William Hunter, he was later denied the chance
to manage this sale (Perc. Corr., 10 January 1771), which implies that his books made much less
than he had been offered by John Letch. Possibly it was during this period that he managed to
settle other debts by selling books and manuscripts not impounded at Crane Court. His patient
friend John Fothergill (1735-80), who had a reputation for helping lame ducks, said that he had
purchased Edward Lhwyd's papers from da Costa, or 'at least I accepted them as payment for a
large debt' (cited in Corner & Booth, 1971 : 294). Da Costa had bought these papers (about 500

letters in two large portfolios) in 1757 and had later lent them to William Huddesford for his
work on Lhwyd and his Lithophylacium. Similarly, da Costa may have been able to sell off a few
of his specimens, but from the evidence in his father's will he could expect nothing from his
brothers and probably not even sympathy from his sister Sarah.

Bad as things already looked, the new year brought to light still more discrepancies in the books
and on 3 January a further three hundred pounds was reported to the Council. Three weeks
later, on 28 January 1768, a full account of da Costa's debt to the Royal Society was drawn up,
comprising 122 entries and totalling £1492.14.2. Salvador and Felton, the latter now very reluctant,
managed to delay proceedings into the next term of the High Court, but on 10 May the case was
heard in the Court of the King's Bench and they were ordered to surrender their bond. Two days
after this, da Costa's 'entire library of printed books and MSS. and collection of prints and
drawings of Natural History' was sold at Paterson's auction rooms, a fact that significantly is the
only biographical detail given by da Costa against his name in his genealogical table (DC. Gen.;
also cited in Nichols, 1812a : 24). Da Costa's natural history collection had already been sold at
Paterson's on 25 April. Da Costa possessed catalogues of both these sales, but tantalizingly, in
his library catalogue, he did not record the amount raised (DC. Lib., f. 31r and v). Since his
debts seem to have been largely incurred by reckless buying of books and specimens (nowhere
is there a hint of high living, even in his father's disparaging will), these sales may have gone
some way toward placating his bondsmen, for on 2 June Felton attended a Council meeting and
after a little hesitation agreed that he and Salvador would pay costs as well as surrender their bond.

The accounts show that the Royal Society retrieved the thousand pounds from the bond, but
the Society was still considerably embarrassed by the remaining debt, stated to be £416.10.3.
Counsel's opinion was sought and it was decided to proceed against da Costa.

Some clue to da Costa's character emerges from letters that he wrote during this period to
John Anderson (DC. Corr.). Answering da Costa's letter of 14 January (no copy kept), Anderson
apologized for not replying sooner but he had heard that da Costa 'had gone privately to Portugal'.
Incensed, da Costa wrote back (14 July 1768) that 'the malice of my Enemies' invented this lie,
which 'was not the only infamous falsehood they engaged', but 'they were soon drove from these
lies in that I have never strayed a single step from the Metropolis and have dwelt ever since
within sight almost of Crane Court. I have always appeared publikly & have had the Honour to
be conversant with numbers of F.R.S. eminent not only for their learning but for their humanity.
A greater proof of which cannot be urged than that of giving Public Lectures or Courses on fossils
which I began last month [June] and have several F.R.S. my subscribers among which Drs Hunter
and Fothergill cannot be unknown to you . . .' The bravado is incredible, for by now da Costa
had been dismissed from his job, evicted from his home, expelled from the Society of Antiquaries
for 'infamous conduct' (24 May), and had had his possessions sold by auction, while among the
eminent names that accused him from the pages of his falsified accounts were none other than
those of William Hunter and John Fothergill.

Anderson wrote back to express relief that the reports were so ill-founded, but the days of da
Costa's defiant posturing before Crane Court were numbered. On 7 November 1768, by a Writ
of Special Capias, he was detained by the Sheriff and two days later he was committed to the
King's Bench Prison at St George's Fields (PRO. PRIS. 4, 4 : 203). The journey across Black-
friars Bridge did not end his career as a naturalist, but it rang down the curtain on all those
advantages to be reaped from having friends in high places. Like Johann Reinhold Forster
(1727-98) and Rudolph Erich Raspe (1737-94), his two equally unfortunate and subsequently
disgraced contemporaries,* da Costa was to find what a thankless task was science without the
blessing of the Establishment.

* Although da Costa, Forster and Raspe, so similar in their breadth of learning and temperaments, certainly
knew each other, their association has never been fully explored. Da Costa translated into English Forster's
Specimen historiae naturalis volgensis of 1767, while Forster examined da Costa's collections and commented on
them in his lectures at Warrington Academy in 1767-8 (Hoare, 1976 : 44, 55). Raspe stayed with the Forsters in
the summer of 1776 and helped with the German translation of George Forster's Voyage (Hoare, 1976: 165).
Seen in this light, the question of the authorship of the anonymous Travels of Baron Munchhausen (1785), which
Carswell (1950) attributes to Raspe, could well be re-examined. Perhaps all three 'tactless philosphers' helped to pen
this piece of mischief on some long summer evenings at 16 Percy Street back in '76.

10

King's Bench Prison

There were, however, some compensations. The King's Bench Prison, at St George's Fields on
the junction of Blackman Street and Newington Causeway, had at that time a reputation for
its lax rules. Writing of a slightly earlier period, Macky (1722) had noted that 'its rules are more
extensive than those of the Fleet' and by a 'Habeas Corpus you may remove yourself from one
prison to the other . . .', a practice apparently adopted by some inmates merely to provide a
welcome change of scene. Some impression of da Costa's circumstances in the prison, as well as
his still unrepentant attitude, can be seen in the draft of his letter to Stanesby Alchorne ( 1 727—
1800), Assay-master at the Mint and an amateur botanist, dated 'King's Bench Prison 21 Feb-
ruary 1769' (his deletions are placed in parentheses).

Tho in a prison placed by (the Royal) a Society founded for promoting Nat. Knowledge at
(the very time I was given a second course of . . . Natural History of fossils in order to destroy
... a kingdom of Nature not yet rightly explored) a * see infra I have been so fortunate to
meet a family in the same unhappy situation of Prisoners who not only delight in Nat. Hist,
but also in Music & painting & they having a fine large commodious & extreme pleasant
room commanding an extensive (& beautiful) prospect they have granted me leave to study
(to) read my Lectures in it. & Dr MacKenzie & other Gent n to the number of 20 generously
having subscribed I am now actually reading a Course wch meets with such approbation that
a new sett of Subscribers is forming for a subsequent one.

Then follows a request to borrow for a fortnight the Synopsis methodica stirpium Britannicarum
of John Ray in order to help Dr Colin MacKenzie to identify his large collection of marine plants.
The letter continues,

I have only to add that if you have at any time a spare hour and will pleasure me with a
visit I shall be extremely glad to see you & enquire for me at the Gunroom in the State house.

At the bottom of the letter is the final form in which da Costa, with a bland disregard for the
reasons behind his imprisonment, complains of the Royal Society's action.

* beginning of 2 d paragraph supra

Tho placed in a prison by a Society founded for Promoting Natural Knowledge at a time
when I was promoting Natural Knowledge in a course of Lectures on fossils I have been &c.

(draft to S. Alchorne,
21 February 1769, DC. Corr.)

A number of other friends seem to have remained loyal to da Costa during his time in prison.
One of these was Ingham Forster (1725-82), brother of the natural history dealer Jacob Forster
(1739-1806) who had married George Humphrey's sister Elizabeth (see notes and family tree in
Whitehead, 1973). Ingham Forster, who was a dealer in Clement's Lane, Lombard Street, appears
to have corresponded frequently with da Costa and was designated 'My dear friend' in one of
the latter's brief biographical sketches (Nichols, 1812b: 515). Da Costa seems to have helped
Forster with his catalogues, for three weeks after his arrival in the King's Bench Prison, Forster
wrote saying 'you will likewise receive three volumes of your catalogue interleaved' (28 November
1768, DC. Corr.). Forster continued,

I wish you Health to prosecute your Studies, & Spirits to support you against the malicious
designs of your Enemies: - Be assured you'll ever find me

Your friend and obed 1 Serv*

I shall call & see you the first opportunity

Two months later, da Costa told him that T have now finished the Catalogue of the large
Collection of Marbles' (11 January 1769, DC. Corr.). Their relationship seems to have been a
particularly warm one. In the summer of that year Forster wrote T will see you soon (please God)
for I long to have a few minutes conversation' and in the autumn T am sorry it has not been in
my power to pay my duty to your Fossilian Majesty this long time' (5 July 1769 and 2 October

11

1769, DC. Corr.). Although seven years younger than da Costa (who was now 52), Forster would
often adopt a flippant, almost patronizing tone in his letters. Referring to work that da Costa
was doing for him, Forster wrote 'You have been a very good Boy indeed! - Let us go on Briskly
while the days are long and the Weather fine' and 'As 1 have given you a large number of Holidays,
I hope like a good Boy you will apply closely to Business' (5 August 1771 and 24 January 1772,
DC. Corr.). That this was perhaps not resented is suggested by Forster's use, after an initial
period of signing himself 'I F', of the nickname 'Ferrum' (from 5 October 1772).

However depressing the King's Bench Prison may have been, da Costa's time there seems to
have been extremely well spent; he certainly kept himself interested and in touch with outside
events and he both ameliorated his living conditions and helped to meet his debt. One of the
means that he adopted was the giving of courses of lectures, the second of which, scheduled for
some time after July 1769, was thought to be too expensive by Forster. Da Costa was urged 'to
endeavour to make the Expense of attending as reasonable as you can . . . the Proposal of 2
Guineas or 2/6 [symbol for per] Lecture I totally disapprove'; Forster recommended only 30
shillings the course or 1/6 per lecture (Forster to da Costa, 30 May 1769, DC. Corr.). The first
set of lectures (on fossils) had apparently taken place in February and one supposes that da Costa
continued to use the 'large commodious & extreme pleasant room' of his cultivated prison neigh-
bours. The lectures seem to have been a success and a third series was planned the following year.
Thus, George Humphrey, on behalf of Captain Thomas Cornwall, asked if da Costa could spare
one of his syllabuses and on what terms, since Cornwall could not attend the course (24 January

1770, DC. Corr.). Humphrey wrote again the following month reminding da Costa that Cornwall
would like a printed version of the lectures (February 1770, DC. Corr.) and da Costa duly dis-
patched a syllabus via Dr MackKenzie, who immediately paid the required 3 guineas for it (da
Costa to Thomas Cornwall, 4 April 1770, DC. Corr.). In 1771 da Costa gave yet another series
of lectures on fossils beginning in April, which was to be followed by a series on shells (da Costa
to John Fothergill, 4 April 1771, DC. Corr.).

If da Costa managed twenty subscribers to each of his courses of lectures, then even at the
reduced rate recommended by Ingham Forster he would have reaped over a hundred pounds,
not counting the profits made on the sale of printed versions of the lectures. Another source of
income was catalogues (such as that of marbles for Ingham Forster - see above) and also trans-
lations and revisions. Thus, he revised and prepared for press the English version of the Essay
towards a system of mineralogy by Cronstedt (1770 - translated by Gustav Engestrom, with a
Preface and notes by da Costa), for which he received 8 guineas and a promise that his name would
appear on the title page (Agreement dated 3 April 1769, DC. Corr.). His footnotes in this work
are marked 'D.C and it is interesting to note that in some copies of the second English edition
(published 1788), the printer, presumably on da Costa's insistence, pasted in a small label drawing
attention to this fact since da Costa's Preface was now omitted. According to his library catalogue,
da Costa's own copy had 'Mr Brunnich's and my MSS. additions & notes' but it was 'Stole from
me by Mr Debraw' (DC. Lib., f. 1 lv).

Of translation work in this period, the only recorded project (but there may well have been
others) was for Drury's Illustrations of natural history, for which da Costa did the parallel French
text for the first two volumes. A note in Drury's letter-book (Drury Corr., p. 150) lists payments
made in 1768-69, but a more complete record appears in Drury's account book, showing that da
Costa received three payments in 1768 (£4.14.6), two in 1769 (£4.4.0), and one in 1770 (£10.14.6),
all for volume 1 of the work, and a part payment in September 1771 (£5.5.0) for volume 2; Drury
also paid him a shilling for translating a letter (Drury AB.). Da Costa's knowledge of French may
have stemmed from his childhood, since both his father and grandfather had come from Rouen
(DC. Gen.). His letters to Antoine Reamur are fluent (DC. Corr.) and in a letter to Isaac Romilly
he jokes of professing 'some Antigallican Principles' but implies that he is perfectly capable of
conducting the business in French if he wishes (25 June 1748 and 22 December 1755, Well. Inst.,
No. 56485). Da Costa's French was in no way stylish and it was perhaps for this reason that the
publisher Elmsley 'found great fault' with it (Humphrey to da Costa, 12 April 1771, DC. Corr.).
He may at this time have been responsible for a translation from Latin of 'Principles of Testa-
ceology', a paper delivered at Uppsala by Adolphus Murray on 29 June 1771, of which the

12

translation exists as a 23 + 3 page manuscript (Linn. Arch.). Although in another hand, da Costa's
authorship is implied by the second part, the 'Author's Apology', which takes da Costa's familiar
anti-Linnaean stance against certain offensive terms borrowed from misplaced analogies with
human anatomy.

The length of da Costa's stay in prison has never been stated accurately in the literature. The
Writ of Execution (Capias ad Satisfaciendum), which had commanded the Sheriff to deliver da
Costa to the prison, ordered that he should remain there 'till he made satisfaction'. With his
library and collection sold to pay off his bondsmen and no other resources to fall back on, da
Costa's friends evidently did not expect to see him free for some years at least. Drury even wrote
to Pallas that da Costa was 'confined in ye King's Bench Prison at ye instance of Royal Society
and has been there near a year, from whence, I imagine, he will never return' (14 January 1770,
Drury Corr.). In April 1772, however, da Costa's friend Thomas Hughes of Gossamer End near
Berkhamsted wrote a delighted letter rejoicing at his 'soon expected enlargement' and inviting
him to spend a few days with him and his wife (16 April 1772, DC. Corr.). The lectures, sale
catalogues, translations, profits from the Conchology and fee for the Cronstedt book were surely
not enough to cover the four hundred pounds owed to the Royal Society, so perhaps friends like
Fothergill, Drury and others gave him some help. At any rate, by September da Costa was able
to write to another of his loyal friends, Mitford Flower of Bedlington in Northumberland, to say
T shall go from this place (where thou saw me) next month' (12 September 1772, DC. Corr.).

At last, on 8 October 1772 at the General Quarter Sessions at Kingston, da Costa was discharged
under the Insolvent Act (PRO. PRIS.4, 4 : 203 - note in margin) and he set about making a new
life. It was not to be easy, as he said to Thomas Hughes:

Tybo presents her [deleted] his Duty She [deleted] He says he is now clear of the World &
owes not a farthing to anyone but sighs and adds times are so hard he does not know how
soon he may be in debt again.

(27 November 1772, DC. Corr.)

Thereafter, for nearly twenty years until his death in 1791, da Costa struggled to make a living,
as a dealer in shells and minerals, as a writer and as a lecturer. Apart from patronage, which da
Costa had now largely forfeited, the eighteenth century offered to a man in his position little
enough beyond what could be scraped from freelance work. He might, like J. R. Forster, have
tried his luck abroad, but Forster had an energetic son to pave the way and was returning to a
land and a language that he already knew. If da Costa's pre-prison letter to John Anderson is
any clue, then da Costa was unrepentant and determined to brazen things out.

Later years

Some eighteen months after his release, da Costa asked the Oxford astronomer Thomas Hornsby
(1733-1810) to help him institute a 2-guinea course of 27 lectures on fossils at the university
(29 March 1774, DC. Corr.; also ///. Lit. Hist. 4 : 516-9). Hornsby found that the Vice-Chancel-
lor favoured the idea, but several people in the university advised him against it and he turned it
down. 'I am very certain', wrote da Costa, 'my attempt has not succeeded by means of some un-
friendly and sinister misrepresentations' and he swore that he would not try Oxford again 'at
least until his Vice-Chancellorship expires' (loc. cit.). Without such official support, da Costa
had to promote his lectures as best he could; he was certainly giving lectures in London in 1776
and 1777 (25 April 1776 and 4 September 1777, Pult. Corr.). A copy of the syllabus for his fossil
lectures, dated 9 October 1778, is bound in with a copy of his History of fossils now in the Paleont-
ology Library of the British Museum (Natural History). This syllabus (da Costa, 1778a) outlines
an introductory and 27 main lectures and was probably the course offered to Oxford four years
earlier and perhaps essentially that given in prison; a copy of the syllabus is recorded in da
Costa's library catalogue (DC. Lib., f. 25v) and another copy, again bound in with the History
of Fossils, is in the possession of Dr V. A. Eyles, who mentions it in commenting on da Costa's
contribution to petrology (Eyles, 1969 : 176, 178).

13

As Dance (1966) has shown, this was a time of brisk dealings in shells (as well as other natural
curiosities) and da Costa now decided to become a dealer. From prison he told Mitford Flower
that 'One article of my livelihood hereafter will be to buy and sell all the curious productions of
Nature to those who study Natural History and make Collections . . .' and he proposed acting
as Flower's agent; if acceptable, Flower could send him curiosities 'directed for me at Mr Ingham
Forster in Clement's Lane Lombard Street' (12 September 1772, DC. Corr.). Apparently 'Ferrum'
was continuing to help him. Da Costa's twelve letters to the physician, botanist and shell collector
Richard Pulteney (1730-1801) in the period 1775-85 are frequently concerned with offers of shells
(Pult. Corr., DC. Corr.) and da Costa's other loyal friend John Fothergill was forever being
importuned 'to spend on some fine new specimen' (Fox, 1919 : 212). In 1779 da Costa attended
the sale of Humphrey's Museum Humfredianum in St Martin's Lane and 'by my principles & self
bought near £150' (da Costa to Richard Waring, 6 July 1779, DC. Corr.); da Costa's annotated
sale catalogue (Hope Department, Oxford) shows that he bought 79 lots for himself and 64 on
behalf of Humphrey. Although his activities as a dealer never rivalled those of Humphrey, they
must have gone some way toward providing a living. In addition, his knowledge of shells and
fossils brought him work on the cataloguing of other people's sales and he catalogued the shells,
corals, fossils and cabinets of his friend Ingham Forster (March and May-June 1783, Lit. Anec.
9 : 799).

In 1776 da Costa published his Elements of conchology and two years later came his British
conchology (da Costa, 1776, 1778b). Both were well received and although he could no longer
place F.R.S. or F.S.A. after his name, he still managed 'Member of the Imperial Caesarean
Academy Naturae Curiosorum, by the name of Pliny IV* and of the Botanic Society of Florence'.
He raised 1 1 1 subscribers for the second work, of which no less than 22 were Fellows of the Royal
Society, and the list of names gives some measure of his rehabilitation. Joseph Salvador is among
them, as well as Fothergill, Drury, Anderson and Pennant. The book was dedicated, in flowery
terms, to Sir Ashton Lever, whose Holophusikon or Leverian Museum was then exhibiting in
Leicester Square; Lever must surely have bought many specimens from da Costa and he may have
helped him in other ways.

Da Costa wrote no more books, presumably finding his financial reward hardly justifying the
labour. His feelings on this come out well in a letter to Richard Hill Waring (? 1720-94?), a
friend and subscriber to the British conchology. Failing to receive either acknowledgement or
payment from Waring, he wrote testily :

Good God here is a strange Encouragement indeed to a poor devil of an author when
subscribers spurn him if he desires a subscription aforehand & deprive him of his due monies
by not receiving the book according to their honour when the work is finish'd . . . such doings
and similar fantastics for I have the luck to deal with such unthinking people has sour'd
my temper & depress'd my spirits so much that I am resolved to quit all Authorship &
be no more the Scape Goat of our English Literature Encouragement or Generosity.

(23 October 1779, DC. Corr.)

Many of the names of da Costa's subscribers to the British conchology appear some years
later, together with a rather shaky signature by da Costa himself, in a manuscript rule book for
the Society for Promoting Natural History (1783, Linn. Arch.; also printed rule books and much
manuscript material). Founded in October 1782, this society was a forerunner of the Linnean
Society, overlapping it for four years until it was wound up in May 1792. Da Costa never joined
the Linnean Society, but this may well have been his own choice, membership implying tacit
approval of Linnaean obscenity. However, it is clear that by perserverance and a stubborn refusal
to acknowledge his crime, da Costa had gradually wriggled his way back into the community
that had damned him in 1768. For example, the physician Thomas Percival (1740-1804) strongly
recommended da Costa to Josiah Wedgewood, urging the latter to be 'very civil to him', since he

* Nicknames, a curious relict from the days when scientific societies had need of secrecy, persisted in the present
case until 1870; Goethe was Arion IV, Linnaeus Dioscorides II and Prince Albert merited Fredericus secundus
Hohenstaufensis (Sarton, 1931).

14

was much esteemed. Unfortunately, things did not turn out so well, for Wedgewood took an
instant dislike to da Costa, thinking him 'the most disagreeable Mortal who bore the name of a
Philosopher, I had ever known' and he gained temporary relief 'by sending him two miles to see
a FlintmiH' (Wedgewood to Thomas Bentley, 6 and 16 August 1774, see Farrer, 1976 : 189-190;
also Meteyard, 1866 : 478). Percival was aware that 'there was some mistake in his [da Costa's]
acc ts . with the R: Society, but he hoped it was rather negligence than design . . . [he] is very

high in his encomiums of da C as a sensible Man, of the most extensive knowledge, & equally

extensive correspondence with the Literati all over Europe, amongst whom the D r . says he is
very much esteemed' (loc. cit.).

Four years in the King's Bench Prison must have left some bitterness in a man so uncontrite
as da Costa. Accepted on his own terms, with sympathy for his misfortune and respect for his
learning, he could perhaps be again the popular figure of his Royal Society days. A hint of con-
descension (by Wedgewood?) or the tardiness of a subscriber (Waring) could draw forth what
Drury meant when he spoke of da Costa's 'Temper and Principle [which] was sufficient to over-
turn a Kingdom' (Drury to Pallas on the collapse of the first Aurelian Society, 28 February 1767,
Drury Corr.). Da Costa was not the only one to be thrown into bankruptcy, but there were
differences. Drury himself was to fall into debt (for ten times the amount owed by da Costa) in
his business as a silversmith and goldsmith 'the effect of which was O! terrible to relate, I was
obliged to be a bankrupt'; but since this misfortune 'did not arise from extravagance or dis-
honesty the world saw my distress and pitied me' (Drury to Robert Killingly, 21 December 1778,
Drury Corr.). George Humphrey also had his financial troubles, the sale of his museum in 1779
only a year after its opening being more or less forced on him by his creditors (who had to settle
for 12 shillings in the pound - da Costa to Richard Waring, 6 July 1779, DC. Corr.). Drury was
merely gullible and Humphrey perhaps over-ambitious, but da Costa had shown less honourable
traits of character and his misfortune must have long remained tainted with 'ignomy and dis-
grace' in the minds of all but loyal friends.

Very little can be gleaned of da Costa's final years. He had drawn up his will many years earlier,
on 13 December 1773, and he left everything to his 'dear and beloved wife Elizabeth Mendes da
Costa otherwise Elizabeth Skillman' (not witnessed but after his death attested by Elizabeth
Grigg and Charles Westricher - Moc. Lib.). His letters break off in the volumes of correspondence
in 1787 and possibly he sold them and some or all of his other books and manuscripts to Benjamin
White at this time. The catalogue of his library (DC. Lib.) shows that in 1782 he had something
over two hundred books, as well as pamphlets, sale catalogues and manuscripts, but there are
frequent deletions, presumably as he parted with some treasure to pay a bill. Among his books
was a copy of his Natural history of fossils with 'interleaved MSS additions', and two copies of the
British conchology interleaved and annotated, one coloured and bound in two volumes, the other
plain in one volume. These have not been traced, but Donald MacAlister (in Nance, 1935)
recorded an interleaved copy of the first inscribed 'Remarks and alterations made by Mr da Costa
and copied in the year 1781 by James Smirnove' (but did not say where it was located; it is, in
fact, in the library of the Geological Society of London). It would be of great interest to locate
other annotated books, as also such items as 'A folio Copy book of Accounts Current MSS',
'A folio Copy book of Litterary Expenses MSS' and 'Copy Old Catalogues of my Collection of
Animals & Vegetables' (DC. Lib.).

Da Costa evidently kept up as best he could with the scientific and antiquarian communities,
carefully pinning his letters on to the blue sheets of the letter-books, attending natural history
sales, lecturing perhaps, and joining in the discussions once a month at 19 Warwick Street where
the Society for Promoting Natural History met 'on the Monday before full moon at 6 in the
evening' (rule book, Linn. Arch.). His few recorded addresses (Arundel Street, 3 Bedford Street)
were around Fleet Street and the Strand, where rents were not too high ; there were compensations,
however, for the coffee-house life, booksellers and general bustle were attractive and even Dr
Johnson in his later years resisted the temptation to migrate to a more fashionable part of town.
Da Costa's final address was 463 Strand as recorded in the 1790 members list for the Society
(Linn. Arch.).

In May 1 791 , nearing his seventy-fifth birthday, da Costa died at his lodgings in the Strand and

15

on the 22nd he was buried at the Bethahaim Velho or Old Cemetery of the Spanish and Portuguese
Congregation at 243 Mile End Road, London ( Barnett, 1 962 ; see also Lysons, 1 795 : 478). Custom
would have required Psalm 51, David's cry of repentance - a broken and contrite heart, O God,
thou wilt not despise. Contrite or not, da Costa's name has outlived the opprobrium once attached
to it and his books take a modest but not insignificant place amongst those of his less wayward
contemporaries.

The Conchology

The Conchology, or natural history of shells is in no way a fundamental work, but it merits atten-
tion for its illustration of shells in particular collections, some of which are types. Its authorship
has been disputed, not very thoroughly, and its parts have never been dated. The authorship and
dating can now be cleared up, chiefly on the basis of the da Costa letters, and something can be
said of the illustrations.

Authorship

The authorship of the Conchology cannot be deduced from the work itself. The title page offers no
clue, the work being merely 'By a Collector'. The Preface, unsigned, refers to an 'Editor' and also
to an 'Author' in terms that imply that these were not the same person ('the Editor begs leave to
acquaint the curious . . .' while 'the Author thinks it is his duty to inform them . . .'). The only
names given on the title page are those of the printer (T. Jones, in Fetter Lane) and of the three
people from whom the work could be bought: Mr B. White, Bookseller in Fleet Street, Mr
Elmsley, Bookseller in the Strand, and Mr Humphrey, Dealer in shells and other natural curiosi-
ties in St Martin's Lane near Charing Cross. The Preface also implies that neither Humphrey
nor the two booksellers acted as Editor. Thus, shells for description are solicited from other
collectors and 'if they will honour the Editor to send them either to the Booksellers Messrs.
White and Elmsley, or to Mr Humphrey, to be conveyed to him [i.e. the Editor], he will return
them safe, and gratefully acknowledge the favour . . .'.

It is clear that two people were involved in producing the Conchology, an author who was a
collector, and an editor, the latter apparently not being Humphrey (who also by implication does
not admit to being the author either). As shown already (see p. 1), some writers have favoured
da Costa's authorship, while others have settled for George Humphrey.

Support for Humphrey's authorship stems in part from his claim in the Museum Humfredianum
where the work is given as 'HUMPHREY'S Conchology' (Humphrey, 1779 : 36th day). This is
repeated in the Portland Catalogue (Anon., 1786: v), which includes in its list of references
'Humph. Conch. - A Conchology or Natural History of Shells published by Mr. Humphrey,
17 ' (i.e. no date given). Although it was the Rev. John Lightfoot and not George Humphrey who
compiled the Portland Catalogue (Dance, 1962), da Costa noted that the 'natural history [was]
made by George Humphrey, and formed or corrected by the late Rev. Mr Lightfoot, her Grace's
Chaplain' (Add. MS. 29867; Nichols, 1812: 516). The reference in Humphrey's own sale cata-
logue obviously carries the most weight since there is no doubt that Humphrey himself penned it.
In fact, Humphrey had seven copies of the Conchology and, ironically perhaps, da Costa purchased
one of these -for 18 shillings (Lot 82, thirty-sixth day - annotated catalogue in Hope Department,
Oxford).

Another hint of Humphrey's authorship occurs in letters between himself and da Costa at the
time that the Conchology was being written. Among the repositories where there were shells for
inclusion in the work was the British Museum. Humphrey visited and found that it was necessary
to make a proper application to the Trustees 'in order to see the Shells, and Books relative thereto'
as well as for permission for an artist to make drawings. He then asked da Costa to draft out such
an application for him (April 1770, DC. Corr.). A copy of da Costa's draft is on the reverse of
Humphrey's letter and it ends with a promise that the applicant (i.e. Humphrey) will present 'a
copy of his intended work on its publication'. This letter is followed by Humphrey's rewritten
application, which says that he will acknowledge the courtesy 'by humbly presenting a Copy of
my intended work on its publication' (27 April 1770, DC. Corr.).

16

A further implication that Humphrey was the author comes in letters between Humphrey and
the conchologist and collector Henry Seymer (1745-1800). Humphrey apparently sent to Seymer
some kind of advertisement for the Conchology and the latter acknowledged 'your Proposals,
Feb. 1, 1769' and added a word of caution on the 'expense and time your 'History of Shells' will
take up' (16 February 1769, DC. Corr. ; also ///. Lit. Hist. 4 : 772). It would be interesting to know
whose name if any was on the Proposal since 'your' could be singular or plural.

Taken together, these hints would seem to add up to Humphrey's authorship, but the case for
da Costa's authorship is even stronger. In the light of what follows, Humphrey's name must be
seen merely as a device for concealing da Costa's involvement at a time when he could expect little
sympathy from certain potential subscribers or from the British Museum, the Duchess of Portland
or others who might supply shells for description. Prison lectures were one thing, but the handling
or loan of often rare and expensive shells might not be entrusted to a young dealer if it were
known of his association with a man of da Costa's reputation.

Nevertheless, da Costa announced his authorship to at least a few people since Drury told
Pallas that da Costa 'is at present engaged in writing a history of shells which he hopes will make
its appearance this summer' (14 January 1770, Drury Corr.; quoted by Cockerell, 1922 and also
by Iredale, 1922 : 86, who took this as evidence of da Costa's authorship). To Fothergill, da Costa
at first referred to the Conchology as a joint work, sending coloured copies of parts 1 and 2 'as a
present from us Editors'; but two months later he made it his own by dispatching 'No 3 of my
History of Shells' (6 February and 4 April 1771, DC. Corr.). Unfortunately, no indication of
authorship can be found in da Costa's own library catalogue, in which the only possible item is an
undated 'New Conchology' with manuscript additions (DC. Lib., f. 7). Although this is remini-
scent of his phrase 'a new anonymous Conchology' in the Elements of conchology (p. 51), the latter
work is not listed and by 1781, when this part of the catalogue was drawn up, it could well have
been dubbed as 'new' in contrast to the Conchology often years earlier. Johann Schroter, however,
writing only a few years after the Conchology had appeared, attributed it to da Costa and made
no mention of Humphrey (Schroter, 1774 : 15), while Chemnitz (1795 : 181) seemed to be in no
doubt about the authorship when he wrote 'Da Costa, Conchology or Natural History of Shells'.

Perhaps the strongest evidence of da Costa's authorship (in the strict sense of having written the
descriptions) comes from Humphrey himself. This is clearly proclaimed in a letter from Humphrey
to da Costa proposing an addition to plate 12. He assures da Costa that this will not be incon-
venient since 'it will be some time before you reach so far with the Descriptions' (1771, ? late
July, DC. Corr.). This is further borne out in comments made by Humphrey many years later in
a letter to John Timothy Swainson (cited in full by Jackson, 1937 - who wrongly gave William
Swainson as the recipient; I am indebted to Nora McMillan for pointing out this error). The
letter, dated 12 December 1815, contained a detailed list of the Conchology plates, with identi-
fications and comments against each figure (thus most useful for those plates which lack a text).

By this time, Humphrey had established his reputation and had no hesitation in criticizing the
Conchology. For plate 2, figure 3 he noted 'Scahrosa. Rough. Country Mediterranean. Da Costa
has omitted this in his Description'-and indeed the text for figure 3 has been completely forgotten;
of plate 3, figure 10, Humphrey remarked 'DC. confounds it with the Common Limpet and
European Auricula'; for plate 3, figure 12, Humphrey exclaimed 'How DC. came to call it the
Thorny I can't conjecture'; for the 'Cracked Limpet' of plate 4, figure 2, Humphrey says T never
saw any from Falkland Islands but a very small one, which is perforated at top' - whereas in
the text of the Conchology the 'author' states categorically T have also seen very fine ones from
Falkland Islands in the Atlantic Seas'.

Jackson (1937) made the curious mistake of assuming these comments to be directed, not at
the Conchology, but at da Costa's British conchology (1778). As a result, Humphrey's remarks
seemed quite consistent with his supposed authorship of the Conchology, whereas in fact they
would be quite absurd, as Jackson would have realized immediately. However, Jackson was then
able to assign authorship of the Conchology to Humphrey, largely based on Humphrey's phrase
'the Patella published by me' which appears at the beginning of the letter, together with the
annotation 'Humphrey's Patella etc' on the back of J. T. Swainson's copy of the Conchology.
Salisbury (1945 : 138-9) spotted Jackson's mistake and, realizing the contradiction between

17

Humphrey's comments and his supposed authorship, unhesitatingly gave authorship of the
Conchology to da Costa.

Da Costa's authorship of the parallel French texts seems certain in view of the very similar
translations that he made for Dru Drury's Illustrations. His close involvement in the project is
quite clear from the letters between Humphrey and himself, many of which will be mentioned
below in dealing with the dating of the work and its illustrations. Finally, if there was indeed an
editor and an author, it is much more likely that the author was the one who could not admit to
his authorship, while the editor was the one who was free to negotiate specimens and illustrations.

A case can also be made for considering the Conchology a joint work, in the sense of joint
authorship. Da Costa, after all, was in prison and the book could not have been produced without
outside help. Humphrey evidently organized the specimens and the illustrations and dealt with
the publishers, sending da Costa at least one account of the sales (12 April 1772, DC. Corr.).
The first intimation of a partnership comes in a brochure in French (in Humphrey's and not da
Costa's writing) addressed to the Secretary of the Academy of Sciences in Paris, and it states :

Nous avons l'honneur de vous envoyer les premieres feuilles [Enluminees - added by da
Costa] d'un ouvrage dont vous donnerons chaque mois un pareil nombre . . .

Below this da Costa added,

Londres ce 20th Decembre de 1770
Les Editeurs

Chez Mons. Humphrey dans St Martin's Lane, pres
de Charing Cross, Londres

(20 December 1770, DC. Corr.)

This formula is also followed in a note, possibly in Humphrey's hand, at the top of parts 1 and
3 of one copy of the Conchology (provenance unknown) where it is stated : 'Presented by the
Editors' (bound copy in British Museum (Natural History) with end papers but top of title page for
part 2 trimmed off). Some years later, in the Elements of conchology, da Costa conferred author-
ship on these editors, saying that 'the authors have laid it aside' (da Costa, 1776 : 52).

Once again, this cannot be taken at its face value since the letters show that da Costa's involve-
ment did not stop short merely at the descriptions. Of plate 4, Humphrey sent two proofs and in
a strangely formal letter said that 'Mr DC. will be pleased to number and return [symbol for per]
bearer' (2 October, 1770 DC. Corr.). Again, Humphrey deferred to da Costa's opinion on the
identification of shells. The correct determination of the 'unperforated ear' has been mentioned
earlier, but Humphrey also consulted da Costa on a dozen new species brought back from Captain
Cook's first voyage (1771, ? late July, DC. Corr.). Even the choice of subjects for the plates was
left to da Costa, Humphrey sending across various books and saying 'It lies with you to settle for
the 8th plate which is to contain all the ears' (6 March 1771, DC. Corr.). Da Costa's responsibility
for this is emphasized by Humphrey's later criticisms of figures copied from other people's works
(letter to Swainson cited above).

Joint authorship could also be inferred from the slight stylistic difference between descriptions
and the notes that follow, the former being impersonal in most (but not all) cases, the latter being
in the first person. Thus, 'Mr Da Costa found them [a species of Patella] in great quantities . . .'.
while in the note it says T do not find it described, or even mentioned, by any author' (text for
plate 1, figure 10). On another occasion (plate 4, figure 13), the description says 'the only one in
the British Museum', while the note reads 'In the same noble Collection I observed some small
Limpets not above one Quarter of an inch long'.

In the face of Humphrey's own attribution of the descriptions to da Costa, one might suppose
that the notes were afterthoughts added by Humphrey. This could be the case for the shorter
notes, but there is some doubt in the case of the Black Limpet (plate 1, figure 8), in which there is
a long and detailed criticism of Michel Adanson (1727-1806) and his synonymy of several species
because of similarities in soft anatomy, regardless of shell characters. As noted earlier, Gray
(1858) referred to Humphrey as a 'comparatively uneducated person' and Humphrey himself
admitted in the Preface to the Museum Calonnianum sale catalogue that the editor 'hopes that his

18

confession of being but little acquainted with the learned languages will be received as an apology
for such improprieties in the generic or specific names as he fears will be found' (Humphrey,
1797 : v). On the other hand, Gray also found Humphrey 'far in advance of the state of natural
history of his time' (Gray, 1858), while Swainson (1840b : 21-22) simply could not heap enough
praise on Humphrey's arrangement of shells in the Museum Calonnianum: it was an 'entirely
novel and very remarkable plan ... a most extensive improvement upon everything of the kind
which had hitherto been done ... as far exceeds that of Linnaeus, as Lister's exceeds Klein'; and
if that was not enough, he concluded 'As a purely conchological system, this was unquestionably
the best and most original of any that had appeared since the revival of learning'. Whether this
second Aristotle deserved such praise is a matter of opinion ; da Costa, after all, was given the
cognomen 'Plinius IV. In fact, Dall (1889 : 301) gave the real credit for the Museum Calonnianum
-or presumably the exhibition catalogue of 1788 on which it was based - to Christian Hwass
'whose manuscripts (by the aid of E. M. da Costa, an English writer on shells)' were then used by
Humphrey. Although Iredale (1937 : 417) rejected this, pointing to the evident lack of the 'learned
languages' shown in the catalogue, there is still the impression that the passage on Adanson in
the Conchology is more consistent with the work of a man who went on to write two books on
conchology than with one who merely published catalogues and a brief four-page note on the
gizzard of Bulla lignaria (Humphrey, 1794).

Finally, it can be noted that the idea of the Conchology appears to have originated with da
Costa. Two years before the Proposal was issued, Drury wrote to Pallas that 'Mr Da Costa is
going to publish plates of nondescript animals - shells, Insects, etc. in periodical numbers, five
plates with their descriptions being a complete number' (12 November 1767, Drury Corr. ; also
Cockerell, 1922 : 70). It seems likely that the Conchology stemmed from this larger scheme, being
later pared down by force of circumstances.

Humphrey's role in the Conchology seems to have been more akin to that of an editor. Thus, he
arranged for the illustrations to be done (perhaps paying for the artists), saw the book through the
press, and kept a watchful eye on sales. Da Costa, on the other hand, probably conceived the
project, certainly wrote the descriptions, made the French translations, chose some, if not all, of
the species to be illustrated, identified material to be included, and collated the figures with the
text. No doubt Humphrey put a lot of work into the book, but it seems reasonable to regard da
Costa as its true author.

Illustrations

The Conchology has 12 plates, with between 11 and 27 numbered figures on each (or up to 33
actual drawings when shells are illustrated twice on the same plate). Henry Seymer had supposed
that they could not have more than five shells on each plate, and if 26 genera with on average 50
species were to be figured, then a monthly issue of two plates would take nearly five and a half
years; he advised an issue every fortnight and then 'persons almost of any age might hope to see
the completion of it' (Seymer to Humphrey, 16 February 1771, DC. Corr.; also ///. Lit. Hist.
4 : 773). The advice was not heeded and in any case four plates had already been issued by then.

The first four plates were signed 'J. Wicksteed Jun. del'. This was James Wicksteed (1718-91)
from Dublin, who later worked in Bath and then London (Benezit, 1966 : 736). He exhibited at
the Royal Academy from 1779 to 1824 and is given by Graves (1906 : 263) as a gem engraver who
showed mainly portraits (Wellington, Johnson, etc.). There is no mention of his name in the
Humphrey/da Costa correspondence, but in a single letter of 1757 addressed to 'Mr James
Wicksteed (Seal Engraver) at Bath' da Costa states that he had sent him a copy of the History of
fossils and hopes that Wicksteed will oblige with a second half-guinea subscription for the
remainder of the book (4 October 1757, DC. Corr.). Thus, da Costa had known Wicksteed for
perhaps fifteen years and may have already approached him in 1767 when he planned the series of
plates mentioned by Drury to Pallas.

If the plates were drawn in the order that they were published, then Humphrey's brother
William was the second artist to be employed on the Conchology. William Humphrey drew for
plates 5 and 7 and the first record of his involvement in the project comes from George Humphrey's
application of 27 April 1770 for his brother to accompany him to the British Museum as his

19

artist (Humphrey to da Costa, DC. Corr.). In asking da Costa to draft out this application,
Humphrey had added 'Leave should also be asked for a person (my Brother) to be with me to
draw any particular Shell' (April 1770, DC. Corr.). There is no indication in the letter why William
Humphrey was employed at this stage or why he did not continue with the later plates. He was,
in fact, an extremely competent mezzotint engraver and had already (1765) won the prize of the
Society of Artists for an engraving after Rembrandt (Benezit, 1966 : 29), but he exhibited only
once at the Academy (as an Honourable Exhibitor in 1793 - see Graves, 1906 : 193).

The third and probably the best artist to work on the Conchology was Peter Brown, who later
turned increasingly to flower paintings and became Botanical Painter to the then Prince of Wales
(Benezit, 1966 : 162). He exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1770 and 1791 and his address
in the early 1770's was 'At Mrs Munt's milliner 16 Portland St.' (Graves, 1905 : 311). Among his
earlier pictures were 'Two drawings of shells' exhibited in 1777, possibly originals from the
British conchology, for which he did plates 1-2 and 4-17 ; they are referred to in a letter from Brown
to da Costa requesting permission 'to Exhibit two of your drawings of shells, there is room for
two, I think it would be an advantage to your Publication & would much oblige me' (16 April
1777, DC. Corr., the only Brown letter).

Plates 8 to 12 of the published parts of the Conchology are by Brown, but these well outrun the
text, which stops short in the middle of figure 2 of plate 5 ; as Humphrey remarked to da Costa
'great fault' was found by Elmsley 'that the Figures exceed the Descriptions so greatly' (12 April
1771, DC. Corr.). In fact, Brown went on to draw four more plates, but these were never pub-
lished. These four signed plates, together with the signed originals of plates 8 and 9, are now
bound in with one and a half copies of the Conchology in the British Museum (Natural History).
Brown was an excellent artist and the plates give little clue to the delicacy of his originals. A note
in the book (in pencil) states 'Six loose plates added May 1929'. These drawings, which are on
parchment, are probably part of the 'Ten original drawings on vellum by Brown (5 unpublished)'
listed as Lot 86 on the thirty-sixth day of the Museum Humfredianum sale. In the Hope Depart-
ment copy of the catalogue this lot (p. 168) is annotated 'DC for Dr Fothergill' and sixteen guineas
was paid for it. John Fothergill's library and paintings were sold at auction by Leigh & Sotheby in
April/May 1781, and the ten Brown drawings appear as Lot 72 on the eighth day. The annotated
sale catalogue in the British Library shows that they were bought by 'Dobello' for eight pounds.
This is probably a mis-writing for 'Rebello', who also bought an earlier lot, and would be the 'D.
Alves Rebello' who was a member of the Society for Promoting Natural History (Linn. Arch.).
I have been unable to find out when Rebello relinquished the drawings; they may have come to
the British Museum (Natural History) through Alexander Reynell (Peter Dance, in litt.).

The plates of the Conchology were all engraved by Peter Mazell, an excellent engraver who
worked also for Thomas Pennant and others and whose best work is probably seen in Cordiner's
Remarkable ruins and romantic prospects in North Britain. Mazell was sympathetic to natural
history subjects and himself exhibited two flower paintings at the Royal Academy in 1797 (Graves,
1906 : 220). He is only once mentioned by name in the Humphrey /da Costa correspondence,
Humphrey saying that 'Mazelle has promised me the 7th plate next Monday' (12 April 1771,
DC. Corr.).

It is disappointing that more cannot be gleaned of the history of the Conchology illustrations
since the employment of a third artist by the time of the eighth plate could imply dissatisfaction
over the first two artists or, conversely, their rejection of the contract because of the haste required
or the lack of payment. There is a hint that Humphrey's brother was not satisfactory in a letter
from Humphrey to da Costa in which he says that 'the Masks which are for the 7th plate . . . have
been Drawn twice, tho' some of them must be redrawn' (6 March 1771, DC. Corr.).

Dating

Like many other works of this type and period, no dates are given on the parts of the Conchology.
The title page is a wrapper of blue paper, of which those for parts 1 and 3 (two of the latter) are
bound in with the coloured copies in the British Museum (Natural History); the wrapper for part 6
is in the British Library (Joseph Banks' copy, uncoloured, possibly inscribed but top of wrapper

20

trimmed). Schroter (1774 : 1 56) seems to include 'a Londres 1771' in the title, but this is not printed
on the wrapper. Authors since then have variously dated the work 1770-71 or 1771-72.

The most direct dating, unfortunately only of parts 1 and 3, is that inscribed on the wrappers of
the incomplete copy in the British Museum (Natural History). The first reads 'Presented by the
Editors Jan. 18, 1771' and the second 'Presented by the Editors [May 31 deleted] June 14 1771'.
According to the wrapper, the work was to be issued in monthly parts containing two plates each.
The text was obviously meant to keep pace with the plates, but it breaks off in the middle of plate
5 and the remaining six plates seem to have been issued without text.

The letters between Humphrey and da Costa in the British Library provide the only other
method of dating the work. The result is shown in Table 1, which places the first five parts between
December 1770 and August 1771, the sixth and final part presumably being later in 1771 but not
in 1772. The earliest dates for each part can be summarized as:

Part 1, pis 1 and 2 20 December 1 770 Part 4, pis 7 and 8 7 June 1771

Part 2, pis 3 and 4 6 February 1771 Part 5, pis 9 and 10 5 August 1771

Part 3, pis 5 and 6 4 April 1771 Part 6, pis 11 and 12 ? October 1771

Part 2 followed part 1 after an interval of just over a month, but there was a delay over part 3
and da Costa must have taken Humphrey to task over this. The latter replied 'We are not in so
bad a pickle as you imagine (tho' bad enough)' (6 March 1771, DC. Corr.). Thereafter, the parts
appeared every other month, although the text had broken off in the third part at p. 26. Jackson
(1937) supposed that Humphrey and da Costa quarrelled and thus the work was never completed,
but according to da Costa (1776 : 52) the work was laid aside for lack of support. It remains now
something of a literary curiosity and a record of how a once prominent man employed his time
in a debtor's prison.

Table 1

Part 1 (plates 1 and 2, both by J. Wicksteed)
20 Dec. 1770 First sheets to Paris (DC. Corr. 5 : 229)
18 Jan. 1771 'Presented by the Editors' (Brit. Mus. (Nat. Hist.) copy)
6 Feb. 1771 Coloured copy to Fothergill (DC. Corr. 4 : 163)
12 Apr. 1771 One plain and four coloured copies sold by Elmsley (DC. Corr. 5 : 232)

Part 2 (plates 3 and 4, both by J. Wicksteed)

2 Oct. 1770 Two proofs of plate 4 to da Costa for checking (DC. Corr. 5 : 228)
6 Feb. 1771 Two coloured copies to Fothergill (DC. Corr. 4 : 163)
12 Apr. 1771 One plain and two coloured copies sold by Elmsley (DC. Corr. 5 : 232)

Part 3 (plate 5 by W. Humphrey, plate 6 by J. Wicksteed)
24 Jan. 1770 W. Humphrey not yet begun drawings (DC. Corr. 5 : 223)

27 Apr. 1770 Application for W. Humphrey to draw shells at British Museum (DC. Corr. 5 : 227)
6 Mar. 1771 Plate 6 engraved, plate 5 in a week or eight days (DC. Corr. 5 : 230)

4 Apr. 1771 Three coloured copies to Fothergill (DC. Corr. 4 : 168)
14 Jun. 1771 'Presented by the Editors' (Brit. Mus. (Nat. Hist.) copy)

Part 4 (plate 7 by W. Humphrey, plate 8 by P. Brown)

6 Mar. 1771 Plate 7 drawn, redrawn, but needs corrections; de Costa to choose subjects for plate !

(DC. Corr. 5 : 230)
12 Apr. 1771 Plate 7 promised by engraver 'next Monday' (DC. Corr. 5 : 232)
18 May 1771 Forster asks if published (DC. Corr. 4 : 1 14)

7 Jun. 1771 Two copies to Fothergill (DC. Corr. 4 : 163)

Part 5 (plates 9 and 10, both by P. Brown)

5 Aug. 1771 Forster has received copy (DC. Corr. 4:117)

Part 6 (plates 11 and 12, both by P. Brown)
late Jul. 1771 Humphrey to consult da Costa on contents of plate 12 (DC. Corr. 5 : 231)

21

Acknowledgements

I am particularly grateful to Mr Peter Dance (National Museum of Wales), not only for en-
couraging me to explore a corner of his domain, but for drawing my attention to the most
important of all da Costa sources, the letters in the British Library. For help with the Jewish
records, I am indebted to Mr Alfred Rubens (Chairman, the Jewish Library) and Mr R. Finkin
(Mocatta Library). Among those who have so kindly mined information for me have been Mr
Gavin Bridson (Linnean Society), Dr Helen Brock (University of Glasgow), Mr John Hopkins
(Society of Antiquaries), Mr John Mallet (Victoria & Albert Museum) and Mrs Kate Way of our
Mollusca Section. Finally, my sincere thanks to Dr Alex Keller (University of Leicester) for his
enthusiasm and help.

While this paper was in press, I received a typescript with almost the same title and conclusions
by Nora McMillan; with great generosity she withdrew her work and allowed me to use several
further references that I had overlooked.

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1812b. Notes and anecdotes of literati, collectors, &c. from a MS. by the late Mendes de Costa, and

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23

— 1812-1816. Literary anecdotes of the eighteenth century; comprising biographical memoirs of William
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(index in vol. 7, published in two parts, the first covering vols 1-6, the second vols 8 and 9).

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Sarton, G. 1931. [Review]. Isis, 16: 143-145.

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& Kaeppler, A. (in prep.). Copies of the Museum Humfredianum in London, Oslo and Oxford.

24

British Museum (Natural History)
Monographs & Handbooks

The Museum publishes some 10-12 new titles each year on subjects
including zoology, botany, palaeontology and mineralogy.
Besides being important reference works, many, particularly among
the handbooks, are useful for courses and students' background
reading.

Lists are available free on request to :

Publications Sales

British Museum (Natural History)

Cromwell Road

London SW7 5BD

Standing orders placed by educational institutions earn a discount
of 10% off our published price.

Titles to be published in Volume 6

Emanuel Mendes da Costa (1717-91) and the Concho logy, or natural
history of shells. By P. J. P. Whitehead.

Early mineralogy in Great Britain and Ireland. By W. Campbell
Smith.

The Forster collection of zoological drawings in the British Museum
(Natural History). By P. J. P. Whitehead.

John George Children, FRS (1777-1852) of the British Museum.
Mineralogist and reluctant Keeper of Zoology. By A. E. Gunther.

An account of the rock collections in the British Museum
(Natural History), and the historical collections acquired before
1918. By D. T. Moore.

Type set by John Wright & Sons Ltd, Bristol and Printed by Henry Ling Ltd, Dorchester

Bulletin of the

British Museum (Natural History)

The Forster collection of Zoological drawings
in the British Museum (Natural History)

P. J. P. Whitehead

Historical series Vol 6 No 2 30 March 1978

The Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History), instituted in 1949, is issued in four
scientific series, Botany, Entomology, Geology and Zoology, and an Historical series.

Parts are published at irregular intervals as they become ready. Volumes will contain about
four hundred pages, and will not necessarily be completed within one calendar year.

Subscription orders and enquiries about back issues should be sent to: Publications Sales,
British Museum (Natural History), Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, England.

World List abbreviation : Bull. Br. Mus. nat. Hist. (hist. Ser.)

© Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History), 1978

ISSN 0068-2306 Historical series

Vol 6 No 2 pp 25-47
British Museum (Natural History)
Cromwell Road
London SW7 5BD Issued 30 March 1978

in the

The Forster collection of zoological drawings
British Museum (Natural History)

P. J. P. Whitehead

Department of Zoology, British Museum (Natural History), Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD

GENERAL ^

Contents

Abstract ....

Introduction .

Descriptiones animalium .

The drawings .

The artists

Banksian catalogues of drawings

George Forster's Observations .

The Forster animal drawings in the British

The Forster animal drawings in Gotha, Weimar and Jena

References

Museum (Natural History)

25
25
26
27
29
31
34
34
46
47

Abstract

Almost all the natural history drawings made by George Forster (1754-94) on Captain Cook's second
voyage around the world are now in the British Museum (Natural History). The two zoological volumes
contain 33 drawings of mammals, 140 of birds, 3 of reptiles, 81 of fishes and 14 of invertebrates, of which
191 are variously completed in watercolour and 80 are pencil sketches. The drawings, for the most part
unpublished, are an integral element in J. R. Forster's Descriptiones animalium (1844).

The bird drawings have already been catalogued by Lysaght in an earlier volume of this Bulletin (1959).
The remainder are listed here, with all annotations, references to the Descriptiones animalium and citations
from a contemporary list and from a notebook of George Forster's observations. In addition, the 26
gouaches in a series at Gotha are listed, as well as the 6 watercolours at Weimar and 2 at Jena.

Introduction

Early zoological and botanical drawings are often essential to the identification of Linnaean
and subsequent names because of inadequate original description and/or absence of type-speci-
mens. For this reason, the many hundreds of drawings of animals and plants made on Captain
Cook's three voyages, almost all of which are now in the British Museum (Natural History),
are fairly frequently examined in order to settle taxonomic or nomenclatural problems. Rela-
tively few of these drawings have ever been published, yet many are virtual if not actual icono-
types.*

The largest series of natural history drawings from Cook's voyages is that by Sydney Parkinson
(17457-71), natural history artist on the first voyage (1768-71); it comprises 18 botanical and
3 zoological volumes. Smaller, but equally important is the collection of drawings made on the
second voyage (1772-75) by Johann George Adam Forster (1754-94), son of the official naturalist
on the voyage, Johann Reinhold Forster (1729-98); the Forster collection comprises 2 botanical

* Iconotype: strictly, an illustration that formed the sole basis for a new species name, not necessarily with a
verbal description unless the illustration remained unpublished. An illustration is based directly or at one or more
removes on a specimen, but if this or another specimen was used by the author of a new name, then the illustration
is not an iconotype but merely an extension of the description. Nevertheless, where type-specimens have not sur-
vived, then their illustration, whether published or not, has great importance. Although not in the strict sense
semaphorants (i.e. name-bearers), such illustrations often provide more easily interpreted information than many
an early verbal description. In this respect, an original drawing is usually superior to a published one, hence the
continued value of early drawings to taxonomy.

Bull. Br. Mus. nat. Hist. (hist. Ser.) 6 (2): 25-47

Issued 30 March 1978

25

26 p - J - p - WHITEHEAD

and 2 zoological volumes. Fewer natural history drawings were made on the third voyage (1776—
80), but they include a small volume of 115 drawings by William Ellis (17357-85). These Parkin-
son, Forster and Ellis drawings are in the British Museum (Natural History), but there are also
a few natural history drawings in the Department of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum,
including 46 bv John (William) Webber (199* b 2) and a few by John Cleveley, John Frederick
Miller and James Miller (bound together, 199* b 4).

The natural history drawings from the Cook voyages were formerly in the possession of Sir
Joseph Banks (1743-1820). Together with the Banksian collection of books, manuscripts and
specimens, they passed to the British Museum in 1827 and they were amongst the Banksian and
other natural history drawings that in 1881 were transferred (with a few exceptions) to the newly
founded British Museum (Natural History) at South Kensington.

There is no published catalogue of all the natural history drawings from the Cook voyages.
For zoology, the nearest approach is that by Lysaght (1959) in her excellent study and listing of
all the Banksian bird drawings. An account of Parkinson's zoological drawings from the first
voyage was given by Sawyer (1950) and some useful information on George Forster's zoological
drawings was given by Steiner & Baege (1971) and also by Joppien (1976). Albert Giinther drew
up lists of all the fish drawings in the Parkinson and Forster volumes and these lists are now kept
with their respective volumes. More important, however, are five contemporary lists of Banksian
natural history drawings, the most complete being that made by Jonas Dryander (1748-1810),
Banks' second librarian. These lists are of great interest because they were based on information
that seems to be no longer available, such as the attribution of 9 first voyage drawings to Herman
Diedrich Sporing (1740 ?-71), assistant and amanuensis to Banks on the voyage (7 fishes, 2
crabs). The lists also contain information that must have been supplied by the Forsters, of which
the original document is no longer extant. The main Dryander list was used by Lysaght (1959)
and all were briefly enumerated by Whitehead (1969a : 186-187); they will be described in more
detail below (see p. 31).

The natural history observations made by George Forster during the early part of the voyage
are contained in a notebook now in the Bibliotheque Centrale of the Museum National d'Histoire
Naturelle in Paris. Some of the observations are relevant to the drawings listed here and will be
discussed below (p. 34).

The catalogue of the Forster zoological drawings given here is a further contribution to the
growing literature on J. R. Forster and his son George. The latter has been well served by an
East German Forster-Ausgabe justifiably determined to make a hero, resulting in a multi-volume
work on his life, writings and letters (Steiner, 1971 ; see also Kahn et alii, 1972 etc.). George has
always stolen the limelight, but J. R. Forster, maligned and underrated for much too long, has
now been rehabilitated in a full, detailed and superbly documented biography by Michael Hoare
(1976). Much information can be mined from Steiner and from Hoare on the circumstances of the
voyage and the production and fate of the drawings, and the value of this is enhanced by the
publication of J. R. Forster's manuscript Journal of the voyage, in which day-to-day zoological and
botanical discoveries are noted (Hoare, in press). Thus, the taxonomist has quite a range of primary
and secondary material with which to explore Forster's descriptions of animals.

Descriptiones animalium

The value of the Forster drawings is still immense. Few have ever been published, yet they
frequently provide the best means of identifying the species described by Forster or by later
workers who used Forster's manuscripts. The zoological drawings have a particular importance
because specific reference is made to them in Forster's original descriptions of the animals seen
during the voyage, many of which were described and named for the first time. Unfortunately,
Forster's descriptions remained in manuscript during his lifetime, being in the form of three
quarto and one folio volume (I, 98 ff- from August 1772; II, 134ff-from July 1773; III,
135 ff- from April 1774; IV, 86 ff - from December 1774). These four volumes were subsequently
acquired by the Koniglichen Bibliothek (later Preussischer Staatsbibliothek) in Berlin and after
the last war were among the manuscripts eventually deposited in the Staatsbibliothek Preussischer

THE FORSTER COLLECTION 27

Kulturbesitz at Dahlem in West Berlin (Ms Lat. qu. 133-136); Forster's manuscript Journal is
also in this library (Ms germ. qu. 222-227).

Forster's manuscript descriptions were seen and the ichthyological portions used by J. G.
Schneider (1801) for his Systema ichthyologiae, where they were cited by volume and page
number (but the drawings not seen). It was not until some seventy years after the voyage that the
Forster descriptions were published, being edited by M. H. K. Lichtenstein(1844) as Descriptiones
animalium. By this time, many of the species were no longer novelties, having long since been
described by Schneider and others, often as a result of further material brought back from the
Pacific. Lichtenstein was faithful to Forster's text, merely adding an asterisk and footnote when
the species had already been given a name. His additions on the manuscript were made in red ink.
They also include a serial number for each species, but there are a few errors in the numbering;
34 is missing and Perca lepidoptera is not numbered. In the published text there is also a careless-
ness over numbers; 102 is omitted, two species are not numbered (pp. 363, 388, although the
latter is merely a variety or subspecies), while male and female are sometimes numbered separately
and sometimes not. Forster occasionally had a change of mind over the name of a species, but
in at least one case it appears that the Forster name has been crossed out and Lichtenstein has
added another (vol. IV, f. 12 - cyprinoides for setipinna).

For the majority of species there is a reference by J. R. Forster himself to a drawing, cited as
'Fig. pict. G.' etc., and it is clear that the making of a drawing was an integral part of the process
of description. According to the Descriptiones animalium, drawings were made for 16 out of 46
species of mammals described, 121 out of 160 species of birds, 1 for the only species of reptile,
67 out of 86 species of fishes, and 5 out of 13 species of invertebrates, making a total of 211 species
drawn out of 306 described. This does not take into account species merely mentioned by name,
for which no indication of a drawing is given although such in fact exists. Only a few of the earlier
drawings are stated to have had a number, given as Fig. picta A.l, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, then x (twice),
then A alone, then x alone, thereafter nothing. However, almost all the drawings can be related
to a description by virtue of a name and/or locality and date written on the drawing. The drawings
would have been better known and used had Lichtenstein added the number of each drawing.

The Descriptiones animalium, although fairly widely used by nineteenth-century zoologists,
has suffered from several disadvantages. The narrative sections, as well as the descriptions and
Lichtenstein's introduction, are written in Latin. Again, the arrangement is chronological and
not systematic and although there is an index, the names are keyed to generic allocations that
are not easily recognizable to modern workers ; in any future reprint edition the provision of an
index to species names, as well as a table of contents arranged systematically, would be a help.
The most serious drawback is the lack of illustrations, for the drawings have hardly been used by
non-British zoologists until comparatively recently. For these reasons, and because of the delay
in publication of the text, J. R. Forster's most important contribution to zoology has not reaped
the credit that it deserves.

The drawings

The Forster collection contains 33 drawings of mammals (Nos 1-31), 140 of birds (Nos 32-168),
3 of reptiles (Nos 169-171), 81 of fishes (Nos 172-251) and 14 of invertebrates (Nos 252-261),
making a total of 271 drawings (some folios given as a and b). Some species are represented by
more than one drawing and there are also a number that are not formally described in the
Descriptiones animalium, hence their added importance. The total might seem small for three
years' work, but Hoare (1976 : 104) has pointed out that only 290 days, or just over a quarter of
the voyage, was actually spent at anchor or on short landings, so that the Forsters were hard
put to collect, record, preserve, describe and draw the wealth of material that they discovered.
In addition, one should not forget the botanical collecting and the tedious pressing of specimens,
nor the 301 drawings of plants made by George Forster. Forster's Journal gives a graphic account
of the wet and cramped conditions of their cabin (see Hoare, 1976 : 87-88) and it is clear
that careful draughtsmanship was more easily achieved on shore.
Most of the drawings seem to have been made on the spot and while the material was fresh,

28 P. J. P. WHITEHEAD

but a few were evidently worked up afterwards. For example, Lysaght (1959 : 299) noted four
bird drawings that are dated after the Resolution had left the Cape of Good Hope (Nos 112, 115,
116, 129) and she concluded that they must have been completed at sea.* Despite the conditions
on board, it is still a little surprising that more of the zoological drawings were not worked up in
the intervening periods. Only 155 of the drawings can be considered complete, 36 have some
colour added (often little more than an indication), but 80 are mere pencil sketches (occasionally
with ink or brown crayon as well). Only very rarely did George Forster write an indication of the
colours on the drawing, so that it is hard to see how they could have been worked up later (which
was surely the intention).

Backgrounds are supplied for a few of the drawings (14 birds, 6 mammals). For the mammals,
this usually takes the form of a little hillock on which the animal stands, the colour being beige
or brown with rather sharp and dark shadows. For the birds there is often a low and sloping
foreground with small and curly lines of green or brown to suggest vegetation, but in two drawings
there is a complete background of land and sky (Nos 32, 133), while in some of the sea birds
there is an indication of water and sky (e.g. Nos 86, 89). In some of the pencil sketches there is a
tentative background (e.g. Nos 39, 90, 120, 143). The number of unfinished drawings suggests
that George Forster had no time for such embellishments and he probably also lacked the skill.

The drawings are on fairly heavy cartridge paper, originally of varying sizes but now mounted
onto sheets that are trimmed to 64-6 x 46-0 cm, the paper being cut to expose both sides of the
drawing. Occasionally there is a pencil sketch on the verso (e.g. No 191 Perca grunniens).] The
annotations are almost always on the recto, but occasionally there is a note on the verso (e.g.
No 32 Falco serpentarius, No 2 Phoca antarcticd).

The name given to the animal is usually written in pencil immediately below the subject, pre-
sumably by George or his father when the description was complete and a name found; the
generic name is sometimes in capital letters (of which a few are in ink) and the species name that
follows it was probably added later. In many instances another species name follows the first or is
written above it, with or without deletion of the first but often with an indication of the source
of the name (e.g. Bos Connochaetes Mas., followed by Antilope Gnu S.N. XIII : 189, n. 25, being
a reference to the 13th edition of Linnaeus' Systema naturae of 1788-92). Some of the other
additional names are qualified by 'Brouss. Ichthyol.', being a reference to Pierre-Marie-Auguste
Broussonet (1761-1807), who visited England in 1780 to work on fishes at Banks' house and at
the British Museum and whose published Ichthyologia appeared two years later (Broussonet,
1782). Yet another source for names is 'MS Brit. Mus.' or merely 'MS'. This may refer to the
manuscript descriptions begun by Daniel Solander (1733-82) as a result of his participation on
the first Cook voyage and thereafter expanded, on little slips of paper, to cover the entire plant
and animal kingdoms for a revised edition of the Systema naturae. Solander's zoological note-
books and slips, all now at the British Museum (Natural History), were listed by Whitehead
(1969a : 185). In a few cases an addition to a drawing is followed by the initials 'JB' for Joseph
Banks (e.g. No 232 Salmo myops, where the native name Erai is added).

The principal name on the drawings is usually that also used in the Descriptiones animalium
and must have been written at the time. The references to the Systema must have been written
after 1788-92, when Solander was dead and the Forsters were in Germany; they may have been
written by Dryander, but perhaps by Latham, Pennant or other zoologists who studied the
drawings. The Forster drawings were bought by Banks for 400 guineas in August 1776 (see
Forster to Banks, 9 August 1776 in Dawson, 1958 : 339) and it is unlikely that J. R. Forster sub-
sequently annotated them since he did not also change the names in the Descriptiones animalium.
He left England in July 1780 and probably did not meet Broussonet, who in any case could not
have worked through all the drawings by then. Thus, the references to the Ichthyologia were
either by Broussonet himself, or more likely, by Solander who, as Banks' first librarian, would
have had the drawings readily available.

* Four of the botanical sketches made at Madeira in August 1772 are stated on the completed drawing to have
been painted in February and March 1773, shortly before the ship reached New Zealand (Nos 45, 172, 175, 201).

t Most of the botanical drawings have been pasted directly onto sheets, but on the verso of four drawings where
this is not so there are the beginnings of a pencil sketch of a bird (Nos 18, 78, 82, 154).

THE FORSTER COLLECTION 29

The other annotations on the drawings include the locality and date, presumably made at the
time (bottom right) ; very occasionally a note on provenance or colours (bottom left or centre) ;
a native name, with diacritic marks to show pronunciation (usually bottom left or centre, occasion-
ally at the top); a reference in the case of fishes to Schneider's Systema Ichthyologiae (e.g. 'Schn.
178' - bottom left or right) ; a reference in the case of birds to John Latham's General Synopsis of
birds, 1781-86 (with or without a reference also to the Systema Naturae); and finally, in ink, the
name 'Ge Forster' written by Dryander (extreme bottom left, but sometimes partly or completely
trimmed off).

The drawings are now arranged systematically and numbered 1-261 consecutively through the
two volumes (top right). It is not clear if they were in this order when Banks received them or at
what date they were numbered and bound. Possibly they were still loose and in folders when
Lichtenstein edited the Descriptiones animalium, hence he could not cite drawing numbers.

The artists

Nothing is known of George Forster's artistic training, but he seems to have had a natural talent
for drawing that was reinforced by whatever encouragement he received from his brief periods at
school or from his father. However, his ability to draw seems to have been decisive in the Ad-
miralty's appointment of him as official natural history artist on the voyage (see Steiner &
Baege, 1971 : 53). Anders Sparrman (1748-1820), the naturalist who was engaged by J. R. Forster
at the Cape, later wrote envying George his 'drawing hand' (T. Forster, 1829 : 675).

The earliest drawings from the voyage, dating from August 1772 when George was not yet
eighteen, show good observation and neat draughtsmanship. As the voyage progressed, one gets
the impression that the pencil work becomes surer and more fluid, although even at the Cape of
Good Hope (30 October-22 November 1772) the several pencil sketches of a gnu drawn from life
are bold and at times fully confident. On the other hand, his finished and fully coloured mammal
drawings from the Cape are often small, restrained and even a trifle wooden, in striking contrast
to some (but not all) of his finished and coloured bird drawings. Aesthetically, his most pleasing
drawings are the large pencil sketches or the drawings of sea birds where only a wash of colour
has been applied. He rarely used pen and ink, but one botanical drawing (No 60) shows that he
was quite confident in this medium.

Over half the drawings are of birds and a third are of fishes, and in these groups he drew three-
quarters of all the species described. Although the zoology of the voyage was dominated by
birds and fishes, as can be seen from the descriptions, there was still plenty of scope for inverte-
brate studies. In fact, only 13 invertebrates were described, of which 5 were said to have a drawing,
and there are 14 invertebrate drawings. To some extent this may have reflected J. R. Forster's
interests and thus his instructions to his son; certain invertebrates, such as crabs, molluscs and
insects, could be fairly easily preserved and drawn later, but the paucity of descriptions suggests
that this was not the intention. To judge from the success of the drawings, it would seem that
George was happiest with birds, interestingly-shaped fishes and plants, excelling at lines and
contours but lacking the facility for colour-work so evident in Parkinson's drawings from the
first voyage.

Two of the early drawings (Nos 254 Doris laevis, 259a Medusa pelagica) are signed with a
pencilled monogram 'GF'. There are also a number of bird drawings, all with a foreground
sketched in colour and dating from the stay at the Cape, which also have this monogram (Nos
112, 115, 116, 118, 129).* Thereafter, the drawings are unsigned, but while most are clearly the
work of George Forster, there were in fact other hands at work.

Lichtenstein (1844: XIII) seems to have been the first to point out that the formula 'Fig.
pict. G.' is not invariable in the Descriptiones animalium, being replaced sometimes by 'Fig. pict.
F.'. The first, he stated, referred to 'Georgium filium', while the second 'vero Forsterum ipsum
significat'. There are 7 cases of 'Fig. pict. F.' (fishes Nos 191 recto and verso, 229, 231, 241 lower;
mammals Nos 17, 18a). All are pencil drawings and although quite competent lack something of

* Nine of the finished botanical drawings are signed in this way (Nos 5, 45, 103, 108, 120, 156, 172, 175, 201).
All of them seem to have been completed in New Zealand or shortly before their arrival there in March 1773.

30 P. J- P- WHITEHEAD

the artistic flourish of his son's drawings. The earliest is a fish drawn at the Cape Verde Islands in
August 1772, while the two mammal drawings were done at the Cape two months later. Possibly
J. R. Forster did these to show his son what was required of a scientific representation. He seems
to have attempted no more drawings until their visits to Tahiti and Tanna in mid- 1774, when he
drew four more fishes, possibly because of pressure of time. In two cases (Nos 241 lower Trigla
asiatica, 191 verso Perca grunniens) George later made a neat copy, probably traced (Nos 241
upper, 214). In three further cases the drawings are given a joint attribution as 'Fig. pict. F. et G.'
(fishes Nos 196 Harpurus nigricans, 183 Blennius gobioides; bird No 162 Motacilla seticauda - all
1774). Presumably, J. R. Forster made the original drawing, which was finished and coloured by
George.

Another indication, given twice in the Descriptiones animalium, is 'Fig. picta Schum.' and 'Fig.
picta Schumacher', which refers to three bird drawings (Nos 69 and 70 Anas montana $ and 6*,
115 Ardea palearis - all from the Cape). It was argued by Lysaght (1959 : 299) that since the last
drawing has George Forster's monogram on it 'we can scarcely doubt that he was the artist'.
However, there is no reason why George should not have finished off the drawing and, in con-
formity with the other bird drawings from the Cape, have put his name to it. I have been unable
to find any contemporary reference to the name Schumacher in the documents examined and
Lysaght (1959) seems to have had no success either. However, in Catalogue B (see below, p. 32)
there is a note against Anas montana which states that 'Mr Forster has a drawing in colour made
by a [word begun but deleted] soldier at the Cape'. This evidently refers to Schumacher, who was
perhaps an amateur naturalist and artist and possibly a friend of Sparrman's. In fact, a Johannes
Schumacher is listed as a Cape artist in the period 1776-77 by Gordon-Brown (1952 : 117) and
it is said that 56 out of 66 of his pictures in the Swellengrebel Collection at Breda have been
reproduced. This must surely be the same man.

A third and most interesting attribution in the Descriptiones animalium is the single reference
to 'Fig. pict. Hodges', which refers to drawing No 109 Larus scopelinus, described on 13 April
1773 at Dusky Bay, New Zealand. This was evidently drawn by William Hodges (1744-97),
official artist on the Resolution for landscapes and people. For several reasons this picture is sig-
nificant.

In the first place, this Hodges drawing emphasizes an already documented case of cooperation
between George Forster and Hodges, for on another bird drawing (No 32 Falco serpentarius
from the Cape) Dryander has written on the verso 'Ge. Forster. the background by Hodges'.
This is not stated in the Descriptiones animalium, but a note in Catalogue B reads 'The Back-
ground by Mr Hodges', which is certainly a statement originally made by either J. R. or George
Forster. Joppien (1976 : 10) has argued cogently that this may not have been the only occasion
when Hodges supplied a background, since in another Cape bird (No 133 Otis afra) there is a
stylistically almost identical background ; unfortunately, there is no confirmation of the latter in
Catalogue B. Joppien goes on to suggest that the little hillocks for some of the Cape mammals
(Nos 17 Antelope tragulus, 18b Antilope pygarga, 29 Antilope oreotragus) seem to 'exhibit landscape
elements in Hodges' familiar style', while the skies in some of George's sea bird drawings also bear
a close similarity to those in Hodges' paintings.

Secondly, this drawing by Hodges suggests that the latter, ten years older than George Forster
and an experienced draughtsman, took an interest in the boy's work and could well have offered
him advice, the drawing perhaps being by way of illustration. In fact, the drawing could well be
mistaken for one of George's later drawings of sea birds, so that perhaps he was influenced to
adopt this large and rather vigorous technique.

A third point of interest is the bearing that this Hodges' drawing may have on J. R. Forster's
inclination to defend his son's natural history territory. George seems to have got on well with
Hodges, but in his subsequent account of the voyage he commented a little scathingly that the
print from Hodges' drawings of Christmas Sound contained a falcon in the foreground that
'from its supernatural size, seems to resemble the rukh, celebrated in the Arabian tales, more than
any bird of less fanciful dimensions' (G. Forster, 1777, 2 : 494). William Wales, astronomer on
the Resolution, seized on this in his Remarks and used it also as a means to sneer at J. R. Forster's
treatment of so affable and polite a man as Hodges, alluding to an occasion when

THE FORSTER COLLECTION 3 J

Mr. Hodges had once before . . . experienced the Doctor's candour and politeness, on attempt-
ing to draw a penguin for his amusement, or, perhaps, for his improvement; I am verily
persuaded it was not with any design to rival Mr. George Forster. (Wales, 1778 : 99)

In George Forster's Reply to Wales' Remarks, he allows 'great merit' to Hodges as a landscape
painter 'but I think too well of him, to be apprehensive, that he will lay a claim to anything more'
(G. Forster, 1778b : 39). George was also critical of Hodges' figure work (G. Forster, 1777,
1 : 427), but the context in the Reply is surely natural history. However, the fact that J. R. Forster
gave credit to Hodges in the Descriptiones animalium argues that the Doctor, although careful
to preserve his son's official position, was quite prepared to acknowledge a contribution by
Hodges. One gets the impression that George, while heeding his father's insistence of scientific
accuracy, saw no reason why Hodges should not sketch in a background or offer advice.

Finally, this Hodges drawing, as well as the backgrounds in the other drawings, can be seen in
relation to the presentation set of gouaches on parchment which were copied after the voyage
from George Forster's drawings and intended as a gift for George III. Only 'about thirty' of these
copies were completed before the offer was rejected by the king, but by then George Forster
claimed that a hundred guineas had been paid 'to employ a painter to copy my sketches' (G.
Forster, 1778a : 7). These gouaches were eventually sold in 1781, through the good offices of no less
a person than Goethe, to Duke Ernst II of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg for eighty louis d'or. The story
is documented by Steiner & Baege (1971 : 63), who showed that 24 of these presentation gouaches
are now in the Gotha Forschungsbibliothek (2 mammals ; 20 birds, which they reproduce as pis
1-20; and 2 fishes). Two other gouaches, formerly part of the Gotha collection (bird, fish), were
sold in 1936 and were on sale again in London forty years later (Joppien, 1976 : pis A, B). In
addition to the gouaches, the Gotha library also acquired 6 botanical drawings on paper, possibly
part of the collection sold by George Forster's widow Therese to Duke Ernst II in 1797 (Steiner
& Baege, 1971 : 66, note 47). There are also six Forster drawings on paper at the Schlossmuseum
der Staatliches Kunstsammlung in Weimar (KK 499-504 - all birds, of which three match pis
2, 3, 7 in Steiner & Baege, the fourth is their pi. 23, and two are European birds). In addition,
there are two drawings of penguins in the Universitatsbibliothek in Jena (Steiner & Baege's
pis 21, 22). A list of all these drawings is given here (p. 46).

The artist employed to make the gouaches has never been identified and his (or her) name was
not found by Hoare in all the manuscript and published material that he examined. Joppien
(1976: 10-11) has drawn attention to the stylistic difference between the subjects (very finely
painted) and the backgrounds (much broader treatment, sometimes carelessly overlapping subject
or frame), and he noted that the backgrounds had much in common with Hodges' known style,
as well as with some of the backgrounds referred to here. It would seem very reasonable that the
Forsters should ask Hodges to lend an authentic touch to the backgrounds since the latter had
made numerous studies for his own purposes. The subjects, on the other hand, are very far
removed from Hodges' style, at least to judge by the single bird drawing, and he was surely not
the copyist employed. However, there were in London a number of talented natural history artists
who would have been glad of such employment. E. M. da Costa, for example, had employed
William Humphrey, John Wicksteed and Peter Brown a few years earlier to draw shells (White-
head, 1977) and there were men like John Frederick Miller, Peter Paillou, Frederick Nodder and
others who would have welcomed both the money and the prestige of such a commission.

Although George Forster in no way rivals such masters of natural history drawing as Paillou,
Nodder and the Bauer brothers, his achievement is remarkable considering his youth, lack of
training and eventual career as a literary man. His father's drawings are careful, even hesitant, as
befits a scientific man; by contrast, the best of George's are accurate but vigorous and assertive,
as if presaging the scale on which his future literary talents would roam.

Banksian catalogues of drawings

Since Banks' residence at 32 Soho Square served virtually as a natural history museum (and
certainly had one of the finest natural history libraries in the country), Banks himself seems to
have been very conscious of the need for catalogues. Dryander's monumental Catalogus biblio-

32 p - J- ?• WHITEHEAD

thecae historico-naturalis (1796-1800) has brief references to some of the series of drawings in
Banks' collection (Forster drawings in vols. 2:17 and 3 : 69), but there are five contemporary
manuscript catalogues now in the British Museum (Natural History) which list the zoological
drawings from the Cook voyages. The first and most comprehensive is by Dryander, the second
(dealing only with the Forster drawings) is probably by Solander and the third is an abbreviated
version of the second ; the fourth, by Dryander, deals only with the third voyage, and the fifth lists
specimens related to drawings from the second and third voyages.

Catalogue A

MS. Catalogue drawings of animals Dryander (on spine)

Title page : J. Dryander's manuscript catalogue of the drawings of animals in the library of Sir

J. Banks arranged in systematic order (ink)

251 ff (numbered), 32-5 x 20-3 cm, BMNH., Zoology Library, 89 fd.
A second (unnumbered) page gives an alphabetical list of abbreviations used for localities, as
well as a list of six symbols used against each entry to denote the state of the drawing, i.e. finished,
with (x) or without (+) colour; sketch, with (/) or without (— ) colour; copy upon transparent
paper (o) ; from a spirit preserved specimen(s).

The entries are arranged systematically, apparently following the 12th edition of the Sy sterna
naturae (1766). Each entry begins with a symbol of its state, followed by the name of the animal
and author (but in many cases a generic name only), the abbreviated locality, the artist, and finally
in some cases a literature reference.

Attributions are made to the following 37 artists : P. d'Auvergne, J. Backstrom, Barnes, Bolson,
P. Brown, A. Buchan, J. Cleveley, N. Dance, T. Davies, G. Edwards, W. Ellis, Engleheart, G.
Forster, F. Frankland, S. Gilpin, J. Greenwood, W. King, G. Metz, J. Miller, J. F. Miller, U.
Mole, F. P. Nodder, P. Paillou, S. Parkinson, Chev. Pinto, Roberts, J. van Rymsdyk, A. Schou-
man, J. E. de Seve, J. Sowerby, Spalding, H. Sporing, J. Stuart, G. Stubbs, W. Watson, J. Webber,
G. Wright.

Both Hodges and Schumacher are absent from this list, which suggests that the Forster and
other drawings were in folders and Dryander merely took the names from the folders without
consulting a list such as the Forsters must have supplied. This is further borne out by the absence
of a locality for certain Forster drawings, even though such is entered on the list given in Catalogue
B. Dryander had presumably forgotten or felt that it was unnecessary to mention Hodges'
contribution to the background of one Forster drawing.

Catalogue B

M.S. Catalogue of Forster' s drawings, Cook's 2nd voyage, 1772-75. (on spine)
Title page : nil

28 ff (numbered), 32-0x20-0 cm, BMNH., Zoology Library, 89 f F.
The entries are arranged systematically (approximately the same as in Catalogue A). Each entry
has the name of the animal, followed by the locality and below this often the common name and
a size indication (most often 'Nat. Size'); below this again there are sometimes notes or 'Obs.'.

The list was not written by either J. R. or George Forster since the former is referred to in the
third person, e.g. 'Mr Forster has a drawing in colour . . .' and 'The largest Mr Forster saw
The writing closely resembles Solander's, but the list appears to have been carefully copied from
one supplied by the Forsters.

The list refers to 19 mammals, 127 birds, 3 reptiles, 75 fishes and 14 invertebrates. In some cases
more than one drawing is noted, so that the totals are not far short of those of the existing
drawings.

The notes are a useful supplement to the data written on the drawings (locality, size, colour).
Occasionally there are comments on the method of capture, habits, habitat and the accuracy of
the drawing. References to Hodges and Schumacher in this list have already been mentioned
(see above, p. 30). Extracts from these notes have been included here where they add data not
on the drawing.

THE FORSTER COLLECTION 33

Catalogue C

[Bound in immediately after the preceding]
Title page : nil

21 ff (numbered), same size, etc. as before.
The first page has a pencil note across the top 'Catalogue of drawings of animals collected on
Cook's 2 d voyage by Geo. Forster'.

The entries are in the same hand as in the previous list, but they are arranged in a slightly dif-
ferent order. Each entry is preceded by a symbol (ticks in one column, crossed dashes in another),
followed by the name of the animal and an abbreviation for its locality. The ticks and dashes seem
to have been crossed off as if compared with another list or with the actual drawings themselves.

The list refers to 19 mammals, 132 birds, 3 reptiles, 76 fishes and 14 invertebrates; it appears
to be directly related to the previous list, the one being derived from the other, or both from the
same source.

Catalogue D

Unbound

Title page: (not contemporary) MS. Catalogue of the Birds and Fishes in the Drawings of J.

Webber and W. W. Ellis, made during Capt. Cook's third voyage round the World, 1776-80,

with descriptions and localities.

11 ff (pages numbered), 32-3 x 19-3 cm, BMNH., Zoology Library, 89 fS Sol. Z.6.
The first part (pp. 1-16), probably by Dryander, contains 161 numbered entries (and some
additions) dealing with birds and 2 mammals. For each is given the number of specimens, the
artist, the name of the species and its locality. There are listed 92 Ellis drawings and 37 by
Webber, being those respectively in the British Museum (Natural History) and the British Museum,
Department of Prints & Drawings (see above, p. 26).

The second part (pp. 17-22), possibly by Solander, contains diagnoses and lists of species for
three fish genera (Labrus, Perca and Sparus).

Of specimens listed in the first part, there are 220 birds and 3 mammals, presumably then in
Banks' collection.

Catalogue £

Unbound

Title page: 4 MS. Catalogues of the Birds in the Drawings of J. G. A. Forster & W. W. Ellis

[& Webber] from Capt. J. Cook's second voyage, 1772-75, and third voyage 1776-80.

24 ff (in four parts, each numbered separately), 32-3 x 19-3 cm, BMNH., Zoology Library, 89
fSSol. Z.3.

Part 1. 15 ff (numbered), containing 185 numbered entries giving the name of a bird, a brief
Latin diagnosis, usually a locality, sometimes a reference as 'Sol. Cat.' to the number of the species
in Catalogue D, and finally a number (up to 5, probably being the number of specimens). The
first page is headed 'Birds taken from the last voyage to be carried to the end of the Kingfishers'.
A whole page containing Nos 115-121 is missing, but these can be found in Part 2 (which is in
the same order).

Part 2. 5 ff (10 numbered pages), containing 121 numbered entries (as in previous list).

Part 3. Single page, virtual repeat of the above but with extra entries la, 5a, 6a, 6b, 8a.

Part 4. 3 ff (pp. 4 and 5 numbered), containing 65 entries, similar to the previous lists but the
order different.

These appear to be lists, in Dryander's hand, of bird specimens in Banks' collection, not only
from the second and third Cook voyages but also from Banks' voyage to Newfoundland and
Labrador in 1766 and from Masson's journeys in South Africa in 1772-76.

In addition to these five catalogues, there is a fourth which is a small notebook (17-5 x 1 1-5 cm)
kept with the others and containing a list of all the Parkinson, Forster and Ellis bird drawings
in the British Museum (Natural History). Each entry contains the drawing number, locality and

34 P- •>• P- WHITEHEAD

name used for the bird by Latham, Gmelin and Forster (and occasionally also by later authors).
The paper is watermarked 1859 and the list may have been compiled by J. R. Gray since an in-
complete catalogue of his papers occurs at the end, together with a note on exchanges of specimens
with the 'Warsaw Museum' in 1874-75.

George Forster 's Observationes

The Bibliotheque Centrale of the Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris possesses a
small notebook (MS. 189) in which George Forster wrote day-to-day notes on the animals and
some plants seen on the voyage in 1772 and during their stay at Dusky Bay (26 March-11 May
1773). The book is 18-1 x 11-7 cm and the title page reads:

Observationes / Historiam Naturalem / Spectantes / quas / in / Navigationes Terras Australes

/ instituere / coepit / G.F. / Mense Julio, Anno CI3ID33LXXII
The earlier pages are numbered 1-54 (55-72 missing), 73, then 74-101 unnumbered, followed
by two further unnumbered pages written in pencil (species 'in insula Ulietea' ; not examined).
The itinerary is paged in the following manner :

p. 1 13-22 July 1772 Bay of Biscay

p. 2 24 July Between Spain and Madeira

pp. 3-9 30 July-1 August Madeira

p. 10 2-13 August Madeira to Cape Verde Islands

pp. 11-15 14-16 August St Jago

pp. 16-41 17 August-30 October St Jago to Table Bay

pp. 42-53 22 November-1 January 1773 Table Bay to Antarctic waters

p. 54 (blank)

pp. 55-72 (missing)

pp. 73 [74-101] 26 March-3 May 1773 Dusky Bay

The notes are written in English up to p. 54 and contain mostly fairly brief observations on
species seen, sometimes with data or even species not given in the Descriptiones animalium. The
longer notes are usually concerned with birds, as for example the swallow that George befriended
and kept in his cabin (pp. 16, 18, 19). There is also a long and excited description of Noctiluca
(pp. 40-41). In one of the very few personal notes, George records his toothache of October 1772
which 'swelled my gums and cheek prodigiously' (pp. 27-28). Unfortunately, the notebook was
set aside at the Cape, so that none of the mammals is mentioned. The Dusky Bay section contains
full Latin descriptions which have been crossed out by one or more vertical or diagonal lines,
presumably when the information had been transferred to the Descriptiones animalium. The
contents of the notebook were recently published in the section 'Fragmente' (pp. 93-107) of
the fourth volume in the series Georg Forsters Werke (Kahn et alii, 1972).

One of the few to use this notebook was Dance (1971) in his very thorough paper on the
conchology of the Cook voyages. Not only is it a useful document for the supplementary informa-
tion that it contains ; it also shows the extent that George Forster participated in the natural history
observations, no doubt encouraged and helped by his father, but with a degree of enthusiasm
that lends further authority to his drawings.

The Forster animal drawings in the British Museum (Natural History)

The list given here omits the Forster bird drawings since they were very adequately documented
by Lysaght (1959 : 280-310). The remainder are placed in major groups (mammals, reptiles, fishes,
invertebrates) and thereafter are arranged alphabetically by the original (or principal) name on the
drawing ; the latter is usually that given also in the Descriptiones animalium, but where they differ
a cross-reference is given, as also for alternative names on the drawing or in Catalogue B.
Scientific names have been italicized, but spelling and punctuation have been retained.

The name is here preceded by the folio number of the drawing. All annotations on the drawing
are included, with an oblique to separate items apparently written at different times, or in different

THE FORSTER COLLECTION 35

hands, or on different parts of the paper. Unless stated otherwise, the annotations are in pencil.
Similarly, at least some colour has been applied to the drawing unless stated 'uncoloured' (i.e.
pencil sketch).

The second element in the description begins 'DA' and gives the page number and name in the
Descriptiones animalium, as well as any other relevant data, such as date or locality if these are
not on the drawing; if an exact date is not possible, then a range of dates is given from the
itinerary of the voyage (see Lysaght, 1959 : 362-365). Forster's attribution 'Fig. pict. G.' is omit-
ted, but reference is made to 'Fig. pict. F.', 'Fig. pict. Hodges' and to other variants.

The third element begins 'Cat. B' and contains any information from Catalogue B that is not
already on the drawing; species names have again been italicized, but spelling and punctuation
retained.

The fourth element begins 'Obs.' and gives the page number, date and locality in George
Forster's Observationes wherever his notes can be correlated with one of the drawings.

A final element refers to the Gotha gouaches, reproductions, etc.

The fate of the specimens brought back from the Cook voyages is extremely complex (White-
head, 1969). Very many have disappeared without trace, while for those that can be located there
is often an element of doubt whether they are indeed the specimens described or merely duplicates.
For this reason, no attempt is made here to indicate virtual or even actual iconotypes.

Mammals

17. Antelope Tragulus a. Melanotes / redunca S.N. XIII : 184 ? / Greis-bock in Dutch (and on verso

a note of ? locality).
DA p. 36, Antelope tragulus F, Fig. picta F, 30 October-22 November 1772; also DA p. 374

(second visit to Cape), 23 March-27 April 1775.
Cat. B: Obs The other Variety the [word missing] or the common Antelope Tragulus rupestris of

Forster, has brown ears and no white hairs intermixed; of which a Figure Pict. under the name

of Capra rupestris - by the Dutch called Stein Bock - from generally living on high Hills, &

Mountains. Obs. The Melanota lives on the plains.

Antelope dorcas (see Antilope pygargd)
Antelope oryx (see Antilope oreas)
Antelope pygargus (see Antilope pygargd)
Antilope dorcas (see Antilope pygargd)
Antilope gnu (see Bos connochaetes)

30. Antilope oreas S.N. XIII : 190 / Antilope Orix.

DA pp. 33, 379, Antelope oryx F (no drawing indicated; ? first or second visit to Cape).

Cat. B : Elandt. The figured animal was lean & the Belly too strait.
29. Antilope Oreotragus S.N. XIII : 189. n. 26. / Klip Springer (and on verso) . . . from a dead animal

DA p. 382, Antelope oreotragus F, 23 March-27 April 1775.

Cat. B: Fig. fr a wild dead Animal.
18a. Antilope Pygarga S.N. XIII : 187 / Antelope dorcas (and on verso) ... of Good Hope Tame.

DA p. 34, Antelope pygargus Pall., Fig. picta F, 30 October-22 November 1772.

Cat. B: Gregarious 2 Dr. from the Menagerie.

18b. Antilope Pygarga S.N. XIII : 187 / antilope Dorcas.

DA (as above).
19a. Bos Connochaetes. Mas. / Antilope Gnu S.N. XIII : 189.n.25 / from a drawing in the possession of
the Governor / at the Cape (and in ink) Copia {uncoloured).
DA p. 392, Bos connochaetes F; possibly also DA p. 40, Bos poephagus F, 23 March-27 April

1775.
Cat. B : 2 Copies. The other originals.

20. Bos Connochaetes femina.
DA (as above).

21 . (no caption ; incomplete ink drawing over pencil ; a copy of the previous one or taken from the

next ?)

36 P- J- P. WHITEHEAD

22. (no caption ; uncoloured, perhaps basis for previous one ?)

23. (no caption; uncoloured, same animal recumbent?)

24. (no caption; uncoloured, same, unfinished)

25. (no caption; uncoloured, same, whole animal, hind quarters, head)

26. (no caption; uncoloured, same, hind leg)

27. (no caption; uncoloured, same, head)

28. (no caption; uncoloured, same, head)

19. (no caption; no attribution by Dryander bottom left; ? the same animal as 19a)
Bos poephagus (see Bos connochaetes)
Capra rupestris (see Antelope tragulus)

15. Cervus Camelopardalis, Linn. / Camelopardalis Giraffe S.N. XIII : 181 / Hanc figuram factam

ad amusium picturae / apud Generos. Baron de Plettenberg, Gub. Capensis / emendavi in

respectu capitis ex Capite explicato {uncoloured).
DA (not included).
Cat B : The small figure copied from an oil painting. The large [i.e. the next one] from Nature.

16. Cervus camelopardalis (written twice; uncoloured, head only).
DA (not included).

14. Cervus porcinus S.N. XIII : 179 / Hog Deer Tomah (uncoloured, head only).

DA (not included).

Cat. B : Female without horns. Menagerie at the Cape - supposed from India. The head of
Natural Size.

31. Delphinus Delphis. © Octob. 9th. 1774.

DA p. 280, as Delphinus delphis Linn.
Cat. B: off Norfolk Isl d South Seas Female Bottle Nose.

Dipus cafer (see Yerbua capensis)

Equus zebra (no drawing).

DA p. 40, as Equus zebra (no drawing indicated).

Cat. B: Equus Zebra a Var. C. b. Sp. copied [i.e. Cape of Good Hope].

5. Felis capensis S.N. XIII : 81 (and on verso) Cape of Good Hope.
DA p. 362, as Felis capensis Penn., 4 April 1775.

Cat. B: Colour a little too bright or yellow. Obs. 2 Drawings Natural size.

6. Felis capensis S.N. XIII : 81 {uncoloured, whole animal and one foot).
DA (as above).

10. Fossor capensis Forst. / Mus maritimus S.N. XIII : 140.n.40 / Spalax mordens Linn. fil.

DA p. 32, as Fossor capensis F, 30 October-22 November 1772.
Cat. B: C. b. Spei. 3 Drawings Natural Size Burrows in Sand-plaines.

Fossor leucops (see Talpa leucops)

Jerbua capensis (see Yerbua capensis)

Mus capensis (see Talpa leucops)

Mus dentex (see Talpa leucops)

Mus maritimus (see Fossor and Talpa capensis)

7. Mustela galina S.N. XIII : 95 / Viverra amphibia / Le Vansire (and on verso) Madagascar in

the Cape Managerie.
DA (not included).
Cat. B: Madagascar - seen in the Menagerie at the Cape Le Vansire ? Buffon. Lives also in

fresh Water. Fig. Natural Size.

2. PHOCA antarctica / ursina -potius volans (and on the verso) Dusky Bay / young animal / 8 to
10 feet in length.
DA p. 64, as Phoca ursina L, 31 March 1773.

Cat. B: Figure taken from a young animal. Gregarious. The largest in N. Zel d 6 feet. The same
species in S th Georgia & Staten Island 10 feet long.

THE FORSTER COLLECTION 37

4. Phocajubata / Staten Land 2> 2 Jan y 1775 (uncoloured).

DA p. 137, as Phoca iubata F.
Cat. B : New Year Isl d near Statenland Gregarious.

3. Phoco leonina Linn. Jany 17th 1775 {uncoloured).
DA p. 313, as Phoca leonina (name only).
Cat. B : South Georgia only 2 individuals seen.

Phoca ursina (see Phoca antarctica)

Spalax capensis (see Talpa leucops)

Spalax mordens (see Talpa capensis)

Talpa asiatica (see Talpa versicolor)

11. Talpa capensis Forst. / Mus maritimus S.N. XIII : 140.n.40/ Spalax mordens Linn. fil. / . . .

Comment Petrop Jorn. XIV p. 409 Tab. IX p conf. (and on verso) Cape of Good Hope.
DA p. 32, as Fossor capensis F, 30 October-22 November 1772.
Cat. B: [see comment under Fossor capensis].

12. Talpa capensis Forst. / Mus maritimus S.N. XIII : 140.n.40 / Spalax mordens Linn. fil. (uncoloured,

sketches of head and feet).
DA (as above).

9. Talpa leucops / Mus capensis S.N. XIII : 140.n.39 / Mus dentax / Spalax capensis Lin. fil. (and

on verso) Cape of Good hope.
DA p. 364, as Fossor leucops F, 2 March-27 April 1775.
Cat. B: C. B. Spei Natural Size Lives in the same manner [as Fossor capensis] common near

the Cape.

8. Talpa versicolor / asiatica S.N. XIII : 111.

DA p. 30, as Talpa asiatica Lin., 30 October-22 November 1772.

1. Vespertilio tuber culatus.

DA p. 62, as Vespertilio tuber culatus F, New Zealand Bat, 22 May 1773.

Viverra amphibia (see Mustela galina)

13. Yerbua capensis (and in ink) Yerbua capensis J. R. Forster in Wet. Acad. Handl. 1778. pag. 108.

tab. 3 (and again in pencil) Dipus cafer S.N. XIII : 159 (drawing lightly squared up in pencil,

perhaps by the artist who copied it for the gouache now in Gotha).
DA pp. 365, 368, as Yerbua capensis F, 23 March-27 April 1775.
Cat. B: C. B. Spei near Stellen bosch. Larger figure very little less than nature. 2 Drawings.

Burrows in the ground.
Note: the gouache copy on parchment is No. 2 in the Gotha series (see below, p. 46). The

second of the two drawings mentioned was presumably that used in the description of the

species by J. R. Forster (1778).

Birds

Reptiles

(see list given by Lysaght, 1959 : 280-310)

Anguis laticauda (see Coluber laticaudatus)

171. Anguis platura. Linn / Toona Tore / Taheite May 10th 1774.

DA p. 229, as Anguis platura.
Cat. B: . . .Nat. Size.

170. Coluber laticaudatus $ / Eboohee a-a-oorou / Off Traitor's head in Eromanga $. Aug. 3. 1774 /

232 Scuta 2 Squ ante ... 31 Squa . . . pone a . . . [several words illegible].
DA p. 156, also 256-257, as Anguis laticauda.
Cat. B : Coluber laticaudatus Linn. Oceanus pacif. prop. Insulam Eromanga. Nat. Size.

169. Testudo imbricata Linn. / Namoko I.

DA p. 247, as Testudo imbricata (name only).
Cat. B: Dr. from a small specimen.

38

P. J. P. WHITEHEAD

Fishes

236.

246.
247.

187.

186.

183.

184.

182.
185.

175.
(lower)

175.
(upper)

197.

Atherina lacunosa / Brit. mus. / Caledonia. ?. 9th Sept. 1774 {uncoloured, with sketch of head in

ventral view).
DA p. 298, as Atherina lacunosa F.
Cat. B: Lacuna on top of the . . . [? nose] Silvery Nat Size.

Batistes fimbriatus / oiri / Batistes vidua mss. afilee Tua / Otaheitee.
DA (not included).

Batistes scaber j bctddeek / Queen Charlotte Sound / New Zealand {uncoloured).
DA p. 152, as Batistes scaber F, 2-25 November 1773.
Cat. B: Nat Size.

Batistes vidua (see Batistes fimbriatus).

Blennius capensis / Blenn. Super ciliosus. L. / Cape of Good Hope / Schn 175.
DA p. 408, as Blennius capensis F, 22 March-27 April 1775.
Cat. B: good Eating.

Blennius cornutus (see Blennius truncatus)

BLENNIUS fenestratus (ink, then in pencil) he Tarova / Dusky Bay / Schn 173.

DA p. 124, as Blennius fenestratus, 3 May 1773.

Note: the gouache copy on parchment, formerly in the Gotha series (see below, p. 46), was on

sale in London in 1976 and was reproduced in the catalogue by Joppien (1976 : pi. B).
Blennius gobioides / running fish / Tanna £ 17th Aug 1 . 1774 : / Schn. 176 {uncoloured, three

sketches).
DA p. 283, as Blennius gobioides F, Fig. pict. F. et G.
Cat. B: Skips and runs fast. Ob. 6 Natural Size Greyish.
Note: in his Journal for 18 August 1774, J. R. Forster wrote 'I drew & described this minute

nimble animal'.

BLENNIUS (ink; then in pencil) littoreus / Labrus gobioides MSS ? (then in ink) S.C.Q.C.S.N.Z.

3) Oct. 24th. 1774 (then in pencil) Kogop / Schn 177.
DA p. 127. as Blennius littoreus F, 7 April 1773 ; the dates are anomalous, but no other drawing

exists.
Note: reproduced in colour by Whitehead (1969b : pi. 30A).

Blennius superciliosus (see Blennius capensis)

Blennius truncatus. / cornutus ? L. / o-hod-o / Huahine. May 18th £ 1774 / Schn. 172.
DA p. 231, as Blennius truncatus F.

BLENNIUS varius (ink, then in pencil) he kdgop / Charlotte's Sound / Nov 9th / Schn 178
DA p. 127, as Blennius varius F, 4 June 1773; the dates are anomalous, but no other drawing

exists.
CALLIONYMUS acanthorhynchos. / Q. Charlotte Sound New Zealand. Kogohooee / Schn 41.
DA p. 117, as Callionymus acanthorhynchus F, 13 April 1773.
Cat. B: Nat Size.

Note: reproduced in colour by Whitehead (1969b : pi. 29).

Callionymus Trigloides j Terra del Fuego. 1774. © 25th December / Schn 44 {uncoloured).
DA p. 358, as Callionymus trigloides F.

Callyodon coregonoides (see Sparus pullus)

Chaetodon harpurus (see Harpurus literatus)

Chaetodon lineatus (see Harpurus literatus)

Chaetodon meleagris (see Harpurus inermis)

Chaetodon nigricans (see Harpurus nigricans)

Chaetodon. / Speciosus mss British mus. / Ch. vagabundus / Pariiharaha / Otaheite.
DA p. 155, as Chaetodon vagabundus (name only).
Cat. B: cfr Fig MS - and probably in Linn.

Chaetodon stellatus (see Harpurus guttatus)

Chaetodon vagabundus (see Chaetodon speciosus)

Clupea cyprinoides (see Clupea setipinna)

THE FORSTER COLLECTION 39

243. Clupea mystacina / setirostris Brouss. ichthyol. dec. 1 / Tanna © 14th August. 1774 (uncoloured) .

DA p. 295, as Clupea mystacina F.
Cat. B: Sea fish Nat. Size (and in another ink) Clupea setirostris Brouss. Ichthyol. Dec. 1.

242. Clupea setipinna / cyprinoides Brouss. ichthyol. dec. 1 / Tanna. © 14th August. 1774 (uncoloured).

DA p. 296, as Clupea cyprinoides F.
Cat. B : Clupea setipinna Tanna Herring colour Taken by angling in fresh water (and in another

ink) Clupea cyprinoides Brouss. Ichthyol. Dec. 1 (the name also pencilled in).
Note: reproduced in Whitehead (1969b : pi. 7).

Clupea setirostris (see Clupea mystacina]

Clupea sinensis (see Mugil salmoneus)

Cobitis gobioides (see Cobitis pacified)

231. Cobitis pacifica / gobioides ms otaheite p. 1 1 1 / o-dboo / Taheitee (uncoloured, lateral, dorsal and

ventral view; inset is an earlier drawing, uncoloured, the same views, entitled) Cobites pacifica.

DA p. 235, as Cobitis pacifica, Fig. picta F, 22 April-14 May 1774.

Cat. B: 2 Dr. Nat Size brownish (and in another ink) Gobioides MS Otaheite p. 111.

Note: the name gobioides is cited from p. 1 1 1 in the Tahiti section of the volume of ms descrip-
tions by Solander (BMNH., Zoology Library, 89 o S - Sol. Z 1).

Cobitis pacifica (see also Coryphaena / Gobius strigatus)

189. Coryphaena. / Gobius strigatus Brouss. Ichthyol / Taheitee / Schn 65 (uncoloured, sketches of

whole fish and mouth).
DA p. 235, a reference to Gobius strigatus under Cobitis pacifica F, but the description does not
fit this drawing and must apply to No 231, which is labelled Cobites pacifica; thus, no descrip-
tion can be found for this drawing.
Cat. B : . . . finely painted Specimen in Br. Museum (and in another ink) Gobius strigatus Brouss.
Ichthyol.

Coryphaena fimbriata (see Coryphaena / Gobius strigatus)

188. CORYPHAENA Hippurus (in ink; and in pencil) Atlantick Ocean.

DA pp. 3, 155, as Coryphaena hippurus (name only), 7 August 1772.

Obs. p. 22, 5 September 1772 (South Atlantic): Caught a Dolphin Coryphaena Hippurus . . .
Drew ... an outline of the Dolphin.

248. CYCLOPTERUS pinnulatus / More-adoo / S.C.Q.C.S.N.Z. © 23 d Oct 1774 (generic name in
ink, rest in pencil; dorsal, lateral and ventral view, the last two uncoloured).
DA p. 301, as Cyclopterus pinnulatus F.
Cat. B: Nat Size.

172. Echidna variegata / Muraena variegata / Muraena echidna S.N. XIII : 1135 / Pipiro / Taheitee.
DA p. 181, as Echidna variegata, 17 August-1 September 1773.
Cat. B: Fig. MS. Eatable.

235. Esox alepidotus / he-para / Dusky Bay.

DA p. 142, as Esox alepidotus S; 10 April 1773 in Forster's Journal.

Cat. B : Fresh water fish In general not above J the size of the drawing also in the Rivulet in
Ship Cove Totararine.

234. Esox argenteus / Silvery. Fins Blackish, a yellow spot under & at (deleted) in the base of PP &

P.A. / Polynemus ? / Mohee / Taheitee (uncoloured).
DA p. 196, as Esox argenteus F, 17 August-1 September 1773; also, p. 257, Tanna (name only).
Cat. B : Frequently caught in the seine at Tanna.

233. Esox saurus / he-eeye / N.Z. Dusky Bay (No 1) March 27th 1773.

DA p. 143, as Esox saurus.
Cat. B : Willoughby's name.
Obs. p. 75, 26 March 1773 (Dusky Bay): (Latin description).

Exocoetus evolans (see Exocoetus volitans)

240. Exocoetus volitans / E. evolans L. / A. 1 / Atlantick (and in ink on verso the finrays are numbered ;

lateral view with below it an uncoloured dorsal view).
DA p. 3, as Exocoetus volitans, Fig. pict. A.I.G., 13-19 July 1772; also p. 155, Pacific (name

only).

40 P- J- P- WHITEHEAD

Obs. p. 10, 2-6 August 1772 (Atlantic): Had flying fish (Exocoetus volitans Linn) come flying
upon deck and drew it.

180. GADUS Bacchus / Ehdgda / Q. Charl. Sound / Schn. 53.
DA p. 120, as Gadus bacchus S, 18 May-7 June 1773.

Cat. B : Night Walkers, because - caught at night with hook.

181. Gadus colias: - New Zeland Coalfish / Perca ? colias / hera-warre / Schn. 54.
DA p. 122, as Gadus colias S, 27 March 1773.

Cat. B: Coal Fish - good Eating.

Note: the gouache copy on parchment is No. 28 in the Gotha series (see below, p. 46).

178. Gadus magellanicus / Terra del Fuego $ December 21st 1774 / Schn 10 (uncoloured).
DA p. 361, as Gadus magellanicus F.

Cat. B: Nat Size.

179. Gadus rhacinus j mus. Britannic. / Queen Charlotte's Sound {uncoloured).
DA p. 304, as Gadus rhacinus F, 29 October 1774.

Cat. B : Dusky blackish.

Gasterosteus glaucus (see Psetta glauca)
Gasterosteus rhombeus (see Psetta rhombed)
Gobius strigatus (see Coryphaena / Gobius strigatus)
Harpurus glaucopareius (see Harpurus nigricans)

198. Harpurus guttatus. / Chaetodon stellatus mss. Brit. mus. / Pa-a-a / Col olivaceo fuscus, postice

puritis albis, oculor irides aurea, subtus corpus pallidus. / Taheitee / Schn. 215 (uncoloured).
DA p. 218, as Harpurus guttatus F, about 15 March 1774.
Cat. B : Brown with light blue spots.

199. Harpurus inermis. / Chaetodon meleagris mss. Brit. Mus. / Anamocka. / Schn 210.
DA p. 286, as Harpurus inermis F, 28 June 1774.

Cat. B : . . . anomalous.

195. Harpurus lituratus. Hasselqu. / Chaetodon Harpurus MSS. British museum / Eooma tarei /

Otaheite / Otaheite Eparaha Chaetodon / Schn. 216 (and on verso) vide Nieuhoff voy e in

Churchill.
DA p. 218, as Harpurus lituratus, about 15 March 1774.
Cat. B : Hasselquist described this fish and of Linnaeus wrongly quoted Ch. nigricans.

194. Harpurus monoceros / unicornis Brouss / Chaetodon Cornutus MSS. British mus / Eooma ootoo /

P.D. yellowish brown P.C. outer edge pale or greyish Scales as in the other species of this new
genus / Oteheite / Schn. 181.

DA p. 219, as Harpurus monoceros F, 10 May 173 r 4 fide Forster's Journal.

Cat. B: Nov. Genus a Linneo sub Chaetodontidi genere (and in another ink) Balistoides
Rhinoceros MS. Chaetodon Unicornis Broussonet.

196. Harpurus nigricans Linn (last two words deleted) / glaucopareius mss / umbra MSS / Parai /

Otaheite / Schn. 212.
DA p. 214, as Harpurus nigricans F, Fig. pict. F. et G., 15 March 1774.
Cat. B : Chaet. nigricans Linn.

Harpurus unicornis (see Harpurus monoceros)

Labrus gobioides (see Blennius UttoreUs and B. gobioides)

239. Mugil albula ? / Dusky Bay (uncoloured).

DA p. 145, as Mugil albula F; 21 April 1773 in Forster's Journal.

Cat. B: not Linnei.

Obs. pp. 85-87, 12 April 1773 (Dusky Bay): (Latin description).

238. MUGIL cirrostomus / Taheitee / Schn 121 (uncoloured, sketch of head from front).

DA p. 198, as Mugil cirrhostomus F, 17 August-1 September 1773; also, p. 257, Tanna (name

only).
Cat. B: also seen at Tanna (forte idem cum M. albula a.).

237. Mugil salmoneus / Clupea Sinensis L. ? / Tanna. 2| 18th Aug* 1774 / Schn. 121. / Licht 299

(uncoloured).
DA p. 299, as Mugil salmoneus F.

THE FORSTER COLLECTION 4 J

Cat. B: whitish.

Note: reproduced in Whitehead (1969b : pi. 8).

173. Muraena caeca Linn. ? (repeated) / Para-owtee-Taheitee / Schn. 536 (whole animal and two

uncoloured sketches of head in ventral and lateral view).
DA p. 230, as Muraena coeca ? Linn., 22 April-14 May 1774; also p. 247 (name only).
Muraena echidna (see Echidna variegatd)
Muraena variegata (see Echidna variegatd)
Myxine glutinosa (see Petromyzon cirrhatus)

174. OPHIDIUM Blacodes. Licht. Forst. p. 1 15 / Ehokh / New Zealand / Schn 484.
DA p. 115, as Ophidium blacodes, 13 April 1773.

Obs. pp. 92-95, 13 April 1773 (Dusky Bay): (Latin description).

219. Perca boops / St Helena / Bull-Eye / E-do - Omai / Mus. Brit. / Licht 411 {uncoloured).
DA p. 411, as Perca boops F, 16-21 May 1775.
Cat. B : Reddish Omai said to be the same with EOo otaheitensis.
Perca colias (see Gadus colias)
Perca escarlatine (see Perca urodetd)

213. PERCA fulva ms. / British mus. {uncoloured).

DA p. 193, as Perca fulva, Tahiti; 17 August 1773 in Forster's Journal.
Cat. B : Forgot the place.

191. Perca grunniens / Tanna Aug 13 1774 {uncoloured).
(verso) DA p. 294, as Perca grunniens F, Fig. pict. F.

Note: this is drawn on the back of Zeus argentarius.

214. Perca grunniens / see the original of this on the back of the drawing of Zeus argentarius / Tanna

{uncoloured) (see previous picture, from which this was neatly copied).
DA p. 294, as Perca grunniens.
Cat. B : Obs. Fig copied from a drawing on the back of Zeus argentarius.

216. Perca maculata (deleted) variolosa ms. / EHeoa E Heeroa Eroee / Marquesas.
DA p. 220, as Perca maculata F, 7-11 April 1774.

215. Perca - polyzonias / mss Brouss. British mus. / vittata Mss / Taape / Marquesas / Licht Forst 225.
DA p. 225, as Perca polyzonias S, 7-11 April 1774.

Cat. B: Fig. MS.

218. Perca prognathus / Sciaena gadoides / Pato-t5ra / S.C.Q.C.S.N.Z. <3 Oct. 25. 1774 / Schn 301
{uncoloured).
DA p. 309, as Perca prognathus F, 15 October 1774.
Cat. B : . . . because long under Jaw.

217. Perca urodeta / escarlatina ms / Terao- Matapoo / Hoa / Marquesas.
DA p. 221, as Perca urodeta F, 7-11 April 1774.

Cat. B : . . . from the lines marked on the tail . . . Fig MS.

Perca variolosa (see Perca maculata)

251 . PETROMYZON cirrhatus / Myxine glutinosa ni faller JB. / he Todna / New Zealand Charlottes
Sound / Dusky bay / Schn. p 530 (whole fish with half-coloured ventral view of head).
DA p. 112, as Petromyzon cirrhatus F, 8 April 1773.
Cat. B : Obs. Mr Sparman says he has seen the same fish in False Bay near the C. b. Spei.

Pleuronectes meneus (see Pleuronectes pict us)

192. Pleuronectes pictus / meneus / mss. British mus. / Bode / Anamoka June 29th £ 1774 / Schn 161.
DA p. 285, as Pleuronectes pictus F, 28 June 1774.

193. Pleuronectes Scapha / Mohoa / Charlotte's Sound. / Schn 163.
DA p. 130, as Pleuronectes scapha S, 30 March 1773.

Polynemus quinquarius (see Trigla asiatica)
229. PSETTA Glauca (in ink, then in pencil) Scomber glaucus. Linn. (3. / A 4 / St Jago {uncoloured).
DA p. 5, as Gasterosteus glaucus, Fig. picta A.4.F, 10-14 August 1772.
Obs. p. 15, 15-16 August 1772 (St Jago): (name only).

42 p - J - p - WHITEHEAD

Note: another and better drawing made on the return visit in May 1775 - see under Scomber
glaucus, No 225 ; also under Scomber maculatus, No 228 (Tahiti).

220. PSETTA rhombea (in ink, then in pencil) Gasterosteus rhombeus / A 5 / St Jago / Licht Forst. 7,

257 / Schn. 33 S. glaucus (uncoloured).
DA p. 7, as Gasterosteus rhombeus, Fig. picta A.5.G., 10-14 August 1772; also, p. 257, Tanna

(name only).
Cat. B : Gasterosteus Rhombeus St Jago phps a new genus silver colour all over also at Tanna,

Ascension &c.
Obs. p. 15, 15-16 August 1772 (S l Jago): (name only).
250. Raja edentula / Dark Red colour (meaning pelvic fin) / Light (meaning right pectoral fin) / Whai /

Tahaiti. May 10th 1774.
DA p. 227, as Raja edentula F; also, p. 256, Tanna (name only).
Cat. B: Nat. Size.
232. Salmo myops / MB 14. P.D.12. P.V.18. PP.12. P.C.22./Erai JB. / ground spearing. St Helena.

(uncoloured).
DA p. 412, as Salmo myops F, 16-21 May 1775.
Cat. B : called Salmo ob pinnam as posam - distinctum forte genus quod a . . . Dentex vocatum.

203. Sciaena argyrea / Tanna d 16th Aug*. 1774 / Schn. 344 (uncoloured).
DA p. 291, as Sciaena argyrea F, 15 August 1774.

Cat. B: Natural Size.

208. Sciaena aurata / Spar us pagrus Linn. / Sc. lata . . . / ghoo-parree / N.Z.Q.C.S. Oct. 18th <J 1774

(uncoloured).
DA p. 307, as Sciaena aurata F.
Cat. B : Obs. The fish that poisoned the Resolution's people at Malacolo was very like this, but

somewhat narrower & of a darker red, bordering on purple.
Note: in his Journal for 23 July 1774, J. R. Forster recorded the poisonous fish as 'Spams

erythrinus or Pagrus\ but seems not to have described it apart from its toxic effects (given

under Sparis in DA p. 249).

205. Sciaena ciliaris / salmonea MS / Moghee / Dusky Bay.
DA p. 137, as Sciaena ciliaris S, 26 March-11 May 1773.

Cat. B: 2 Dr. The little drawing a little too blue. The larger drawing (i.e. No 209 below) natural
large size.

209. Sciaena ciliaris / salmonea ms ? / S.C.Q.C.S.N.Z. S 25. Octo. 1774 (uncoloured).
DA p. 137 (see above).

212. Sciaena cultrata / Scomber clupeoides ms / British mus / Norfolk Island <? 11th Oct. 1774 /

Schn. 343 Licht. 292 (uncoloured).
DA p. 292, as Sciaena cultrata F, 10 October 1774.
Cat. B: whitish.

Sciaena gadoides (see Perca prognathus)

204. Sciaena lineata j Dusky Bay / Schn. 342 (part coloured with grey and yellow washes).
DA p. 134, as Sciaena lineata S; 27 March 1773 in Forster's Journal.

207. Sciaena macroptera. / living subject / Spams carponemus Brit. mus. / Queen Charlotte's Sound /

Schn. 342 (an outline of fish on verso).
DA p. 136 (as below).

206. Sciaena macropteras j Spams carponemus Mus. Brit. / a dead subject / Taraghee / NZ (No 2)

Dusky Bay March 27th 1773.
DA p. 136, as Sciaena macroptera F.
Cat. B: 2 drawings, a. fr a dead fish Dusky Bay b. fr a live - Head better Charlotte Sound

(i.e. the previous drawing).

Sciaena mulloides (see Sciaena tmtta)
Sciaena salmonea (see Sciaena ciliaris)
Sciaena sapidissima (see Sciaena trutta)

210. Sciaena trutta / sapidissima / Sciaena mulloides / S.C.Q.C.S.N.Z. 5) 7. N. 1774 (uncoloured).
DA p. 147, as Sciaena trutta S, 18 May-7 June 1773; also, p. 279, October 1774 (name only).
Cat. B: 2 Dr Grows to a large size.

THE FORSTER COLLECTION 43

211. Sciaena trutta j Sciaena mulloides ms. / inches 8 £ long 2. broad If head {uncoloured).

DA p. 147 (see above).

226. Scomber adscensionis. Osbeck. / 1. Ascension : May 28th ©. 1775 / Cavalle at St Helena / Licht.

412 {uncoloured).
DA p. 412, as Scomber ascensionis F.
Cat. B: ascensionis Osbeck - wrongly quoted by Linn, for Scomber glaucus.

224. Scomber 1 capensis, Elft : / Scomber saltatrix / Cape of Good Hope {uncoloured).
DA p. 413 (name in index, but absent from text).

Cat. B: capensis C b Sp white.
Scomber clupeoides (see Sciaena cultrata)

222. Scomber dentex. / Scomber lanceolatus ms / Maga / Q. Charlotte's Sound. / Licht 141 {un-

coloured).
DA p. 141, as Scomber dentex S, 18th May-7 June 1773.
Cat. B : Pin maker Nantes because the dorsal spines very sharp 3 feet long Bony fish.

Scomber dimidiatus (see Scomber trachurus)

225. Scomber glaucus Linn. / 1. Ascension 28th May. © 1775 {uncoloured).

DA p. 5 (refers only to Gasterosteus glaucus of the previous visit to Ascension Island, in August

1772 - see under Pseta glauca, No 229; see also Scomber maculatus, No 228).
Cat. B : a. best Ascension.

p. St Jago (i.e. Psetta glauca, No 229) Silvery colour Linn.

227. Scomber helvolus / 1. Ascension. May 29th. 1775. / Schn 35 {uncoloured).
DA p. 415, as Scomber helvolus F.

221. Scomber hippos Linn ? Brit. mus. / Ahee / Otaheite / New Zealand ? {uncoloured).

DA p. 199, as Scomber hippos Linn. F, 17 August-1 September 1773; also, p. 155 (name only)

and p. 413 (diagnosis, comparisons).
Cat. B: Hippos ? Linn. Otaheite.

Scomber lanceolatus (see Scomber dentex)

228. Scomber maculatus / glaucus L. {uncoloured).

DA p. 195, as Scomber maculatus, Tahiti and environs, 17 August-1 September 1773.

Note: see also under Psetta glauca No 229 and Scomber glaucus No 225, both from the Atlantic.

Scomber micans (see Scomber trachurus)
230. Scomber Pelamys / Peeraru / A 2. / Atlantick (the finrays numbered in ink on the verso).

DA p. 3, as Scomber pelamys; 12 August 1772 in Forster's Journal.

Obs. p. 10, 13 August 1772 (Atlantic): Struck a Bonito {Scomber Pelamys Linn) and drew an
outline of it. Also, p. 22, 3 September 1772: Caught a Bonito . . . finished my drawing of the
Bonito.
Scomber saltatrix (see Scomber capensis)

223. Scomber trachurus Varietas / Dimidiatus ms Brit. mus. / Brouss. / micans ms / Horsemackerel or

Scad. - / nat size / Dusky Bay {uncoloured).
DA p. 155, as Scomber trachurus (name only); also, p. 257 (Tanna, name only) and p. 413

(diagnosis, comparisons).
Cat. B: var. Linn. . . . N. Zei Dusky Bay.
190. Scorpaena / SCORPAENA Cottoides / Cardinalis MS / Enohutara / NZ / No 8 Dusky Bay April

1 1773 / Schn 196.
DA p. 128, as Scorpaena cottoides F, 30 March 1773.

Scorpaena cardinalis (see Scorpaena cottoides)

Sparis (see Sciaena aurata)

200. Spams - / miniatus / Sparus miniatus Licht. Forst. p. 289 / Ehuroa / Namoka.
DA p. 289, as Sparus miniatus F, 27 June 1774.

Sparus carponemUs (see Sciaena macroptera)

Sparus erythrinus (see Sciaena aurata)

201. Sparus ornatus / The green Dark, bluish - purple dirty or greenish cast, the blue spots & lines

to strike out better, upper edge of dorsal fin of the same color as that of anal. / Pa-ow-dura
(or perhaps Pa-ovo-dora).

44 p - J - p - WHITEHEAD

DA (no species of this name under Sparus, Labrus, etc.).

Sparus pagrus (see Sciaena aurata)

202. Sparus pullus / an Callyodon Coregonoides mss / Q Charlotte's Sound (uncoloured).

DA p. 306, as Sparus pullus F, 28 October 1774.
Cat. B: Blackish Sooty -pullus.

249. Squalus striatus. / vittatus ms. Specim. in mus. Britanic. / Cape of Good Hope {uncoloured,

whole fish and sketches of head in dorsal and ventral views).
DA p. 407, as Squalus striatus F, 23 March-27 April 1775.

Squalus vittatus (see Squalus striatus)

245. Tetrodon hispidus. Linn. / Hooe-hooe Kills men / Raietea. June 3 d 1774.

DA p. 247, as Tetrodon hispidus (name only).
Cat. B: The Inhabitants say he is poisonous and kills Men.
244. Tetrodon scleratus j Lagocephalus ? / 18 PP. 12 P.D. 6.C. 10.A / Poemanghee. 1774. & Sept.

7th / N. Caledonia / Schn 506 (uncoloured).
DA p. 282, as Tetrodon scleratus F; also pp. 254, 255, 257.
Cat. B : Poisonous. The effect lasted about 3 days - In a few hours a singular symptom took

place viz not being able to distinguish at all of weights - e.g. between a feather & a quart pot.
Note: the toxic effects of this pufferfish were more fully described by J. R. Forster in his Journal

for 8 September 1774, as also in DA p. 254.
The gouache copy on parchment is No 27 in the Gotha series (see below, p. 46).

241. Trigla asiatica Linn. / Polynemus quinquarius Linn. / dma / Otaheite (uncoloured, a fair copy of

an original sketch pasted below, entitled) Trigla Asiatica / Polynemus qUinarius / Otaheite
(uncoloured).

DA p. 236, as Trigla asiatica Lin., Fig. picta F, 22 April-14 May 1774; also, p. 247, Raiatea,
25 May-4 June 1774 (name only); also 20 August 1774 in Forster's Journal.

Cat. B: 2 Drawings Polynemus quinquarius Linn Probably twice described by Linn.

176. URANOSCOPUS maculatus Vid descript. in MSS from new Zealand 1st voyage / New Zeeland

/ Badee / Schn 49 (uncoloured, light brown crayon and pencil).
DA p. 118, as Uranoscopus maculatus F, 13 April 1773.
Cat. B: 2 Drawings.
Note: reproduced in Whitehead (1969b : pi. 28).

177. Uranoscopus maculatus j Q Charl Sound (uncoloured, light brown crayon and pencil).
DA p. 118 (see above).

191. Zeus argentarius j Tanna Aug 13 1774 / Schn 96 (uncoloured).
(recto) DA p. 288, as Zeus argentarius F, Fig. pict. F.

Cat. B : on the same paper is Perca grunniens - Fine Silver.

Note: on the reverse is the original sketch for Perca grunniens No 191 verso.

Invertebrates

252. CANCER / Otaheite (uncoloured, enlarged but with life-size sketch above, also uncoloured).

DA p. 155 ? (i.e. Cancer squilla, name only); 30 August 1773 in Forster's Journal.
Cat. B : In the Rivers 4 little bigger than the small figure.

258a. Clio conchacea / Atlantick (uncoloured, four views).
DA p. 29, as Clio conchacea F, 12 October 1772.

Obs. p. 30, 12 October 1772 (South Atlantic): Caught several specimens of a new Clio (Clio
conchacea).

261a. CNIDE hyalina (ink, and in pencil) Atlantick.
DA p. 12, as Cnide hyalina, 15 September 1772.
Cat. B: Dagyra MS.

Obs. p. 22, 8 September 1772 (South Atlantic): Also caught a new Zoophyte, which we called
Cnide hyalina.

Dagyra volva (see Thalia lingulata)

254. DORIS laevis (ink, and in pencil) Doris I / Atlantick / Sept. 4th 1772 / GF. (dorsal and ventral

views).
DA p. 10, as Doris laevis, 5 September 1772.

THE FORSTER COLLECTION 45

Cat. B: Nat Size. Fig MS.

Obs. p. 22, 5 September 1772 (South Atlantic): Caught . . . Doris laevis . . . Drew the medusa,
Doris . . .

Doris radiata (see Glaucus atlanticus)

254a. GLAUCUS atlanticus (ink, and in pencil) Doris radiata S.N. XIII. p. 3015.a.l3. / Atlantick

Ocean ; on the Line.
DA p. 11, as Glaucus atlanticus, 15 September 1772.
Cat. B : Mimus volutator MS. Fig.
Obs. p. 22, 8 September 1772 (South Atlantic): Caught a new genus of Mollusca & called it

Glaucus atlanticus.

256. Holothuria Physalis / Atlantick (uncoloured).

DA (not mentioned); 15 September 1772 in Forster's Journal.

Obs. p. 24, 15 September 1772 (South Atlantic): Caught the Portuguese Man of War, Holo-
thuria Physailia Linn. I drew an outline of it.

257. Holothuria tentaculata / tentaculis frondesis, verrucarum ordinibus quinque / Rai'etea May. 27.

1774 {uncoloured).
DA (not mentioned).
Cat. B: Ularetea Obs. Called Swallow & Berce de la Mer or Beche de Mer in the Moluccae

where dried for Chinese markets. Figure in Forskal.

Medusa passiflora (see Medusa porpita)

259a. MEDUSA pelagica. Linn, (ink, and in pencil) awe-awe Legs anohora Mouth / Atlantick /

Sept. 4th 1772 / GF (dorsal and ventral views).
DA (not mentioned).
Obs. p. 22, 5 September 1772 (South Atlantic): Caught . . . several Medusa pelagica . . . Drew

the medusa.

258b. Medusa porpita / Atlantick (three views).

DA p. 13, as Medusa passiflora, 27 September 1772.

Obs. p. 25, 27 September 1772 (South Atlantic): Caught . . . another species of Medusa which
appeared to be new.

259b. Medusa velella Linn / Hema-hema / Atlantick.

DA (not mentioned); 15 September 1772 in Forster's Journal.
Cat. B: Phyllodora velella MS.

Obs. p. 24, 15 September 1772 (South Atlantic): Caught a species of Blubber, by D. Browne
called a Sallyman & by Linnaeus, Medusa Velella.

260. Medusa vesia / Medusa orbicularis disco supra conregulari, limbo integerrima multiradiata,

subtus disco concavo, margine villoso. / Poo / off New Zealand (uncoloured, dorsal and ventral
views).
DA (not mentioned).
Cat. B: did eat it.

Mimus volutator (see Glaucus atlanticus)

253. Monoculus Squali / Tierra del Espiritu Santo (uncoloured).

DA (not mentioned).

Cat. B : among the New Hebrides near Terra des Sp. Sat.
Note: recorded by J. R. Forster in his Journal for 26 August 1774.

261b. Phosphorescent Animalicule. / a. natural Size b. magnified with No 4 c. ditto with No 1 / Cape
of Good Hope (uncoloured, three different sizes).

DA (not mentioned).

Cat. B: see Cooks Voyage, & Forsters Voyage.

Obs. p. 40, 29 October 1772 (off Table Bay): The Sea was illumined around us to a most extra-
ordinary degree [then follows a long description].

Phyllodore velella (see Medusa velella)

255. Thalia lingulata j Dagyra volva ms / In Oceano Atlantico / Febr. 16th 1775 (uncoloured, two

views).
DA p. 14, as Thalia lingulata.
Cat. B: Ocean South fr the Cape b. Sp. high latitude 50° S. Dagyra MS.

46 p - J - ?• WHITEHEAD

The Forster animal drawings in Gotha, Weimar and Jena

The following list has been compiled from the information given by Steiner & Baege (1971) and
Joppien (1976). The names used here are those given in the Descriptiones animalium; for the Gotha
series these are here preceded by the numbers used by George Forster in a German list of the
drawings (dated 17 June 1780 at Cassel - reproduced by Steiner & Baege); Nos 24, 27, 28 do not
occur in this list but are numbered according to another Forster list (in French - also now at
Gotha).

F folio number of original Forster drawing

DA Descriptiones animalium, page number

S & B Steiner & Baege (1971)

J Joppien (1976)

A. Forschungsbibliothek, Gotha (gouache on parchment)

1. [Antelope] Not seen; possibly based on F 30

2. [Jerbua] Not seen, but evidently Yerbua capensis, on F 13, DA 365

3. *Vultur plancus, on F 33, DA 321, J pi. A

4. Psittacus hysginus, on F 42, DA 159, S & B pi. 1

5. Cuculus nitens, on F 57, DA 151, S & B pi. 2

6. Alcedo cancrophaga, on F 60, DA 4, S & B pi. 3

7. Certhia cincinnata, on F 61, DA 78, S & B pi. 4

8. Certhia olivacea, on F 62, DA 79, S & B pi. 5

9. Sternus carunculatus, on F 144, DA 81, S & B pi. 6

10. Muscicapa dibapha, on F 150, DA 267, S & B pi. 7

11. Muscicapa ventilabrum, on F 155, DA 86, S & B pi. 8

12. Scolopax caffra, on F 118, DA 49, S & B pi. 9

13. Rallus coffer, on F 129, DA 50, S & B pi. 10

14. Tringa pyrrhetraea, on F 120, DA 174, S & B pi. 11

15. Tantalus capensis, on F 116, DA 48, S & B pi. 12

16. Tantalus melanops, on F 117, DA 332, S & B pi. 13

17. Procellaria antarctica, on F 95, DA 60, S & B pi. 14

18. Procellaria nivea, on F 90, DA 58, S & B pi. 15

19. Procellaria similis, on F 86, DA 59, S & B pi. 16

20. Diomedea alhatrus, on F 99, DA 27, S & B pi. 17

21. Diomedea chrysostoma, on F 101, DA 24, S & B pi. 18

22. Diomedea palpebrata, on F 102, DA 55, S & B pi. 19

23. Chionis lactea, on F 125, DA 330, S & B pi. 20

24. *Blennius fenestratus, on F 186, DA 124, J pi. B

27. Tetrodon scleratus, on F 244, DA 282

28. Gadus colias, on F 181, DA 122

* Sold 1936; offered for sale 1976 by Hartnoll & Eyre in London (see Joppien, 1976).

Schlossmuseum, Weimar (watercolour on paper)

KK 449 Charadrius glaucopus, on F 123, DA 176, S & B pi. 23

KK 500 Alcedo cancrophaga, on F 60, DA 4, cf S & B pi. 3

KK 501 Muscicapa dibapha, on F 150, DA 267, cf S & B pi. 7

KK 502 Cuculus nitens, on F 57, DA 151, S & B pi. 2

KK 503-4 [European birds]

Universitatsbibliothek, Jena (watercolour on paper)

1. Aptenodytes antarctica, on F 82, DA 56, S & B pi. 21

2. Aptenodytes magellanica, on F 83, DA 351, S & B pi. 22

THE FORSTER COLLECTION 47

References

Broussonet, P. M. A. 1782. Ichthyologia, sistens piscium descriptiones et icones, Decas 1. P. Elmsly,

London, 41 pp.
Dance, S. P. 1971. The Cook voyages and conchology. /. Conch. 26 (6) : 354-379.
Dawson, W. 1958. The Banks letters: a calendar of the manuscript correspondence of Sir Joseph Banks.

Trustees, British Museum, London, 965 pp.
Forster, J. G. A. 1777. A voyage round the world, in His Britannic Majesty's sloop, Resolution, commanded

by Capt. James Cook, during the years 1772, 3, 4 and 5. B. White, J. Robson, P. Elmsly & G. Robinson,

London, 2 vols (xviii + 602 pp. and 607 pp.).
1778a. A letter to the Right Honourable the Earl of Sandwich, First Lord Commissioner of the Board

of Admiralty, &c. G. Robinson, London, 25 pp. + Appendix 6 pp.

1778b. Reply to Mr. Wales's remarks. B. White, J. Robson & P. Elmsly, London, 55 pp.

Forster, J. R. 1778. Beskrifning pa djuret Yerbua Capensis, med anmarkningar om genus Yerbuae.

K. Vetensk Akad. Handl. 39 : 108-119 (translated from the original Latin).
Forster, T. 1 829. Johann Georg Forsters Briefwechsel. Nebst von seinem Leben. Edited by Th. H. [Huber]

geb. H. [Heyne], Leipzig, 2 vols.
Gordon-Brown, A. 1952. Pictorial art in South Africa. Charles J. Sawyer, London, 159 pp.
Hoare, M. E. 1976. The tactless philosopher. Johann Reinhold Forster (1729-98). Hawthorn Press, Mel-
bourne, 419 pp.

(in press). The 'Resolution'' journal of Johann Reinhold Forster, 1772-75. Hakluyt Society.

Joppien, R. 1976. Drawings from Captain Cook's voyages. An unrecorded collection of fourteen ethno-
graphical and natural history drawings relating to the second and third voyages [Catalogue of exhibition

and sale, 13 September-1 October 1976]. Hartnoll & Eyre, London, 57 pp.
Kahn, R. L., Steiner, G., Fiedler, H., Popp, K.-G. & Scheibe, S. 1972. Georg Forsters Werke. Sdmtliche

Schriften, Tagebucher, Briefe, 4 — Strietschriften und Fragmente zur Weltreise. Inst, deutsche Sprache

Literatur, Deutschen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Berlin, (Vol. 1, 1968; vol. 2, 1965; vol. 3, 1966;

vol. 5, not published; vol. 6, not published; vol. 7, 1963; vol. 8, not published; vol. 9, 1958; an as yet

incomplete attempt to publish all George Forster's writings, of which Steiner, 1971 is a compressed

version).
Lichtenstein, M. H. K. (ed.) 1844. Descriptiones animalium quae in itinere ad maris australis terras per

annos 1772, 1773 et 1774 suscepto collegit observavit et delineavit Johannes Reinoldus Forster. Dummler,

Berlin, xvi + 424 pp.
Lysaght, A. 1959. Some eighteenth century bird paintings in the library of Sir Joseph Banks. Bull. Br.

Mus. nat. Hist. (hist. Ser.) 1 (6) : 251-371.
Sawyer, F. C. 1950. Some natural history drawings made during Captain Cook's first voyage round the

world. /. Soc. Biblphy nat. Hist. 2 : 190-193.
Schneider, J. G. 1801. M. E. Blochii . . . Sy sterna ichthyologiae iconibus ex illustratum. Post obit urn

auctoris opus inchoatum absolvit, correxit, interpolavit. Berlin, 2 vols. (LX + 584 pp.).
Steiner, G. 1971. Georg Forsters Werke in vier Banden. Vol. 1 Reise urn die Welt, Vol. 2 Kleine Schriften zur

Naturgeschichte, Lander- und Volkerkunde. Ansichten vom Niederrhein, Vol. 3 Kleine Schriften zu Kunst,

Literatur, Philosophic, Geschichte und Politik, Vol. 4 Briefe. Leipzig.
& Baege, L. 1971. Vogel der Sudsee. 23 Gouachen und Aquarelle nach Zeichnungen Georg Forsters,

entstanden wahrend seiner Weltumsegelung 1772 bis 1775. Insel-Verlag, Leipzig, 79 pp., 23 pis.
Wales, W. 1778. Remarks on Mr. Forster's account of Captain Cook's last voyage round the world, in the

years 1772, 1773, 1774, and 1775. J. Nourse, London, 110 pp.
Whitehead, P. J. P. 1969a. Zoological specimens from Captain Cook's voyages. /. Soc. Biblphy nat.

Hist. 5 (3) : 161-201.
1969b. Forty drawings of fishes made by the artists who accompanied Captain James Cook on his three

voyages to the Pacific 1768-71 1772-75 1776-80, some being used by authors in the description of new

species. Trustees, British Museum (Natural History), London, xxxi pp., 36 pis.
1977. Emanuel Mendes da Costa (1717-91) and the Conchology, or natural history of shells. Bull. Br.

Mus. nat. Hist. (hist. Ser.) 6 (1) : 1-24.

British Museum (Natural History)
Monographs & Handbooks

The Museum publishes some 10-12 new titles each year on subjects
including zoology, botany, palaeontology and mineralogy.
Besides being important reference works, many, particularly among
the handbooks, are useful for courses and students' background
reading.

Lists are available free on request to:

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Titles to be published in Volume 6

Emanuel Mendes da Costa (1717-91) and the Conchology, or natural
history of shells. By P. J. P. Whitehead.

Early mineralogy in Great Britain and Ireland. By W. Campbell
Smith.

The Forster collection of zoological drawings in the British Museum
(Natural History). By P. J. P. Whitehead.

John George Children, FRS (1777-1852) of the British Museum.
Mineralogist and reluctant Keeper of Zoology. By A. E. Gunther.

An account of the rock collections in the British Museum
(Natural History), and the historical collections acquired before
1918. By D. T. Moore.

The entire Historical series is now available

Typo set by John Wright & Sons Ltd, Bristol and Printed by Henry Ling Ltd, Dorchester

V. 5 i

Bulletin of the

British Museum (Natural History)

Early mineralogy in Great Britain and
Ireland

W. Campbell Smith

Historical series Vol 6 No 3 29 June 1978

The Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History), instituted in 1949, is issued in four
scientific series, Botany, Entomology, Geology and Zoology, and an Historical series.

Parts are published at irregular intervals as they become ready. Volumes will contain about
four hundred pages, and will not necessarily be completed within one calendar year.

Subscription orders and enquiries about back issues should be sent to: Publications Sales,
British Museum (Natural History), Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, England.

World List abbreviations: Bull. Br. Mus. nat. Hist. (hist. Ser)

© Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History), 1978

ISSN 0068-2306 Historical series

Vol 6 No 3 pp. 49-74
British Museum (Natural History)
Cromwell Road
London SW7 5BD Issued 29 June 1978

Early mineralogy in Great Britain and Ireland

W. Campbell Smithy

Department of Mineralogy, British Museum (Natural History),
Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD

Contents

Early natural histories and catalogues 49

Eighteenth-century and nineteenth-century mineral collections 53

Other important collections made in the nineteenth century 54

Early mineral analysts 56

The influence of Werner on the classification of minerals 58

Systems of mineralogy and text-books 59

The teaching of mineralogy in the nineteenth century 62

The development of crystallography 64

Acknowledgements 69

References 69

Early natural histories and catalogues

Minerals, apart from their use as charms and as materia medica, had attracted little attention
among scientifically-minded men in Britain before the last quarter of the seventeenth century.
An early work published in Oxford in 1661 was Robert LovelPs Panzoologico-mineralogia, or a
compleat history of animals and minerals containing the summe of all authors both ancient and
modern, galenical and chymical, touching earths, metalls, semi-metalls, with their natural and
artificial excrements, salts, sulphurs and stones, more pretious and less pretious, etc. The part
dealing with minerals is chiefly devoted to their 'medicinal' uses with the sketchiest indications
of where they are to be found. The list, under Lithologia, of 'stones or jewels more pretious' is
quite extensive beginning with Achates, Amethyst, Berill, Bezoarstone and ending with Topaz;
while the list of 'stones less pretious' runs from Alabaster to Unicorne-stone and Whetstone,
and includes Load-stone of which Lovell's account is quoted by Miss Jessie M. Sweet (1935) in
her description of Sir Hans Sloane's Materia Medica.

Another of the early works which were brought to my attention by Dr Roy Porter is Christopher
Merret's Pinax rerum naturalium Britannicorum continens vegetabilia, animalia, et fossilia in hac
Insula reperta inchoatus; published in London in 1666, with another edition in 1667. Here the
author is more concerned with their uses and, to some extent, with localities where some of the
'fossils' are to be found. Thus he records that lead and manganese occur in the Mendip Hills,
and under Diaphani, the first entry is 'Adamantes quos vocant Bristoll stones'. Irish slate (Lapis
Hibernicae) is listed but its use is described, not as in Lovell, 'often used against bruises etc.',
but for 'writing down things to be remembered'.

Another seventeenth century work, John Webster's Metallographia: or an history of metals, etc.
1671, treats of metals and their ores and mines with a chapter on 'other stones' including chryso-
colla, Magnes, the Load-stone, Blood-stone, Schistum, the Lazul-stone, etc., and a final chapter
on the transmutation of metals.

There is some mention of minerals in Robert Plot's Natural history of Oxford-shire (1677),
and in his later work, The natural history of Stafford-shire (1686), both of which are referred to
below, but of more particular interest, because of its detailed treatment of minerals, is the cata-
logue of the minerals (and fossils) in the Royal Society's Collections by Dr Nehemiah Grew

Bull. Br. Mus. nat. Hist. (hist. Ser.) 6(3) 49-74 Issued 29 June 1978

49

50 W. CAMPBELL SMITH

(1681). This collection was commenced very early in the history of the Royal Society, founded in
1660. Robert Hooke was appointed curator in 1662. His chief duty was to furnish the Society
with experiments at their meetings, but he was himself very wishful to have 'as full and complete
a collection of all varieties of Natural bodies as could be obtained'. The use of such a collection is
'for the most serious and diligent study of the most able proficient in natural philosophy' (Edwards,
1931 : 56).

The whole collection was transferred to the British Museum in 1781. Some of the fossils are
still identifiable but none of the mineral specimens with any certainty. However, Grew's Cata-
logue shows something of the state of the knowledge of minerals as it was in England nearly
three hundred years ago. The catalogue of the 'Minerals' is divided into three Sections: of Stones;
of Metals; and of Mineral Principles and each Section is divided into chapters.

In Section I the first three chapters deal with fossils, as now understood, and then follow three
more : of Gems ; of Regular Stones ; and of Irregular Stones.

The first entry under Gems is 'Diamonds' but whether the specimen really contained diamonds
seems doubtful. Then come: Crystal, including Amethyst, both pale violet and white are men-
tioned; The Granate; Topaz, Smaragdus, Agate, Calcedony, Onyx, Sardonyx, Jaspis [a 'geo-
metric jaspis', figured in pi. 20, appears to be chiastolite], the Nephritic Stone, and Turcois.
They are briefly described and their medicinal properties are frequently mentioned.

Chapter V, of Regular Stones, deals with a great variety : here are some Stalagmitic Stones,
Eagle Stones, Toadstones, Belemnites, a flint arrow head, and also various Spars. A 'Silver Spar'
figured in plate 21, is a group of quartz crystals 'composed into the figure of a great bud of the
colour of grey crystal'. Talk, and the 'foliated Talk' (figured in pi. 21), are gypsum, but 'a great
crystalline Talk-spar' sent by Dr Erasmus Bartholinus is Iceland Spar 'dug out of a very high
mountain in Island, one whole side of which consists of this Spar'. Another 'Spar' is 'a rhomb of
Muscovy Glass. By most called Selenites, used in Saxony and other places in Germany in
Windows'.

Grew also describes several kinds of Septarian nodules, which he names 'Waxen Veins'. One
of these is the 'Starred Waxen Vein' that was given by Sir Rob. Moray (a founder member of the
Royal Society) 'Found in the Isle of Sheapy'.

The starred waxen vein is a name for the radiating groups of crystals of baryte found on the
septa of some of the septarian nodules 'waxen veins', from the Isle of Sheppey. Grew noted that
'This star is of quite different nature from the stone on which it grows, as making no effervescence
with acids . . .'.

Another name for these radiating barytes was Astrapia. They were so described by the Rev.
Dr John Walker, Jameson's predecessor as professor in Edinburgh. Jameson mentions having
seen specimens so labelled in the Leverian Museum on his visit to London in 1793 (Sweet, 1963).

Chapter VI, of Irregular Stones, includes a great variety of minerals not exhibiting any regular
form. So here are brought together: Emery; Flint; Serpentine Marble, called Ophites; Lapislazuli,
i.e. 'blewstone'; 'Loadstone' from Magnesia 'a country between Thessaly and Macedonia';
Soapstone, Pumis Stone, and a 'cynder' from Etna.

Section II, of Metals, is treated in three 'Chapters': Of Gold, Silver and Copper; Of Tin,
Lead and Iron; Of Antimony, Mercury and other Metallic bodies. In this last are found Cinnabar,
Marchasite, Mundick, and Pyrites.

Section III, Of Mineral Principles, includes: Chapter I, Of Salts (Sal-ammoniac, Salt, Blue and
Green Vitriol) ; Chapter II, Of Ambers and Sulphurs, under which head are also : Bitumens, and
also 'Flake Stone Coal, by some called Black Amber', [Jet], 'found in Misnia, Bohemia'. Lastly,
Chapter III, Of Earths, includes various Boles (Lemnian, Armenian, etc.) Volcanic Ash from
Vesuvius, presented by J. Evelyn Esq., and 'earth which rained lately upon Teneriff' ['Blood
Rain'; see Bannerman, 1922]. This Catalogue, then, gives an indication of the nomenclature and
of some of the ideas in vogue with such persons, doctors and others, as had any knowledge of
minerals in those days. The names and ideas were derived no doubt in part from Theophrastus,
Pliny, Agricola, and Aldrovandi and, of seventeenth-century writers, Boetius de Boodt and
John de Laet, to all of whom Grew refers.

At the very end of the seventeenth century there was published Edward Lhuyd's Lithophylacii

EARLY MINERALOGY 51

Britannici Ichnographia . . . (1699). It is chiefly of importance to palaeontologists but its first
chapter is a catalogue of the mineral specimens in the collection at the Ashmolean Museum,
made in part at least by Richard Dyer and labelled by Lhuyd who was Under-Keeper in 1684
and became Head-Keeper in 1690 (Gunther, 1945 : 222).

The entries are in Latin and the catalogue lists various specimens of quartz (crystallus and iris),
including 'Iris vulgaris, Adamas Bristoliensium vulgo dicta' (pi. I, fig. 15), a doubly terminated
crystal of quartz; and a much larger crystal, from Snowdonia; 'Crystallus maxima Britannica, . . .
Invenimus Alpibus Arvoniae juxta lacum Fynnon Vrech, . . .'. There are also listed several varieties
of 'Fluor' of which some called Fluor triquetrus appear from their figure (pi. I, fig. 34) to be
dolomite or calcite. Other specimens are numerous Stalagmites, Selenites, and Talcum (gypsum).
The collection contained ninety specimens.

References in the catalogue are made to Aldrovandi, Agricola, Dr Greb [i.e. Grew] and to
Plot. The last mentioned reference is to Robert Plot's Natural history of Oxford-shire (1677 : 96),
referred to above, in which he describes a few minerals encountered in the county. They include:
'Chrystals, Selenites, and Spars' of which some are 'by the Miners called Cawke and the Latins,
Fluor es; which (say they) yet retain so much fluid, that with the heat of fire, like Ice in the Sun,
they melt and flow'.

In his later work, The natural history of Staffordshire (1686), Plot wrote at length on the coal
and iron-stone of the county. Of crystals he describes Selenites of several kinds of which one
(pi. xi, fig. 1) is a cleavage rhomb of calcite 'of a cubico-rhomboidal form, all the pieces being
constantly Hexaedra of equal obliquangular sides, or oblique angled Parallelopipeds'. He gives
a good description of quartz crystals 'sometimes stained a violaceous colour . . . found in digging
in Barrow-hill in Pesnet-Chase' (pi. xi, fig. 8); also of a group of scalenohedra of calcite 'from
limestone rocks near Dudley'.

In addition to his notes on these minerals in the two county 'natural histories' Plot has two
short papers in the Philosophical Transactions. One is on the sand in the brine of the salt works
in Staffordshire (1683); the other, 'on Black-Lead, found only at Keswick and there called Wadt
or Kellow' (Plot, 1699).

Two other county natural histories a little later than Plot's Stafford-shire are Charles Leigh's
Natural history of Lancashire, Cheshire, and the Peak in Derbyshire, published in 1700, and the
Reverend Thomas Robinson's Essay towards a natural history of Westmorland and Cumberland,
published in 1709.

Leigh's work, illustrated with many plates of antiquities and some 'fossils', gives some account
of numerous 'Spars of several sorts', Fluor in Derbyshire, Salt Rocks in Cheshire, Iron ores,
Lead ores, Copper ores, Vitriol, Pyrites and Potters' Clay, and many others, listed in an extensive
index.

Robinson's book gives some account of 'several mineral and surface productions' of the two
counties but perhaps its interest is more theological than mineralogical, for to it is annexed 'A
Vindication of the Philosophical and Theological paraphrase of the Mosaick system of Creation'.

There were some 'minerals, stones and earths' in the collection of Sir Hans Sloane, commenced
probably about 1690, and also 'Pretious stones, agates, jaspers, etc' and 'Vessels' of the same,
probably from the still earlier collection of William Courten (or Charlton) which was bequeathed
to Sloane in 1702; this collection contained over 10 000 items listed under Mineralogy in the
synopsis prepared after Sloane's death in 1753. Such specimens from Sloane's collection as can
be identified in the Department of Mineralogy of the British Museum (Natural History) have
been recorded and described by Miss J. M. Sweet (1935), formerly of that Department, with
illustrations of several of the bowls and rings in agate, mocha-stone, carnelian and jasper, and
two beautiful pieces in jade (nephrite); a two-handled bowl and a carved mirror-frame.

Another collection of about the same period but devoted entirely to 'minerals and extraneous
fossils' was started about 1696 by the remarkable Dr John Woodward, Professor of Physic in
Gresham College in London. This collection was bequeathed to the University of Cambridge in
1728 together with a sum of money to found a Professorship, now the Woodwardian Professor-
ship of Geology. The collection has been retained in its original arrangement, and with it is kept
Woodward's own catalogue.

52 W. CAMPBELL SMITH

Most valuable to the study of this collection and its classification is a book, published in
two parts in 1728 and 1729, after Woodward's death, which comprised A catalogue of the English
fossils in the collection of John Woodward and lists also of the foreign minerals and fossils therein.
Earlier, 1695, Woodward had produced An essay toward a natural history of the Earth and in
1696 a remarkable pamphlet which gave detailed instructions for making scientific observations
and for ''Collecting, preserving, and sending over natural things', in fact instructions for collectors
of geological, botanical and zoological material.

Something of the same kind with particular reference to mines and quarries appears in chapters
of another book by Woodward published in 1728 entitled Fossils of all kinds digested into a method.
The 'method' classifies the minerals into 1, Earths; 2, Stones; 3, Salts [Fossil salt; Salammoniac,
and tincal (borax)]; 4, Bitumens [liquid naptha, Barbadoes Tar]; 5, Minerals; and 6, Metals.
The Earths are subdivided into (i) 'Those found in Strata'; and (ii) 'Those found in smaller
masses', which are again subdivided, the first division being 'such as do not exceed marble in
hardness'. These are 'Bowlder stones, clay-stones and stony nodules'. Most of the semi-precious
stones are referred to this division.

Dr Y. A. Eyles in an article on John Woodward remarked that Woodward was the first British
author to publish a work solely devoted to the classification of minerals (Eyles, 1965). A more
nearly contemporary comment is made by Thomas Pennant who, in a letter to Edward Rawstone
in 1753, wrote that he favoured Woodward's System and considered it now 'generally esteemed
the most plausible' (Smith, 1913).

Another 'classification' not much noticed, perhaps in consequence of its truly remarkable
nomenclature, is that of John Hill, the King's gardener at Kew, who published a general Natural
History in three folio volumes (1748-1752), the first of which is devoted to 'The history of fossils'.

Emanuel Mendes da Costa (1717-1791), curator of the Royal Society's Collections, also
attempted A natural history of fossils but only the preface and the first volume was published
owing, da Costa implies, to lack of sufficiently numerous subscribers. The published volume
(1757) deals only with Earths and Stones: Marbles, Marmora profer a (basalts, etc.) and Granites.
It is chiefly notable for its description (with a plate) of the Giant's Causeway, quoting observa-
tions by Dr Richard Pococke, Bishop of Ossory, and Mrs Susannah Drury.

John Morton, who published A natural history of Northamptonshire in 1712, treats of minerals
on somewhat similar lines to Woodward ; Chapter I dealing with Earths, including the Earths of
the Lower Strata; Chapter II with Stones; and, Chapter II, part 2, with 'Stones in lesser masses'.
Here are included Pyritae, Sparry Nodules, Belemnites, Bezoar, Aetites (Eagle Stones), Geodes,
and Enhydros, and Selenitae. He remarks that 'Selenitae, found at Worthrop [WORTHROP =
Wothorpe 1 mile west of Stamford-Baron, Northants] in the lane leading to Stamford are there
called 'Worthrop diamonds'. With an eye to possible economic uses for the minerals in the
county he opines that Selenitae are composed of the same matter as Talc ['Laminated gypsum'
was sometimes called 'Talc' ; see p. 4] and 'we may fully make use (in medicine) of the Selenitae
our County affords in plenty instead of the Talc of Italy and other foreign countries'. He also
suggests that if the silver-coloured 'pyritae, which are generally stored with vitriol particularly
of the copperas kind, are found in sufficient plenty a copperas work for making of ink might be
set up in the County' (Morton, 1712).

Another county natural history and one which deals mainly with rocks, minerals and mining is
The natural history of Cornwall by William Borlase, Rector of Ludgvan, published in 1758.
Here again are chapters on Earths, Clays, Steatites or Soapstones, and then: Stones of use, Stones
of ornament and curiosity, and Stones of profit. Spars and crystals of various kinds are described
and there are plates of several. Borlase distinguished between crystals plain (i.e. massive), in-
crustations, stalactitic forms, etc., and figured crystals (i.e. showing crystal form). Stones of
profit are the products of the mines. Here are described : Bismuth, speltre, naptha, antimony,
manganese, loadstone, molybdaena, cobalt, and Mundic, ... a long account of this last. Chapters
on metals deal with: tin, iron, copper, silver, lead and quicksilver, and gold, as they occurred in
Cornwall. Borlase had made a considerable collection of antiquities, fossils, and minerals, which,
during his lifetime, he had given to the (old) Ashmolean Museum. It seems that none of them has
survived (Gunther, 1925 : 223).

EARLY MINERALOGY 53

Eighteenth-century and nineteenth-century mineral collections

Here may be mentioned also several other mineral collections made in the eighteenth century,
and the early part of the nineteenth, by various gentlemen in Cornwall, some of whom were
adventurers in the Cornish mines, and with them I shall mention also Thomas Pennant, zoologist
and author, of Whiteford in Holywell, Flintshire, who, while an undergraduate at Oxford,
visited Borlase in Cornwall in 1746 or 1747, and started to make a collection of minerals from
that time.

Most of our knowledge of these early collections we owe to Sir Arthur Russell, who in the
course of time incorporated parts of the Cornish ones into his own collection which with his
manuscript notes he bequeathed to the British Museum (Natural History) (Kingsbury, 1966).

These collections were being made at a time when splendid specimens were obtainable from
the higher levels of the mines of Cornwall and Devon. One of the earliest was that of Philip
Rashleigh of Menabilly (1729-1811), to which I shall refer again. Others, slightly later, were the
collections made by John Hawkins of Trewithen (1761-1841), Edmund Pearce (1788-1856),
and the three members of the Fox family of Falmouth: George (1784-1850), Robert Were Fox
(1789-1877) and Alfred (1794-1874). Still others were those of John Williams of Scorrier (1753-
1841), Sir John St Aubyn (1758-1839), and Joseph Carne of Penzance (1781-1858).

John Williams of Scorrier was principal agent for the North Down and Gwennap mines.
Charles Hatchett visited him in 1796 and records in his diary that at that time Scorrier was said
by C. S. Gilbert to 'contain the most valuable variety of mineral specimens of any house in
Europe' (Raistrick, 1967). The collection was added to by John Williams' son, John Michael
(1813-1880) and by his grandson, John Charles of Caerhays Castle (1851-1939), who in 1893
presented 550 selected specimens to the British Museum (Natural History). In 1948 a further
selection of 585 specimens was purchased by Sir Arthur Russell.

The St Aubyn Collection, one of the many catalogued by Bournon (see below), was in 1876,
according to Sir Arthur Church, in the Town Hall at Devonport and it was then accompanied by
Bournon's catalogue (Church, 1877). All that now remains of it is in the Plymouth City Museum,
where it is being carefully curated by the Keeper of Natural History. Two of the original volumes
of Bournon's catalogue have been saved, though both Plymouth and Devonport suffered severely
from bombing in the 1939-1945 war: xerographic copies are in the Mineralogy Library, British
Museum (Natural History).

The Carne Collection now forms part of the mineral collection of the Department of
Mineralogy and Petrology at Cambridge. Also in the same collection is that made by Sir Abraham
Hume (1749-1838) which, together with his collection of diamonds (see p. 59), was presented to
the University by Viscount Alford in 1841. The Mineral Collection in the British Museum
which, up to the end of the eighteenth century, consisted almost entirely of the minerals from
Sir Hans Sloane's collection, received three notable additions in the period 1799-1810. A collec-
tion containing many choice specimens formed by the Rev. Clayton Mordaunt Cracherode
(1730-1799) was bequeathed to the British Museum in 1799. In that same year the Museum
purchased the large collection of minerals and rocks formed by Charles Hatchett and which
included a fine set of Russian minerals. A much larger addition was made in 1810 when the
collection of Charles Francis Greville (1749-1809), said to contain 20 000 specimens, was pur-
chased for the nation by a special vote of £13 727. By that time Charles Konig had been appointed
an assistant in the Natural History Department and had been given charge of the Mineral
Collection and its arrangement (Smith, 1969) 1 .

The Rashleigh Collection, which, as mentioned above, was the earliest of the Cornish collec-
tions of this period, is important not only because it contained splendid specimens from Cornwall
and from other parts of Britain and from abroad, but also because it was carefully catalogued by
Rashleigh himself. The main part of this collection was acquired by the Royal Institution of

1 There was also in the Royal Institution founded by Count Rumford in 1799 'a museum of more than 3,000
mineral specimens and fossils, including a special collection of minerals, presented by Sir Humphry Davy*
(Woodward, 1907 : 9). This may have been incorporated in the collections of the Geological Museum, Institute of
Geological Sciences.

54

W. CAMPBELL SMITH

Cornwall and is in the County Museum and Art Gallery in Truro. The original catalogue, and
also a later one compiled by Arthur Aikin in 1814, are preserved with the collection; a xerograph
copy of Rashleigh's original catalogue is in the Department of Mineralogy at the British Museum
(Natural History). Another part of the original collection, given during his lifetime by Rashleigh
to his son Jonathan, was lost sight of until 1923 when it was traced and purchased by Sir Arthur
Russell. The original catalogue contained entries for 3902 specimens. It followed a simple classifi-
cation into 'ores of various metals, followed by the principal non-metallic species' (Russell,
1952a).

Philip Rashleigh himself published in two parts, in 1797 and 1802, a beautifully illustrated book
entitled Specimens of British minerals selected from the cabinet of Philip Rashleigh.

Another collection, important also because it was accompanied by a contemporary catalogue,
is that of Thomas Pennant (1726-1798). The collection did not contain many specimens re-
markable for their beauty such as were found in Rashleigh's collection but it was rich in minerals
from the mines of Pennant's home county, Flintshire. It had remained in its original cabinets for
over a century since his death. The catalogue, in two volumes, by Pennant himself was started
about 1757 and contains some 1250 entries. As mentioned above (p. 52) the classification
'favoured Woodward's System'. It is set out in full in a short account of Thomas Pennant written
in 1913, the year in which the Earl of Denbigh presented the collection to the British Museum
(Natural History) (Smith, 1913).

Crystal form did not enter into Pennant's classification though he did divide the Spars into:
'crystalliform or cubic' and 'Spars breaking into rhomboid or parallelopiped masses'. However,
calcite specimens are found entered under both divisions and it is evident from an entry under
spatum Islandicum, from Pen-y-Bryn mine, that he did not distinguish between cubic and rhombo-
hedral cleavage. It is, however, perhaps only fair to remark that this was sixteen years before
Torbern Bergman wrote his celebrated paper (1773) 'Variae crystallorum formae, a spatho
ortae, explicatae', in which he demonstrated that prisms and scalenohedra of calcite could be
built up from cleavage rhombohedra suitably arranged.

Other important collections made in the nineteenth century

The collecting of fine mineral specimens continued to be fashionable throughout the first half of
the nineteenth century and was greatly stimulated by a celebrated mineral dealer, Henry Heuland.
Sir Arthur Russell has given an interesting account of him (Russell, 1952b) and, more recently'
Frondel (1972) and Whitehead (1973) have written about Heuland's uncle, Jacob Forster.

Forster's collection, with additional material supplied by Heuland, was sold in 1820 to C. H.
Turner. Heuland employed Armand Levy to compile an illustrated catalogue of the collection.
Levy began, but failed to complete it and the catalogue was finished by H. E. Brookes and
published in three quarto volumes in 1838. This collection, and another made by William Nevill,
was acquired by Henry Ludlam to add to his own already fine collection. The whole was be-
queathed to the Museum of Practical Geology. At the time of Ludlam's early death in 1880 it
was regarded as 'the most complete and probably the finest collection of minerals ever made by
a private collector' (Davies, 1881).

A fine collection made by Lady Louisa Aylesford (1761-1832) was bought by Heuland, and
specimens from it along with others from Heuland's own collection were auctioned at Heuland's
sales between 1833 and 1839. Many were bought by the British Museum.

Another collection in which most of the specimens were bought at Heuland's sales between
1826 and 1847 was made by Isaac Walker (1793-1853) of Arnos Grove, Southgate, London,
and added to, perhaps by his sons. It was purchased in 1912 by S. Henson, mineral dealer of
London. Many of the finest specimens were acquired by the Department of Mineralogy, British
Museum (Natural History), a considerable number being presented by F. N. Ashcroft (Anon.,
[Spencer], 1913a).

In Edinburgh Thomas Allan (see p. 60) was making a notable collection. He collected minerals
in England, Ireland, and the Faroe Islands, as well as in Scotland. He had bought Giesecke's
first Greenland collection (see p. 57), and Haidinger had travelled in Europe with young Robert

EARLY MINERALOGY

55

Allan (see p. 61) in about 1825 to procure more specimens. The whole collection was purchased
in 1835 for £1300 by Robert Hyde Greg. It was added to later by his son R. P. Greg who, with
W. G. Lettsom, was co-author of the Manual of the mineralogy of Great Britain and Ireland
(1858). This collection, known as the Allan-Greg Collection, was acquired by the Department of
Mineralogy of the British Museum in 1860. It was one of the earliest and perhaps the most im-
portant purchase arranged by Story-Maskelyne in his early years as Keeper of Minerals (see
below, p. 68).

A large collection of minerals was made by Robert Jameson during the long period during
which he was Regius Professor of Natural History in Edinburgh and it formed the main part of
the general collection of minerals in the Royal Scottish Museum. It incorporated the still earlier
collection made by Dr John Walker. He had published two editions of a classification of 'fossils'
for use in the University (Sweet, 1963).

Elsewhere in Scotland, about the middle of the century, M. F. Heddle, then newly returned
from studying at Clausthal and Freiberg, was adding to his earlier collection of Scottish minerals,
collecting much material from the islands as well as from the mainland. After 1850 he was often
accompanied by his friend Patrick Dudgeon of Cargen, who had himself built up a fine collection
of minerals which he gave to the nation in 1890 (Heddle, 1897). Heddle's Collection was also
acquired by the Edinburgh Museum of Science and Art, now the Royal Scottish Museum,
partly by purchase and partly by gift. It was arranged by Heddle himself a year or so before his
death in 1897 (Goodchild, 1900).

Another collection of minerals, probably chosen mainly for their aesthetic appeal, was made by
John Ruskin who as a student at Oxford had attended Buckland's lectures on geology and
mineralogy in 1837. His published diaries show that in 1866 and 1868 he was buying specimens
from such well-known dealers as Bryce Wright, Tennant, and Tailing of Lostwithiel, and that at
that time he was living at Denmark Hill in South London. He retired to Brantwood on Lake
Coniston, in the English Lake District, in 1884 and at about that time he presented specimens to
the British Museum (Natural History), St David's School, Reigate, and the Kirkcudbright
Museum, each collection being provided with a catalogue. Other specimens were presented to
the St George's Guild and to the Museum of Science and Art at Sheffield. Many specimens once
belonging to Ruskin came to the Mineral Collection in the University Museum at Oxford when
the collection of Mr George Allen of Orpington, Kent, was purchased in 1908. The main part of
the collection that remained at Brantwood was bought by Sir Arthur Russell in 1931.

In north-east England there were many collections of minerals, some rich in the minerals of
the mines of Yorkshire and Durham. I have no personal knowledge of these collections except
that made by C. O. Trechmann (1851-1917) part of which, including many specimens of the
sulpharsenites of the Binnenthal, was bequeathed to the British Museum (Natural History) in
1917, and a greater part presented by his son C. T. Trechmann in 1926.

At Chatsworth there was a collection of specimens from the mines owned by the Dukes of
Devonshire which included some fine and large specimens.

William Phillips' mineral collection (see p. 65) which was sold by private treaty at Sotheby's
in London in 1829 was purchased by Dr Rutter of Liverpool. He presented it to the Medical
Institution of Liverpool and eventually it was transferred to the Liverpool Museum. It consisted
of small, mostly well-crystallized specimens. Many of the crystals had been measured by Phillips
and the results published in his books. It was destroyed by bombing in May 1941.

There was also a mineral collection at Alnwick Castle made by the Duchess of Northumberland,
Lady Charlotte Patricia Clive, who married the 3rd Duke in 1817. This was part of a larger
collection of natural history specimens and 'Curiosities' sold by auction at Sotheby's on 9 July
1968. Among the specimens were ores from Alston Moor, fluorite from Allenheads, malachite
and beryl from Siberia, rock crystal, axinite from Dauphine, calcite from Andreasberg, and two
gold nuggets from Co. Wicklow.

A collection of minerals and fossils was located at Wallington Hall, one of the homes of Sir
Walter C. Trevelyan (1797-1879), primarily a botanist but also an active geologist. He presented
many specimens to the Museum of the Natural History Society of Northumberland, Durham,
and Newcastle upon Tyne, now the Hancock Museum, in Newcastle upon Tyne.

56 W. CAMPBELL SMITH

For notes on other collections in the Hancock Museum I am greatly indebted to Miss Susan
Turner of that Museum. A very early collection, containing some minerals, is the Cookson
Collection which seems to have been in existence at least since 1743. Some fine specimens were
presented by Thomas Sopwith (1803-1879), manager of Beaumont's mines in Allendale from
1845 to 1871. More important, however, is the collection formed by William Hutton (1798-1860)
which was on loan to the Hancock Museum from 1831. After Hutton's death it was purchased
from the executors by Sir William Armstrong and presented by him to the Museum in 1880.
It is rich in minerals from the north of England, including well-known localities in Weardale,
Alston, and Carrock Fell. It was owing to Hutton's efforts that 'a splendid collection of minerals
and geological specimens illustrative of the mineral productions of the Russian Empire made
by the command of His Imperial Majesty, Tsar Nicholas I, and presented by him to the Society
[The Natural History Society of Northumberland, Durham, and Newcastle upon Tyne]' was
secured for the Museum on 15 October 1838. This collection was catalogued by the late Dr S. I.
Tomkeieff in 1935.

Early mineral analysts

By the end of the eighteenth century some chemists in England were becoming interested in the
analysis of mineral substances. Such was William Gregor, a Cornishman, born in 1761, a graduate
of St John's College, Cambridge, and for many years Vicar of Creed, near Grampound, Cornwall.
As a result of his analyses of menaccanite from a stream-bed at Menaccan he discovered a new
metal, later re-discovered by Klaproth and by him named titanium (Russell, 1955).

Other chemists in London, chiefly interested in the analysis of mineral substances, formed, in
1799, the British Mineralogical Society, in a sense the predecessor of the present Mineralogical
Society. The Minute Book of the Society is in the Mineralogy Library, British Museum (Natural
History). An account of its brief existence (1799-1806) is given by Professor W. W. Watts in his
address on the occasion of the Jubilee meeting of the Mineralogical Society (Watts, 1926 : 108—
109). Among the members of this earlier Society was Charles Hatchett who had sold his collection
of minerals to the British Museum in 1799 (see p. 53). Three years previously he had made
a remarkable journey through England and Scotland visiting mines, smelting works and foundries
and recording his observations (Raistrick, 1967). Hatchett was the discoverer of columbium
(1802a); the story of this discovery has been told by Miss J. M. Sweet (1935), whose account of
the Sloane minerals has been referred to above (p. 51).

Hatchett published numerous analyses of minerals between 1797 and 1804, the first, read
before the Linnean Society, being 'On bituminous substances . . .' (Hatchett, 1798). His papers
on columbite and columbium appeared later (Hatchett, 1802a, b). Unfortunately he seems to
have given up chemical analysis a few years after this.

While members of the British Mineralogical Society were active in London there was working
in Scotland, and for a time also in London, a chemist and mineralogist, Thomas Thomson
(1773-1852). In his younger days he was a friend of John Dalton and of Wollaston and is credited
with some share with them through his work on oxalic acid and certain oxalates, in the establish-
ment of the Law of Multiple Proportions (Thomson, 1808a, b). He also published a System of
chemistry in 1802 and lectured on chemistry in Edinburgh; in 1807 he opened a laboratory for
practical instruction. He was editor of Annals of Philosophy from 1813 to 1820, went to Glasgow
as a lecturer in 1817 and was appointed the first Professor of Chemistry there in 1818.

In 1836 he published Outlines of mineralogy, geology and mineral analysis in two volumes.
The first volume, on mineralogy, is noticed later. Part 3, dealing with the methods of analysing
minerals, has an introduction giving a history of mineral analysis and of the methods and recent
improvements by European chemists including Berzelius and his pupils, Gmelin, Klaproth and
H. Rose. Of British contributions he wrote: 'If we except Mr Hatchett and Mr Chenevix, Great
Britain has produced very few analytical chemists. Almost the only modern chemists . . . who
have published analyses of minerals are Mr R. Phillips, Dr Turner and Mr Connell.' Among
Thomson's numerous mineral analyses are those of a native carbonate of strontium from
Strontian (1816), of emmonite, a variety of strontianite from Massachusetts, and of holmite

EARLY MINERALOGY 57

( = seybertite), a brittle mica. He wrote also more general papers giving mineralogical observa-
tions on Cornwall (1814) and on minerals from the neighbourhood of Glasgow (1840), and in a
paper on 'The needlestone from Kilpatrick in Dumbartonshire' (1820), he presented an extensive
study of various zeolites: natrolite, scolecite, mesolite, and thomsonite, the last named for him
by H. J. Brooke.

Between 1811 and 1816 he published in the Memoirs of the Edinburgh Wernerian Society
three analyses of minerals from Greenland: sodalite, allanite, and magnetic iron-ore. Sodalite
and allanite were new minerals, the latter named in honour of Thomas Allan of Edinburgh.

The history of these specimens is sufficiently interesting to allow a digression from the subject
of early mineral analysts. A Danish ship, on its way from Iceland to Copenhagen, was captured
by a French privateer, retaken by a British frigate and brought to Leith harbour. In the cargo
was a collection of minerals which was sold by auction and bought for £40 by Thomas Allan,
an Edinburgh banker, and Colonel Imrie. All that was known about the collection was that it
had been shipped by a missionary from a harbour on Davis Straits. Allan concluded from the
abundance of specimens of cryolite in the collection that it had come from Greenland and it
subsequently transpired that it had been made by Karl Ludwig Metzler (afterwards Giesecke)
during a six years' residence in Greenland. In 1813 Giesecke returned with another collection
and visited Allan in Edinburgh. Soon after this, perhaps helped by Allan, he was appointed
Professor of Mineralogy to the Royal Dublin Society (Sweet, 1967, 1974; Greenough, 1838).

Another Scottish chemist, who made many contributions to the analysis of minerals, was
James Finlay Weir Johnston, born in Paisley in 1796. He had studied at Glasgow University,
and was a pupil of Berzelius in 1812. In 1833 he became the first Reader in Chemistry and
Mineralogy in the University of Durham, and was also Chemist to the Agricultural Society of
Scotland. Among his numerous papers are two on minerals named by him: plumbocalcite (John-
ston, 1832), and barytocalcite ( = alstonite) and its dimorphism (Johnston, 1835). He reported the
discovery of vanadium in Scotland and a vanadate of lead (1831), and described various hydro-
carbons and mineral resins among which middletonite (1838a), guyaquillite (1838b) (the present
spelling is guayaquilite), and pigotite (1840) were named by him as new.

Blow-pipe analysis seems to have been well developed in Britain for the determination of
minerals. Edward Daniel Clarke, the first Professor of Mineralogy at Cambridge, became an
internationally recognized authority on the 'gas blow-pipe', and J. G. Children, in 1822 an
'Assistant Librarian' in the Natural History Department of the British Museum, translated,
through the French translation by Fresnel, a book on the use of the blow-pipe by J. J. Berzelius
which had been published in 1820 (Children, 1822). In the Elementary introduction to . . .
mineralogy, third edition, 1823, by William Phillips, there is a description of the methods of
blow-pipe analysis as applied to minerals complete with details for beginners on how to 'blow'
so as to produce 'from the flame of a common candle, a steady stream of flame': quite a difficult
accomplishment.

Richard Kirwan F.R.S. (1733-1812), studied chemistry for some time in London but settled
in Dublin in 1789 and became President of the Dublin Society (Sweet, 1967 : 122). In the second
edition of his Elements of mineralogy, 1794-1796, whilst tracing the growth of mineralogy as a
science, he refers to the debt the science owed in the decade 1774-1784 to Scheele and to Bergman,
and in the subsequent period to Klaproth and to Werner. Had he been writing a little later he
would surely have added 'and to Berzelius' for, far more important than Berzelius' work on blow-
pipe analysis, just referred to, were the great improvements he introduced in the methods of
gravimetric analysis. The high standards obtained by him must have given to mineralogists in
this country a great incentive to achieve better analyses themselves.

We know of at least two early links with Berzelius, both from Scotland. One was J. F. W.
Johnston, already mentioned, who was a pupil of Berzelius in 1812; the other a Scottish physician,
William MacMichael, 'who worked in Berzelius' laboratory learning analytical procedures' in
the winter of 1812/1813 (or 1813/1814). It is recorded that he stimulated his host's interest in
mineralogy by giving him a collection of minerals he had bought, after he had selected those he
wanted for the British Museum ; and with reference to this incident Berzelius noted T accepted
his friendly gift. Some time later, in order to arrange my collection, I began to study mineralogy.'

58 W. CAMPBELL SMITH

The further progress and improvements in the chemical analysis of minerals has recently been
very well reviewed by Dr M. H. Hey in his Hallimond lecture to the Mineralogical Society
(Hey, 1973), and though more is said later on British contributions to the chemistry and to
classification based mainly on chemical composition one must give some account at this point
of the influence of A. G. Werner on British mineralogists about the turn of the century.

The influence of Werner on the classification of minerals

Abraham Gottlob Werner had been appointed Inspector of Mining and Instructor in Mineralogy
at the Mining Academy in Freiberg in 1775, at the age of 25. His great reputation as a teacher is
always associated by geologists with the Neptunian or Plutonist controversy around which so
many heated arguments arose in the early part of the nineteenth century, and in which both
Richard Kirwan and Robert Jameson took very active parts. However, this discussion concerned
mainly 'geognosy' and what is now called 'petrology', and Werner's great contribution to
mineralogy is his first book: Von den ausserlichen Kennzeichen der Fossilien, published in 1774,
of which a new translation by A. V. Carozzi has recently appeared (Werner [1962]).

The controversy which raged in Edinburgh between supporters of Werner and those of James
Hutton indirectly did a considerable service to mineralogy and petrology, for it inspired Sir
James Hall, a friend of Hutton's in Edinburgh, to make experiments on the fusibility of certain
lavas, basalts, and dolerites, by which he demonstrated that on being cooled very slowly the
fused products solidified not wholly as glass but were partly crystallized and stony (Hall, 1805).
Later under extremely difficult experimental conditions he studied the effect of heating powdered
limestone and chalk to high temperatures under pressure and showed that they could be melted
under these conditions without dissociating (Hall, 1812). Thus, as Sir John Flett pointed out, he
became the founder of experimental petrology although very many years were to elapse before
his work was followed up with the much better facilities available in modern laboratories (Flett,
1922; see also Eyles, 1963; and Sweet & Waterston, 1967).

Hall began his experiments about 1790 but, apart from a paper read to the Royal Society of
Edinburgh in that year, he refrained from publishing his results in full until after Hutton's death
in 1797. In the meantime his experiments on the fusion of basalt had been repeated by Gregory
Watt, using Clee Hill dolerite in very large quantities, one or two hundredweight at a time (Watt,
1804).

To return to Werner's first book On the external characters of minerals: this has been described
as a manual of determinative mineralogy, utilizing the external characteristics, colour, form,
lustre, streak, hardness, and specific gravity (Eyles, 1964). Werner's method of identifying minerals
could be studied by means of collections of specimens selected to illustrate the 'characteristics'
relied on to distinguish one mineral from another. Such was the first of the five 'Collections'
comprising the Leskean Collection formed by N. G. Leske, a Professor of Natural History in
Leipzig in 1775, and a friend of Werner's from their student days.

One of the earliest personal contacts made with Werner by any mineralogist in the British Isles
seems to have been by Richard Kirwan (see p. 57) who visited him in Freiberg and through him
was able, in 1792, to arrange for the purchase by the Royal Dublin Society of the Leskean Collec-
tion. Kirwan intended this collection to be used in the teaching of mineralogy at the Mining
Academy which it was proposed to form in Dublin. George Mitchell, a native of Belfast, and a
student and graduate of the University of Dublin, worked there on the Leskean Collection and
translated Karsten's catalogue of it in 1798.

In the previous year Robert Jameson visited Dublin and spent eight days carefully examining
the Leskean Cabinet with Kirwan and Mitchell. He found some of the colour differences too
minute; also among the different kinds of 'fractures' he 'found some beautiful distinctions but
in many instances run into by few too great minuteness' [sic] (Sweet, 1967).

It was probably Jameson's meetings and discussions with Kirwan and Mitchell that encouraged
him to enrol in 1800 as a student at Freiberg, where George Mitchell had also matriculated in
1798. Mitchell became one of Werner's favourite and most promising pupils. Unfortunately he
died in 1803, and the Dublin Mining Academy was never established.

EARLY MINERALOGY

59

A year or two after his return from Freiberg, Robert Jameson was appointed Professor of
Natural History in the University of Edinburgh. He had already published An outline of the
mineralogy of the Shetland Islands, and of the island of Arran (1798); and also Mineralogy of the
Scottish Isles in two volumes (1800). Both of these were written before his Freiberg visit, but his
more important, three-volume System of mineralogy (1804) belongs to his 'Wernerian' period.
In the preface to this work, he reviews the classifications of Cronstedt and Wallerius and intro-
duces Werner's classification which he then adopts. In the following year he published A treatise
on the external characters of minerals.

In Glasgow there was another supporter of Werner's system, the chemist Thomas Thomson,
mentioned above (p. 56). He was a Vice-President of Jameson's Wernerian Natural History
Society, and in the first volume of his Annals of philosophy (1813) he published a lengthy and
somewhat violent attack on Richard Chenevix who, writing in Paris in the Annales de chemie in
1808, had criticized Werner's system of mineral classification and extolled that of Haiiy.

Richard Kirwan published the first edition of his Elements of mineralogy in London in 1784,
before his meetings with Werner. In this he follows the system of Cronstedt, 'founded almost
entirely on chemical characters' as being 'received by all Europe', but he refers also to 'classifica-
tion by external characters of which some able patrons have appeared of late among whom I
shall mention only Werner and Mr Rome de Lisle'. In his second edition, however, he follows
Werner's method.

Neither in Cambridge nor in Oxford were there active enthusiasts for Werner's methods.
E. D. Clarke, the first Professor of Mineralogy in Cambridge, had learnt some crystallography
from Haiiy in Paris and probably left the classification of rocks to the Woodwardian Professor.
However, I am indebted to Dr Roy Porter for pointing out that John Hailstone, Woodwardian
Professor at Cambridge before Sedgwick, had studied at Freiberg and that his Plan of a course
of lectures in mineralogy (1792) is highly Wernerian in tone and emphasis. It appears, however,
that 'although he gave demonstrations to residents and strangers who visited the Woodwardian
Museum, he never gave a single lecture' (Woodward, 1907 : 54). Meanwhile, in Oxford, John
Kidd, the Professor of Chemistry, had carried on the teaching of mineralogy and geology begun
by Sir Christopher Pegge, Professor of Physic. Kidd's teaching was given in a subterranean class-
room under the Ashmolean Museum where 'nearly all the scientific teaching at Oxford had been
accomplished since the days of Robert Plot' (Gunther, 1925 : 266). Kidd, in his Outlines of
mineralogy, which he published in 1809, while acknowledging his indebtedness to Haiiy,
Brongniart, and Kirwan, followed a classification of his own. Kidd's famous successor, William
Buckland, had he entered into the Wernerian controversy, would have been a 'plutonist'.

Systems of mineralogy and text-books

In London mineralogists, many of them members of the British Mineralogical Society (see p. 56),
seem to have been interested chiefly in the minerals themselves, their chemistry, and crystal form.
They had contacts with Europe, particularly with France, in spite of the wars, and they were
hearing of the publications of Rome de ITsle and the newer writings and teaching of the Abbe
Haiiy in Paris (Haiiy, 1822). Haiiy was able to send to Sir Joseph Banks in 1809 three copies of
his Tableau comparatif des resultats de la cristallographie et de V analyse chimique relativement a
la classification de mineraux. One copy was for Greville, one for Bournon, and the third for Banks
himself. This copy Banks put at the disposal of his geologist friends in his library. It is now in the
library of the Department of Mineralogy in the British Museum (Natural History) (de Beer,
1960 : 184).

The rapid increase in interest among London mineralogists in minerals and crystals was partly,
and perhaps mainly, due to the arrival in 1794 of a French royalist refugee Jacques Louis, Comte
de Bournon, a pupil of Rome de ITsle. He was soon employed 'curating' the mineral collections
of Sir John St Aubyn, Sir Abraham Hume, of whose diamond collection he published a catalogue
in 1815 (see p. 53), and the great collection of the Rt Hon. Charles Francis Greville (Woodward,
1907). Also he gave lectures in London, where he became associated with the leading mineralo-
gists. Among these was William Babington, a busy London doctor, who arranged meetings of his

60 W. CAMPBELL SMITH

mineralogical friends at seven in the morning to fit them in before his patients claimed his atten-
tion (Whewell, 1842 : 65).

From these friends Babington raised a fund for the publication of Bournon's monograph on
the crystal forms of carbonate of lime (Bournon, 1808). The original sponsors with Babington
were William Allen and William and Richard Philips, and the other subscribers were: Sir John
St Aubyn, Robert Ferguson, G. B. Greenough, Charles Francis Greville, Charles Hatchett,
Luke Howard, Sir Abraham Hume, Richard Knight, Richard Laird, and John Williams, Jr.
There were also Dr Crichton, Physician to the Emperor of Russia, and three other Russian
patrons of science (Greenough, 1838 : 42).

Bournon had also been engaged by E. W. Gray, head of the Natural History Departments in
the British Museum, to give help in selecting specimens from the Collection of Minerals for
preservation, for duplicates, or for rejects, and in working on the catalogue. This engagement
seems to have ended with the death of Gray in 1806.

When the Greville Collection of minerals was purchased in 1810 (see p. 53) Bournon hoped
he would be put in charge of its removal from Greville's house to the British Museum. In the
event the removal was done by the recently appointed 'assistant librarian', Charles Konig.
Bournon complained that his 'tickets' were displaced, and certainly the only relic we have of
Bournon's twelve years' work for Greville is a set of crystal models in wood accompanied by
labels in Bournon's handwriting.

Perhaps it was the growing popularity of minerals among amateur collectors and students of
the work of Rome de ITsle and of Haiiy that induced James Sowerby (1757-1822), first of a long
line of naturalists, to produce his British mineralogy, with 550 plates in colour and descriptions of
the specimens illustrated. This work ran to five volumes, the first appearing in 1804 and the last in
1817. He also published in 27 numbers Exotic mineralogy . . ., as a supplement to British mineralogy
(Sowerby, 1811-1817 [1820]). The plates in British mineralogy were not arranged in any systematic
order but there was a systematic index with each volume and this was completely revised in volume
5 and a separate, systematic Catalogue of British minerals was published in 1819 as a kind of
appendix, to be used in making out labels for specimens in mineral collections (Sowerby, 1819).

Others attempted similar 'systems' to help collectors in the baffling task of arranging their
specimens. William Babington had published A systematic arrangement of minerals in 1795,
and an enlarged edition in 1799. This is described on the title page as being 'in the form of a
catalogue after the manner of Baron Born's systematic catalogue of the collection of fossils of
Mile Eleonore de Raab'. The first edition seems to have been written when the author was arrang-
ing the mineral collection of the Earl of Bute ; according to Greenough, Babington had purchased
the Earl of Bute's collection, 'the finest, perhaps, which at that time existed in England'
(Greenough, 1838 : 5). This collection passed into the possession of Sir John St Aubyn to whom
the second edition of Babington's work was dedicated (see p. 53).

Arthur Aikin had also attempted a system, under which minerals could be arranged, in his
Manual of mineralogy in 1814; this book included the substance of lectures given in the winter of
1813-1814 to some members of the Geological Society. He had been President of the British
Mineralogical Society, and was Secretary of the Geological Society from 1812 to 1819. Aikin
gave a general synopsis setting out a classification under which the minerals are described and
chemical analyses quoted. The introduction discussed the characters of minerals and the means
of testing them, with instructions on the use of the blow-pipe.

Thomas Allan in Edinburgh had published in 1808 An alphabetical list of the names of minerals
. . . with tables of analyses and another edition in quarto in 1819 giving more space to the columns
showing chemical composition. The names were listed in groups of: Saline minerals, Earthy
minerals, Inflammables (Amber, Bitumen, Coal, etc.), and Metallic minerals. Synonyms were
cross-indexed.

Another systematic mineralogy following to some extent the system of Werner was The
characteristic of the natural history system of mineralogy by Friedrich Mohs. He was one of
Werner's most successful students and succeeded him as professor in the Mining Academy of
Freiberg. An English translation of this work was published in Edinburgh (Mohs, 1820a, b).

Lastly, one may mention the system of Berzelius 'based on his electro-chemical theory and the

EARLY MINERALOGY 61

doctrine of definite proportions' (Berzelius, 1814). This was published first in 1814 but was later
(1824) modified as a result of Mitscherlich's discovery of isomorphism. This modified system
'with occasional slight deviations' was adopted by Konig for the rearrangement of the British
Museum collection of minerals in 1828 (Smith, 1969 : 249).

Whewell, who, in his report on the recent progress and present state of mineralogy (1833),
had given a critical review of the various systems of classification that had been proposed by
European mineralogists, while paying tribute to Mohs as well as to Berzelius and Beudant,
thoroughly approved of Konig's adoption of the Berzelius system (Whewell, 1833 : 360). He had
made an attempt at a system of classification himself in 1 828 but probably he was far from satis-
fied with it for, with unusual modesty, he made no mention of it in his own review of the
numerous classifications devised by others. A. J. Berry has given a brief account of it in his oft-
quoted review of mineralogy in Cambridge. 'In the long introduction the author states that it is
not his intention to propose a new system of classification, but rather to work out a system of
nomenclature along the lines adopted by Linnaeus in botany, and to correlate these orders and
species with the chemical constitution of the minerals. He used modifications of the names
adopted by Mohs . . . and related these to the chemical composition obtained by Berzelius and
others' (Berry, 1960 : 7).

A work belonging to a later period which aimed at providing a key to the identification of
minerals was published in London in 1843 by E. J. Chapman, a young mineralogist who found
previous authors' methods unacceptable. It was entitled Practical mineralogy, or a compendium
of the distinguishing characters of minerals by which the name of any species or variety in the
mineral kingdom may be speedily ascertained. Chapman was then 22 and an engineer; later he
lectured on minerals at University College London and became Professor of Mineralogy and
Geology at Toronto from 1853 to 1895.

Other books on mineralogy, more concerned with the description of minerals, to some extent
with crystallography, and with localities at which the minerals were known to occur, soon became
available in England and Scotland. Early and important among these is William Phillips' Ele-
mentary introduction to the knowledge of mineralogy, first published in 1816. A second edition
appeared three years later and a third in 1823. Phillips' work will be referred to again below.

A little later appeared Haidinger's translation of Mohs' Grund-Riss der Mineralogie, published
in Edinburgh in 1825 and followed, also in Edinburgh in 1834, by Robert Allan's Manual of
mineralogy. This Robert (1806-1863) was the eldest son of Thomas Allan at whose invitation
Haidinger had come to Edinburgh to translate Mohs' work. With his father and Haidinger he
had visited the Cornish mines in 1821. He studied crystallography with Haidinger and with him
toured the mines and mining academies of Europe, visiting also the volcanoes of Italy and
Sicily in 1825-1826. With his father's splendid collection available for study he was well equipped
for his task and his Manual must have been a very useful text-book. He went on in 1837 to
publish a fourth edition of Phillips' Elementary introduction. In his own Manual he had discussed
classification and concluded that until chemical composition was better known the Natural
Historical System of Mohs was adequate though confessedly defective. In his edition of Phillips,
however, he retained Phillips' own arrangement, contenting himself with the addition of some
150 more minerals and many figures of crystals in the text. By curtailing the descriptions of mere
varieties he produced a volume not very much larger than the third edition.

Other text-books of mineralogy emanated from Scotland in the first half of the nineteenth
century. Perhaps the most considerable was Outlines of mineralogy, geology and mineral analysis
in two volumes by Thomas Thomson of Glasgow (see p. 56), published in London in 1836.
The work had been ten years in preparation. The Outlines of mineralogy (Volume 1, 726 pp.)
contains an introductory discussion of the characters of minerals and Mohs' system of classifica-
tion. Thomson himself opts for a chemical arrangement, classifying minerals in genera under
three classes: acid bases, alkaline bases, and neutral bases. Descriptions of the minerals included
notes on chemical constituents, and on the simple crystal forms, and there are extensive tables in
an appendix. The first of these tables lists for all the minerals: specific gravity, hardness and,
where known, the primary crystal form. Two others give lists of minerals in order of increasing
specific gravity from scheererite to native iridium, and in order of increasing hardness.

62

W. CAMPBELL SMITH

A few years later, in 1849, James Nicol, at that time Professor of Geology at Queen's College,
Cork, published in Edinburgh a Manual of mineralogy. His Elements of mineralogy followed in
1858, when he was Professor of Natural History at Marischal College, Aberdeen.

In England, in that same year of 1858, there appeared Greg & Lettsom's Manual of the
mineralogy of Great Britain and Ireland the first and only British mineralogy since Sowerby,
except for The mineralogists' directory by Townshend M. Hall (Hall, 1868) and F. W. Rudler's
Handbook to a collection of the minerals of the British Islands, mostly selected from the Ludlam
Collection . . . (1905).

The teaching of mineralogy in the nineteenth century

Evidence of the growing interest in mineralogy is found in the preface to the second edition of
William Phillips' Elementary introduction to the knowledge of mineralogy (1819), where he is
able to record not only that 'lectures are given at public institutions' in London, but he also lists
three persons in the metropolis who give private instruction in crystallography. One of these was
Thomas Webster, the curator of the Geological Society's Collection (1812) and draughtsman to
the Society, whilst another was Mrs Lowry of Titchfield Street, whose daughter Devalle Lowry
wrote a popular book in two volumes entitled Conversations in mineralogy (1822). Furthermore,
'models cut in box-wood with great accuracy and beauty by N. J. Larkin, may be had of Bate
in The Poultry and Mawe in the Strand, at one guinea each, as well as complete sets of models
of all crystals described by Haiiy in his Treatise on Mineralogy at the price of sixteen pounds the
set'. John Mawe, a mineral dealer, had published small books on mineralogy and mining. One
of these on The mineralogy of Derbyshire (1802) gave a description of mines in the north of
England, in Scotland, and in Wales, including Ecton, and Parys mine in Anglesey, and also 'an
analysis of Mr Williams's work intitled 'The Mineral Kingdom" (Williams, 1789, 1810).

In London colleges mineralogy was probably not taught apart from geology. University
College, founded in 1826, did not establish a Chair in Geology until 1841, although the
question had been discussed in 1828. At that time, according to Prestwich, the only nominal
instruction in geology and mineralogy was to be had in three lectures by Dr [Edward] Turner
at the end of his course on chemistry. John Phillips gave a course of twelve lectures there in 1831
but these were all on geology (Edmonds, 1975). The first professor appointed at the College was
Thomas Webster, referred to above and he probably included mineralogy in his course.

We know that E. J. Chapman taught mineralogy in the College for a time before he went to
Toronto in 1853 (p. 61) and T. G. Bonney, Professor of Geology from 1877-1905, could hardly
have resisted giving some lectures on petrology, of which he was one of the pioneers.

King's College, founded two years later than University College, had Sir Charles Lyell (1831-
1834), John Phillips (1834-1840), and D. T. Ansted (1840-1853) as its first three geology pro-
fessors. Of these Ansted also practised as a consulting geologist and mining engineer, and his
successor James Tennant (1853-1869) was a well-known mineralogist and mineral dealer. For a
time, after the death of Charles Konig in 1851, he had been curating the Mineral Collection in
the British Museum.

This seems the place to record also the work of F. Rutley and F. W. Rudler. The former was a
lecturer in the Royal School of Mines in 1882 under J. W. Judd, who had been appointed pro-
fessor there in 1876. Rudler had been lecturer in Natural Sciences in the University College of
Wales, Aberystwyth, from 1876 to 1879 when he returned to his earlier appointment of curator
of the old 'Jermyn Street' Museum of Practical Geology. He had made his first catalogue of the
collections there in 1864.

Away from the metropolis Durham had a Reader in Mineralogy, J. F. W. Johnston, from 1833
(see p. 57). In Scotland, Robert Jameson, Professor of Natural History in Edinburgh from 1804,
inspired great interest by his lectures on mineralogy and geology and continued to do so until
1847 when deteriorating health limited his activities. He died aged 80 in 1854. The Regius Pro-
fessorship of Geology in Edinburgh was not founded until 1871 and Sir Archibald Geikie was
the first occupant of the chair.

EARLY MINERALOGY 63

In St Andrews, M. Forster Heddle, already an enthusiastic mineralogist, succeeded to the
Professorship of Chemistry in 1862. Whilst there he made, and had made, a great number of
mineral analyses. He relinquished the Professorship in 1883 but soon returned to St Andrews
devoting himself to adding to his collection of minerals, to writing, and to working on his
Mineralogy of Scotland, which was published in 1901, four years after his death.

Glasgow had appointed Thomas Thomson Professor of Chemistry in 1817 and doubtless he
gave lectures on mineralogy and mineral analyses on the lines of his Outlines of mineralogy,
geology, and mineral analysis published in 1836 (see p. 56).

The important part played by the Royal Dublin Society in promoting the study of mineralogy
has been described above (p. 57). Here William Higgins, who had followed Kirwan to Dublin
in 1792, became curator of the Leskean Collection of Minerals in 1795 and subsequently Pro-
fessor of Chemistry and Mineralogy. In 1812 a separate Professorship of Mineralogy was de-
cided on. The post was offered to Robert Jameson who appears to have accepted it, but he was
prevented from taking up the post and it was then offered to Charles Louis (Lewis) Giesecke.
He was appointed in 1814, and his lectures and teaching of mineralogy became famous (p. 57).
On his death in 1833 Dr John Scouler, Professor of Natural History in Glasgow, took his place.
Queen's College, Cork, then the Cork Institution, had a lectureship in mineralogy for which
we learn one of Jameson's students, James Ogilby, had applied in 1816 (Sweet, 1967, 1974).
James Nicol was Professor of Geology there in 1849.

At Trinity College, Dublin, Samuel Haughton had succeeded Thomas Oldham as Professor of
Geology and held the post from 1851 to 1881. His work in mineralogy was chiefly concerned with
chemical petrology. He was an original member of the Mineralogical Society.

The teaching of mineralogy formed part of the wider instruction in mining which was organized
in Cornwall at Truro, Redruth, Penzance, and Camborne at various times from 1838 onwards.
A mining school for part-time students was established in Truro in 1838 by Sir Charles Lemon
and was carried on for some years at his expense. Additional information on this subject has
been provided by Dr L. P. S. Piper, Vice-Principal of the Cornwall Technical College at Redruth,
who reviewed the history of technical education in Cornwall, and has recently published 'A
short history of the Camborne School of Mines' (Piper, 1975).

In 1859 the Miners' Association of Devon and Cornwall was founded, largely through the
initiative of Robert Hunt and the Fox family of Falmouth. Mining classes were arranged in
Camborne, Redruth, and Penzance and many distinguished lecturers were engaged. These in-
cluded Richard Pearce, Robert Hunt, Sir Warrington Smyth, Sir Clement le Neve Foster (1865—
1867), and J. H. Collins (1868-1870). The Camborne School of Metalliferous Mining was founded
in 1888, partly through the efforts of J. J. Beringer who became its Principal in 1892 and so
remained until 1910, when the School was taken over by the County Council of Cornwall.
Beringer continued as Vice-Principal until his death in 1915. Others who taught mineralogy in
this school in recent years were H. R. Beringer, brother of J. J., E. H. Davison, John Robson,
and K. F. G. Hosking.

In Penzance A. K. Barnett was lecturing on mining in 1873, holding his classes in the rooms of
the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall. He had been a student under both le Neve Foster
and J. H. Collins. In 1890 the Penzance Mining School was opened and it was due to Barnett's
enthusiasm that this school survived. In the opinion of Dr Piper, Vice-Principal of Cornwall
Technical College, A. K. Barnett was to Penzance what J. J. Beringer was to Camborne (Piper,
L. P. S., pers. comm.).

Some reference has already been made to the teaching of mineralogy at Cambridge and
Oxford in the early years of the nineteenth century (p. 59). The first professor of the subject at
Cambridge, Edward Daniel Clarke, began to give lectures on minerals in 1807 and their success
was such that a Chair in Mineralogy was founded in the following year. He published a syllabus
of his proposed lectures in the preface to which he gave some idea of their scope and aims. To
quote from A. J. Berry's Sketch of the study of crystallography and mineralogy in Cambridge
(Berry, 1960), his principal object was to 'call the attention of the University to the history of the
materials used by architects, sculptors and lapidaries, in the remotest periods, and in modern
times; the mineralogy of the ancient poets and historians; and then finally to suggest the means

64 W. CAMPBELL SMITH

of pursuing this branch of knowledge without the expense and encumbrance which have usually
been its attendants'.

Clarke also published A methodical distribution of the mineral kingdom (1806) devised by him-
self, the divisions of which were, to quote his own words 'as old as the time of Avicenna (979-
1037), and which with little variety have been adopted by almost all succeeding writers' (Clarke,
1818).

Clarke died in 1822 when only 53; he was succeeded by J. S. Henslow, naturalist and botanist,
who became Professor of Botany in 1825. His place was taken by William Whewell, later (1841)
to become a famous Master of Trinity, a brilliant mathematician who had been attracted by the
symmetry of crystals and had turned his attention to crystallography. Under Whewell the teach-
ing of mineralogy at Cambridge developed in the crystallographic direction and so continued
for very many years under W. H. Miller (1832-1880) and W. J. Lewis (1881-1926).

In Oxford the same thing happened, though at a later date. William Buckland, who had carried
on the teaching after John Kidd from 1813, had handed over the duties of Reader in Mineralogy
in 1850 to one of his pupils, Nevil Story-Maskelyne, a grandson of Nevil Maskelyne, the
Astronomer-Royal. He graduated in mathematics in 1845, but was also actively interested in
science, and he had worked for a time in Faraday's laboratory at the Royal Institution in London.
He was officially appointed Reader in Mineralogy in 1856 and became the first Professor of
Mineralogy in 1861 when the Waynflete Chair was founded. His main interest was the study and
teaching of crystallography.

Maskelyne's duties as Professor were not such as to necessitate his residence in Oxford for long
periods and thus he was able to accept an appointment as Keeper of Minerals in the British
Museum in 1857 when the former Department of Mineralogy and Geology was made into two
separate departments. He resigned this Museum appointment in 1880 but he continued as
Professor at Oxford until 1895. He numbered among his pupils L. Fletcher, W. J. Lewis, and
H. A. Miers (Anon. [Spencer], 1913b).

Thus in Cambridge and in Oxford the teaching of crystallography was well established and it
is to the further development of crystallography in Great Britain that one can now turn.

The development of crystallography

Rome de ITsle and Haiiy had established their 'laws' by observing and measuring a great number
of crystals and cleavage forms: Rome de ITsle, for example, had described over four hundred
crystal forms. All their measurements had been made with a contact goniometer designed by
Carangeot. With well-developed crystals or good cleavage forms it was possible to get tolerably
reliable measurements but it was a tedious process and one needed to be quite adept at handling
the crystal and the instrument, and the accuracy obtainable was not good. Miers (1902 : 100,
fig. 200) illustrates a contact goniometer exactly like Hauy's. It was given by the Duke of Bucking-
ham in 1824 to Buckland, Reader in Mineralogy and Professor of Geology at Oxford. The Duke
bought Hauy's collection of minerals in 1822 (Smith 1969 : 247).

One can imagine how slowly crystallography would have developed if the only instrument for
the measurement of crystals had been goniometers of the contact type. Fortunately, the situation
was saved by the invention by W. H. Wollaston in 1809 of the reflecting goniometer familiar
now to every student of mineralogy (Wollaston, 1809). With this instrument very good accuracy
can be obtained and very small crystals can be measured. In his report on the state of mineralogy
made to the British Association in 1832 William Whewell wrote: 'The invention of the reflecting
goniometer by Dr Wollaston, was an invaluable gift to the crystallometer; and every step of our
progress makes us more sensible of the importance of this elegant and well-designed instrument'
(Whewell, 1833 : 352). Later Whewell wrote: 'Wollaston by the invention of the reflecting
goniometer, placed an entirely new degree of accuracy within the reach of the crystallographer' ;
and further 'In the use of this instrument, no one was more laborious and successful than William
Phillips . . . and Mr [H. J.] Brooke, a crystallographer of the same exact and careful school . . .'
(Whewell, 1857).

EARLY MINERALOGY 65

In fact William Phillips, as early as 1814, published an elaborate paper on the different modifica-
tions in the crystalline forms of cassiterite based on measurements made with the new goniometer
(Phillips, 1814). Two years later he published the first edition of his Elementary introduction to
mineralogy; a second edition appeared in 1819, and a third in 1823.

In his third edition he was able to include measurements of the interfacial angles of crystals
of a great many minerals illustrated by figures 'engraved on wood by W. Hughes', and for most
species he endeavoured to give the primary form, usually with a figure. 'The letters on each plane
of the larger figures have been so placed according to the system of notation adopted in the
'Familiar Introduction . . .' by H. J. Brooke' (see below, p. 65).

In the 'Advertisement' to the third edition he gives his appreciation of the accuracy obtainable
with Wollaston's goniometer. 'Experience', he wrote, 'leads to the conclusion that the limit of
error is considerably within one degree, — that it rarely exceeds 40 minutes, and that it is frequently
confined to a minute or two . . . but where those (the interfacial angles) of the primary form have
been obtained from planes produced by cleavage . . . they may be considered as approximating
to the truth much more nearly than when taken by means of natural planes.'

H. J. Brooke, the second of the two so favourably mentioned by Whewell as having contributed
so many measurements of crystals in the early days of the 'reflective goniometer', was responsible
for many papers on various minerals between 1820 and the year of his death, 1857. Many of these
deal with crystalline form and include a series of twelve papers 'On the crystalline forms of
artificial salts' in Thomson's Annals of Philosophy for 1823 and 1824. Two later papers are on
crystallization, and on isomorphism (Brooke, 1825, 1831). In the latter he makes some comments
as to the degree to which measured interfacial angles bear out the claims made by Mitscherlich
for isomorphous groups.

He also published in 1823 A familiar introduction to crystallography, dedicated to Wollaston.
In this he used a system of letters and subscript figures as indices of crystal forms. He used the
capital letters P, M, T, for the primitive, or primary forms, and other letters in small type for
secondary and other faces. The system may have been suggested to him by the method used by
Bournon in his treatise on the crystal forms of calcite and aragonite (see p. 60), wherein he
allotted numbers to each of the forms he found.

In his calculations of the laws of decrement producing secondary planes, Brooke showed how
this could be done using the formulae of spherical trigonometry which, as Whewell remarked
in his 1832 report, 'has in great measure been followed by others' (Whewell, 1833).

Brooke also wrote a treatise on crystallography and an article on mineralogy in the Encyclo-
paedia Metropolitana (1845a, b). In the former he reduced the number of primary forms from the
sixteen in his Familiar introduction (1823) to six, corresponding to the six crystal systems.

Brooke was co-editor with W. H. Miller of a new edition of Phillips in 1852. Evidently anxious
to make it clear that Professor Miller had contributed the major share to the arrangement and
re-writing of the book, Brooke wrote a postscript to the preface in which he states that his share
in the work consisted of 'such information relating to the minerals described as a long acquaintance
with them enabled me to afford, and in having supplied such specimens and crystals as it appeared
desirable again to examine and measure'. Brooke's collection was presented to the University of
Cambridge in 1857 by his son. It was kept in its own cabinet in accordance with his son's wishes.
Also in the Cambridge collection are some of W. H. Wollaston's mineral specimens. They formed
part of Henry Warburton's collection presented by H. W. Elphinstone in 1858.

William Whewell who, as mentioned above (p. 64), succeeded Henslow as Professor of
Mineralogy at Cambridge, wrote all his important papers on crystallography before his formal
appointment to the professorship. In 1822 he read a short paper explaining the interpenetrant
twin cubic crystals of fluorite, in the course of which he offered some pertinent criticism of
Haiiy's theory of integrant molecules (Whewell, 1822). His three next papers, 1825-1827, all
deal with a system of notation for crystal faces and with calculations of interfacial angles.

In the Philosophical Transactions for 1825 he gave 'A general method of calculating the angles
made by any planes of crystals, and the laws according to which they are formed' (Whewell,
1825a). An abstract of the paper was published in the Edinburgh Journal of Science and in this
Whewell added 'formulae for calculating the angles made by any secondary faces of a crystal

66 W. CAMPBELL SMITH

when the law of its derivation from the primary is known' (Whewell, 1825b). Whewell, starting
from Haiiy's theory and his method of developing secondary faces by decrements of the 'integrant
molecules' parallel to two or more of the edges of the primary form, set out to express such
secondary planes by algebraic equations. Taking as origin the angle of a primary form and the
three edges of, for example, a rhomboid as axes XYZ he showed that 'the equation of a plane
arising from the decrements will be such that the coefficients of the three co-ordinates in it (when
reduced to its simplest form) will be the reciprocals of the numbers of the molecules subtracted
on the edges to which they correspond; or put in another way: if the three edges of a rhomboid are

X V z

taken as axes, X, Y, Z, then any face P Q R making intercepts T , y, - has for its indices -, -, -,

h k I h k I

or (p; q; r), written with semi-colons between them and in parentheses'.

There were two more papers read before the Cambridge Philosophical Society (Whewell,
1827a, b). In these Whewell sought to explain and to improve upon the system of notation
proposed by Mohs (1825) and by Naumann (1826), and he proposed a modification of Mohs'
notation doing away with the + sign which had encumbered it. He gave a 'specimen of the use
of notation in the analysis of crystalline forms taking as an example crystals belonging to the
rhombohedral system' (Whewell, 1827c). He also, very briefly, explained his method in his
History of the inductive sciences (1857 : 184-185).

Whewell resigned the professorship in 1832. In the same year he presented a report to the
British Association on 'The recent progress and present state of mineralogy', which was published
in 1833. In this he was very critical of British contributions to mineralogy but he knew that he
had in W. H. Miller a successor for the Chair of Mineralogy who would establish in Cambridge
the crystallography he had begun to develop.

William Hallows (or Hallowes) Miller, who succeeded Whewell, was only seven years his
junior. Like Whewell he was a mathematician; he had been fifth Wrangler in 1826. He wrote
books on hydrostatics and on the differential calculus and was best known for his extremely
accurate work in the preparation of new standards for the pound weight.

Miller had also written papers on the position of the axes of optical elasticity in crystals
belonging to the oblique-prismatic system (Miller, 1835), and on the unequal expansion of
minerals in different directions by heat (Miller, 1837). His first paper relating to crystallography
on the forms of ammonium bicarbonate was published in 1829, the year after Whewell became
professor. After this he wrote only some 24 papers on crystallography, some of which are men-
tioned below, but his very important early work was A treatise on crystallography completed in
1838 and published in 1839. In this he announced his method of describing the position of any
face with reference to three axes parallel to possible edges of the crystal by three numerals,
rational whole numbers, which are, in the words of Nevil Story-Maskelyne, 'the denominations
of three fractions with unity for their numerator and in the ratio of the multiples of the para-
meters' (Maskelyne, 1880).

Miller explained in the preface to his Treatise that he took the idea for the Millerian indices,
as they are always known, from Whewell's paper (1825a), referred to above (p. 65) and also
that he owed to Neumann (1823) the method by which crystal faces are indicated by the points in
which radii drawn normal to the faces meet the surface of a circumscribing sphere. In this
Treatise, making use of the methods of spherical trigonometry, he developed a great many
formulae for the calculation of interfacial angles, face symbols and zone symbols, all adapted
for the use of logarithms.

Miller's next great work was the 1852 edition of Phillips' Mineralogy which he wrote with
Brooke as described above (p. 65). The full title of the book, An elementary introduction to
mineralogy, was now somewhat misleading. It was a new book and far from 'elementary', it
contained a vast number of results of crystal measurements by Miller and Brooke. In it Miller
further developed his system of indices and methods of calculation and established the funda-
mental formulae in the general case and went on to demonstrate the simplified formulae applicable
to crystals in his six systems of symmetry.

The descriptive mineralogical parts of the book recorded the principal localities at which each
mineral had been found, provided some chemical analyses, gave tables of measured angles,

EARLY MINERALOGY 67

recorded the fundamental angles (but not parameters), and gave lists of forms identified, illus-
trated by figures and by stereographic projections. The book with index ran to 697 pages with
647 figures. Story-Maskelyne described it as 'a monument to Miller's name. It will not be super-
seded and will always be referred to' (Maskelyne, 1880).

After the publication of this book Miller wrote several important papers on crystallography.
One was his first statement 'On the anharmonic ratio of radii normal to four faces of a crystal
in one zone' (Miller, 1857a). A second paper was a development of this: 'An improved method
of finding the position of any face in crystals belonging to the anorthic system'. It uses 'the an-
harmonic ratio of the axes of four zones having a face in common' (Miller, 1858).

These and two later papers on the gnomonic and stereographic projections, published in his
Cry stall ographic Notices in the Philosophical Magazine between 1857 and 1860, were incorporated
in Miller's last book, A tract on crystallography, published in 1863. This, in Miller's own words,
'contains an investigation of the general geometrical properties of the systems of planes by which
crystals are bounded, and of the formulae for calculating their dihedral angles, indices, and ele-
ments, given without demonstration in the last, 1852, edition of Phillips' Mineralogy; or of
equivalent expressions in more convenient shape'. It was in fact a supplement to 'Brooke &
Miller'. The Tract also included two chapters on geometrical and analytical investigations of a
system of planes suggested to Miller by a paper by C. Q. Sella in 1856 on which Miller had already
published a short paper in 1857 (Miller, 1857b).

Miller died in Cambridge in 1880 at the age of eighty. He had held the professorship for 48
years. There were many tributes to the man and to his work; several of these have been referred
to, and quoted from, by A. J. Berry (1960) in his paper to which I have so often referred and from
which I have derived so much information. Notable among these is one by T. G. Bonney in the
St John's College Magazine (Bonney, 1880), and one in Nature by Story-Maskelyne who wrote:
'He placed the keystone in the arch of the science of crystallography. Future development of that
science will follow on the lines laid down by Miller' (Maskelyne, 1880), a prophecy which has
been abundantly fulfilled.

At Oxford, Maskelyne had been appointed Professor of Mineralogy in 1861 (see p. 64).
He published little on crystallography at this time but preferred to concentrate on his teaching.
However, he had in hand a book, parts of which formed the basis of his lectures on crystallography
in the 1860s and, as Maskelyne states in his preface, was indeed in print. Unfortunately, it was
not published until 1895 and then only as a result of persuasion and assistance from Lazarus
Fletcher and Henry Miers, both pupils of his and colleagues at the British Museum (Natural
History) (Maskelyne, 1895). Even as late as 1895 it seems to have been the first text-book in
English to deal in detail with the subject since Miller. The chapters on crystal symmetry received
high praise from A. E. H. Tutton in his review of the book (Tutton, 1895), but he criticized
Maskelyne for setting his axes with OX to the right of the origin and OY to the front instead of
making OX the front and OY to the right, which was the orientation used by P. Groth in, for
instance, his Physikalische Krystallographie (1876), which continental crystallographers followed,
and which Lewis adopted in his Treatise in 1899. However, it is only fair to Maskelyne to remark
that when he actually wrote parts of his book and had had it set up in type he was following the
orientation used by Miller whose last book, the Tract, was published probably about the time
Maskelyne was writing.

Tutton describes as almost prophetic a passage which Maskelyne wrote when considering the
ultimate significance of symmetry {op. cit., p. 171). Tutton quotes from the passage the most
important sentence, but it seems worthwhile to reproduce the whole passage here: '. . . the whole
treatment of crystallographic symmetry on the assumption of planes and axes of symmetry,
actual or potential, represents a geometrical abstraction; an abstraction that needs for its de-
velopment and due expansion a complete science of position applied to the molecular mass-
centres, competent to embrace not merely the relative distribution inter se - the intermodular
distribution - of the chemical molecules constituting the crystallised substance, but also the
intromolecular arrangement of the atoms, or molecules of secondary order, whereof the molecules
of the substance are themselves composed. Then the true significance of the ideal planes and axes
of symmetry will be understood; and they will assuredly retain a place in the explanation of

68 W. CAMPBELL SMITH

crystalline symmetry, since they rise into recognition directly from the fundamental principle of
rationality of indices and are controlled by its consequences.'

The classification of crystal forms into the six (or seven) systems of symmetry now in use by
geometrical crystallographers was developed from the early ideas of Rome de l'lsle and Haiiy
mainly by Mohs and Weiss and later by Naumann in Germany and Austria, and by Michel
Levy in France. We cannot claim any considerable contribution to this classification by British
mineralogists in these early days.

At first Mohs had grouped all crystal forms in four systems: Cubic (or Tesseral of Whewell),
Pyramidal (Tetragonal), Rhombohedral, and Prismatic (Rhombic), considering as hemihedral
those forms with half the number of faces of the holohedral forms. These he later brought into
two more Systems, Monoclinic and Triclinic. These six systems were those adopted in 'Brooke &
Miller' (1852) and only slightly modified by later authors. W. J. Lewis in Cambridge and Alfred
J. Moses in Columbia University (both writing in 1899) divided the Rhombohedral System into
two, Rhombohedral and Hexagonal; but E. S. Dana (1892) had adhered to the single system
naming it Hexagonal, and H. A. Miers (1902) had the same six systems but preferred the name
Cubic to the Isometric adopted by American authors.

After this short digression on the names of the crystal systems one must return to the early
years of the nineteenth century to record something of the work of Sir David Brewster, whose
discoveries of the optical properties of crystals established the correlation of these properties
with the symmetry of the crystals. His work on these phenomena commenced about 1815 and
some of the most important results were brought together in a paper read before the Royal Society
in January 1818 (Brewster, 1818). In this paper he showed that whereas minerals and salts crystal-
lizing in the Hexagonal and Tetragonal systems had a single optic axis parallel in direction to the
principal axis of the crystal, those crystallizing in the Prismatic, Oblique, and Anorthic Systems
possessed two optic axes the positions of which he described.

Without any of the conoscopes or polarizing microscopes later available, but using plates of
glass as polarizer and analyser, and a candle-flame or the sky as a light source, he described
most of the phenomena now familiar in our text-books on crystal optics. He observed and
described the coloured rings and the black cross shown by uniaxial crystals, the lemniscates and
brushes of biaxial ones; the properties displayed by sector twins of amethyst, aragonite, and
analcime; and he wrote on the value of all this in the determination of mineral species: an almost
endless list of observations and all new (Brewster, 1834). All these and more were briefly recorded
by Whewell in his report to the British Association already referred to (Whewell, 1833), and in
the same report he summarized Sir John Herschel's demonstration of the dispersion of the optic
axes, the rotatory polarization of light, and the correlation of the direction of rotation of the
plane of polarization with right- and left-handedness in crystals (Whewell, 1833, 1857).

These observations of Brewster's, and of Herschel's must have had an effect on mineralogists
comparable to that of von Laue's demonstration of the diffraction of X-rays by the crystal
structure of zinc-blende in 1912. Herschel himself wrote of Brewster: 'The discovery of crystals
which possess two axes of double refraction, . . ., is perhaps the greatest step which has been
made in physical optics since the discovery of double refraction itself by Bartholinus. ... It has
opened new views on the structure of crystals, and will in all probability be the means of leading
us to a more intimate knowledge of the nature and laws of those forces by which the ultimate
particles of matter act on light and on each other' (Herschel, 1822 : 21).

To return now to the work of Nevil Story-Maskelyne, Professor of Mineralogy at Oxford;
he had been appointed also Keeper of Minerals in the British Museum in 1857 (p. 64) but still
carried on his teaching. Since the death of Charles Konig in 1851 there had been no one on the
staff of the old Department of Natural History in the British Museum interested in minerals.
With the appointment of Maskelyne the Department began to play a more important part in
the progress of mineralogy and crystallography in London.

In spite of miserably poor conditions for testing minerals or measuring crystals Maskelyne
succeeded in getting some reliable work done. He had to assist him with the Collection only
Thomas Davies, then a complete novice of 21 but who, under Maskelyne, became a very compe-
tent mineralogist. Davies was appointed in 1858. In 1862 Maskelyne invited Viktor von Lang

EARLY MINERALOGY 69

(later Professor of Physics in the University of Vienna) to join him as an 'Assistant'. Together
they produced numerous 'Mineralogical Notes' in the Philosophical Magazine for 1863 and 1864.
It was not until 1867 that Walter Flight joined the Department as a chemist and a laboratory
was set up at no. 46 Great Russell Street because neither gas lights nor burners were allowed in
the rooms of the British Museum.

In the Philosophical Magazine von Lang's papers were on the crystal forms of numerous
minerals, while Maskelyne contributed one on connellite and one on columbite, all giving angular
measurements and all well illustrated by crystal drawings. In his paper on connellite Maskelyne
describes how he succeeded in measuring extremely small crystals by attaching to the Wollaston
goniometer a small plano-convex lens in front of a small telescope 'which converts that telescope
into a sort of microscope of low power', so introducing a device later used in horizontal gonio-
meters by Fuess and others.

Maskelyne's other papers in this series of 'Notes' gave a general account of stony meteorites
and descriptions of fifteen stones in the British Museum meteorite collection. He followed these
with a paper read before the Royal Society in 1870 on the mineral constituents of meteorites.
In connection with his work on meteorites, as early as 1861, he had a binocular microscope fitted
with a polarizer and analyser and a rotating stage to assist him in the identification of minerals
in thin sections of stony meteorites, the preparation of which he describes.

Maskelyne reclassified the great mineral collection following the crystallo-chemical system of
Gustav Rose and replacing the system of Berzelius adopted by Konig in 1828. The rearrangement
of the collection was made with the move of the Natural History Departments to the new
Museum at South Kensington in mind but the actual move was not completed in Maskelyne's
time. He had to give up his appointment at the Museum on the death of his father in 1879.
In the last few years he had two of his old Oxford pupils as Assistants: W. J. Lewis, from 1875 to
1877, and Lazarus Fletcher, who was appointed in 1878 and succeeded to the Keepership in
1880 on Maskelyne's retirement.

This completes my account of early mineralogy in Great Britain, covering a period of 200
years and bringing us to the foundation of the Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland
over a hundred years ago (Smith, 1976).

Acknowledgements

In conclusion I have to acknowledge my great indebtedness to Dr A. Clive Bishop, Keeper of
Minerals, and to Dr D. R. C. Kempe, Deputy Keeper, Mr R. T. W. Atkins and Mrs E. V.
Brunton, Librarians, for their help in revising the list of references and reading the typescript and
seeing it through the press; also to Mr Peter G. Embrey of the Department of Mineralogy,
particularly for his notes on Sir John St Aubyn and his collection, and to the staff of the General
Library of the Museum. I am also indebted to Dr L. P. S. Piper, Vice-Principal of Cornwall
Technical College, to Dr Roy Porter of Churchill College, Cambridge, and to Miss Susan Turner
of the Hancock Museum, Newcastle upon Tyne, for their help, which I have also acknowledged
in the text.

References

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Allan, R. 1837. A Manual of Mineralogy etc. Edinburgh and London, 357 pp.

Allan, T. 1808. An alphabetical list of the names of minerals . . . with tables of analyses. Edinburgh. [2nd

edn, 1819.] 72 pp.
Anon. [Spencer, L. J.] 1913a. Notes. Mineralog. Mag. 16 : 251-252.
1913b. Obituary: Mervin Herbert Nevil Story- Maskelyne (1823-1911). Mineralog. Mag. 16: 149-

156.
Babington, W. \195. A Systematic Arrangement of Minerals, etc. London, iv-26 pp.
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Bannerman, D. 1922. The Canary Islands. Appendix A, pp. 321-327, London.

de Beer, Sir G. R. (Ed.) 1960. The Sciences were never at war. London, 279 pp.

Bergman, T. O. 1773. Variae crystallorum formae, a spatho ortae, explicatae. Nova acta R. Soc. Sci.

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Union Cryst. Cambridge, England. 15-24 August 1960, 16 pp.
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une introduction a la mineralogie en general, une theorie de la cristallisation, &c. London., 3 vols.
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and use of the goniometer. With an appendix containing the mathematical relations of crystals; rules for

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& Miller, W. H. 1852. An elementary introduction to mineralogy, by the late William Phillips. New

edition, with extensive alterations and additions. London, xi-700 pp.
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EARLY MINERALOGY 71

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72 W. CAMPBELL SMITH

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EARLY MINERALOGY 73

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74 W. CAMPBELL SMITH

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1825a. A general Method of Calculating the angles made by any planes of crystals, and the laws

according to which they are formed. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. 115 : 87-130.

1825b. General method of calculating the angles made by any planes of crystals, and the laws

according to which they are formed, [abstract] Edinb. J. Sci. 2 : 312-315.

1827a. On the classification of crystalline combinations, and the canons by which their laws of

derivation may be investigated. Trans. Camb. phil. Soc. 2 : 391-425.

1827b. Reasons for the selection of a notation to designate the Planes of Crystals. Trans. Camb.

phil. Soc. 2 : 427^139.

— 1827c. Specimen of the use of notation in the analysis of crystalline forms. Edinb. J. Sci. 6 : 1-6.

— 1828. An essay on mineralogical classification and nomenclature, with tables of the orders and species
of minerals. London, xxxii-71 pp.

— 1833. Report on the recent progress and present state of mineralogy. Rep. Br. Ass. Advmt Sci.

1832 : 322-365.

— 1842. Address to the Geological Society, delivered at the anniversary, on 15th of February, 1839,
by the Rev. William Whewell B.D., F.R.S., President of the Society. Proc. geol. Soc. Lond. 3 : 61-95.
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Mineralog. Mag. 39 : 361-363.
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1810. Ibid., 2nd edn, By James Millar. With an appendix containing a more extended view of

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and sending over natural things, .... London, 20 pp.

1728. Fossils of all kinds digested into a method . . . with . . . several papers, etc. London, 56, 131 pp.

1729. An attempt towards a natural history of the fossils of England in the collection of John Woodward,

M.D. London, xvi-243 pp.
Woodward, H. B. 1907. The history of the Geological Society of London. London, 336 pp.

British Museum (Natural History)
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Emanuel Mendes da Costa (1717-91) and the Conchology, or natural
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Early mineralogy in Great Britain and Ireland. By W. Campbell
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The Forster collection of zoological drawings in the British Museum
(Natural History). By P. J. P. Whitehead.

John George Children, FRS (1777-1852) of the British Museum.
Mineralogist and reluctant Keeper of Zoology. By A. E. Gunther.

An account of the rock collections in the British Museum
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Bulletin of the

British Museum (Natural History)

John George Children, F.R.S. (1777-1852)
of the British Museum. Mineralogist and
reluctant Keeper of Zoology

A. E. Gunther

Historical series Vol 6 No 4 29 June 1978

The Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History), instituted in 1949, is issued in four
scientific series, Botany, Entomology, Geology and Zoology, and an Historical series.

Parts are published at irregular intervals as they become ready. Volumes will contain about
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World List abbreviations: Bull. Br. Mus. nat. Hist. (hist. Ser)

Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History), 1978

ISSN 0068-2306 Historical series

Vol 6 No 4 pp. 75-108
British Museum (Natural History)
Cromwell Road
London SW7 5BD Issued 29 June 1978

John George Children, F.R.S. (1777-1852) of th
British Museum. Mineralogist and reluctant
Keeper of Zoology

A. E. Gunther

c/o General Library, British Museum (Natural History) London SW7 5BD

This Essay has been written to Commemorate the 200th anniversary of the birth of John George
Children on 18 May 1977

Contents

Introduction 75

Family and education 76

The Royal Institution, 1800 78

Mineral chemistry at Ferox Hall, 1806 78

Mr Humphry Davy at Ferox Hall, 1808 79

Failure of the Tonbridge Bank, 1812 81

Children at Montagu House, 1816 82

Sir Humphry Davy as Trustee of the British Museum, 1820 83

Children's transfer to Natural History, 1822 84

Lamarck's Genera of Shells, 1824 85

Children as zoologist 86

Entomology and the Entomological Society, 1830 90

The new British Museum, 1828 91

Secretary of the Royal Society, 1830 94

Select Committee on the British Museum, 1835-1836 94

The new British Museum, transfer, second phase 1838-1841 99

Retirement, 1840 100

Acknowledgements .101

Notes 101

Bibliography of the works of J. G. Children 104

List of portraits of George Children (1742-1818) and John George Children (1777-

1852) 105

References 105

Introduction

Much of what is known of the personal life of John George Children may be found in the bio-
graphy of a dutiful daughter, Anna Atkins, written in the year after her father's death (Atkins,
1853). It is one of those mid- Victorian biographies which add so much to our understanding of
the period. The author inherited something of her father's intelligence, and her work is more
objective and better documented than many of its genre. A modern assessment would still find
Children to be a man of character, cultured, highly intelligent, sociable and god-fearing. What it
does for a scientist of unusual ability, even by present-day standards, is to place his life in per-
spective against his achievements in science and the institutions with which he was associated.
If, because of the unusual circumstances of his career, he contributed relatively little to the science
of zoology, he should be remembered for having the care of the natural history collections during
the unsettled period following the Napoleonic wars. His eighteen years as Assistant and as Keeper
included the transfer of the collections from the old British Museum in Montagu House to the
new building on the same site, the first phase taking place in 1830, and the second in 1840.
While he may have taken a larger place in the story of the British Museum than in the advance-

Bull. Br. Mus. nat. Hist. (hist. Ser.) 6(4) 75-108 Issued 29 June 1978

75

76 A. E. GUNTHER

ment of its science, his contribution to neither was negligible. In his chosen field of mineral
chemistry, however, he was a pioneer, with a critical and creative mind which today would have
brought him eminence as a research chemist in either the academic or the industrial fields.

The events in this essay which have been taken from Anna Atkins' Biography may be easily
traced in its pages whether dates are given or not. But reference to two outstanding omissions in
it must be made. The first is the failure to link the Royal Institution with Humphry Davy's and
Children's experimental work ; the second is the failure to give weight to the need for an enquiry
by the Select Committee of the British Museum in 1835. This essay aims also to examine more
closely the circumstances in which John Edward Gray (1800-1875) served his apprenticeship
before succeeding Children as Keeper of the Zoological Collections in 1840.

About a tenth of the volume of Anna's biography comprises her grandfather's and father's
verse which does much to reflect their attitude towards life. On the paternal and maternal sides
of both families, it is worth noting, there were parsons, a fact that may account not only for the
Christian response in both their lives, but also to the evangelicism which formed a part of John
George's character (Anon. 1970; Woodgate & Woodgate, 1910 : 493).

Family and education

The Childrens (the name is a typically Kentish one, although brought, it is said, by a Duke of
Gloucester from the Chiltern Hills) had been established in Kent at least since the 14th century.
In the 17th century, an early George Children (1606-1670) went to Tonbridge School and to
Oxford, later becoming Curate of Tonbridge, 1 and was the first member of the family to live at
Ferox Hall. This was a large, handsome, brick and stone Georgian house with a fine staircase ris-
ing out of a two-storied hall, built by him nearly opposite the School on the site of the old tithe
barn at least of Elizabethan age (Woodgate & Woodgate, 1910 : 279). 2 George Children (1742-
1818), the father of John George Children (1777-1852), also went to Oxford and, he inherited
Ferox Hall (Harrison, 1887). 3 Although called to the Bar in 1753 and becoming a Bencher of the
Middle Temple and Treasurer (or head of the Society) in 1804 (Hart, 1933), he never practised,
but instead became Justice of the Peace and Under-Sheriff of the Counties of Kent and Sussex.
He was an example of the cultured 18th-century country gentleman, giving his time to the affairs
of the town and to the upbringing of his son. However, he was interested in experimental science,
being chiefly excited by the electrical discoveries of Volta. A wealthy man, he was also one of the
proprietors of the Med way Navigation Company, a flourishing concern that during the 18th
century brought increasing trade to Tonbridge. Feeling that the town needed the services of a
bank to encourage its expansion, Children together with two friends established 'The Tonbridge
Bank' with himself as senior partner, in 1792 (Woodgate & Woodgate, 1910 : 376). But being
country gentlemen without financial expertise, their firm fell a victim to the recurrent financial
crises of the Napoleonic Wars, an event that plays a significant part in this story.

John George Children was born at Ferox Hall on 18 May 1777. His mother died a few days
later and the boy was brought up in the freedom of the estate by an indulgent father and by the
family nurse to whom he gave a boy's warm affection. After attending Tonbridge School (1786-
1790), John was sent at the age of 13 to a tutor at Cambridge (a Mr Maud), who was to prepare
him for Eton. The only one of Mr Maud's reports to survive suggests unusual promise, in that
the boy

*. . . is far the best of those who read with him, and by the time he has fulfilled his year, he
will be better qualified for his place at Eton than any boy I have ever sent there . . .'.

(Atkins, 1853 : 10)

While at Cambridge, the boy's interest in science appears to have been awakened by his uncle,
the Rev. J. T. Jordan. 4 His letters to his father at this time contain an element of precociousness :

T think I may venture to say that I understand the Rule of Three, both direct and inverse,
perfectly, as likewise everything else I have gone through.'

(Atkins, 1853 : 13)

JOHN GEORGE CHILDREN

77

Fig. 1 George Children (1742-1818) of Ferox Hall, Tonbridge, Kent in 1806. Oil on canvass by
A. J. Oliver R.A. (1774-1842). Donated to the National Portrait Gallery by Mr John Charles
Children in 1977.

7g A. E. GUNTHER

His years at Eton were active and happy, but his health, never robust, was not improved by the
river climate. In 1795, at the age of 18, he passed into Cambridge as a Fellow Commoner of
Queens' College, but preferring marriage to a university education, he did not proceed to a
degree. Instead he courted a young lady, Hester Anna Holwell, daughter of a Lieut-Colonel
Holwell whose father, Governor Holwell, had in 1756 been one of the survivors of the Black
Hole of Calcutta. They were married in June 1798.

The Royal Institution, 1800

In March 1799 was founded a national institute, named the Royal Institution, which aimed at the
'promotion of science and the diffusion and extension of useful knowledge' and was destined to
have a vital bearing on Children's life. In framing its constitution, Lord Romford, the founder,
set up Committees of Managers and Visitors, and sought subscriptions from wealthy men with
an interest in science. On Friday, 21 March 1800, at an Extraordinary Meeting of the Institution,
George Children senior of Tunbridge (sic), Kent, was admitted as a 'Life Subscriber', and at a
Meeting of the Managers on 7 April 1800, John George Children was also proposed by Sir
Joseph Banks, one of the Managers, as a 'Life Subscriber' (Anon., (Royal Institution) 1800-
1836; Archives of the Royal Institution, 28, 47). There is no record of Children senior having any
further contact with the Royal Institution, nor of John George until his election as Visitor in
1826. But it is significant that the appointment of Humphry Davy (1778-1829) early in 1801 as
lecturer in chemistry was followed on the last day of that year by a New Year display of fire-
works of John's own manufacture at Ferox Hall (Atkins, 1853 : 37). The assumption could be
that John attended Davy's lectures during that year. However, John's early scientific pursuits were
interrupted when, after a protracted illness following the birth of a daughter, Anna (1799-1871),
his wife died, after only 18 months of marriage. For solace John spent much of the next two years
in travel, first to Portugal, then to Ireland, and in 1802 to the United States and Canada. There he
received the Colonial style hospitality accorded to the son of a country squire, but his constitution
again faltered during the passage on Lake Ontario from York to Kingston when he went down
with a severe attack of 'lake fever', presumably malaria. Cutting short his visit, he returned to
England in November with an odd miscellany of 'plants, a canoe, and among other things an
eagle' (Woodgate & Woodgate, 1910 : 301).

Mineral chemistry at Ferox Hall, 1806

The year 1802 found the country in an unsettled state following the improvised peace of the
Treaty of Amiens, and the counties were recruiting militia against the possibility of a French
invasion. The West Kent Militia, which Children joined on his return from America, was a key
force in the country's defensive system, fortified by contributions from the landed gentry including
Children's father. A force of 6000 men was commanded by these gentlemen and their sons,
among them Lord Camden (1759-1840) (Rigg, 1896): 5

'Probably no mess-room contained a more gentlemanly set of men, not any better qualified
for duty had they been called into active service.'

(Atkins, 1853 : 59)

In 1805 a recurrence of fever forced John George to resign and it is possible that the realization
that he could never serve his country in a time of crisis brought him, now approaching 30, to a
more purposeful frame of mind than hitherto. Significantly, Anna Atkins implies in her biography
that 1805-1806 was something of a turning point because, forced to leave the militia, her father

'. . . now began to devote himself principally to science and mechanics, the great delight of
his life, neither of which he ever ceased to pursue as opportunity permitted.'

(Atkins, 1853 : 66)

JOHN GEORGE CHILDREN 79

When his father's neighbours heard after his wife's death that John was off to Lisbon, they
gossiped in their letters that:

'John George Children is gone to Lisbon and means to proceed to Italy. If he never returns
it will be no loss in my opinion.'

(Woodgate & Woodgate, 1910 : 357)

'I suppose you have heard now all about John George ; he will never come back again in a
whole skin, in my opinion.' And later: 'John George, a little bird told me, is coming home.'

(Woodgate & Woodgate, 1910 : 390-391)

The character of a young man of exceptional intelligence, greatly spoilt as a boy, may have been
misjudged by his neighbours, but it required the shock of the loss of his wife, followed by having
to leave his friends in the defence of the country, that led him to seek his real vocation in science.

Hence forward Children's main interest appears to have lain in the chemistry of minerals. In
1806, to acquire material for its study, he set out on a tour of the better known geological ex-
posures of Wales and Cornwall. Starting from Oxford, where he presumably went to visit the
Old Ashmolean Museum (Gunther, 1925:331), proceeded into central Wales - Shrewsbury,
Ludlow, Much Wenlock - 'to hunt for dog's tooth spar in limestone rock' ; thence he travelled
down the Wye by boat on to Cheddar, and by Exeter into Cornwall, the terra firma mineralogica,
and the main objective of the tour. The collection of rocks and minerals he returned with was the
first and only collection his daughter records his having made (Atkins, 1853 : 66).

In view of his interests, it is surprising that Children had not joined the embryonic Geological
Society, which came formally into being in 1807, since it was heavily biased towards the study of
minerals (Woodward, 1907). One would also have expected some record of his attendance at the
Royal Institution where Humphry Davy was lecturing on geology as well as on chemistry, and
gathering together a collection of some 3000 mineral specimens. Virtually the next record is of
Children's election, on 12 March 1807, to the Fellowship of the Royal Society. Whether there is
any significance in the citation recommending him as 'likely to become a valuable member of the
Society', 6 rather than one who had already made some major contribution to science, is open to
question, but his sponsors did not include any who were to witness his experiments with the voltaic
battery a year or so later. Two of Children's sponsors were titled. Lord Romney (Charles,
Viscount Marsham) (1744-1811), F.R.S. (Anon., Burke, 1970), was M.P. for Maidstone and
Kent as well as Lord Lieutenant of Kent, and was well known to Children senior. Charles
Stanhope (1753-1816), the 3rd Earl, Viscount Mahon, was the troublesome, democratic politician,
but also the brilliant scientist, a prolific inventor and F.R.S. , who in 1779 contributed a paper on
the Principles of Electricity to the Society, but is not mentioned in connection with Children's
own work (D.N.B. 54 : 1). The others included Edward Rudge (1763-1846), F.R.S., a botanist
and antiquary (D.N.B. 49 : 383), and Matthew Smith, F.R.S., a captain in the Royal Navy
(Thompson, 1812). The remaining two, Edmund Antrobus, F.R.S., and Thomas Harrison,
F.R.S., are lost to view. 6 Whereas, two years later, after the presentation of Children's first
paper to the Society, there could have been ample grounds for recommending him for election,
the bestowal of such an honour in advance suggests an element of patronage not uncommon in
those days, albeit in his case justified in the event.

Mr Humphry Davy at Ferox Hall, 1808

In 1800 news arrived in England of Professor Volta's (1745-1827) discovery of the galvanatic
pile, which by providing a source of 'electric fluid' offered an additional tool in chemical analysis.
It was a discovery of the greatest importance to a practical chemist such as Humphry Davy at
the Royal Institution, but the problem remained of how to build a battery large enough to give a
high voltage. One should ask what were the relations between the Childrens and the Royal
Institution, and possibly Davy, from 1800 until their known collaboration with Davy in 1808 in
his experiments using the voltaic battery built by the Childrens. It is a strange omission from

gO A. E. GUNTHER

Anna Atkins' life of her father that she makes no mention whatever of the Royal Institution,
or of any connection her father or Davy may have had with it. It seems scarcely conceivable that
the Childrens could have embarked on so complex and costly a technical venture as the building
of a large voltaic battery without consulting an experimentalist of Davy's ability or even some
of his colleagues who were working in the same field. Yet there is no evidence to suggest other-
wise; indeed, there is no record of Davy's collaboration with Children until his first visit to
Ferox Hall in 1808. If John George had attended Davy's lectures at any time in the previous seven
years, Davy could well have been the inspiration not only of Children's interest in mineral
chemistry but also for invoking electricity to aid him in his studies. Yet on this subject the Atkins
biography, and other sources, including Children's obituaries, are silent.

In Atkins' biography, Humphry Davy is first mentioned in a paragraph on page 74 as '. . . that
great chemist whose career from an early period Mr. C. [Children senior] had watched with
great and sincere interest'. The page deals with events (undated, but in chronological order) of
around 1808, and mentions the existence of the laboratory, the suggested date for which is
c. 1806. It is suggested that the reason why Davy did not enter the biography earlier was the fear
that John George's collaboration with him might detract from the importance of the latter's
achievement.

The construction of a voltaic battery larger and more powerful than any previously built
called for money and considerable technical knowledge, and these father and son are on record
as having provided. Children senior

'. . . retired from the active exercise of his business and gave his energy and money to aid
his son in constructing new and large galvanatic batteries.'

(D.N.B. 10 : 249)

A special building was required, and sometime after 1801, perhaps as late as 1806, a laboratory
was built in the grounds of Ferox Hall, and it probably stood between the Hall and the Priory,
a stone's throw down Bordyke (Hoole, 1970). In October 1808 Davy visited Ferox Hall for the
first time and stayed for some days, afterwards writing enthusiastically of Children's 'magnificent
experiments and apparatus', the results of which 'Banks, Cavendish and Wollaston desire to be
published'. His letter also expressed feelings of unusual warmth, which led to a bond of friend-
ship between the two men which lasted for the rest of their lives :

'. . . the days I have passed in your society are some of the pleasantest of my life. I look
forward with a warm hope to our next meeting.'

(Davy, 5 Nov. 1808, BL. Add. MS. 38,625, f. 1)

Even if Davy and Children had known each other previously, the first days spent in joint activity
created especially strong personal ties. The formal address of 'My dear Sir' gave way to 'My
dear Friend' and to 'My dear Children', and so it remained.

As a result, on 24 November, Children's first paper was read to the Royal Society, being An
Account of some Experiments performed with a view to ascertain the most advantageous Method
of constructing a Voltaic Apparatus for the purpose of Chemical Research (Children, 1809, Phil.
Trans. 99 : 32-38), and received, as had Davy's describing previous experiments, marked atten-
tion. The experiments were continued during 1809 and were observed by such notables as
Cavendish, Herschel, Wollaston, Allen and Pepys. Davy wrote :

'I hope you will not suffer these beautiful and satisfactory experiments of the capacities of
metals to remain still. Write me a letter as egoistical as I have given you. You are pledged to
do good and noble things, and you must not disappoint the men of science of this country.'

(Davy, 1809, BL. Add. MS. 38,625, f. 5)

The records of the Royal Society Club show that Children dined as Davy's guest on 22 September
1808, and having been proposed by Davy and seconded by Banks, became a member of the Club
after the Anniversary Meeting of 29 June 1809 (Davy, 1808-1824, f. 5; Anon. (Royal Society),
1808-1809; Geikie, 1917).

JOHN GEORGE CHILDREN 81

The success of Children's experiments led Davy to construct a still larger voltaic battery at the
Royal Institution. This was followed by an even larger model built by the Childrens at Ferox
Hall and the biggest of its kind ever made:

'In 1813, George Children put in action the greatest galvanitic battery that has ever been
constructed. . . .'

(Anon., Ann. Phil. 1813, 2 : 147) 7

Davy continued to visit Ferox Hall to participate in the experiments which found a record in
his papers in the Philosophical Transactions, and the Annals of Philosophy or in Children's final
paper to the Royal Society in 1815 (Children, 1815, Phil. Trans. R. Soc. 105 : 363-374) most of
which were witnessed by one or other members of the Geological Society. 8

These early experiments, in which an electric charge was directed onto various chemical or
mineral substances, were not without danger, one such could have deprived Children of his sight
(Children, Anon., 1808). In 1812 Davy's life was put at risk by the explosion of a 'new detonating
compound' (nitrogen trichloride), which confined him to his room at Ferox Hall for several days
with damage to an eye and to a finger. A letter warning Sir Joseph Banks of these dangers was
read at the Royal Society's meeting on 5 November 1812 (Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Nov. 1812,
103 : 1-12). That Children's early experiments had more than passing value is clear from
references made to them in standard works appearing twenty-five years later, notably in Heat
and Electricity (Thompson, 1840, 2 (6) : 372) and Manual of Chemistry (Brande, 1841 : 299-300),
as well as in the earlier History of Galvanism (Bostock, 1818 : 92-96, 99-101).

It was during this period of intense scientific endeavour, attended by success and recognition,
that on 20 December 1809 Children married a second time; sadly, however, his wife Caroline
Wise died in August of the following year.

Failure of the Tonbridge Bank, 1812

The growing instability of the Tonbridge Bank, first evident in 1 807, its continued management by
country gentlemen with little knowledge of finance but, it was said, with extravagant standards
of living and entertaining, brought the bank finally to close its doors in 1812. In an attempt to
maintain his position Children decided to put his knowledge of chemistry to commercial use and
entered into a partnership, which was to include Humphry Davy, with a Mr James Burton,
intended to establish a manufactory for gunpowder. The story of Davy's initial interest in the
project, of his revising the recipe for gunpowder to yield a more effective explosive mixture, and
of his decision, ultimately, not to participate in the venture, is recorded in his letters to Children
between 1811 and 1813. The story was later described in detail elsewhere (Fullmer, 1964); the
transaction, which ended in commercial failure, is not one that does Davy credit and would have
broken a friendship of a less charitable man than Children.

In 1816 the Tonbridge Bank was declared insolvent, and George Children senior became bank-
rupt. At the age of 74, broken in health, he was placed under the care of Sir Everard Home
(1756-1832) (D.N.B. 27 : 227) of the Royal College of Surgeons. Ferox Hall was sold and a
house in Long Acre was lent to him by Charles Hatchett, F.R.S. (1765-1847), until health made
a move to Chelsea, to escape from the smoke of London, desirable, and at 'Cook's Ground
Cottage', the old gentleman died in August 1818. The tablet erected to his memory in the Parish
Church of St Peter and St Paul, Tonbridge, is an eloquent and touching memorial to a cultured
and great-hearted country squire (Anon. 1970).

A few weeks after his father's death, John George Children, accompanied by his daughter
Anna and escorted by Samuel Forfeit Gray (1798-1872), John Edward Gray's brother, took a
trip to the Continent and visited the site of the Battle of Waterloo. There, the party was taken to
see the elm tree under which the Duke of Wellington had stood during part of the battle. When
informed by the guide that the farmer owning the land was intending to fell the tree because
tourists trampled his crops whilst seeking mementos, Children immediately made the farmer an
offer to purchase the trunk and had it shipped to England (Atkins, 1853 : 193-197). To com-

82 A. E. GUNTHER

memorate the event, Children engaged Chippendale the Younger (1749-1822) to make various
items of furniture out of its timber. Three chairs were made: one, called the Wellington chair,
was presented to King George IV (1820-1830), a collector of continental furniture. It stood for
a time in the Guard Room at Windsor Castle and has since remained in the Royal Collections
at St James Palace (Anon., 1967). The second, presented to the Duke of Wellington, was used by
him when sitting for his portrait and is kept by the present Duke in his private apartments in the
Wellington Museum, Apsley House, Hyde Park Corner. The third chair was in the possession
of the Duke of Rutland at Belvoir Castle. Children also had a cabinet made for his mineral
collection, which passed to his daughter, Anna, and is now in the room of the Keeper of
Mineralogy at the British Museum (Natural History) (Anon., 1852). 9

Children at Montagu House, 1816

The bankruptcy of his father brought Children to seek 'honourable employment'. Three years
before, seeing the writing on the wall, he had approached Davy to enquire whether there could
be an opening for him in the British Museum at Montagu House. On writing to a friend, Mr
Payne Knight (1749-1824) (Edwards, 1870 : 401-412), an antiquary, collector and politician,
and one of the Museum's Trustees, Davy learned that application should be made to the Arch-
bishop of Canterbury, and, in the case of a scientist, the support should be sought of Sir Joseph
Banks. He wrote to Children :

'I wish it were in my power to serve you more. If the election [of an assistant to Taylor

Combe in Antiquities] had been in the Trustees in General I might have been of some use

Be of good courage, for if the Museum should fail, you have always claims on the gratitude
of men of science, and though there are few of them [as] liberal as Mr. Hatchett yet there
are some who will not cease to exert themselves on your behalf.'

(Davy, 1813 (?), 30 Aug., BL. Add. MS. 38,625, ff. 40-41)

When in 1816 the need for employment became urgent, Davy was again approached. In February
he called twice on Sir Joseph Banks to find him in bed ; he again wrote to Children :

'Be assured that if any place connected with science [opens up] no time should be lost in
urging your claims. . . . Believe me you may trust to my zealous exertions and I hope to be
able to persuade others of your friends to act whenever the opportunity shall occur.

Sincerely Dear Children,
very sincerely yours,
H. Davy.'
(Davy, 1816, 6 Feb., BL. Add. MS. 38,625, ff. 44-46)

Davy's next enquiry was made at the Society of Arts, of which he concluded that '. . . except
in a scientific question my recommendation would have no weight and political patronage only
belongs to political men' (Davy, 1816, 26 Feb., ibid. f. 47). Alternatively the professorship of
chemistry of the Dublin Society was likely to fall vacant; but nothing came of that. In August he
learned that the Trustees of the British Museum were looking for a print librarian, but required
the applicant to be an artist (Davy, 1816, 23 Aug., ibid. f. 49). These further applications having
failed it was thanks finally to the good offices of Lord Camden, a friend of the West Kent Militia
days, 5 that Children was offered a post as Assistant Librarian in the Department of Antiquities
at Montagu House whose Keeper was Taylor Combe (1774-1826) (Wroth, 1887, 11 : 429). 10
The date on which the Trustees accepted Children's Bond of Surety was 14 December 1816; he
was to receive £30 a quarter and a further £112 for extra duties. Under-Librarians were expected
to attend for six days a week, and to give six hours a day, 9-3 or 10-4. On three days a week
four hours a day would go in conducting parties of visitors through the departments, the balance
of the day going in routine work such as in display or in labelling. The other three days would go
in 'extra duties' such as making catalogues, what we would call 'research' or approving the
application of those who came to use the Reading Room. Since it was Children's habit to apply

JOHN GEORGE CHILDREN 83

himself with assiduity to whatever he undertook, he offered the usual service on the three 'free'
days of the week. 11 His knowledge of chemistry was put to immediate use in a novel field, in
analysing the Nature of the Pigment in the Hieroglyphics on the Sarcophagus from the Tomb of
Psammis (Children, 1821); this may have been the first of many subsequent times that analytical
chemistry was used in the British Museum. Nevertheless, the final letter from Davy in the series
quoted above, written sometime in 1817, found Children restless:

'You may be assured that whenever a favourable opportunity [of an opening in science]
occurs I will not lose it; but I pray you do not adopt so despairing a tone. You have numerous
friends, a fixed station in society, a comfortable income, more than many men of science can
command and prospects of better things.'

(Davy, 1817, undated, BL. Add. MS. 38,625 ff. 52-54)

In general, however, it seems that the five years in the Department of Antiquities were contented
ones ; when Children's future there was brought to a close it was much against his wishes. Mean-
while in 1819, Children married on 31 May for the third time; his new bride was a Mrs Eliza
Towers, and they lived at Montagu Place, Russell Square, until 1821 when apartments became
available at Montagu House.

Sir Humphry Davy as Trustee of the British Museum, 1820

In 1821, Sir Humphrey Davy again entered on Children's working life, on this occasion in his
little known capacity as a Trustee of the British Museum. Davy had risen to prominence at the
early age of 23 through his appointment in 1801 as the first Professor of Chemistry at the Royal
Institution, founded two years earlier. He was elected to the Royal Society in 1803, succeeding
Edward Whitaker Gray (1748-1806), Keeper of Natural History (Gunther, 1976), as one of the
Secretaries of the Society. In 1 820, on the death of Sir Joseph Banks, Sir Humphry, as he became
in 1812, was elected President of the Royal Society, which, also brought him, ex officio, onto the
British Museum's Board of Trustees as Banks' successor. On 9 December it was decided that:

'. . . the names of Sir Henry Halford 12 (D.N.B., 24 : 39) and Sir Humphry Davy be added
to the Sub-Committee appointed to look after the present state of the specimens of Natural
History in the Museum still remaining unpreserved.'

(Trustees Minutes, C.2766, 9 Dec. 1820)

Davy's function was to exercise a general supervision of the Natural History branch, then under
the Keeper, Charles Konig (1774-1851), in matters of money, purchases, sales of duplicates, etc.
To Davy were also referred problems of a technical nature that came before the Trustees, among
which was the defective heating system of the newly built Townley Gallery of marbles and
antiquities. 13 He was asked also to suggest methods for preserving stuffed animals from further
decay, 14 for which he designed a model show-case 'composed of permanent materials [which]
shall be perfectly air tight'. 15 He was generous with gifts to the Museum, passing on specimens
that came his way and, in return, occasionally taking samples of minerals for his experiments. 16

As President of the Royal Society, Davy was able also to bring his authority to bear on prob-
lems arising between the two institutions. Not the least of his services were those he undertook
towards the end of his life in representing the public in negotiations with Robert Brown (1773-
1858), Banks' executor, for the immediate use of the Banksian Library and collections (Edwards,
1870:508; Miller, 1973:226). Davy was also responsible in 1826 for initiating the transfer
from the Royal Society of the Sir William Jones' (1746-1794) (D.N.B. 30 : 174) collection of
oriental MSS., 17 which, although left to the Society, lay outside its competence, and came finally
to the British Museum in exchange for duplicate publications which the Royal Society lacked.

For a man who devoted his life to advancing the experimental aspects of natural philosophy,
it was natural that Davy should find the atmosphere of Montagu House somewhat static. Whether
he expressed his feelings to his fellow Trustees is not on record but a year or two before his death
he certainly delivered his opinion with some force. His brother's biography of Sir Humphry

84 A. E. GUNTHER

(Davy, 1836, 2 : 342-344), published after his death and a few months before the sittings of the
Select Committee of 1836, contained Davy's dictated disparagement which added to the ammuni-
tion used by the Museum's critics. In return, it gave Antonio Panizzi, then Assistant Librarian,
the opportunity of saying what he thought of scientific Trustees, including Sir Joseph Banks, for
their excessive interference (Parliamentary Papers, 1836, 4945, 7 June).

On his appointment as Keeper of the Department of Natural History and Modern Curiosities
in 1813, Charles Konig, who was primarily a mineralogist, had been allocated an assistant in
natural history, William Elford Leach (1790-1836), a young medical student from Edinburgh.
Leach was to establish an international reputation both for the quality of his original work and
for his translation of the works of the French naturalists working with the Baron Cuvier in Paris.
In the spring of 1821 Leach was taken ill, and although given every facility for recovery by the
Trustees, his illness, reputed to be venereal disease, had taken too strong a hold. After leaving for
Italy in the autumn, he formally resigned from the Museum in March 1822. Leach's place in this
account is important because he not only surpassed any of his predecessors in ability as a
naturalist, but he left an example which both his successors, Children and Gray, were to follow.
Furthermore, the impression he made on the Trustees may be judged by the generosity with
which he was treated both in the matter of his remuneration and in the purchase of his collections
after he had left their service. 18

Children's transfer to Natural History, 1822

The problem of replacing Leach was less of the shortage of zoologists in the country as of the
poor pay and working conditions in Montagu House, which were not those a man of independence
could accept. Dr William Hooker (1785-1865), at that time aged 31, still almost as much a zoolo-
gist as a botanist, was said to have been invited to apply, but the principal contender was William
Swainson (1789-1855), then working on his collections at Liverpool. Swainson had much to
offer, having worked in Sicily and recently returned from Brazil, but to some he lacked culture ;
he knew no foreign language and had acquired a reputation for inaccuracy (Gunther, 1900).
Faced with the lack of suitable alternatives, the Trustees decided to transfer Children, who was
after all a scientist, from the Department of Antiquities to that of Natural History. 19 It emerged
that the prime mover in this was Sir Humphry Davy who, wishing to do his friend a good turn
by bringing him back into the field of science, persuaded the Trustees that it was more important
to have a man of wide culture acceptable to the Museum's circle than a rough-edged outsider.
Children's version of the move was told to the Select Committee 15 years later:

4 I do not consider myself anything like the first naturalist in the country. My appointment
was not originally to the Natural History department, but I was removed (I believe by the
act of the Trustees generally in committee) from the department of Antiquities to the
Natural History. This was due at the suggestion of Sir Humphry Davy, a man whom, of all
others, you would probably consider as the fittest person to be a Trustee of the British
Museum. The transfer was effected, as I have said, at his suggestion, and almost without
my being consulted on the subject, and it has proved very much to my disadvantage. It
took place after Dr. Leach's illness prevented his remaining any longer at the British Museum;
it was not made in consequence of any wish of my own.'

(Select Committee, C.3070, 24 July 1835)

The disadvantage was that, since Taylor Combe died in 1826, Children would have succeeded
him as Keeper of the Department of Antiquities. Nevertheless, Children remained unswervingly
loyal to Humphry Davy, coming to his friend's defence whenever Davy's work was criticized
as in the matter of the Safety Lamp (Children, 1816), or in that of the protection of ships' bottoms
from corrosion with copper sheeting (Children, 1824).

Among naturalists, Children's appointment in 1823 as the new Assistant Keeper was the cause
of comment. Swainson's principal supporter was a certain Dr Thomas Stewart Traill, M.D.
(1781-1862) (D.N.B. 57: 151), a young medical man from Edinburgh who had taken up a

JOHN GEORGE CHILDREN 85

practice in Liverpool but was also making a name as an educationalist in the cause of science.
He was given to writing and lecturing and had been one of the movers in the foundation of the
Liverpool Literary and Philosophical Society and the Mechanical Institute. He had struck up a
close friendship with Swainson and, angered at the appointment to the Department of Natural
History of an Under-Librarian, as Assistant under the Keeper, Charles Konig, without any
zoological qualifications, he wrote a well-informed and scathing attack on conditions within
Montagu House and on its management, which appeared in the influential Edinburgh Review
and, being unsigned, received more attention than it might otherwise have done (Traill, 1823).

'With the highest respect for the acquirements of his [Leach's] successor, we cannot approve
his appointment to that department, in which he has certainly little previous experience, and
which, we are told, he has even professed his entire ignorance. No talents, and no industry,
without long previous study, and practical application, can qualify a man for the charge of
the Zoological Collection in the British Museum. His duty is not (in the present state of
things) to be confined to comparing the articles with a catalogue. . . .'

{Edinburgh Review, May 1823, p. 392)

Traill even suggested that the failure to provide

'. . . a permanent provision for an extra Librarian being the cause of the removal of Mr-
Children, from the antiquarian to the zoological department. . . .'

{Edinburgh Review, May 1823, p. 393)

Some time after these events, the Principal Librarian, Joseph Planta (1744-1827), was assured
by Konig that Children, of whom he had a high opinion, had come to welcome the change
(Smith, 1969 : 19); all things considered, however, this appears unlikely. Of those who had
charge of the natural history (zoological) collections between 1765 (with the death of James
Empson) and 1900, Children was the only one not to have entered the field of natural history
through a medical training, and it does not look as if a detailed interest in animal life, except in
its broader philosophical implications, would have occupied a major part of his analytical and
literary mind. Nevertheless, when Charles Konig was asked by the Select Committee in 1835
whether there were 'any more eminent naturalists of the day officially connected with the British
Museum', he replied 'Mr. Children's merits are very great. Mr. Children has done much for
science. He is also well versed in several branches of Natural History', and 'I think he is a good
zoologist.' (Parliamentary Papers, 1835 : 203).

Lamarck's Genera of Shells, 1824

During the five years Children had been at Montagu House, he would have learned much from
Leach of the general international situation in natural history, particularly in Paris where Leach
was in 1818. Entering the field of zoology at the age of 40 without it seems even a schoolboy's
penchant for collecting animals, Children may have seen the advantages in following Leach's
habit of translating the works of the French natural history masters as he himself had already
done in the field of chemistry ; in this way he would learn about a new subject.

The first task to which Children put his hand after his transfer was to continue the rearrangement
of the shell collection which Leach, with the help of his student friend, Gray, had started, based
on the new classification put forward by the French savant, M. le Chevalier Lamarck (1744-1829)
(Leach, 1852; Lamarck, 1815-1822). The Linnean system was inadequate because it was not based
on the living animal - the natural classification used for other living animals - but on the protec-
tive exoskeleton, the shell or test in which the occupant enclosed itself. A major reason at that
time for the importance of shells was their increased use in geology for the correlation of strata.
A sound anatomical classification for Recent shells, as a basis for ordering fossils, had not been
available in Linnaeus's day.

Children was fortunate in that his appointment in March 1822 was followed by the completion
of Lamarck's text on Mollusca in the following August; realizing its value, not only to scientists

86 A. E. GUNTHER

but to the many English amateur collectors as well, he set about writing an English version.
Being himself one of the editors of the Quarterly Journal of Science, he was in a position to
assure its immediate publication (Children, 1822-1824). Accordingly, Children's abstract of the
sixth and seventh volumes of the Histoire Naturelle des Animaux sans Vertebres (1819-1822)
appeared in the Journal in instalments between October 1822 and January 1824. It is a work
with which, not unjustly, Children's name has come to be closely associated. But there was more
to it than a literal translation of Lamarck's system now available to English collectors. The large
number of shells being collected from all over the world called for a revision of genera: an increase
in their number, their more precise definition, and for their illustration, lacking in Lamarck's
work. This, an introduction to Lamarck's system, is what Children's Genera of Shells provided,
including some 250 wood-cuts of the Museum's type-specimens carried out by Children's daughter,
Anna (Dance, 1966). That Children had in his work an eye to a wider public than would be
attracted to a literal translation of the French is clear from his attempt to make it something of a
companion for the average educated but unscientific collector. Many hundreds of notes adorn
the pages ; the etymology of Greek and Latin names are given with aids to understanding the
mythological events from which they derived. Thus Argonaut is explained:

'From argo, the name of the ship which carried Jason from Thessaly to Colchis, and nauta,
a sailor.'

(p. 164)

If a name implied a function, that was described, and Lamarck's French was adapted to use by
an English reader. From the scientific viewpoint, Children refers to the elder James Sowerby's
(1757-1822) current work and took his help in resolving Lamarck's ambiguities whether in
nomenclature or in explanation - that is, if they could be resolved. How wide a use was made of
the Genera of Shells in subsequent decades is not at all clear. It provided the basis for the 1838
edition of the Synopsis of the Contents of the British Museum, signed by Children, but is not
referred to in Gray's Genera of Recent Mollusca of 1847 20 (Kennard, Salisbury and Woodward,
1931). Today, copies of the Genera of Shells are rare; few could have been printed, and therefore
Children's influence on the malacology of his day was even less than it might have been.

Children's bent for translating foreign works, seen in his approach to minerals as well as to
insects, calls for some comment. There can be few members of the Museum's staff who over the
years translated as much material as did Children, they being concerned rather to add foreign
data to their own. Children, on the other hand, evidently translated solely for the pleasure
derived by a man of culture from adding to a scientific text, since for much of his keepership he
had some work of translation on hand. When did he undertake it ? Perhaps in the long winter
evenings after the Museum closed at 3 p.m.

Children appears to have been actively concerned with the shell collection up to 1 829 when the
Trustees were asked to provide an additional 20 table cases, of which 17 were approved. 21 How-
ever, his Genera of Shells remained his only published contribution in this field. In his Miscel-
laneous Autobiographical MSS. (Gunther, in press, f. 10), John Edward Gray tells how, in the
summer of 1823, he called at Montagu House to identify some shells and, meeting Children for
the first time, who found him to know something of the collection, was encouraged to spend his
spare hours helping in the work of rearrangement. From then on any lack of descriptive work on
Children's part was, in the words of Dr Guy L. Wilkins, 'amply rectified by his new assistant,
J. E. Gray' (Wilkins, 1957). Thereafter Children turned his attention to insects.

Children as zoologist

Since there are no departmental records in zoology for the period under review, or indeed until
1835, the work of the Assistant Keeper and his staff must be learned from their publications.
The appointment of J. E. Gray as a daily paid assistant in December 1824 relieved Children of
much of the taxonomic and other details. In the 19 years of Children's service, however, only
three zoological papers other than his work on shells appeared under his name. The first was the

JOHN GEORGE CHILDREN 87

translation of a French paper by Augustus Odier On the chemical composition of the corneaus
parts of insects (Children, 1825) which disproved the authors' conclusions that nitrogen was an
element present only in vegetable and not in animal organisms. The second was the Appendix XXI
to Travels in Central Africa (Clatterton & Denham, 1826). The third pointed out that the Esqui-
maux dog illustrated in St Hilaire and Cuvier's VHistoire Naturelle (Children, 1827) was not
what it purported to be ; it had, in fact, a Newfoundland dog mother.

In each of these contributions Children's part calls for examination. His literary style is generally
detectable but the accompanying appendices on Botany and Rocks in Travels in Central Africa
were by Robert Brown and Charles Konig respectively and it would therefore hardly have been
appropriate for the zoological appendix to be by his daily paid assistant, Gray, who was making
mammals his study. Similarly in the case of the Esquimaux dog, criticism of the work of such
eminent French naturalists should not rightly have come from a junior assistant. In c. 1830
Children's name appeared also on the title page of Illustrations of Ornithology (Jardine, & Selby,
1830) with those of a further half dozen collaborators, but apart from a reference to the Museum's
collection, there appears to have been no need to give Children co-authorship.

In November 1826, Children was elected Chairman of the Zoological Club of the Linnean
Society which, a year later, called for an anniversary address (Children, 1827; Atkins, 1853 : 239).
The meeting was held in the Society's rooms in Soho Square, and Children took the occasion to
define his status as a zoologist, confessing that he

*. . . began the fascinating pursuit of zoological science too late in life to expect to make
great proficiency in it. ... I yield to no man in point of ardent attachment to zoology and
zeal for its success. Circumstances compelled me to abandon a darling pursuit .... I will
not deny that the sacrifice was a painful one, and not made without considerable reluctance;
but were I to begin life again, and had the option of devoting myself to chemistry or zoology
... I think I should prefer the latter as opening up a more extensive view, if possible of the
works of nature ... to a deeper sense of adoration of the Power through whom we live, and
move, and have our being.'

Much of the address provided a useful review of the year's work of British zoologists both at
home and abroad, in phrases more felicitous than was usual at scientific meetings. But in contrast
to his superior, Gray was producing a steady stream of some twenty papers a year and was,
perhaps, so aware of his lead that at the end of a long Monograph on the Cypaediae, which in-
cluded 14 pages of references, he thought it appropriate to refer to his chief's qualities thus:

T take the opportunity of dedicating this curious species to my excellent friend, J. G.
Children Esq. whose extensive acquirements and zeal in science need not my feeble praise.'

(Zool. Jn. 1-3, 1824-1828)

In spite of Children's lack of contributions to zoological literature he gave much to others, and
what he did for John James Audubon (1785-1851), the ornithologist, was typical. In May 1827
Audubon arrived on his first visit to London with the original folios of his work on the Birds of
America, and within a month had been taken to the Linnean Society and to the Royal Society's
Club. It was also on Children's initiative that the drawings were shown to the king, William IV,
and so received royal patronage. Discussions led to the transfer of work on the plates from
Lizars in Edinburgh to Robert Havell in London at an improved quality and price; to restricting
the text to 'nothing more except the biographies of my birds' to save time, and before Audubon
left for the States in April 1829 he had 'given the agency of my work to my excellent friend
Children of the British Museum who kindly offered to see to it during my absence' - of two
years (Audubon & Coues, 1898, 1 : 252-258, 276, 342). It was also Children, with Lord Stanley
(1775-1851) (D.N.B. 54 : 66), who sponsored Audubon's election to the Royal Society and gave
him the news immediately on his return to England in April 1831 (Herrick, 1938, 1 : 437).

In 1829, following his return to the States Audubon 'sent many bird skins, insects and live
specimens to the British Museum and to the British Zoological Gardens' (Herrick, 1938, 1 : 420).
But it was an unfortunate accident that the bird which Audubon named after his friend, Sylvia
Childreni, proved to be a young of the species Sylvia AEstiva (Atkins, 1853 : 239).

88 A. E. GUNTHER

In 1823 Children was called in to help establish the Zoological Journal, the first number of
which appeared in March 1824 and which was 'conducted' until 1826 by Thomas Bell (1792-
1880), James de Carle Sowerby (1757-1822) and himself. From 1827 the Journal was edited by
N. A. Vigors (1785-1840), the first secretary of the Zoological Society, with the 'cooperation' of
nine others including Children. But the journal Children preferred was the Annals of Philosophy,
a Magazine of Chemistry, Mineralogy, Mechanics, Natural History, Agriculture and the Arts,
first issued in 1813. In view of his earlier work, this preference was hardly surprising, since the
Annals had been the first to bring to the public news of the Ferox Hall experiments. From the
start of the New Series in 1821, Children is believed to have assisted R. Phillips and E. W.
Brayley in the editorship (Atkins, 1853 : 208-211).

One gathers the impression that, by 1821, after five years as an Assistant Librarian in the
Department of Antiquities Children found the call of chemistry too strong to resist, and he may
have been stimulated by his new colleagues on the Annals. A year before his transfer to natural
history he returned in his spare time, as his daughter records, to practical mineral chemistry. His
analysis of the Egyptian pigment already mentioned was, after all, of interest to the Department
of Antiquities, but his translation of Jean Rey's of Bazas (1582/3-1645) (Children, 1821;
Partington, 1961, 2 : 632) essay on the Calcination of Metals of 1630, occupying some 50 pages
of the Quarterly Journal of Science, could scarcely be said to be. On the other hand, his translation
of the latest edition of volume 4 of L. J. Thenard's Traite de Chemie Elementaire (Children, 1821)
as a version for the use of a contemporary public, subtitled as 'comprehending the latest dis-
coveries and improvements in this branch of science', served as a preparation for the work he
was about to do. Indeed, in the next 5 years (1821-1825) Children contributed no less than a
dozen papers and notes on mineral chemistry to the Annals of Philosophy, so adding considerably
to his earlier reputation. With the blow-pipe he worked on the newly discovered elements,
cadmium and diaspore, examined the minerals baryto-calcite, babingtonite, torrelite, brochantite
and roselite; he discovered selenium in Anglesey pyrites and silica in sponges (Partington, 1962,
3:715-716). It was all this that inspired Henry James Brooke, F.R.S. (1771-1857) (D.N.B.
6 : 427), the mineralogist, to name a new mineral Childrenite :

'Mr. Brooke has lately described two new mineral bodies; to the first he has given the name
of Childrenite, on account of the attention among other inducements, which Mr. Children
has shown to mineralogical chemistry. . . .'

(Annals of Philosophy, 7 : 316, April 1824, Scientific Intelligence, New Minerals)

For much of his life, Children had no need to turn his chemical expertise to commercial ends'
but two occasions in the 1820s demonstrated the high opinion others held of his competence*
On the first he was partly moved by the ethics of the case, whilst the second was a response to a
challenge that came his way. In 1820, he was asked to act as consultant in a notable legal case
between a firm of sugar refiners, Messrs Severn, King & Co., and a group of insurance companies.
He joined six well-known chemists and others to dispute the evidence of an eminent chemist,
Samuel Parkes (1761-1825) (D.N.B. 43 : 307) who was acting apparently unethically on behalf
of Messrs Severn, King & Co. (Children, 1821). The second instance of Children's involvement
with commercial interests came in 1823-1824 when, as a result of silver speculation in South
America, the mining concerns were seeking a process for extracting the silver from its ores without
the expensive use of mercury which had to be imported from Spain. In his spare time from his
Museum duties Children evolved a suitable process, the sale of which helped to restore his
depleted finances (Atkins, 1953 : 233-237).

These problems continued to engage him until about 1826, but he published nothing more on
the subject. Instead there appeared in the Annals of Philosophy an essay based on the atomic
theory hypothesis being put forward in France by the Swede J. J. Berzelius (1779-1848), and the
Frenchman F. Beudant (1787-1850) (Children, 1825).

In July 1826, after four years in the Natural History Department, Children applied to the
Trustees on the grounds of ill health for two months' absence for a tour of the Continent, which
was to take him down the Rhine into Switzerland and Italy. 22 But at Schaffenhausen, on the
Swiss frontier, he was taken grievously ill and had to abandon his journey. After several weeks'

JOHN GEORGE CHILDREN 89

rest he 'bought an easy carriage' in the charge of an experienced courier - for French inns did
not provide the comforts to which an English gentleman was accustomed - and took the road
to Paris. Here he planned to call on Baron Cuvier and to visit the Museum d'Histoire Naturelle,
of which he would have heard much from Leach, Owen and others. In Paris, however, he was too
indisposed to carry out any but the scientific part of his programme and the only social invitation
he accepted was an evening with Cuvier who had previously shown him, together with J. E. Gray
who had happened to be in Paris, around the museum (Atkins, 1853 : 235). On his return a
period of convalescence overran his grant of leave but, since it had been occasioned by ill-health,
the Trustees refrained from deducting any sum from his 'extra allowance'. 23

Children had never been constitutionally robust, but from the age of about 45 there is increasing
mention in his biography (Atkins, 1583 : 234) of uncertain health, but the breakdown on the
continental trip was the first occasion on which he had been completely incapacitated for any
length of time. 24 The strain on Children's nervous energy from the extra-mural duties which he
undertook is evident from letters to J. W. Lubbock, his fellow Secretary at the Royal Society:

T have been obliged to give up for a while every sort of exertion in the hope of recovery the

tone of my nerves, which, whether from bilious derangement or whatever other cause seems

suddenly to have given way. I hope rest and quiet will restore them but they are not right yet.'

(Letter: Children to Lubbock, 22 July 1832. Royal Society, LUB.C.134)

But the trouble persisted for at least another month.

From the start of his work at Montagu House Children had found it necessary to live outside
the polluted air of central London; shortly after 1821, although granted the use of Leach's
apartments, he rented a house at Hampstead in 1823. 25 Thereafter, in summer, he maintained
various/?/^ a terre outside Bloomsbury; if not at Hampstead he lived at Burford Bridge, near
Dorking (1831), Norwood (1832), off Regent's Park (1833), at Wimbledon (1835), Mill Hill,
near Hendon (1837), or at Blackheath (1838).

At the Museum there was more than enough to occupy a Keeper's time. If the structure of
Montagu House made it impossible to refute all the criticism levelled against the Museum at the
time of Children's appointment, considerable improvements had been made in the displays,
as for example the shells; whilst the 'lists', as the early catalogues were known, were providing
some basis for classification and arrangement. Nevertheless, it still had to be reported to the
Trustees, in 1826, that 'sturTed animals still stood on the tops of the glass cases in Room 8'
(Zoology) before sanction was given to enclose them. 26 There was still no Classed Catalogue of
the department's books and, to illustrate the close watch kept by the Trustees on what went on,
Children found it necessary to ask their permission to use two of his three spare days each week
(days on which he had no peripatetic duties) to compile such a catalogue. This was despite the fact
that the Trustees in 1 827, and in the interest of a Classed Catalogue for the Museum as a whole,
had requested each Keeper to prepare one such for his department ; the Classification of Zoological
Works which Children and Gray proposed, written (in Children's hand ?) in Latin on four quarto
cartridge paper sheets with Gray's handwritten annotations in red ink, is preserved in B.M.
MSS. 1835-1853, 45 : ff. 3-6.

In November 1826, in spite of his breakdown that summer, Children consented with some
misgiving to become one of the Secretaries of the Royal Society, replacing William Thomas
Brande (1788-1866), who had succeeded Sir Humphry Davy at the Royal Institution some years
before. It seems likely that pressure to accept this appointment came from Sir Humphry himself,
still President of the Society, and who, about to leave for Italy on the grounds of health, wished
to have a friend at the seat of power. He died on his return in Geneva in May 1829. But the
accumulation of duties at the Museum, the Zoological Club and the Royal Society proved too
much for Children's health, and he gave up the Society's secretaryship at the first opportunity,
in November 1827.

In 1826, Children after a long interval was again involved with the Royal Institution by being
elected a Visitor (Anon., 1800-1836). In 1828 he received a unique honour in the award of the
first John Fuller 27 Medal (Anon., 1800-1836). The founder's intention was that the medal should

90 A. E. GUNTHER

be awarded every other year for major discoveries in chemistry, but on the first occasion, 21 April
1828, Mr Fuller decided to present Gold Medals himself to the following members:

'Sir Humphry Davy, Bart.
Dr. Wollaston
Chas. Hatchett Esq.
William Thos. Brande Esq.
John George Children Esq.
John Frederick Daniell Esq.
Michael Faraday Esq.'

(As listed in Minutes of Managers Meeting, p. 196)

It was thus that Children's work at two periods of his life found recognition in the company of
the great natural philosophers of the day: in 1806-1816 at Ferox Hall in the development of the
voltaic battery, and in 1821-1825 at the British Museum in the pursuit of mineral chemistry,
leading, happily in his own interest, to a new method of extracting silver from ores without
amalgamation.

In 1830, and again in 1836, Children was appointed a Manager of the Royal Institution and
served on the Committee for the regulation of the Friday evening lectures ; however, he did not
attend the meetings regularly and gave the Institute little of his time.

Children is recorded as having suggested in 1828 that a commemorative dinner be held on the
bi-centenary of the birth of John Ray (1628-1705); it would not be surprising, however, if the
idea came instead from Ray's possibly collateral descendant, John Edward Gray. On 29 November

'. . . a public dinner at Freemasons' Hall was attended by about 130 of the most distinguished
cultivators and patrons of Science, including several of the officers of the learned societies
[including John Gray] and the Professors of Oxford, Cambridge and London.'

(Anon., 1828)

Children was not amongst the eminent speakers, but his health 'was given with hearty approba-
tion'.

Entomology and the Entomological Society, 1830

On the completion of his work on shells, Children appears to have turned his attention to insects.
What initiated this interest is not clear; it may have derived from his father, perhaps as a hobby
of the prosperous Ferox Hall days, since a family in that position would have had no difficulty
in building up a sizeable collection. An obituary asserts that Children

'. . . devoted a considerable portion of his time to the study of entomology, and formed a
very large private collection of insects [put at 37 000], as well as one of the most complete
entomological libraries in Europe.'

(Westwood, 1852)

Children's first contribution to entomology seems to have emerged suddenly in 1828 with a
condensed translation of Ochsenheimer's Genera (Children, 1828-1830) stimulated by the in-
adequacy of the Entomologists Useful Companion (Samouelle, 1819). Thus it might appear that,
as with the Genera of Shells, Children used a contemporary standard work to provide himself
with up-to-date knowledge on a subject, but his approach, as on the previous occasion, was that
of a man of culture with a knowledge of the work of English entomologists, principally Stephens,
Leach and Curtis. The first section of the Abstract appeared in the Philosophical Magazine and
Annals in July 1828, and continued through another 14 numbers into the volume for July-
December 1830. Then, when another Ochsenheimer volume failed to appear, the series came to
an abrupt end. The translation, comprising 150 pages together with innumerable notes and
'Observations', some of considerable length, was no small achievement for a man in charge of a

JOHN GEORGE CHILDREN 91

department currently moving into a new building, who was never strong in health. The work was
followed in the same year by the last of his abridged translations, of Fabricius' Systema Glossa-
torum (Children, 1830). These works of translation by the Keeper of the national collections,
together with the readiness with which he allowed others access to his library, marked him if not
as the first entomologist in the country then at least as the logical focus for the founding of an
Entomological Society. A preliminary meeting of the new association is believed to have been
held in his apartments in the Museum on 3 May 1833 (Neave & Griffin, 1933). At this time a
resolution was passed to form a Committee, which in turn called the First General Meeting of
the Society on 22 May at the Thatched House, St James Street; J. F. Stephens (1792-1852) took
the Chair and a Council was appointed. Children was elected as the Society's first President and
as such addressed the first Anniversary Meeting on 26 January 1835. This address, adjuring the
members of the Society to do their duty by their science, and, in a reference to the unity of nature
reflecting the mind of the Creator, bearing Children's personal stamp of ethics, sought also to
mend the differences between those within and without the Society (Neave & Griffin, 1933 : 86),
namely, whether the Society's transactions should be exclusively devoted to entomology or not.
Children contributed an Introduction to the first volume of the Society's Transactions \ he also
served on the Council from 1837 to 1838 and as Vice-President in 1838.

Whether Children's interest in the state of the collections and in the work of his insect specialist,
Samouelle, was on the same level as his concern with his own rather peripheral activities de-
scribed above remains in doubt because the deficiencies of both were brought forcefully to his
attention by the enquiries of the Select Committee in 1836.

His own single practical contribution was the identification of some two dozen insect species
brought by Capt. George Back from an expedition to the Arctic in 1833-1835 (Back, 1836);
that was virtually all. His final concern with entomology appears almost casual. When he retired
from the Museum in 1840, he put his collection of insects and entomological books up for sale,
resigning from the Entomological Society the next year. In the words of its history he 'appears
not to have further interested himself in Entomology after that date' (Neave & Griffin, 1933 : 120).

The new British Museum, 1828

From the mid- 1820s the East Wing of the new British Museum, the first part of Robert Smirke's
quadrangle, was to be seen rising to the north of Montagu House and plans were under discussion
for the transfer of the collections. In July 1828 the books of the King's Library from Kensington
Palace were the first to be moved in. In December the Trustees enquired of the Natural History
Branch on the then size of the collections and their expected growth, to judge whether they would
fit into the galleries reserved for them. 28 An inspection early in 1829 by Konig and Children, who
had evidently not been consulted earlier, revealed so serious a lack of light that the architect was
asked whether a row of windows could not be let into the east wall. 29 When told that this was
structurally impossible, a partial solution was suggested in the removal of the interior fittings to
the sky-lights. 30

It was anticipated that the new galleries would be ready for the zoological collections by April,
when the Trustees ordered that the

'. . . zoological collections should immediately be transferred to the New Gallery, fully
expecting that sufficient space will be found for the Collections.' 31

In June, however, Children was still being told 'to commence forthwith arrangements for Zoology
in the New Gallery', and in July, for 'the Shells to be transferred as soon as possible into that
part of the New Gallery that is over the MS Library'. 32 There were, of course, the usual problems
involved in such a move. For the new galleries the old upright cases needed to be deepened and
the sides glazed. There were to be 20 new table cases, new bird stands and stoppered bottles for
reptiles. All these - if not too large - were to be displayed to the Trustees at their Meetings. 33

In spite of these urgings, the birds were not moved until February 1830 when it was decided
that the mammals, reptiles, molluscs and fishes were to remain in Montagu House in the three

92 A. E. GUNTHER

rooms previously occupied by the Banks Library. 34 Thus the staff were as much occupied with the
rearrangements in Montagu House as with the transfer into the new galleries. But by November
1830 progress was sufficiently advanced for the question of specimen labels to be raised. When
it was found that the cost of printed labels 'greatly exceeded' hand-written ones, a Mr Mackenzie
was engaged at a guinea a week to write them. 35

Work on the Montagu House collections was always in arrears because of the lack of general
assistance; moreover, the complicated procedure for adding staff further delayed any formal
application until 1828, when:

'Mr. Children having respectfully submitted to the Trustees that a person is extremely
wanted in the Zoological Branch of the Department of Natural History, who in addition to
his normal duties of the servants of the Department possesses a knowledge of preserving
animals, and that a person of the description might be obtained at the pay of one guinea a
week.

Resolved

'That Mr. Children's representation be laid before His Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury
with a request from the Committee that his Grace and the Principal Trustees will take the
propriety of making such an appointment into their consideration.

Ordered

'That the Principal Librarian undertake the reprinting of the Acts and Votes of Parliament
relating to the British Museum, with the Statutes and Rules thereof, and the succession of
Trustees and Officers; and that an 100 copies of the same be printed for the use of the
Trustees.' 36

As a result a Mr Dietrichsen was appointed a year later as stuffer and preserver of animals at
25 shillings per six-day week; although this is the first and last we hear of him, once the collections
housed in the new building started to expand, there was more than enough work to employ an
attendant full time. 37 Now that the ice had been broken, requests for additional staff became less
of a formality and soon Children was again indenting for an Attendant, perhaps to replace Mr
Dietrichsen, as he was to do yet again with increasing urgency in the 1830s with the second stage
of the move in prospect. 38

In fact, two additional naturalists were engaged in 1831, before the move, George R. Gray
(1808-1872) and Adam White (1817-1863). Gray was the brother of John Edward Gray, and
he at once took over the bird collection from his brother. His presence in the Museum on the
morning of 21 October 1830 does not appear to have received the approbation of the head of the
Department :

'Mr. Konig presents his complements to Mr. Ellis [Principal Librarian] and begs to acquaint
him that there is at this moment, that there has been for a considerable portion of this morn-
ing, a person unknown in Mr. Konig's Department (but who he understands is the brother
of Mr. Gray, extra assistant in that department) engaged in arranging objects of Nat.
History, in two of the rooms adjoining the Saloon. Hearing from the secretary that no
appointment of an additional assistant in his Department has taken place, Mr. Konig
considers it his duty to give this information not doubtful that Mr. Ellis will see the necessity
of immediately putting a stop to this enormous irregularity.' 39

The intruder was to give 42 years' service. For the first 12 months, however, he was employed
without pay until in September 1831 he was placed on probation for another 12 months at 15
shillings for each working day. In May 1835 Children's 'indispensably necessary' appeal to the
Trustees led to the appointment of Adam White, an Edinburgh boy of 19 who was paid £70 for
his probationary year, £80 for his second and thereafter at the regular assistant's rate of 1 5 shillings
per day. 40

JOHN GEORGE CHILDREN

93

Fig. 2 John George Children (1777-1852), Keeper of the Natural History collections at the British
Museum 1822-1840. Oil painting by an unknown artist of Children during his time as Secretary
of The Royal Society (1830-1837). Presented to the Royal Society by John Edward Gray in 1873.
(Portrait not at present available).

94 A. E. GUNTHER

Secretary of the Royal Society, 1830

By the end of 1830 the transfer of the collections to the East Wing was complete and the new
galleries were to be opened to the public in January 1831. The result was to attract a flood of
specimens from collectors all over the world, such as those sent by General Hardwicke from
Africa in 1830, Gould's from the Himalaya in 1832, Audubon's from North America, A. H.
Haworth's (1768-1833), John Macculloch's (1775-1835) and those of many others. 41

Children was now 54, within a measure of retirement. With this major undertaking completed
but lacking an interest in the systematics of natural history, such as kept his principal assistant,
J. E. Gray, endlessly busy at his lists and catalogues, one suspects he looked for a wider field of
activity than offered by the department. He found it, accepting for the second time and, it is
said, both unwillingly and against his better judgement, the Secretaryship of the Royal Society,
which he held for the next five years. The pressure came on this occasion, one must assume,
from Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex (1773-1843), the sixth son of George III and Queen
Charlotte and who, himself a scientist, had been elected President of the Royal Society in
1830, remaining so until 1838 (Henderson, 1885). Children had met the Duke, then on a visit
from Rome, in Lisbon in 1801 and a friendship of some warmth was preserved over the years.
Unfortunately, in deference to royalty, his family felt it incumbent upon them to destroy the
Duke's letters (Atkins, 1853 : 33). The record of the lists of Officers of the period show that he
served with J. W. Lubbock (1803-1865), Vice-President and Treasurer (Clerke, 1893), Peter
Mark Roget (1779-1869) as Joint Secretary (Webb, 1897), and with Charles Konig as Foreign
Secretary (Anon., Royal Society, 1837, 3 : 90,360).

This period of Children's secretaryship was not marked by any outstanding event, unless by the
Presidency of the Duke of Sussex. In 1832, the Catalogue of the Royal Society Scientific Books,
to be published in 1839, was put in hand and, together with Lubbock, Children joined in editing
the Abstracts of the Papers of the Philosophical Transactions, Vol. HI, 1830-1837 (Anon., Royal
Society, 1837), a task which could not have been other than a tedious chore. Children's relations
with the President, to judge from a series of letters to Lubbock, were those of a dutiful and tactful
personal secretary rather than of an eminent scientist assuming a secretarial function. He would
wait on the Duke at the royal apartments at Kensington Palace to receive his commands, if
need be taking breakfast there 'at half past ten exactly'. Children's resignation in 1835, partly on
the grounds of health and partly because of the demands of the Select Committee, drew a unani-
mous resolution from the Council :

'That the thanks of the Society be given to their Secretary, John George Children, Esq.
for the zeal and ability which he uniformly displayed, and the many valuable services he has
rendered, in promoting its objects.'

(Proc. Roy. Soc. No. 23, 1835-1836, 10 Dec. 1835)

In 1833, Children was largely responsible, as honorary secretary of the committee, for organiz-
ing the commemoration of the birth of Joseph Priestley (1733-1804) by a dinner at the Freemasons'
Hall, where he joined others in speeches and replied to the toast of the British Museum (Anon.,
1833).

Select Committee on the British Museum, 1835-1836

The Minutes of the Trustees of the British Museum of this period are a constant reminder of how
closely the Trustees were involved in the day-to-day running of the Museum, and how the
consciousness of their responsibility seemed to prevent them from delegating decisions to the
Keepers or even to the Principal Librarian. The latter's duties were rather more those of what
would be called today an 'Assistant to the Directors', rather than of a director himself. Thus,
they did not hesitate to reprimand him in formal minutes if they considered he had erred or,
in the contemporary jargon, that he had merited their opprobrium. At a lower level, the Keepers
were subject not only to detailed control of their expenditure, which was natural enough, but
they had also to seek the approval of the Trustees for the way in which they allocated their 'free'

JOHN GEORGE CHILDREN 95

time, for which they were paid. Approval for their suggestions would come via the Minutes from
the Secretary, the Rev. Josiah Forshall, in the form of a formal resolution. It could happen also
that instructions to Keepers would go beyond what was practicable, but there seem to have been
few examples of this.

Criticism emanating in May 1833 from outside the Museum probably led the Trustees to
enquire about the state of the Shell Collection :

'That Mr. Children report how far the several Collections which he more especially super-
intends are arranged and ticketed with their proper names; and this particularly with
respect to the Shells, and within what time the last mentioned Collection will be completely
named and the names attached to the several specimens.' 42

In great haste Children turned to Dr Gray :

British Museum
4th June 1833
(Draft)
'My dear Mr. Gray,

I have received an order from the Trustees of a very unpleasant nature. It refers more
particularly to the general Collection of Shells. I shall report in a way that I hope may be
satisfactory, but I must request at all events that you will suffer nothing to interrupt the
progress of naming the Collection with the utmost possible dispatch. What I require is that
you will have the goodness to give George [G. R. Gray] the names (written in pencil at the
bottom of the boards) of all the Species which you know off hand, and in the meantime I
will make out such of the others as I can find figures or descriptions of, so that ( ?) they be
all working at on a definite object, (for I shall leave the Corals for the present), and I again
must most positively insist on no other interfering with its progress till every shell in the
Collection be named unless an order to that effect, be given by the Trustees themselves.

Your brother's whole time must be devoted to writing the names on the boards, and I beg
he may not be employed in any other manner whatever, without my express approbation.

Ever my dear Gray
faithfully yours
John Geo. Children.
PS. There is no necessity for placing the Shells first purchased, on boards, till they have been
laid before the Trustees. I beg they may be shown in the Lots, exactly as purchased.

J. G. C.
The price of each Lot must be given in at the same time.' 43

If it is thought that Gray, because of his lack of status, escaped the opprobrium of authority,
the following note to Children from the Principal Librarian serves to straighten the record:

'The Persons who come to Mr. Gray's Room are stated to me to be so very numerous,
that they must, interfere with the performance of his official duties.' 44

To provide details of most of the years of Children's Keepership this account has relied on
records from outside sources, as well as the few publications from his own hand. However,
from 1835, and including a few from 1828, there have survived, not only the official memoranda
and letters of the Natural History Branch which passed between the Secretary of the Trustees
and the Keeper, but also Children's personal Report Book in which he made notes or drafts of
his replies. Here an untidy handwriting, which deteriorated over the years, reveals some of tne
strains to which he was subject until, in 1837, corrections to his drafts begin to appear in the
hand of J. E. Gray. 45

These records coincide with the appointment in 1835 of a Select Committee of the House of
Commons to 'enquire into the Condition, Management and Affairs of the British Museum'
(Parliamentary Papers, 1836). The move into the new building had utterly changed the pace of
Museum life, exposing it to the public gaze and showing up the deficiencies in what was now
recognized as a national institution. Its fine new galleries were attracting, from proud donors, an

96 A. E. GUNTHER

avalanche of gifts and collections from all over the world; a wider public thirsted for cultural
'amusement', as it was called, and the work of the staff was becoming progressively subject to the
critical attention of a growing class of scientists, both professional and amateur, who had estab-
lished a number of learned societies in the subjects studied at the Museum. It was, of course,
difficult for a body of elderly trustees, dependent on a strictly controlled Treasury grant, to
realize that the provision of a new building was merely the first step towards what the new public
- who had seen what the French, defeated in war only twenty years before, were making of their
Museum (THistoire Naturelle in Paris - were now calling for.

O^

a#*«i3S^«—— at — -&£s^T ^>*c^ ^wc^^c

J? ^C^y

**>C/<l ^j>~- £l

-1

Fig. 3 Letter from J. G. Children to G. Samouelle, from Letters and Reports, Zoological Branch
British Museum, being memoranda exchanged between the Secretary of the Trustees and the Keeper,
J. G. Children, 1 828-1840, ff. 58, 59. (British Museum (Natural History), General Library).

The Committee's enquiry began in May 1835 and concerned itself first with the literary side
of the Museum's work. In July came the turn of natural history, Charles Konig was called first,
followed by Children on 24 July, and then the other members of his staff. For Children the
exposure to public questioning, which continued until the 1836 Session of Parliament, could not
have been other than a chastening experience. He was then in his 58th year and not in the best of
health. Technically unqualified for the position he held, he did not have the command of detail
that would sit more lightly on a younger man involved in the day-to-day work. Moreover, his
examination by the Committee, lasting one full day, was followed by that of his assistant, J. E.
Gray, for two days in 1835 and again for another four in 1836; finally he was recalled to reply to
the outspoken criticism of Dr Robert E. Grant (1793-1874) (Boulger, 1890), Professor of Com-
parative Anatomy and Zoology in the University of London :

JOHN GEORGE CHILDREN 97

'I conceive that, compared with the corresponding institutions of our Continental bretheren,
the zoological collection of our National Museum, and the management of that collection,
are an opprobrium to the British nation and these enlightened times'.

(Parliamentary Papers, para. 315, 25 Feb. 1836)

It was an accusation that visibly nettled the Trustees who sent at once to Children asking for an
explanation and received the answer that if the collections were to be looked at in detail rather
than generalized about, then the generally accepted truth would emerge; that the zoological
collections at the British Museum had at that time no equal in the world. (P.p. 1836 : 2781-2897,
28 April; Children, 1835-1837, ff. 33, 37). But this was Gray's work, not his, and it was Gray
who gave the Committee what it was seeking : a detailed analysis of the situation relating to the
science of zoology in Britain and on the Continent, followed by a clear and purposeful outline
of the policy for its organization and development within the Museum.

Little wonder, then, that in the life of her father Anna Atkins dismisses the work of the Select
Committee (incidentally one of the most important in the Museum's history) as

*. . . a great and by no means agreeable consumption of valuable time.'

(Atkins, 1853 : 264)

The adjournment of the sessions of the Select Committee from August 1835 to February 1836
gave those involved time to take stock of what had so far emerged; as concerned as any were
Children, Keeper of Zoology, and J. E. Gray his assistant, still without a formal position and still
paid only 15 shillings per working day. In the dozen years since Gray had joined Children, their
personal relations had been, on such evidence as there is, harmonious. But the evidence given by
each before the Committee, if not contradictory, was at least very different in tone and could
hardly leave things as they were ; for this there is evidence in the draft of a letter found amongst
Gray's papers (Gray, c. 1862-1874, MSS.).

In his annual report of March 1836, required by the Trustees from each assistant, Gray had
appended a Memorial (Gray, 1836). This, after explaining the nature of his duties and situation in
the Branch since he joined it in 1824, asked that he be considered for the post of Assistant Keeper.
As courtesy required, he showed the Memorial to Children, who made no objection. But when the
Trustees turned the petition down Gray, without Children's knowledge, wrote a personal letter
to one of the members of the Select Committee, probably its Chairman, Mr Benjamin Hawes,
M.P. (1797-1862) (Boase, 1891), complaining both of Children's competence as Keeper and of
his personal behaviour. Although there remains some doubt as to whether this letter was actually
sent, the questions Children was asked when recalled for an extra examination by the Select
Committee on 28 April 1836 suggest that it was. Omitting charges of a purely personal nature,
since to include them would be making too much of a transient tension between the two men,
the following is a fair statement of Gray's case.

Letter from J. E. Gray to some person, either a member of the Select Committee on the
British Museum 1835-1836 or to someone close to its affairs.

'Dear Sir,

I am extremely sorry again to trouble you with a letter but ... I wish to draw your atten-
tion [as you] asked [during] our conversation . . . knowing that you are a friend of Mr.
Children, and one interested in the business of the British Museum. I greatly regret that I
feel myself under the necessity of complaining of the conduct which I have received from
Mr. Children, because I feel myself greatly indebted to his former kindness; indeed I may
say that I have almost all the regard for him that a son would bear a father, but still I cannot
allow these feelings to prevent me from doing my duty towards the Museum and acting
honestly with myself.

'It was this feeling which induced me always to keep as much as I could from the public,
both in the Museum and in the evidence before the Committee, the little attention that Mr.
Children paid to the Department, to leave out any mention of his recent conduct towards
me, or my official services to the Museum in my late Memorial to the Trustees, as I felt
assured that if the Trustees placed me in any situation on the establishment, that then Mr.

98 A. E. GUNTHER

Children would not think of acting towards me [as he has of late] (?)... but the Trustees
having seen fit to refuse my request, I am now placed even in a more uncomfortable situation
than I was before, as Mr. Children, though he [was] pleased to say, when I showed him the
Memorial, that nobody could deserve to be promoted more than I did. . . .

'It must be well known to you that Mr. Children has given very little attention to the study,
or very little time to the business of the Department, especially since he has been Secretary
of the Royal Society, his time being much occupied (once a week at least) on attending on,
or conducting the business of the President, and on reading and correcting the papers to
be read or published by the Society. Seeing that this was the case, I have exerted myself to
the utmost (often by working during the greater part of the night), to do my own duties as
well as those which ought to belong to Mr. Children, so that the business of the Department
should not be neglected, always consulting Mr. Children and letting him have as much
credit in the Museum as he wished, and I have always followed his directions, only mildly
giving him my reasons why I thought that some other plan might be better. . . .

'. . . and further, when the conduct of the junior assistants of the Department are taken out
of my hands and they are made quite independent of me, through Mr. Children, from his not
being in the Museum cannot exercise sufficient control over them ; and lastly when the only
attendant in our Department is often sent away during the private days, the only one I
could employ for any more laborious occupations, is being usually sent out on Mr.
Children's private business. . . .

'I presume, moreover, [I have been presumptious when,] hearing that he has often denied
to persons who came to consult the Collection etc., I have always held myself in readiness
to see everybody and give him every facility (?) in my power, and it is my pride that I am
able to say that during the time that I have been in the Museum, I have used every endeavour
that the Collection should be [in] the best possible condition for public reference . . . and
we are now in the Committee, receiving the praise of all parties for this facility and attention
to the public.

I am Dear Sir,
Your humble servant,
John Edward Gray.'

(Gray, c. 1862-1874, MS. ff. 124-125)

The third day of Gray's resumed examination by the Select Committee, 28 April 1836, was
interrupted by Children's recall. Children, asked a question about his work as Secretary of the
Royal Society, replied that it occupied only one day a week, and even that after the Museum
had closed its doors at 3 o'clock; however, this denial is hardly borne out by mention in Children's
letters of the calls made on his time by the Duke of Sussex, then President of the Society. When
Children was asked whether Gray was conscientious in his duties, he emphasized that gentleman's
'fidelity to his task' by asserting that he 'never saw Gray otherwise engaged than in the interests of
the Trustees when in the Museum' (P.p. 1836, para. 2895) - a sentiment that may have helped
their friendship but did little for Children's health; the publication of the Select Committee's
Report in July found Children on a month's absence on sick leave.

There were undoubtedly other occasions of friction than that of Gray's refused promotion
between a tired and ageing Keeper and his assistant; one such occurred on 7 April 1837 when
Children, complaining that Gray had not followed the directions of the Principal Librarian in
completing his monthly report with the 'actual duty performed', had refused to accept Gray's
reason and returned his letter. 46 But the best testimony to their relationship appears in the support
given by Children to Gray's candidature for the Royal Society:

'Mr. Gray is the best naturalist that I know, especially for his very extensive acquaintance
with species in almost every department of Natural History, including fossil remains. He is
also a good physiologist and comparative anatomist, and will be very useful in all these
branches of science. He is attached to the British Museum. His name was suggested by Dr.
Roget.'

(Royal Society, Lubbock Letters, LUB.C.179, 12 July 1833)

JOHN GEORGE CHILDREN 99

Between the publication of the Select Committee's Report in July 1836 and his retirement in
1840, Children was concerned firstly with the rearrangement which the Trustees accepted from
the Committee's recommendations, and secondly with the next phase of the move of the collec-
tions from Montagu House to the new building.

The Natural History Department was divided in 1837 into three equal and autonomous
Branches - Departments from 1856 -of Mineralogy and Geology, Zoology and Botany which
made Children, now Keeper of Zoology, finally independent of Charles Konig. Each Branch
received an allocation for the purchase of specimens, Zoology receiving £800 a year, and another
£800 for preservation. 47 From 25 March 1837, a Catalogue of Accessions was maintained by
the Zoological Branch, the first volume being in J. E. Gray's hand, which continues to this day. 48

A revision of salaries in March 1837 gave Keepers £600 a year and Junior or Assistant Keepers
£450, with an extra £30 after 15 years' service. At that time, J. E. Gray, still not rated as Assistant
Keeper, was paid £275 a year, to include Saturdays, and allowed one month's vacation (28
March, f. 55). 49 The departmental Assistants were also upgraded from 7 shillings a day in the
first year to 1 1 shillings a day after 5 years, finally after 10 years receiving £180 a year. From then
on the system of 'free days' was abolished, and staff were required to place their 'whole time and
service at the disposal of the Trustees' for 6 days a week, being allowed 6 weeks' vacation each
year. 50

Instructions to staff were received, if not through the Secretary of the Trustees, from Henry
Ellis (1777-1869), the Principal Librarian since 1827, an able and hard-working man devoted to
the betterment of the Museum. Orders to Keepers were passed on to the remaining staff in the
form of letters, thus :

'From J. G. Children [Draft] British Museum

7 April 1837
To Messrs. J. E. Gray

G. Samouelle

G. R. Gray

A. White

... a letter which has this morning [been] reed, from the P.L. from which they will perceive
that their Reports must in future specify the actual amount of Duty performed from Month
to Month - and that they must state to me (Sir Henry Ellis' own expression) "where they
began" at the commencement of each period, and "where they ended at its conclusion".

These gentlemen will, therefore, henceforth report the number of Genera and Species
which they have named, catalogued and arranged in the cases, Month by Month, as Mr.
Children will reject every report which does not strictly comply with the direction of the
Principal Librarian.

John George Children.' 51

In December this order was amended to require the keeping of Diaries signed by the Keepers
which, as Work Books, were retained for many years. 52 In May 1839 staff were accorded the
privilege of submitting their own Annual Reports, 53 whilst in January 1840, perhaps in anticipa-
tion of Children's successor, the Principal Librarian required

'. . . a precise Statement of the progress made in the arrangement of the collections . . . and
of the printing, or preparation for printing, Catalogues of the Collections subsequent to the
reports made to the Trustees in June 1838'. 54

The new British Museum, transfer, second phase, 1838-1841

Plans for the second phase of the move from Montagu House into the North Wing of the new
building had been outlined in 1835 when the estimate, in Gray's hand, of the display space required
was two to three times what there then was: glass-fronted show cases increasing from 633 to
1828 linear feet, and table cases from 42 to 68. 55 Meanwhile the Trustees urging a revised edition

100 A. E. GUNTHER

of the Synopsis of the British Museum, Children's reply was that this could not be carried out
until the move had been completed, and would then require two separate publications: a syste-
matic catalogue for the student and a popular guide for the public.

In 1837 a provisional allocation of space in the North Wing gave Minerals and Fossils (then
in the Long Gallery of the East Wing) the northern row of galleries; into these, with some difficulty,
Konig fitted them in May 1838. 56 Natural History (zoology) presented little difficulty; the furni-
ture was ordered in 1838, the dispositions agreed in 1839, and in 1840-1841 the collections in
the East Wing were rearranged to allow for the final transfer from Montagu House. Apart
from an extension of mammals into the South Wing as far as the Pediment, the collections re-
mained approximately as Children and Gray ordered them until the move to South Kensington
in the 1880s. But Children's request for a room for the Assistants and for three study rooms for
zoologists fell on deaf ears. 57 A point of incidental interest is that, in preparation for the move,
Children turned his attention to the fish collection.

Retirement, 1840

It may be asked why Children, now approaching 60, did not retire in 1837 after the findings of
the Select Committee had been implemented. 'Le fin', he was fond of saying, 'couronne tout.'
Whether in view of the shortage of staff he had the Museum's interest at heart, or whether he
wished to share in the historical event of the final transfer of the Collections from Montagu House,
must remain a matter of conjecture. Children's inclinations were those of an 18th-century man
of science, used to dilettantism rather than the mundane day-to-day affairs of the 19th century,
made increasingly burdensome by a precarious health.

'The increasing business in his, as in every department of our national Museum, consequent
on the almost daily acquirements of fresh objects of every kind, required exertions which were
serious in the state of his nerves and health.'

(Atkins, 1853 : 268)

It was the death of his third wife, Eliza, in September 1839, and the three months of disability
which followed, that finally led him to the decision to retire.

*. . . by necessity, not choice, a man of considerable toil . . . for some time desirous to quit
the Museum ... yet he was now daily feeling how needful rest and leisure were becoming
for him.'

(Atkins, 1853 : 271)

At the end of the year he waited upon Dr William Howley (1766-1848), the Archbishop of
Canterbury (Barker, 1891), who prayed that he should not find freedom from labour more
tedious than labour itself. The manner of his going reflected the respect the Trustees had for the
man, socially one of themselves, since expressions of approbation are not usually found in their
Minutes. Children's letter of resignation of 25 March 1840 inspired the General Meeting of the
Trustees to a resolution :

'That the Trustees received with regret the announcement of the resignation of Mr. Children
of his Office of Keeper of the Zoological Collections, and think it due to Mr. Children to
record upon their Minutes the sense which they entertain of Mr. Children's meritorious
services in the Museum during the long period of 24 years.' 58

In retirement, poor health denied Children the chance of doing productive work. He retained
his London residence at 48 Torrington Square, but resided mainly with his son-in-law, John
Atkins, who married his daughter, Anna, in 1825, at Halstead Place, Enfield, then out in the
countryside. 59 Although he frequently travelled for 'change' on medical grounds, his life was
one of enforced leisure; he rarely enjoyed consecutive days of health but when he did he ex-
pressed his relief in verse. On being invited in 1847 by the Rev. F. P. Bliss, of St John's College
to stay at Oxford during the British Association Meeting, he replied :

JOHN GEORGE CHILDREN J 01

'I really am in that uncertain state as to health, that I cannot answer for myself from day
to day, my old complaints have brought on a distressing state of the general surface of the
mucous membrane of the throat and nostrils and which kept me for some days in almost
constant state of coughing and nose bleeding - to the great discomfort of myself and an-
noyance of all around me. . . .' 60

With such strength as remained to him, he returned to the lathe-work of his school days, but the
subject which absorbed him was astronomy and he bought a fine new telescope. As in the case of
chemistry, he had lectured in the subject with an amateur proficiency. 61 In 1844 he supported the
founding of the Ray Society 62 and in 1847 made a final contribution to the PhilosophicalJournal,
appropriately enough on an explosion which followed 'the use of a mixture of spirits of wine and
camphine and oxygen gas as a light for optical purposes' (a magic lantern) (Children, 1847). In
November 1 848 he spent nights observing the transit of Mercury.

Towards the end of 1851, at the age of 74 the years took their toll and John George Children
died on New Year's Day, 1852. His burial service was held in St George's Bloomsbury on 9
January. 63 It is believed, but not certain, that Children was buried in the same grave as his third
wife, Eliza, in the St George's Burial Ground, north of the Foundling Hospital, now named
St George's Gardens. Several other members of the staff of the British Museum lie interred in
the same place, but no trace of a monument to Children remains.

Acknowledgements

The preparation of this paper has depended on access to records at the British Museum, the
British Museum (Natural History) and the Royal Society. At the Royal Institution its archives
and minute books have also been placed at my disposal by the Librarian, Mrs I. McCabe. The
officers of the Kent County Council in the County Library at Tonbridge-Malling (Miss S. J.
Hardy and Mrs G. Hodge) also gave me free access to their records.

At the British Museum (Natural History), in the Department of Mineralogy, the Keeper,
Dr Clive Bishop, and Dr Peter G. Embrey suggested additions to the text which also received
most helpful criticism throughout from Dr David Kempe. Thanks are due to Dr J. G. Sheals,
Keeper of Zoology, Mr John F. Peake and Dr Peter Whitehead for various suggestions. Mr
M. J. Rowlands, the Chief Librarian of the General Library, has given constant support to the
research both within and outside the Museum. Mr John Charles Children of Tonbridge, now
head of the family, and Mr Michael Bushby, Housemaster of Ferox Hall, have both contributed
valuable information.

Notes

1. Confusion between the spelling of the names Tonbridge (earlier often written Tunbridge) and
Tunbridge Wells calls for an explanation. Tonbridge, important because on the Medway and on the
road from London to Hastings, goes far back into English history. On the other hand, the chalybeate
springs at Tunbridge Wells (the wells of Tonbridge/Tunbridge), discovered in 1606, brought the start
of a town there in 1680, which in the 19th century outgrew Tonbridge. There was no uniformity in the
spelling of the names of the two places until 1893 when the Tonbridge Local Board responded to ap-
proaches by the Post Office and the South Eastern Railway Company.

2. Ferox Hall, Tonbridge, dates at least from the 13th century; every century since has seen changes.
Its appearance today is that of a building with an 18th-century core, enlarged to the needs of a boarding
house for a school, founded in 1553 (Hoole, 1970).

3. Harrison, William Jerome, F.G.S. (1845-1909), Who Was Who. On George Children, Dictionary of
National Biography, 10 : 249, 1887.

The present head of the Children family, Mr John Charles Children (b. 1919) has a Pedigree going
back to about 1400, but his is a different branch from that of John George Children. The Pedigree was
compiled by G. M. G. Woodgate (Woodgate & Woodgate, 1910) in 1927, and has since been added to.
The records, Children MSS. (U 1866), are preserved in the County Hall, Maidstone.

102 A - E - GUNTHER

4. Jordan, John Thomas, Queens' College, Cambridge, 1772-1775, later Rector of Hickling, Nottingham-
shire. His niece married Lewis Madden, brother of Sir Frederick Madden of the British Museum
(Graduati Cambridgensis, and Atkins, 1853 : 11, 170).

5. Camden, Marquis of (1759-1840), John Jeffreys Pratt, 2nd Earl; seat, The Wilderness, Sevenoaks,
Kent; politician, later Secretary of State for War. Joined Children sen. in founding the Society for
Encouragement of Agriculture in Kent; Trustee of Tunbridge Wells chapel etc. (D.N.B., 1896, 46 : 209;
Woodgate & Woodgate, 1910 : 334, 351, 353 etc.).

6. Royal Society, Register of Election, 12 March 1807. See also, Thompson, T., 1812, History of the
Royal Society.

7. Writers on the history of galvanism seldom fail to describe the Childrens' voltaic battery. It consisted
of 20 copper and zinc plates, each 6 ft long and 2 ft 8 in. wide, which, suspended from the roof, could
be lowered into a tank containing 945 gallons of dilute acid (Children, 1815 Phil. Trans. R. Soc. 105 : 363-
374).

The acid solution used by Children comprised 3 parts fuming nitrous, 1 part sulphuric acid, diluted
with 30 parts of water.

8. The Fellows of the Geological Society who are on record as having attended experiments were:
William Babington (1756-1833), who suggested the use of vessels of Wedgewood ware, William Hyde
Wollaston (1766-1828), William Allen (1770-1843), William Hasledine Pepys (1775-1856), Henry
Warburton (1748 7-1858) and William Thomas Brande (1788-1866). Of these Allen and Pepys were the
most frequent witnesses.

9. An account of this visit was written by Children in a letter from Brussels on 30 September 1818; it
was intended for The Times but was not published until 27 November 1852 when it appeared in The
Illustrated London News, a month after the Duke of Wellington's death (Atkins, 1853 : 193).

Publication was preceded by the gift to the Royal Gardens, Kew, by S. F. Gray, of a snuff-box made
from the elm; it was called by The Times of 5 October 1852 a 'very interesting relic'.

10. B.M. Trustees Minutes, 1816, C.2638, 2644.

11. B.M. Trustees Minutes, 1817, C.2663, 2684.

12. President of the Royal College of Surgeons.

13. B.M. Trustees Minutes, 1821, C.2770.

14. B.M. Trustees Minutes, 1822. C.2808.

15. B.M. Trustees Minutes, 1824, C.2891.

16. B.M. Trustees Minutes, 1818, C.2704.

17. B.M. Trustees Minutes, 1826, GM.1268.

18. B.M. Trustees Minutes, 1822, GM.1192.

19. B.M. Trustees Minutes, 1822, GM.1193.

20. The annotations in the Museum's copy of Lamarck's Histoire Naturelle . . ., Vols. 6 and 7, are almost
exclusively by J. E. Gray, although another hand may also have been involved. (See Gray, J. E., 1847,
List of the genera of Recent Mollusca, Proc. Zool. Soc. 15.)

21. In Montagu House the Shell Collection was in Room IX (or L). The arrangement made by E. W.
Gray was based on the work of Linnaeus and Gmelin in the tenth and twelfth editions of the Systema
Naturae. The Synopsis of the British Museum records the following numbers of table cases of Shells :
1809, 1 ; 1827, 27; if another 17 or so were added in 1829, the total on the move into the New Building
would have been, say, 44. B.M. Trustees Minutes, 1829, C.3190, GM.1340.

22. B.M. Trustees Minutes, 1826, C.2983.

23. B.M. Trustees Minutes, 1826, C.2983, GM.1267.

24. Although the Atkins biography makes frequent reference to Children's health, there is little specific
detail from which a diagnosis can be made. In the Davy letters between 1808 and 1813 there is mention
of gastric trouble, but during the London years one letter (Children, 1846-1847, ff. 404-7) suggested
that his 'old complaint' was chronic sinusitis, not hay fever; there could also have been nasal catarrh
with polypi and infection of the mucous membrane. It is not known if in those days it was the custom to
operate for such a condition.

25. B.M. Trustees Minutes, 1821, GM.1186.

26. B.M. Trustees Minutes, 1826, C.2969, 2973.

JOHN GEORGE CHILDREN 103

27. Mr John Fuller, M.P. (1757-1834), wealthy iron manufacturer aiming to encourage science, elected
Annual Subscriber of the Royal Institution on 17 February 1800 (Archives, p. 129), also Manager
(Proc. Roy. Inst. 44 (205): 331-337, 18 March 1971). His grandfather John Fuller, M.P. (d. 1755) was an
executor of Sir Hans Sloane's will.

28. B.M. Trustees Minutes, 1828, C.3138.

29. B.M. Trustees Minutes, 1829, Sub-Committee, 23, 26.

30. B.M. Trustees Minutes, 1829, C.3177.

31. B.M. Trustees Minutes, 1829, C.3165.

32. B.M. Trustees Minutes, 1829, C.3190, GM.1340.

33. B.M. MSS. Zoological Branch, Letters and Reports, 1828-1840, ff. 4-6.

34. B.M. Trustees Minutes, 1830, C.3231/2.

35. B.M. Trustees Minutes, 1830, C.3285.

36. B.M. Trustees Minutes, 1828, C.3062/3.

37. B.M. Trustees Minutes, 1829, C.3169.

38. B.M. Trustees Minutes, 1829, C.3202.

39. B.M. MSS. 1835-1845, 45 : f. 1.

40. B.M. MS. J.G.C. Report Book, 1835-1837, f. 5.

41. B.M. MSS. Zoological Branch, Letters and Reports, 1828-1840, f. 21.

42. B.M. Trustees Minutes, 1833, GM.1451.

43. B.M. MSS. Zoological Branch, Letters and Reports, 1828-1840, f.12.

44. B.M. MSS. Zoological Branch, Letters and Reports, 1828-1840, f. 16.

45. B.M. MSS. Zoological Branch, Letters and Reports, 1828-1840, and BM (NH) MS. J.G.C. Report
Book.

46. B.M. MSS. Zoological Branch, Letters and Reports, 1849-1853, 49 : ff. 197-198.

47. B.M. Trustees Minutes, 1839, Sub-Committee, f. 143.

48. B.M. MSS. Zoological Branch, Letters and Reports, 1828-1840, f. 92.

49. B.M. MSS. Zoological Branch, Letters and Reports, 1828-1840, f. 55.

50. B.M. MSS. Zoological Branch, Letters and Reports, 1828-1840, ff. 45^6; and B.M. Trustees
Minutes, 1837, C.4485/6.

51. B.M. MSS. Zoological Branch, Letters and Reports, 1828-1840, f. 56.

52. B.M. MSS. Zoological Branch, Letters and Reports, 1837, f. 67.

53. B.M. MSS. Zoological Branch, Letters and Reports, 1838, ff. 134-140.

54. B.M. MSS. Zoological Branch, Letters and Reports, 1840, f. 152.

55. The initial scheme for the New Museum, in the hand of J. E. Gray, is dated 12 December 1835,
entitled 'Report to Mr. C. [Children] on the space required in the New Building' — 5 foolscap cartridge
paper folios, watermark Joseph Coles 1833 (B.M. MSS. 1835-1845, Reports, Minutes etc. Zool. Dept.
ff. 16-21).

56. B.M. Trustees Minutes, 1838, Sub-Committee, ff. 126-130.

57. B.M. Trustees Minutes, 1838, Sub-Committee, f. 179.

58. B.M. Trustees Minutes, 1840, GM. 1649. The Trustees Minutes, GM. 1659 of 9 May 1840, record
that Children's Bonds, surrendered in 1822, were taken out of the Iron Chest and returned to him. On
the same day J. E. Gray's Bonds, two at £750 each, took their place in the chest, having been provided
by Col. Sidney North of Wroxham Abbey and Joseph Harrison Fryer of Whitby House, North Shields.

59. Of the Atkins family there is not much on record. Atkins sen. was an Alderman and High Sheriff of
Kent (d. 1838), and his son, John Pelly Atkins, who inherited Halstead Place, Kent, from his father,
was worthy to be Anna Children's husband. In 1803, John was in Lord Camden's Sevenoaks Troop and
High Sheriff of Kent in 1847. In 1828, there were three daughters. H. M. Atkins, who in 1837 made an
ascent of Mont Blanc as a student (Atkins, 1838), may have been a cousin. Atkins sen. is buried in the
churchyard of Halstead Church, Kent; J. P. Atkins (d. 1872) and Anna also, together outside the East
window.

104 A. E. GUNTHER

60. British Library Add. MS. 35,057, ff. 404-407, 9 June 1847.

61. British Library MSS. No. 1881, c. 7 (63).

62. British Library Add. MS. 36,057, f. 122.

63. St George's, Bloomsbury, Register of Burials Vol. 1761-1812: 1839 7 September, Eliza Children
No. 363, age 74. 1852 9 January, John George Children of Torrington Square, No. 6417, age 73. (Greater
London Council, Record Office.)

Bibliography of the works of J. G. Children

Children, J. G. (Anon. 'Philommatos') 1808. Account of an Accident from the sudden Deflagration of

the Basis of Potash. In a letter from a Correspondent to Mr Nicholson [Editor], Tunbridge, 22 Jan.

1808. /. nat. Phil. 19 : 146.
1808. An Improvement in the Galvanic Trough to prevent the Cement from being melted when the

Action is very powerful. Communicated by a Correspondent, to Mr Nicholson. Tunbridge, 24 July

1808. Signed J. G. C. J. nat. Phil. 19 : 148.
1809. An Account of some Experiments, performed with a View to ascertain the most advantageous

Method of constructing a Voltaic Apparatus, for the purpose of Chemical Research. Phil. Trans.

R. Soc. 99 : 32-38.
1815. An Account of some Experiments with a large Voltaic Battery. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. 105 : 363-

374.

1816. Answer to Mr Longmire's objections to Sir H. Davy's Lamp. Ann. Phil. 8 : 265-268.

1821. An essay on chemical analysis, chiefly translated from . . . the Traite de Chimie Elementaire

of L. J. Thenard Ann. Phil. (New Ser.) 1 : 140-144.

— 1821. On the nature of the pigment in the hieroglyphics on the sarcophagus from the tomb of
Psammis. Ann. Phil. 2 : 339.

— et al. 1821. Remarks on a communication published in the 20th No. of the Journal of Literature,

Science and the Arts entitled 'Observations on the chemical part of the evidence, given upon the late
trial of the action brought by Messrs Severn, King & Co. against the Imperial Insurance Company by
Samuel Parkes, F.L.S., M.R.I., M.G.S.' By Richard Phillips F.R.S.E.; Philip Taylor; J. G. Children,
F.R.S. etc. ; John Martineau, jun. ; John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S. etc. ; and John Taylor, M.G.S. London.
Printed and sold by William Phillips, George Yard, Lombard Street, 1821. Price 1/6. (Brit. Lib.
1035.1.33). 91 pp.

— 1821-1823. A translation of REY's Essays on the calcination of metals. Q. J. Sci., Lit. & Arts 11 : 72-
83, 260-271 (1821); 12 : 54-64, 294-299 (1821-1822); 13 : 136-141, 278-286 (1823).

— 1822. On some alvine concretions found in the colon of a young man, in Lancashire after death.

Ann. Phil. 3 : 75.

— 1822. On diaspore, following a new discovery of G. B. Sowerby. Ann. Phil. 4 : 146-148.

— 1822-1824. Lamarck's Genera of Shells. Translated from the French with plates, from original
drawings by Miss Anna Children. Originally appearing in Q. J. Sci. Lit. & Arts 14. Oct. 1822, to 16,
Jan. 1824. Royal Institution, London. 177 pp.

— 1824. Copper sheathing of ships bottoms: news cuttings in British Press. B.M. Add. MS. 38,625,

ff. 58-66.

— 1824. Examination of babingtonite by the blowpipe. Ann. Phil. 7 : 277.

— 1824. On the characters of some mineral substances before the blowpipe. Ann. Phil. 8 : 36-39.

— 1824. Chemical examination of the barytocalcite. Ann. Phil. 8 : 115.

— 1824. Reply to erroneous statement respecting Sir Humphry Davy's method of defending the copper
sheeting for ships' bottoms. Ann. Phil. 8 : 141-143.

— 1824. Examination of brochantite by the blowpipe. Ann. Phil. 8 : 243-245.

— 1824. On the misstatements in the Morning Chronicle and Times newspapers respecting Sir Humphry

Davy's method of protecting the copper sheeting of ships bottoms. Ann. Phil. 8 : 362-365.

— 1824. Chemical examination of roselite. Ann. Phil. 8 : 441.

— 1825. Experiments on the above described selenium. Ann. Phil. 9 : 52.

— 1825. Experiments on selenium from Anglesey. Ann. Phil. 9 : 52-53.

— 1825. A summary view of the atomic theory according to the hypothesis adopted by M. Berzelius.
Ann. Phil. 9 : 185-193, 336-358.

— 1825. Observations on the analysis of torrelite. Ann. Phil. 9 : 221-223.

— 1825. On titanium in mica. Ann. Phil. 9 : 230.
1825. Memoir on the chemical composition of the corneaus parts of insects, by Augustus Odier.

Translated from the original French with some additional remarks and experiments. Zool. J. 1 : 101—
115.

JOHN GEORGE CHILDREN J 05

— 1826. Proportion of male and female children. Ann. Phil. 11 : 74.

— 1827. On the Esquimaux dog. Zool. J. 3 : 54-56.

— 1827. An Address delivered at the Anniversary Meeting of the Zoological Club of the Linnean
Society held at the Society's House in Soho Square, Nov. 29, 1827. Richard Taylor, Red Lion Court.
(Privately printed ?) BM (NH) Zool. Lib. Tracts, 27 (14).

— 1828-1830. An abstract of the characters of Ochsenheimer's Genera of the Lepidoptera of Europe;

with a list of the species in each genus, and reference to one or more of their respective icones. Phil.
Mag. and Ann. (New Ser.) 4-6, 8 : July 1828-July 1830. 150 pp.

— 1830. Sketch of the Sy sterna Glossatomm ofFabricus, Vol. 1. From Illger's Magazin fiir Insekten
Kunde 6 : 277. Phil. Mag. and Ann. London, 8 : 117-123.

— 1834. Astronomy, two lectures on ... at the National School, Turnham Green. . . . (Prospectus

only.) (Brit. Lib. 1881, c.7 (63).)

— 1835. An Address delivered at the anniversary of the Entomological Society. Presidential Address,
26 Jan. 1835. Privately printed.

— 1836. Introduction. Address to first Anniversary Meeting of Entomological Society. Trans. R. ent.

Soc. Lond. 1 : iii-vi.

— 1836. Catalogue of arachnida and insects. Descriptions of the articulated animals collected on the
North West Expedition of Capt. Back. See Back, Capt. G. (1836).

— 1847. On the use of a mixture of spirit of wine and camphine as a light for optical purposes. Phil.

Mag. & J. Sci. 30 : 179.

Letters

Children, J. G. 1823-1831. Letters to G. B. Sowerby. 1823 16 Jan.; 1826 24 Oct., 2 Nov.; 1827 5 and 6

March, 21 April; 1831 14 July. National Museum of Wales.

1830-1844. Letters to Sir F. Madden. BL. Add. MS. Eg.2838, f. 160; 2840, ff. 67, 217; 2843, f. 388.

1830-1852. Letters to J. W. Lubbock, F.R.S., Secretary of the Royal Society; about 130 listed in

R. Soc. Lond. MS. Catalogue.
1831-1850. Letters as Secretary of the Royal Society; and later to the President, H.R.H. Duke of

Sussex and others, mainly in 1831-1834. R. Soc. Lond. MS. Catalogue.

1844. Letter to J. S. Bowerbank. BL. Add. MS. 35,057, f. 122.

1846-1847. Letters to the Rev. F. Bliss. BL. Add. MS. 34,581, f. 78, and 35,057, ff. 187, 330, 339,

397 and 404-407.

Portraits of George Children (1742-1818) and John George Children

(1777-1852)

The known portraits of John George Children and of his father are :

1. George Children (1742-1818) of Ferox Hall, Tonbridge in 1806. Oil on canvass by A. J. Oliver R.A.
(1774-1842). Donated by Mr John Charles Children to the National Portrait Gallery in 1977. Reproduced
as a lithograph by M. Gauci and here as Fig. 1.

2. John George Children (1777-1852) about 1810. Oil on canvas by an unknown artist. Donated by
Mr John Charles Children to the National Portrait Gallery in 1977.

3. John George Children, as Secretary of the Royal Society 1826. Pencil by Faulkner; printed by Graf
and Soret. British Library Add. MS. no. 35057, f. 123.

4. John George Children, as President of the Royal Entomological Society of London, 1833-1834.
Pencil by E. U. Eddis ; lithographed by W. D. In the collection of the Royal Entomological Society,
reproduced in Gunther (1975).

5. John George Children, as Secretary of the Royal Society 1830-1837. Oil on canvas by an unknown
artist. Royal Society of London; portrait not at present available. Reproduced here as Fig. 2.

References

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(Royal Institution). 1826. Royal Institution, Visitors Minute Book, f. 316.

106 A - E - GUNTHER

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— 1813. Article 14, Scientific Intelligence. Galvanic Battery. Ann. Phil. 2 : 147.

— 1816. Article 1, Improvements in Physical Science during the Year, 1815. Ann. Phil. 7 : 11-12.

— 1818. Children, George (1742-1881). Obituary; with anecdotes of remarkable persons. Gentl. Mag.
88 : 378, 11 Oct. 1818. Note: this Obituary confuses father and son, giving Children sen. also the name
John.

— 1828. Commemoration of the Second Centenary of the Birthday of Ray. Phil. Mag. 4 (23) : 379-381

and 5 (24) : 140-148. See also Atkins, 1853 : 247.

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John Bowyer Nichols & Sons, 25 Parliament Street, 1853. 313 pp.
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drafts of memoranda etc. BM (NH) General Library. 90 pp.

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Konig, C. 1816-1825. MS. Diary of Charles Konig. (See Smith, W. Campbell, 1969 : 245.)
Lamarck, J. B. P. A. de M. de. 1819-1822. Histoire Naturelle des Animaux sans Vertebres. Vol. 6 & 7.

Paris, vi-232, 71 1 pp.
Leach, W. E. 1852. Molluscorum Britanniae Synopsis. Edited by J. E. Gray. (See Gray, J. E. List of

Books, Memoirs . . . May 1875, No. 425. Privately printed, 58 pp.)
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Neave, A. H. 1933. The Tonbridge of Yesterday. Tonbridge Free Press Ltd, Tonbridge. 407 pp.
Neave, S. A. & Griffin, F. J. 1933. The History of the Entomological Society of London, 1833-1933. Pub-
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Ochsenheimer, F. 1808-1829. Die Schmetterlinge von Europa, 1-7. Leipzig.

108 A - E - GUNTHER

Parliamentary Papers. (P.p.)- 1835-1836. Report of the Select Committee appointed to enquire into the

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Early mineralogy in Great Britain and Ireland. By W. Campbell
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The Forster collection of zoological drawings in the British Museum
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John George Children, FRS (1777-1852) of the British Museum.
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Bulletin of the

British Museum (Natural History)

A catalogue of the Richard Owen collection
of Palaeontological and Zoological
drawings in the British Museum (Natural
History)

Jean M. Ingles & Frederick C. Sawyer

Historical series Vol 6 No 5 25 October 1979

The Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History), instituted in 1949, is issued in four
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and an Historical series.

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World List abbreviation: Bull. Br. Mus. nat. Hist. (Hist. Ser.)

Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History), 1979

ISSN 0068-2306

British Museum (Natural History)
Cromwell Road
London SW7 5BD

Historical series

Vol 6 No 5 pp 109-197

Issued 25 October 1979

A catalogue of the Richard Owen collection of
Palaeontological and Zoological drawings in the
British Museum (Natural History)

ngles & Sawyer 1979. Bull. Br. Mus. nat. Hist. Historical Series 6 no. 5

.115 line 10 from the bottom ... 124 should be in italics

.116 line 11 for Jewel read Jewell

J.136 Pol. 101 following 1869 insert pp. 517-519

JL38 Pol. 139 delete pi. 1838

1.8.62 add Nissen, C 1953. Die illustrierten Vogelbffcher ihre Geschichte und

Bibliographic . Stuttgart: Hiersemann. 222 pp.

».164 Erxleben for Johann Christian Polycarp (1744-1777) read James (c.1830-1880)

.170 Cervus t arandus 275. Polio number in wrong fount. Specimen recent.

Portrait in oils of Sir Richard Owen, K.C.B. now in the British Museum (Natural History) painted in

1881 by William Holman-Hunt, O.M.

A catalogue of the Richard Owen collection of
Palaeontological and Zoological drawings in the
British Museum (Natural History)

Jean M. Ingles

Department of Zoology, British Museum (Natural History), Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD
Frederick C. Sawyer

Contents

Synopsis .
Introduction .

Resume of Owen's life

Notes on the drawings

Notes on the artists

Notes on the catalogue entries

Notes on the scientific names .

Notes on British Museum (Natural History) specimens

Notes on the systematic list of taxa represented

Notes on the references .

Notes on the indexes
Acknowledgements .
Systematic list of taxa represented
Abbreviated catalogue

Abbreviations

Catalogue .
References
Index of artists
General index .
Index to partially identified drawings

109
110
110
111
113
113
114
114
115
115
115
115
116
129
129
129
160
164
166
193

Dlustrations

Portrait of Sir Richard Owen, K.C.B., by W. Holman-Hunt, O.M., 1881, now in
the British Museum (Natural History) ...... Frontispiece

Sir Richard Owen's medals, now in the British Museum (Natural History) . .194

Engraving of Sheen Lodge .......... 195

Crocodylus heart dissected and illustrated by Richard Owen in 1829 (Fol. 192b) 196-197

Synopsis

A brief resume of the life of Sir Richard Owen (1804-1892) is given with some historical and descriptive
notes on the collection of drawings and the artists involved.

A systematic list of the 16 phyla and more than 500 genera represented precedes the main part of the text
which is occupied by the abbreviated catalogue of 523 folios containing over 3500 drawings, many of
which were used to illustrate Owen's published work. At least 110 drawings depict type material.

Three indexes are provided; the first lists the artists; the second is a comprehensive main index with the
scientific names, some vernacular names and a few items entered under subject e.g. Caves; and the third
brings together references to those drawings which remain partially or only tentatively identified.

Bull. Br. Mus. nat. Hist. (hist. Ser.) 6 (5) : 109-197

Issued 25 October 1979

109

110 J. M. INGLES AND F. C. SAWYER

Introduction

Resume of Owen's life

Sir Richard Owen, K.C.B., F.R.S. (1804-1892), was one of a band of eminent British natural
scientists of the nineteenth century, a contemporary of Darwin, Huxley and Wallace. His
biography has been detailed fully in the two volumes on his life by his grandson, the Rev Richard
Owen (1894), and only a brief outline of his career is given here. Born in Lancaster on 20 July 1804,
the younger son of Richard Owen (1754-1809), he was apprenticed in 1820 to a surgeon and
apothecary of Lancaster where he had access to the post-mortem examinations in the county jail
and became deeply interested in the study of anatomy. He matriculated at Edinburgh University
in 1824 and worked at St Bartholomew's Hospital in London during 1825. In 1827 he became an
assistant curator at the Hunterian Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of England
situated at Lincoln's Inn Fields in London. He was appointed Professor of Comparative Anatomy
at St Bartholomew's Hospital in 1834 and in the same year was elected a Fellow of the Royal
Society. In 1835 he married Caroline, daughter of William Clift, Conservator at the Hunterian
Museum. On Cliffs retirement Owen became sole conservator of the Hunterian Collection,
continuing to live in apartments on the premises. In 1836 he became the first Hunterian Professor
of Comparative Anatomy and it was as Professor Owen that he was known throughout the
greater part of his life.

His career can be divided into two phases; the years 1827-1856 at the Royal College of
Surgeons, during which period he became the foremost British anatomist of his day, and the
second part from 1856 to 1883 covering his years of service in the British Museum. Early in 1856
some difference of opinion with the governing body of the Royal College of Surgeons of England
concerning his duties in the Hunterian Museum prompted him to accept the newly created post of
Superintendent of the Natural History Departments in the British Museum. Finding himself
rather uncomfortably sandwiched between the Director, Antonio Panizzi, who would brook no
interference with his overall conduct of the Museum, and the Keepers of the Natural History
Departments who continued to run their departments in their own way, Owen devoted himself to
his researches in the field of palaeontology and zoology, also to organizing a campaign for moving
the natural history specimens away from Bloomsbury. As A. E. Gunther (1975) points out, Owen
was quite convinced that if natural history was to be free to develop as the other sciences were at
this time it must cease to be subject to an institution devoted primarily to the arts, literature, books
and manuscripts which was under the direction of a Principal Librarian whose lack of interest in
natural history was scarcely concealed. Owen took the opportunity in a Presidential Address to
the meeting of the British Association in the summer of 1858 at Leeds to outline the principles of a
National Museum of Natural History from which he never departed. He was ultimately successful
and saw the removal of the collections to the new building at South Kensington during the last few
years of his service. Strangely, his forward-looking efforts to remove the collections to a new and
spacious building were strongly opposed in the early stages both in Parliament and by a group of
eminent scientists, including Darwin and Huxley. One of his most vociferous opponents was John
Edward Gray, Keeper of Zoology, from 1840 to 1875, but a century later it is apparent how right
Owen was. Gray during half a century of service in the Museum had done much to build up the
Zoological collections which were overflowing the available space at Bloomsbury and it seems
curious that he should oppose their transfer to a site where they could be housed in comparative
spaciousness. Perhaps in his declining years his judgement was clouded by the thought of removing
from the congenial environment where he had spent the whole of his adult life.

Regarding Owen's part in the great controversy which followed the publication in 1859 of
Darwin's Origin of species his great-grandson, Dr F. D. Ommanney, writes (1966) 'One of the
intellectual giants of the Victorian age, he had endeared himself to the Queen by ranging himself
on the side of the angels in the controversy with the odious Mr Darwin which shook society to its
foundations in the middle of the last century. I have always thought that this must have been a
rather cynical attitude for this great man to have taken up because, as a zoologist and anatomist
of the first rank, he must have realised that Darwin and his champion, Thomas Henry Huxley,
were right. However, he was a lecturer to the royal family and it was his job to lecture on not too

CATALOGUE OF RICHARD OWEN COLLECTION OF DRAWINGS 1 1 1

natural history to rows of young princes and princesses.' In the manuscript of Owen's Annual
Report to the Trustees for 1856 (7 January 1857), when outlining a projected exhibition in the
Museum, he stated that it was 'To show how the mammalian type is progressively modified and
raised from the form of fish or lizard to that of man - to illustrate the gradation by which one
order merges into another.' This could be construed to support Dr Ommanney's opinion. Never-
theless, a different view is expressed by Ross (1972, chapter 7) in a discussion of Owen's beliefs and
ideas on animal adaptation and modification, the background against which his convictions were
formed, and his rejection of Darwin's theory of evolution.

His acquaintance with Queen Victoria may have prompted her to offer him, in 1851, a 'grace
and favour' residence facing Kew Green formerly occupied by the King of Hanover. There was
some delay before Owen could move into this house and it was during this period that he heard
of another residence which had become vacant, Sheen Lodge 1 in Richmond Park. He was so
attracted by its situation that he approached the Prince Consort to obtain from the Queen
tenancy of this residence instead of the house at Kew. The request having been granted, he moved
there in 1852 and remained in occupation until his death forty years later on 18 December 1892.
The house abutted onto the wall of the park in the north-eastern corner, and was situated about
one third of a mile to the east of East Sheen Gate. The original construction, which dated from
about 1727, was built by Robert Walpole, who was at that time Ranger of the Park, for his
huntsman; a building with the name 'Dog Kennel' is shown on the site in the Richardson plan
of the park dated 1771. Around 1787 it was occupied by the Rt Hon William Adam and remained
in the possession of the Adam family until Professor Owen took it over; Adam's Pond, immediately
south of the site of the house, takes its name from this family. The lodge with its outbuildings
stretched along the edge of the park for about 260 feet and some 2 \ acres of land outside the park
wall were purchased in 1839 to make a garden for the cottage. This land has been incorporated into
Palewell Common, which borders the park wall at this point, and is now an overgrown wilderness.

Sir Richard was enchanted with the house and its surroundings, which are much the same today
as they were a century ago, except that the tranquillity of this peaceful spot is now disturbed by
the roar of jet airliners passing to and from London Airport a few miles to the west. Owen's
daughter-in-law, Mrs Emily Owen, continued to reside in the house until her death in the autumn
of 1920. Dr F. D. Ommanney lived there with his grandmother during his youth and in his book
The River Bank, 1966, gives a graphic description of life in the house which was without any
modern amenities, the long damp and cold corridors, no gas or electricity, no bathroom, and only
oil lamps to dispel the gloom of winter evenings. On the night of 24 February 1944 two bombs from
German aircraft fell close to the building which was badly damaged by blast and rendered un-
inhabitable. In October of the same year it was further damaged by fire thought to have been
started by a cigarette dropped by an intruder. In ensuing years the ravages of weather made the
structure so unsafe that it was decided to demolish the property ; this was completed in September
1951. In March 1972 we could just trace the outline of the foundations under the turf but saplings
have now been planted over the site and all traces will soon be obliterated.

It was to Sheen Lodge that Charles Davies Sherborn (1861-1942) was invited after Owen's
death to sort and arrange the letters, manuscripts and drawings and to collaborate with the Rev
Richard Owen in writing the biography. After the publication of the Life of Richard Owen in 1894
all this material was given to Sherborn, who distributed it to those likely to be interested, and it is
to his generosity that the Museum is indebted for the possession of the Owen correspondence,
now housed in 26 volumes, and the drawings.

Notes on the drawings

This collection which consists mainly of drawings, with comparatively few engravings and
photographs, was probably started by William Clift (1775-1849). He was the last pupil of John
Hunter (1728-1793) by whom he was trained to preserve, dissect, observe and record in notes and

1 On the ordnance survey maps of this century the building is called Sheen Cottage but Owen always addressed
his letters from Sheen Lodge and it is referred to as such in this paper.

112 J. M. INGLES AND F. C. SAWYER

drawings. He was appointed Conservator of the Hunterian collection in 1799, his son William
Home Clift became his first Assistant Curator in 1823 and Richard Owen the second in 1827.

Had Clift the younger not died as the result of an accident in 1832 Owen's career might have
been altogether different but in the event Clift's son was not replaced at the Museum, Owen was
given more responsibility and a larger salary and after a long betrothal became Clift's son-in-law
in 1835. When the Conservator retired in 1842 Richard Owen became his natural successor.

Although there are more than 3500 individual items on 523 folios in this collection of illustra-
tions, covering a range of subjects from unicellular organisms to giant fossil reptiles and mammals,
they by no means represent the entire output of work by Sir Richard Owen and his artists. Many
of the drawings published by Owen in, for example, the Transactions of the Zoological Society
of London are not to be found here, nor are they amongst the three small collections kept separately,
viz. the original water colour drawings for the plates published in Owen's monograph on the
Pearly Nautilus, a set of water colour drawings for the illustrations to Sir Everard Home's papers
and notes on fossil Reptilia in various museums including 57 small sheets of ink and pencil
sketches.

Enquiries at the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum, the libraries of the
Medical College, St Bartholomew's Hospital, the Royal College of Surgeons of England, the
Royal Scottish Museum, Edinburgh, the Zoological Society of London and the Royal Society
have brought to light no other collection. We have no knowledge of the disposal or destruction of
the missing drawings.

The illustrations in the British Museum (Natural History) collection are as diverse in their
form as they are in subject, being of all types ; rough pencil or water colour sketches on scraps
of paper or card ; sketches in ink including those in letters from enquiring correspondents and
superb full colour illustrations of the most delicate and detailed nature (e.g. Limulus dissections
on Fol. 9 by one of the Scharf family and Mytilus edulis dissections on Fol. 12 by H. Scharf,
1842). Some were obviously commissioned for works to be published, amongst which a few were
rejected (Fol. 92d), others were working drawings such as an anatomist would make in the
course of his dissections, for his own use.

The drawings are varied not only in subject and technique but also in their dates which span
two centuries, the earliest probably being of Teredo (Fol. 57) annotated 'figure d'un ver trouve en
radoubant le Triomphant. Envoye par M. Begon le 28 Juillet 1681'. One of the latest is a photo-
graph of a mounted solitaire skeleton (Fol. 513b) bearing a note dated 1879.

Through the generosity of Owen's executors and Dr C. D. Sherborn the collection was passed
to the British Museum (Natural History) and this is recorded in the History of the collections ... 1
1904 : 44 in an entry, written by B. B. Woodward, then librarian. It stated 'the drawings have
been mounted and arranged . . . but not yet catalogued'.

We do not know by whom they were arranged and mounted (it is possible that the work was
done at the bindery of the British Museum, Bloomsbury), but whoever put them into their
present sequence put a blue crayon number on the back of each individual sheet to indicate its
position on one of the heavy backing-papers which are of a standard size, approximately
30" x 17|" (749 mm x 447 mm). A few unmounted drawings and engravings are included and
have been given serial numbers. The folios are now housed in eight buckram and leather-covered
boxes which were specially made for them in 1968, and are kept in the General Library, British
Museum (Natural History).

Since their accession to the collections of the museum they have been examined by various
workers including Dr C. D. Sherborn, Professor D. M. S. Watson (1886-1973), Miss Jessie
Dobson, lately of the Hunterian Museum and Mr J. Mahoney of the Department of Geology and
Geophysics, The University of Sydney, Australia. Annotations were added to the backing sheets
by Dr Sherborn and Professor Watson also by someone unknown who added references under
some of the originals of published drawings ; some initialled references have also been added by
one of us (J. M. I.) since 1971. It was not until 1969 that the co-author (F. C. S.), Zoological
Librarian at the British Museum (Natural History) from 1935 to 1966, worked through the
drawings and made the first complete preliminary list. In order to do so he first added a serial
number to the top right-hand corner of each large sheet referred to here as a folio. Later

CATALOGUE OF RICHARD OWEN COLLECTION OF DRAWINGS 1 1 3

individual sheets on the folios were given lower-case letters, e.g. a, b, c. Although this was not the
first time some sheets had been given numbers it was the first time the whole collection had been
systematically numbered from beginning to end.

In 1976 an additional folded sheet (Fol. 523) was found in the Palaeontology Library and this
was added to those in the boxes.

In 1971 we started compiling the catalogue as an occasional spare-time occupation. At that
time neither of us appreciated the magnitude of the task and the volume of work involved in
naming and cataloguing this collection.

Whilst some of the drawings were already identified completely, others had a vague label, e.g.
an abbreviated word such as 'Poik.' standing for Poikilopleuron [Poekilopleuron] and many
(about one third) had nothing whatsoever to indicate their identity. We have consulted many
specialists (see Acknowledgements) and books in an endeavour to get accurate identifications,
names in current usage and in establishing the location of published figures. For the interpretation
of information received we are responsible.

Notes on the artists

As will be seen from the index to artists (p. 164-165) the main contributor to the collection was
Richard Owen himself, the earliest of his dated drawings being 1823, but William Clift, his son
William Home Clift and professional artists are represented, e.g. Joseph Dinkel and the Scharf
family of whom one member was George Scharf (1788-1860) father of Henry and George
(1820-1895) who later became Sir George and Director of the National Portrait Gallery. (So far
we have been unable to undertake the task of establishing which of the two people named
George Scharf executed the various items listed under that name in the index but their dates have
been added and may serve to remind readers that two people are involved.) Other famous names
include J. Erxleben, Gideon Mantell (1790-1852), Sydney Parkinson (1745-1771), who
accompanied Captain James Cook on his first world voyage (1768-1771), and Josef Wolf
(1820-1899).

Many of the 147 people who are listed because they drew specimens were correspondents,
including interested amateurs, who sent material and drawings to Richard Owen. Sometimes they
were requesting information, but at other times they simply thought the famous man would be
interested in a particular specimen.

There are entries in the index to artists under initial letters only. These have been taken
from drawings but attempts to identify the full name have failed. Under C. there are probably
some drawings of the Clifts, but this is conjecture. Where the initials or name of an artist have
been put in square brackets in the text it is because either (1) the name or initials are not clearly
decipherable or (2) comparison of the unsigned work with signed work leads us to believe firmly
that it is identifiable with a particular artist, e.g. [R. Hills] Fol. 306. Although the folio is unsigned,
R. Hills' technique is unmistakeable - further evidence for its being his work lies in the shorthand
notes which have been made about the drawings, in characteristic style.

Notes on the catalogue entries

The original entries for the catalogue have been typed on to four-post binder slips (5"x 3") of
which there are about 1360, occupying eight binder covers - one for each box of drawings.

Each entry is set out as follows and the figures at the top left indicate that this one refers to
folio 56 for which this is the first sheet of a total of three.

56 (l) 3 MOLLUSCA - BIVALVIA - PHOLADOMYOIDA

(a, b) Pholadomya [candida]

Morphology of animal removed from shell

(a) with detail of mantle

Three water colour drawings

H. Scharf del. 1839

Annotated - Original drawings Pholadomya . . .

114 J. M. INGLES AND F. C. SAWYER

Manuscript description attached to sheet begins -

Fig. 1.
[Mention is made of these drawings on p. 47 in
Runnegar, B. Anatomy of Pholadomya Candida
(Bivalvia) and the origin of the Pholadomyidae.
Proc. malac. Soc. Lond. 40, 1972 : 45-58.]
56(2) 3 MOLLUSCA - GASTROPODA - MESOGASTROPODA

(c) Calypeopsis [Calyptraea byronensis]
Shell, dorsal and ventral views and six

dissections
Eight water colour and pen & ink drawings
R. Owen del.

Published - Trans, zool. Soc. Lond. 1 1835
pi. 30, figs. 1-7.

Limitations of space have necessarily imposed a format with a high degree of abbreviation
and the omission of some material which, however, will be available in the unabridged catalogue
in the General Library of the British Museum (Natural History).

The printed entries for each drawing comprise generic and specific names, an abbreviated
description of the part illustrated, the type of drawing, e.g. pencil, water colour, etc., name of
artist, a reference to the work in which it was published, location of the specimen delineated, its
status as type-material where appropriate and the abbreviation Annot. to indicate when there are
annotations on the drawing: these quotations are shown in the unabridged catalogue.

Notes on the scientific names

1 The name (if any) written by Owen on the original drawing is placed at the beginning of the
entry, without brackets.

2 If the name with which a drawing was published differs from (1) it is put into square brackets
and the reference to the published work will be found below in the entry for that folio.

3 The names given to the specimen by Owen and his contemporaries are often now in synonymy
or have fallen into disuse. As far as possible we have updated the nomenclature, and the
modern version always appears as the last of the scientific names listed.

Examples

Fol. 210 (see p. 143) where the names appear as follows

Chelydra serpentina [Chelys fimbriata [Chelus fimbriatus]]

Labelled by Owen Published as Current name

Alternatively Fol. 274(c) (see p. 145):
[Rhinolophus [Hipposideros] larvatus]

This format indicates that the drawing was unlabelled by Owen. It was published as Rhinolophus
larvatus but is currently regarded as Hipposideros larvatus. It was to save space and repetition that
we decided upon the use of this format and we believe that workers will readily understand the
nomenclatural changes indicated.

Notes on British Museum (Natural History) specimens

Specimens known or reported to be in these collections have an asterisk following the scientific
name and the Museum registration numbers are given for many specimens. Most have been
checked against specimens or in the register. Those in square brackets have not been confirmed.

CATALOGUE OF RICHARD OWEN COLLECTION OF DRAWINGS 1 1 5

Example

Fol. 158 (a) ^[Megalosaurus dunkeri [M. oweni]]*

etc.

[B.M.(N.H.) No. 2680]

The prefix B.M.(N.H.) is represented by * in the abbreviated catalogue.

Notes on the systematic list of taxa represented

A guide to current names of the taxa represented in the drawings is given on pp. 1 16-128.

Taxa above the generic level are arranged systematically. Genera are listed alphabetically.

This list is not intended to be used as a table of classification for the whole of the animal
kingdom but as a guide to the contents of this work. For those who are not familiar with zoology
it provides a guide to groups into which particular genera are classified.

Useful levels of classification vary. In the recent Mammalia it has been felt necessary to provide
the ordinal, generic and sometimes family names. In some other groups it has been considered
best to give information at a different level.

We have taken advice from specialists over individual phyla and in the interests of brevity
have not attempted to include unnecessary names merely for the sake of uniformity.

References to works used in arranging this list are to be found on pp. 160-163.

Notes on the references

The list of references, pp. 160-163, includes only those works consulted in connection with
history, nomenclature and taxonomy. It does not include references concerned with the location
of published Owen Collection drawings which are incorporated within the catalogue entries.

Some drawings have been published more than once. In such cases only the earliest publication
of which we are aware is cited in the abbreviated catalogue. Later references will be found in the
unabridged catalogue in the General Library of the British Museum (Natural History).

Notes on the indexes

We feel that the entries would have been too clumsy if the folio sub-division letters had been
added, especially in those cases where long series of numbers are involved. It is hoped that
readers will quickly find the item they seek by scanning the text under the relevant folio number.

Index of artists {p. 164-165)

Artists are listed by name or initials together with the numbers of the folios on which their works

appear. No attempt has been made to separate entries for recent and fossil specimens in this

index.

General index {pp. 166-193)

This contains all the generic and specific names which appear in the catalogue, whether or not

they are currently valid, followed by the numbers of the folios on which they appear.

Those names which appear in the unabridged catalogue (available in the General Library of
the British Museum (Natural History)) but which do NOT appear in this text are listed with their
folio numbers in parentheses, e.g. Mammalia 124, (2, 3, 7, etc.).

Some vernacular names have been included in the index but we have not attempted to make up
names neither have we sought out common names for such specimens as little known invertebrates
nor for the majority of the fossils, very few of which have vernacular names applied to them.

Folio numbers in bold type in the general index refer to illustrations of fossils.

Page numbers are in italics.

Acknowledgements

We are greatly indebted to many colleagues and others outside the British Museum (Natural
History) and it is with pleasure that we now acknowledge those without whose help the work
could not have been accomplished. They are as follows :

116 J. M. INGLES AND F. C. SAWYER

Mrs M. Anthony, Mr R. E. R. Banks, Mr I. R. Bishop, Miss A. Blake, Dr G. A. Boxshall,
Mr R. A. Bray, Dr C. H. C. Brunton, Dr A. J. Charig, Miss A. M. Clark, Mrs L. M. Clarke,
Mr J. W. Coles, Mrs C. Comben, Dr P. F. S. Cornelius, Mr G. S. Cowles, Dr C. R. Curds,
Mr A. P. Currant, Mrs A. Datta, Mrs J. Diment, Mr R. E. Dixon, Miss J. Dobson (lately of the
Royal College of Surgeons of England), Mr R. C. Driver, Mr E. G. Easton, Mr J. Edwards
Hill, Mr R. A. Fish (Librarian, Zoological Society of London), Dr A. W. Gentry, Dr J. D.
George, Dr D. Gibson, Mr R. P. D. Goodwin, Miss A. G. C. Grandison, Dr P. H. Greenwood,
Mr A. E. Gunther, Mr M. R. Halliday, Dr W. R. Hamilton, Dr C. J. O. Harrison, Mr A. P.
Harvey, Miss M. L. Holloway, Mr J, J. Hooker, Dr M. K. Howarth, Mr. R. Hulton (Deputy
Keeper of the Department of Prints and Drawings, British Museum), Dr R. W. Ingle, Miss
J. Jeffrey, Dr J. Jewel, Miss J. Mayes (Royal Society library), Dr R. J. Lincoln, Mr J. Mahoney
(Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Sydney), Mr J. McCarthy, Dr A. Milner,
Dr P. B. Mordan, Mr S. F. Morris, Mr F. C. Naggs, Mrs P. H. Napier, Dr D. Norman, Mr
E. F. Owen, Mr C. P. Palmer, Dr C. Patterson, Mr R. D. Pope, Mr S. Prudhoe, Dr P. E. Purves,
Mr D. L. F. Sealy, Mr C. A. B. Steel of the Booth Museum of Natural History, Brighton, Dr N.
Tebble (Director, Royal Scottish Museum, Edinburgh), Mr J. L. Thornton (Librarian of St
Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College), Mr C. A. Walker, Mr A. C. Wheeler, Mrs S. Whybrow,
Mr R. F. Wise, Mr C. J. Wood (Institute of Geological Sciences). We especially record our thanks
to the Head of Library Services, Mr M. J. Rowlands, for his encouragement and advice in the
compilation of this work.

Systematic list of taxa represented

t indicates fossil
Phylum PROTOZOA
Class PHYTOMASTIGOPHOREA
Incertae sedis Genus Microglena (monadina)
Genus Distigma
Eudorina
Euglena
Eutreptia
Lagenella

Microglena (punctifera)
Phacus

Trachelomonas
Ulothrix
Class CILIATEA

Genus Ophryoglena

Phylum COELENTERATA
Class HYDROZOA
Genus Physalia
Class ANTHOZOA

Genus Isis (Gorgonian, sea-fan)
Tealia (Sea-anemone)

Phylum CTENOPHORA (Comb jellies)
Genus Beroe

Phylum PLATYHELMINTHES (Flat worms)
Class TREMATODA
Genus Hirudinella

unidentified liver fluke
Class CESTODA

Genus Anoplotaenia
Dasyurotaenia
Moniezia
Taenia
unidentified (Cyclophyllidea)

CATALOGUE OF RICHARD OWEN COLLECTION OF DRAWINGS 1 1 7

Phylum NEMERTINEA
Genus Canininula

Phylum ASCHELMINTHES
Class NEMATODA
Genus Breinlia
Capillaria
Dioctophyme
Dujardinascaris
Trichinella

Phylum BRACHIOPODA
Class INARTICULATA
Genus Discinisca^
GlottidiaX
Lingula]
OrbiculaX
Class ARTICULATA
Incertae sedis Superfamily thecideacea Genus LacazeUa\
Genus Hemithiris\
MagellaniaX
Terebratella\

Phylum MOLLUSCA
Class POLYPLACOPHORA

Genus Chaetopleura
Class GASTROPODA (Snails, slugs, limpets, whelks, nudibranchs)
Genus Buccinum

Calyptraea

Carinaria

Conus

Cypraea

Doris

Lambis

Pterotrachea

Terebellum
Class BIVALVIA

Genus Clavagella (Bryopa)

Hippurites

Kuphus

Musculus

Mytilus

Pecten

Pholadomya

Spondylus

Teredo

Uperotus
Class CEPHALOPODA
Incertae sedis Genus Loligopsis
Genus Architeuthis

Argonauta

CenocerasX

Cranchia

Enoploteuthis

Eutrephoceras\

Harpoceras}

Hildoceras]

Lytoceras\

Nautilus

Octopus

Octopus (Tritaxeopus)

118 J. M. INGLES AND F. C. SAWYER

Genus Ommastrephes
Onychoteuthis
Onykia
Oppelia\
Rossia
Sepia
Sepietta
Sepiola
Sepioteuthis
Spirula
Tremoctopus

unidentified (Ammonoideaf)
unidentified (Belemnitidaf)

Phylum SIPUNCULA
Genus Sipunculus

Phylum ECHIURA

Genus unidentified (Echiuroinea)
Phylum ANNELIDA

Incertae sedis Genus Helminthodes^
Class POLYCHAETA
Genus Arenicola
Nephtys
Nereis

unidentified (Alciopidae)
unidentified (Nereidae)
unidentified (Phyllodocidae)
Class OLIGOCHAETA

Genus unidentified (Lumbricidae)
Phylum ARTHROPODA
Class TRILOBITA (Trilobites)

Genus Chasmops\
Class MEROSTOMATA
Genus Belinurus\

Limulus (King crab, horse-shoe crab)
Class ARACHNIDA

Genus unidentified (Scorpiones)
Class CRUSTACEA
Subclass COPEPODA
Genus Acanthochondria
Chondracanthodes
Chondr acanthus
Glabella
Diocus
Kroyeria
Lepeophtheirus
Lernaeocera
Lernaeopoda
Peniculus
Pennella
Subclass MALACOSTRACA
Genus ? Acturus
Calcinus
Enoploclytia]
Eualis

Hemioniscus
Heptacarpus
Labidochirus
Lebbeus

CATALOGUE OF RICHARD OWEN COLLECTION OF DRAWINGS 119

Genus Monophthalmus

Metagrapsus

Petrolisthes

Phronima

Pseudosquilla

Sclerocrangon

Spirontocaris

unidentified (Anomura)

unidentified (Parastacidae)
Class DIPLOPODA (Millipedes)
Genus Julus

Polydesmus
Class CHILOPODA (Centipedes)

Genus Scutigera
Class INSECTA
Genus Borocera

Goliathus

Periplaneta

unidentified (Lepidoptera)

Phylum PENTASTOMIDA (Tongue worms)
Genus Linguatula

Phylum CHAETOGNATHA (Arrow worms)
Genus unidentified

Phylum ECHINODERMATA
Class ECHINOIDEA

Genus Heterocentrotus

Class HOLOTHURIOIDEA (Sea cucumbers)
Genus unidentified (Cucumariidae)

Phylum CHORD ATA
Subphylum UROCHORDATA (Tunicates)
Genus Dagysa
Pegea
Salpa
Thetys
Subphylum CEPHALOCHORDATA

Genus Branchiostoma (Lancelet)

Subphylum VERTEBRATA

Incertae sedis Genus Oreodus]
Class AGNATHA

Genus Lampetra (Lampreys)

Class ACANTHODII

Genus Gyracanthus\

Class CHONDRICHTHYES
Subclass ELASMOBRANCHII (Sharks)
Genus Acrodus\
Alopias
Carcharhinus
Carcharodon
Cetorhinus
Lamna
Myliobatis
Odontaspis
Pristis
Ptychodus\
Sphyrna
Squalus

1 20 J. M. INGLES AND F. C. SAWYER

Subclass HOLOCEPHALI

Genus Callopristodus\
Cochliodus\
Deltodus\
Deltoptychius\
Edestus\
Platyxystrodus]
Tomodus}

Class OSTEICHTHYES (bony fish)
Subclass ACTINOPTERYGII

Genus Acipenser

Bagre

Caturus\

Cylindracanthus\

Diodon

Eocoelopoma\

Esox

Exocoetus

Gadus

Gobio

Gymnocephalus

Hippocampus

Lepidotes\

Lepisosteus

Leuciscus

Melanogrammus

Merlangius

Pleuronectes

Prosauropsis't

Salmo

Sargus

Solea

Sphyraenodus]

Stereodus\

Xiphias

Zeus

unidentified (Carangidae)

unidentified (Perciformes)

unidentified (Scombroidei)
Subclass CROSSOPTERYGII
Genus Dendrodus\

Megalichthys}

Rhizodopsis\

Rhizodus\
Subclass DIPNOI

Genus Protopterus

Sagenodus\

Class AMPHIBIA (Frogs, toads, newts, salamanders)
Genus Cryptobranchus
Mastodonsaurus t
Necturus
Rana

RhytidosteusX
Siren
Triturus

unidentified (Anura)
unidentified (Caudata)

CATALOGUE OF RICHARD OWEN COLLECTION OF DRAWINGS 121

Class REPTILIA

Incertae sedis Genera Cylindricodon] & RysosteusX
unidentified (Archosaurianf)
Order Cotylosauria

Genus LeptopleuronX
Order Testudinata (Tortoises, terrapins & turtles)
Genus Chelonia

Chelus

Chitra

Emys

EosphargisX

Eretmochelys

LytolomaX

MeiolaniaX

PalaeochelysX

PlatychelysX

TretosternonX

unidentified (Chelonianf)

unidentified (Emydidaef)
Order Squamata (Lizards & snakes)
Genus Ceratophora

Chamaeleo

Coluber

ConiasaurusX

DolichosaurusX

Iguana

Lacerta

LiodonX

MacellodusX

MegalaniaX

Moloch

MosasaurusX

Phrynosoma

Python

Tupinambis

Varanus

unidentified (Mosasauridae)
Order Rhynchocephalia

Genus RhynchosaurusX
Order Thecodontia
Genus PhytosaurusX

unidentified!
Order Crocodilia (Crocodiles, gharials, alligators)
Genus AeolodonX

Alligator

Crocodylus

Crocodylus (Suchosaurus)X

DiplocynodonX

Gavialis

GoniopholisX

OweniasuchusX

SaurodesmusX

SteneosaurusX

TeleosaurusX

TheriosuchusX

unidentified
Order Pterosauria

Genus DimorphodonX

PterodactylusX

122 J. M. INGLES AND F. C. SAWYER

Genus Rhamphorhynchus\

unidentified!
Order Saurischia

Genus Cardiodon\

CetiosaurusX

Eustreptospondylus\

MegalosaurusX

PelorosaurusX

' Streptospondylus' f

Thecospondylus\

unidentified!
Order Ornithischia

Genus Hylaeosaurus\

Iguanodori\

Omosaurus't

Protorosaurus\

Saurechinodoti\

Scelidosaurust

unidentified!
Order Sauropterygia
Genus Plesiosaurus^

Pliosaurus\

Polyptychodon}

Thaumatosaurus\

unidentified Plesiosauriansf

unidentified Pliosauriant
Order Placodontia
Genus Cyamodus\

Placodus]
Order Ichthyosauria

Genus Ichthyosaurus^
Order Therapsida

Genus Dicynodon\

Dicynodon (Ptychognathus)X

LystrosaurusX

Mormorosaurus f

OudenodonX

Stereognathus\

[Note: HaramiyaX & Hypsiprymnopsis\ are included in the Mammalia.]

Class AVES
Order Archaeopterygiformes

Genus ArchaeopteryxX
Order Struthioniformes (Ostriches)

Genus Struthio
Order Rheiformes (Rheas)

Genus Rhea
Order Casuariiformes (Cassowaries, emus)
Genus Casuarius
Dromaius
Dromornis
Order Dinornithiformes (Moas)
Genus Anomalopteryx}
DinornisX
Emeus\
EuryapteryxX
MegalapteryxX
unidentified!

CATALOGUE OF RICHARD OWEN COLLECTION OF DRAWINGS 123

Order Apterygiformes (Kiwis)

Genus Apteryx
Order Aepyornithiformes (Elephant bird)

Genus Aepyornis'f
Order Sphenisciformes (Penguins)

Genus Aptenodytes
Order Gaviiformes (Divers, loons)

Genus Gavia
Order Pelecaniformes (Pelicans)

Genus Pelecanus
Order Odontopterygiformes

Genus Odontopteryx\
Order Ciconiiformes (Storks)
Genus Leptoptilos
Lithornis\
Order Anseriformes (Ducks, geese)
Genus Anas
Anser

Cnemiornis\
Order Falconiformes (Hawks, eagles, falcons, etc.)
Genus Aquila (inc. Uroaetus)
Circus
Falco

Harpagornis'f
Neophron
Polyharpagornis f
Vultur
Order Galliformes (Domestic & guinea fowl)
Genus Gallus
Numida
Order Gruiformes (Rails)
Genus Aptornis\

Porphyrio (incl. Notornis)
Rallus
Order Charadriiformes (Gulls & waders)
Genus Lams

Numenius
Order Columbiformes (Pigeons, dodo & solitaires)
Genus Columba

Pezophaps\
Raphus]
Order Psittaciformes

Genus Calyptorhynchus

unidentified Parrot
Order Caprimulgiformes
Genus Batrachostomus

unidentified Nightjar
Order Apodiformes (Swifts)

Genus Apus
Order Coraciiformes (Kingfishers)
Genus Haley or nis^
Lacedo

unidentified Kingfisher
Order Piciformes (Woodpeckers)
Genus Ramphastos

unidentified Woodpecker
Order Passeriformes (Crows, broad bills & babblers)
Genus Corvus

Eurylaimus

124 J. M. INGLES AND F. C. SAWYER

Genus Pomatorhinus
unidentified
Order unidentified

Genus unidentified

Class MAMMALIA

Incertae sedis Genus LeptolestesX
Family Haramiyidaet
Genus HaramiyaX

Hypsiprymnopsis\
Order Monotremata (Platypus, spiny anteaters)
Genus 'Echidna']

Ornithorhynchus
Tachyglossus
Order Multituberculata
Genus BolodonX

Ctenacodon\
PlagiaulaxX
Order Triconodonta
Genus AmphilestesX

PhascolotheriumX
Triconodon\
Trioracodon\
Order Pantotheria

Genus AmblotheriumX
Amphitherium\

Dryolestidaef - genus unidentified
Kurtodon\
Peramus\
Peraspalax\
Phascolestes]

Order Symmetrodonta

Genus Spalacotherium\
Order Marsupialia (Kangaroos, wallabies, pouched mice, koalas, opossums, wombats, thylacine»
Tasmanian devil)
Genus Bettongia

Cercartetus

Didelphidae - genus unidentified

Didelphis

Diprotodon\

Hypsiprymnodon

Isoodon

Lasiorhinus

Macropodidae - genus unidentified

Macropus

Macrotis

Myrmecobius

Nototherium\

Palorchestes\

Perameles

Petaurus

Phascogale

Phascolarctos

Phascolonus\

Philander

Potorous

Procoptodon]

ProtemnodonX

Sarcophilus

CATALOGUE OF RICHARD OWEN COLLECTION OF DRAWINGS 125

Genus Scepamodon\
Sthenurus\
Thylacinus
Thylacoleo't
Trichosurus

Vombatidae - genus unidentified
Vombatus
Zygomaturus]
unidentified

Order Deltatheridia
Genus Hyaenodori\
Solenodon
Tenrec

Order Insectivora (Desmans, shrews, moles & tree-shrews)
Genus Condylura
Desmana

Soricidae - genus unidentified
Talpa
Tupaia

Order Chiroptera (Bats)
Genus Cheiromeles
Hipposideros
Macroglossus
Pteropus
Rhinolophus
Tadarida (Chaerephori)

Order Primates (Lemurs, monkeys, apes, man)
Genus A teles

Cercocebus

Colobinae - genus unidentified

Daubentonia

Gorilla

Hominoidea - genus unidentified

Homo

Macaca

Pan

Pongo

Symphalangus

Order Edentata (Sloths & armadillos)
Genus Bradypus

Chlamyphorus

Choloepus

Cyclopes

Dasypodidae - genus unidentified

Dasypus

Doedicwus\

Euphractus

Glyptodon\

Hoplophorus}

Megalonyx\

Megatherium^

Mylodort\

Myrmecophaga

Panochthus]

Priodontes

Scelidotherium\

Tolypeutes

126 J. M. INGLES AND F. C. SAWYER

Order Lagomorpha

Genus Oryctolagus (Rabbits)
Order Rodentia (Beavers, capybara, porcupines, squirrels, rats, etc.)
Genus Bandicota

Callosciurus

Capromys

Castor

Dasyproctidae - genus unidentified

Dinomys

Gerbillus

Hydrochoerus

Hystrix

Jaculus

Lagidium

Marmota

Mastacomys

Rattus

Spermophilus

Trogontheriurti\

unidentified
Order Cetacea (Whales, dolphins)
Genus Balaena

Balaenidae - genus unidentified

Balaenodon]

Balaenoptera

Basilosaurus\

Caperea

Delphinus

Grampus

Kogia

Megaptera

Monodon

Orcaella

Phocaena

Physeter

Platanista

Pseudorca

Tursiops

Ziphius

unidentified
Order Carnivora (Dogs, cats, otters, badgers, bears, etc.)
Genus Canis

Crocuta

Enhydra

Felis

Herpestes

Hyaena

Meles

Mydaus

Panthera

Selenarctos

Smilodon\

Suricata

Thalarctos

Ursus

Viverricula
Order Pinnipedia (Seals & walrus)
Genus Halichoerus

Hydrurga

CATALOGUE OF RICHARD OWEN COLLECTION OF DRAWINGS 127

Genus Odobenus
Phoca
Order Notoungulata
Genus Toxodon]

Order Tubulidentata (Aardvark)
Genus Orycteropus

Order Proboscidea (Mammoths, mastodons, elephants)
Genus Anancus]

Deinotherium\

Elephantidae - genus unidentified

Elephas

Loxodonta

Mammuff (American mastodon)

Mammuthus] (Mammoth)

'Mastodon'] - genus unidentified

Stegodon]

Stegolophodon\

Tetralophodon]

unidentified!
Order Sirenia (Dugongs, sea cows, manatees)
Genus Dugong

Eotheroides]

Halitheriurri]

Prorastomus]

Trichechus
Order Perissodactyla (Odd-toed ungulates: horses, rhinos, tapirs)
Genus Aceratherium]

Ceratotherium

Coelodonta\

Dicerorhinus

Elasmotherium]

Equus

Hyracotherium]

Lophiodori\

Palaeotherium]

Rhinoceros

Tapirus

Order Artiodactyla (Even-toed ungulates: antelopes, cattle, deer, giraffes, hippos, llamas, pigs,
sheep)
Genus Alcelaphus
A Ices

A nthracotheriuni\
Antilocapra
Bison
Bos

Bothriodon]

Bovidae - genus unidentified
Camelus
Cervus
Connochaetes
Dichodon]
Eucladoceros]
Euctenoceros\
Gazella
Giraffa
Hippohyus]
Hippopotamus
Hyotherium]

128 J. M. INGLES AND F. C. SAWYER

Genus Kobus
Lama

Megaloceros\
Merycopotamus\
Microstonyx\
Moschus
Muntiacus
Oryx
Ovibos
Ovis
Rangifer
Sus

Tetracerus
unidentified ruminant

CATALOGUE OF RICHARD OWEN COLLECTION OF DRAWINGS 129

Abbreviated catalogue

Abbreviations

A.M.S. = Australian Museum Sydney occ. = occlusal view

Anat. = anatomy p. = pencil

Annot. = annotated P : = published

ant. = anterior pal. = palatal view

c. = coloured pi. = plate

d. = drawing post. = posterior
del. = delineated r. = right

diss. = dissected or dissection R.O. = Richard Owen

dors. = dorsal view s. = sepia

engr. = engraving sk. = skull

f . = figure skel. = skeleton

Fig. = Figured (in publication) unident. = unidentified

Fol. = folio vent. = ventral view

G.S. = George Scharf (father 1 788-1 860 : son 1 820-1 895) w.d. = watercolour drawing

H.S. - H. Scharf W.C. = William Clift

i. - ink f = fossil

1. = left * = B.M.(N.H.) specimen

lat. = lateral view c? = male

I.e. = loco citato $ = female

m. = mandible

Sequence of scientific names see p. 114.

Catalogue

Folio

1 Terebratula [Magellania] flavescens 3 diss.: proof engr. P: Owen, R. On the anatomy of the Tere-
bratula in Davidson, T. Brit. Fossil Brachiopoda 1 Palaeontogr. Soc. (Monogr.) 1851-54 a pl.2
f.1,2 b pl.l f.1-4 Lingula anatina diss.: 11 f. on proof engr. [R.O. & H.S. del.] P: I.e. a pl.2
f.1,2 b pl.l f.5-7. For orig. c.d. see Fols 10 & 11

2 a t Balaenodon tooth, part of transverse section mag. x 8 : 1 varnished w.d. S. W. Leonard del.
Annot. b f Elephas indicus [maximus] 5th lower molar, lat. & occ. : 3 pencil rubbings with w.
wash P. O. Hutchinson del. Annot.

3 a,f,h f Castor [Trogontherium cuvieri*] femur fragment, distal end: 3 views, 3 s.d. Annot. *No.
40979 b t [Nototherium] lower jaw, 1. lat.: 1 photo, c f [Mastodon latidens*] teeth, occ: 2
photos *No. 40678. Homo sapiens from Australia d lower jaw, occ. e upper jaw, pal. g sk. & m. 1.
lat.: 3 photos. Annot.

4 f [Plesiosaurian] skel. fragments including teeth: 7 p. & wash d. Annot.

5 Block makers pulls of Fol. 6

6 Sepia palmata [S. apama] whole animal & shell a vent, b dors. : 4 w.d. P : Trans, zool. Soc.
Lond. 11 1881 pl.24,25. Annot. HOLOTYPE of S. palmata

7 a Ornithorhynchus anatinus $ organs, diss. : 1 wash d. ? Original for figure in Jones, T. Rymer
Outline of organization of animal kingdom Lond. 1841 f.325 b [Terebratula [Magellania] flavescens]
alimentary canal: 1 engr. Annot. P: Owen, R. On the anatomy . . . Terebratula in Davidson, T.
Brit, fossil Brachiopoda 1 Palaeontogr. Soc. (Monogr.) 1851-54 pl.l f.4. For orig. c.d. see Fol. 10 j
c Echidna hystrix [Tachyglossus aculeatus] $ organs diss. : 1 wash d. d [Lacazella sp.] late larval
stage : 1 engr. Annot. e,g Dromiceius [Dromaius ] embryo, vent. & dors. : 4 p.d. R.O. del. f [ ? Laca-
zella sp.] ovary: 1 engr. H. Lacaze-Duthiers del. P: Annls Sci. nat. Zool. 15 1861 pl.3f.8 h Lingula
anatina alimentary canal, dors.: 1 engr. P: I.e. for 7b pl.l f.6

8 a [Terebratula [Magellania] flavescens] 1 engr? Scharf. For orig. c.d. see Fol. 10 c & 11 e b [Orbicula
[Discinisca] lamellosa] soft parts diss.: 4 engr. Annot. P: Trans, zool. Soc. Lond. 1 1835 pi. 23
f.5-8 c Orbicula [Lingula audebardii] whole animal: 1 engr. P: I.e. f.14 d [Magellania flavescens]
diss. : 1 engr. For original c.d. see Fol. 10 b e [Orbicula lamellosa] superior mantle-lobe, injected,
magnified part: 1 engr. Annot. P: I.e. pi. 23 f.ll f [Lingula anatina] diss, of muscles: 1 engr.

130 J. M. INGLES AND F. C. SAWYER

Folio

Annot. g [Lingula anatina] diss. & embryos: 1 engr. (4 figs) Annot. h [Orbicula lamellosa]
branchial tentacles and edge of mantle, magnified part: 2 engr. P: I.e. pi. 23 f.12,13 [Lacazella
mediterranean i specimen open, post, j stylized lat.: 2 engr. [H. Lacaze-Duthiers del.] P: Annls
Sci. nat. Zool. 15 1861 pl.l f.3,7
9 Limulus [polyphemus] diss, to show a nervous system, dors, b stomach c compound eye
d alimentary canal & nervous system e nervous system: 5 w.d. [H.] Scharf del. pi. 3; in colour
Annot. See also Fol. 72 b,d, e P: Owen, R. Anatomy of the king crab . . . London, 1873 pi. 2 f2,l.

10 a-j Terebratula [Magellania] flavescens series of diss.: 10 c.d. P: Trans, zool. Soc. Lond. 1 1835
pl.23 f.5-8

11 a-g Lingula anatina anatomy a,g alimentary canal, muscles & liver b reproductive organs
c embryo development, 8 views d muscles & nerves e nerves of mantle f circulatory system : 7 c.d.
Annot. P: Owen, R. Anat. of Terebratula in Davidson, T. Brit, fossil Brachiopoda 1 Palaeontogr.
Soc. (Monogr.) 1851-54 pl.2 & 3. See also Fol. 1 a,b & Fol. 7 h

12 a-c, e-h Mytilus edulis d Mytilus nervous system, stages in diss. : 9 c.d. H.S. del. eFig: Encyclo-
paedia Britannica Edinburgh 8th ed 1853-60 15 p.345 f.18

13 a Sturgeon [? Acipenser, Gadus morhua, Melanogrammus aeglefinus, Xiphias gladius, Pleuronectes
platessa, Solea solea, Gobio gobio, Leuciscus leuciscus,] saccular otoliths, 2 views of each: 28 w.d.
Annot. b [Genera unident.] stapes: 25 w.d. Annot. c Ornithorhynchus, Talpa, Homo, Marmota,
Cetacea [unident.], Panthera tigris, Odobenus, Equus, Sus, Anser, Snake [unident.]: stapes of all the
above: 12 i. outline d. Annot. ? prelim, d. for Phil. Trans. R. Soc. 95 1805 pl.4 d [Vertebrata,
genera unident.] : stapes & otoliths : 5 w.d. Annot. e Perciformes [unident.] lower row Carangidae
upper row [Vertebrates unident.] otoliths of left ear: 13 w.d. Annot. f Homo sapiens ear, diss, to
show internal structure: 2 w.d.

14 [Homo sapiens] a cavity of tympanum- 6th month b Labyrinth, cochlea & semicircular canals
of 4th month foetus : 2 w.d.

15 a-g [Homo sapiens] sk. & auditory organs, diss.: 10 w.d. f W. W. Cooper del. Annot.

16 a Museum Geologicum Pragense, front view: 1 photo, b Aston Aquarium, nr Birmingham,
interior: 1 photo. Annot.

17 Australian Museum, Sydney, N.S.W. a distant front view b side view c close up of front view:
3 photos by G. Bennett. Annot.

18 American Museum of Nat. Hist, a eastern front, general view and plan of principal floor: 1 s.
engr. b layout plan: 1 photo. Annot.

19 American Museum of Nat. Hist, a plan of transverse section b plan of longitudinal section :
2 photos. Annot.

20 a Rossia palpebrosa ovary & oviduct, diss.: 1 p.i. & wash d. [R.O. del.] P: Trans, zool. Soc. Lond. 2
1838 p.21 f. 18 b [Fish] circulatory system: 1 c.d. Annot. c [? Oryctolagus] ?ear, circulatory
system of part: 1 w.d. cf. Palmer, J. F. The works of John Hunter Lond. 1837, Atlas pi. 20 dl Tape
worm: d2 [Liver fluke] circulatory systems: 2 w.d. Annot. e Sus scrofa diseased & healthy
ovaries: 5 w.d. Annot. f [Class unident.] circulatory system of kidney, liver, testicle & salivary
glands: 4 w.d. Annot. g [?Rodent unident.]^ reproductive system, diss.: 1 w.d. h [lOrycto-
lagus] heart, 1. lat.: 1 w.d. i [? Aves] ? syrinx: 1 w.d. j [? Aves] valves of aorta: 1 w.d. Annot.

21 a Homo sapiens auditory nerve, diss, b [Bos] auditory nerve of calf, diss.: 2 wash d. W.C. del.
Annot. c Swordfish [Percomorpha - Scombroidei : genus unident.] eye, longitudinal section:
2 p.d. P: Owen, R. Anat. of Vertebrates Lond. 1866 1 f.216, p.332 d [Class unident.] ? ganglion,
blood vessel & nerves or lymphatics or gut & associated vessels 1 p.d. e [? Amphibia] heart,
whole & diss.: 1 w.d. 1 p.d. Annot. f [?Bivalvia] ?mesentery: 1 p.d. Freudenberg del. Annot. g
[Ornithorhynchus paradoxus [anatinus]] g6 abdomen, intestines in situ: g7,8 stomach & spleen
diss, out: g9 heart & spleen diss, out: glO urinogenital system diss, out: gll urinogenital
system in situ: gl2 bladder 7 p.d. R.O. del. Annot P: Trans, zool. Soc. Lond. 1 1835 pi. 33 h
[Homo] Cowpers gland in situ: 1 p. sketch. Annot.

22 a [? Mammalia] ? limb diss., showing muscles, nerves & blood vessels: 1 crayon & w.d. H.S. del.
b [? Mammalia] brain, sagittal section: 1 w.d.

23 Flint, 'supposed fossil bull' a,b 2 wash d. Annot.

24 Homo sapiens in a semi-handstand position showing osteology, above an outline d. of a crocodile:
p.d. H. V. Carter del.

25 af Rytidosteus [Rhytidosteus] capensis* pal. tooth, transverse section: 1 p.i. & w.d. A. H. Searle
del. Annot. P: Q.Jlgeol. Soc. Lond. 40 1884 pi. 17 f.2 from HOLOTYPE *No. R. 455 bf [Mastodon-
saurus] tooth, part of transverse section, magnified: 1 p.d.'Annot. c ^Labyrinthodon pachygnathus

CATALOGUE OF RICHARD OWEN COLLECTION OF DRAWINGS 131

Folio

[Mastodonsaurus laniarius] tooth, part of transverse section magnified : orig. i. sketch & engraving
P: Trans, geol. Soc. Lond. 6 1842 p.511 f.2

26 a | Labyrinthodon [Mastodonsaurus] scutulatus vertebra: 3 views 3 p. sketches G.S. del. Annot.
P: I.e. pl.46 f.3,4 b f Labyrinthodon [Mastodonsaurus] episternal: 1 s. & p.d. [G.S. del.] Annot. P:
I.e. pl.45 f.9,10 c ^Labyrinthodon dolicognathus [Mastodonsaurus pachygnathus] maxillary frag-
ment & teeth, lat. & occ. : 2 s.d. G.S. del. Annot. d f Labyrinthodon [Mastodonsaurus] pachy-
gnathus vertebral fragment, 3 views: 1 s.d. & 2 p. outlines P: I.e. pl.45 f.2,4,1

27 t Labyrinthodon [Mastodonsaurus] pachygnathus a upper jaw & ant. frontal fragments: P: I.e.
pl.43 f.9,11 g cranial bone fragments in slab a,g 6 d. P: I.e. pl.46 f.6,7 b f [Mastodonsaurus]
tooth, occ: 1 d. Annot. c ^Labyrinthodon [Mastodonsaurus] ventricosus tooth, lat.: 1 d.
d f [Saurian] incomplete tooth, lat. : 1 d. e,f f Labyrinthodon [Mastodonsaurus] laniarius tooth,
2 lat. Annot. All w.d.

28 a Menopoma [Cryptobranchus] circulatory & respiratory system of adult: 1 w.d. b Menobranchus
[Necturus] sk. dors.: 1 i. sketch. Annot. c [Caudata] vent. diss, to display viscera: 1 w.d. d [Siren
lacertina] diss, to show heart in situ: 1 wash d. T. Rymer Jones del. P: Trans, zool. Soc. Lond. 1
1835 pi. 31 f.l e Triton [Triturus] larva, circulatory & respiratory system diss, out: 1 w.d. f Meno-
poma [Cryptobranchus alleghaniensis] articulated skel. 1. lat.: 1 p.d. [? G.Owen del.] P: Owen, R.
. . . Anat. of Vertebrates Lond. 1866 1 f.43 p.48 g Frog larva [? genus] branchial arches: 1 c.
diagram

29 a,b [Anuran] vent. diss, to show viscera b ovaries full of eggs: 2 w.d. c,d American Tree Frog
[? genus] dors. & vent.: 2 i. & w.d. Capt Chapman del. Annot.

30 a-e [Anuran] larval development, 1. lat. f 2 vent. diss, to show gut a-f 7 w.d. Annot.

31 a Exocoetus volitans tongue, oesophagus, gut & superbranchial organ: 2 i. sketches. Annot.
b Diodon whole animal showing diss, of brain: 1 p. sketch. Annot. c Pristipoma [Gymnocephalus
cernua] cranium, 1. lat. : 1 p.d. West del. P: Owen, R. . . . Archetype & homologies of vertebrate skel.
Lond. 1848 pi. 7 f.2 d Lamprey [Lampetra] 1. lat.: 1 p. sketch e [Esox lucius] hyoid skel.: 1 i.
& c.d. Annot. f Amphioxus [Branchiostoma] whole animal, 1. lat.: 1 c.d. Annot. Bagrus [Bagre]
g sk. post, region, dors, i sk. sagittal section g,i 2 pen & w.d. i R.O. del. P: I.e. pl.l f.4,3
h Dory [Zeus faber] myobranchial skel. showing elements: 1 c.d. j Xiphias gladius syncranium,
atlas & axis, sagittal section, 1. lat.: 1 p.i. & w.d. P: I.e. pl.l f.5. c,g,i,j T. West lith.

32 a f Ganolodus [Rhizodopsis] craggesii* jaw fragments with teeth *No. P.4794: 2 s.d. Annot. P:
Trans, odont. Soc. Gt. Br. 5 1867 p.356 f.2 b f Edestes [Edestus] symphysial tooth-whorl: 1 w.d.
Annot. c f Palaedosteus [Lepisosteus] vertebra, 4 views: 4 w.d. Annot. d f [Saurostomus [Pro-
sauropsis] exocuus] jaw fragment with teeth, lat.: 1 w.d. Annot. e f [Lepidotus [Lepidotes]
elvensis]* head & trunk, 1. lat.: 1 p.d. E. Blorles del. Annot. *No. 18992

33 at Carcharodon [megalodon] tooth, lat. : 1 i. outline d. Annot. b | Labyrinthodon [Mastodonsaurus]
tooth, lat. & occ: 2 w.d. M.M. del. Annot. c,d f Carcharodon [megalodon] c tooth, lat.: Annot.
d tooth, incomplete, lat.: Ross del Annot. c,d 2 w.d. e [Hippocampus] dried spec. 1. lat. Photo.
Annot. f f Rhizodus jaw fragment with teeth: p. sketch. Annot.

34 t [Caturus furcatus]* a skel. in matrix, r. lat.: 1 p.d. *No. 37024 d head, 1. lat. : 1 p.d. h^[Eno-
ploclytia leachii] 2 incomplete fingers of claw, lat. in matrix: 1 w.d. Annot. c f Cochliodus [con-
tortus]* t Tomodus [convexus] [Cochliodus contortus]* m. occ: 2 p.d. P: Geol. Mag. 4 1867 pi. 3
f.l, pl.4 f.2. Annot. Casts *Nos P5850 & P5849 e f Xystrodus [Platyxystrodus], f Deltoptychius,
t Deltodus sublaevis tooth plates, 5 views: 5 p.d. b W. H. Hatcher del.

35 a t Parabatrachus colei [Megalichthys hibberti]* r. maxilla with teeth & scale in matrix, 1. lat.:
1 w.d. J. Dinkel del. Fig. Q. Jl geol. Soc. Lond. 9 1853 p.2 f.l HOLOTYPE of Parabatrachus colei
Owen *No. 29673 b f [Sphyraenodus or Eocoelopoma] incomplete sk. including part of m. with
teeth in matrix : 1 w.d. J. Dinkel del. Annot.

36 | [Stereodus melitensis] part of cranium & 10 vertebrae in slab, 1. lat.: 1 w.d. M. Bellanti del.
Annot.

37 a [Lamna nasus] whole animal, 1. lat.: 1 wash d. Annot. b Squalus [Cetorhinus] maximus stomach
& intestine, diss.: 1 wash d. [? W.C. del.] prelim, d. for Phil. Trans. R. Soc. 99 1809 pl.8 f.l

38 [Squalus acanthias] vent. diss, to show $ viscera: 1 wash d.

39 [Squalus acanthias] vent. diss, to show $ viscera: 1 wash d.

40 a-c Squalus [Cetorhinus] maximus gastric epithelium: 3 wash d. W.C. del. Annot.

41 Squalus [Cetorhinus] maximus a cerebellum diss, out, lat. : 1 wash d. Annot. b Squalus stomach &
intestine, longitudinal diss.: 1 wash d. Annot. c Squalus [Cetorhinus] maximus notochord & ver-
tebral centrae, longitudinal section: 1 w.d. R. Mylne del. Annot.

132 J. M. INGLES AND F. C. SAWYER

Folio

42 a Squalus [Cetorhinus] maximus $ stranded on beach, 1. latero-vent. : 1 w.d. b engraving of same

43 Squalus alopecias [Alopias vulpinus] 1. lat.: 1 outline i. & wash d. W.C. del. Annot.

44 a Selachia [Cetorhinus maximus] oesophagus, small section: 1 wash d. b [Sphyrna zygaena] diss,
of olfactory organ & optic nerve, vent.: 1 wash d. c Carcharhias [Car char hinus] teeth 1,6,10,11,12
Lamna teeth 1,6,10: 14 wash d. Annot. d [Myliobatid ray] teeth, 2 views: 2 p.d.

45 a Merlangus vulgaris [Merlangius merlangus] head of 3 eyed specimen with median eye: 1 p.d.
W.C. Maclean del. Annot. b,c Salmo salar head of deformed salmon : 1 photo. 1 outline sketch.
Annot.

46 Lepidosiren [Protopterus annectens] a-c head musculature d alimentary canal e brain & inner
ear g scale h dentition & olfactory organs: 8 p. & wash d. d,h H.S. del. e R.O. del. P: Trans.
Linn. Soc. Lond. 18 1841 pl.24 f.4-6; pl.25 f.2; pl.27 f.1-4 fl Menopoma [Cryptobranchus
alleghaniensis] f 2 Menobranchus [Necturus] brains, diss.: 2 p.d. P: I.e. pl.27 f.5,6

47 Lepidosiren [Protopterus annectens] a & c brachial & pharyngeal regions a dors, c vent, with
heart b digestive, urinary & reproductive organs: 3 w.d. H.S. del. P: I.e. pl.26 f.1,2; pl.27 f.7

48 Lepidosiren [Protopterus annectens] a notochord, ribs & muscles b heart & lungs in situ
c viscera in situ: 3 w.d. H.S. del. P: I.e. pl.24 f.2,3; pl.25 f.3; pl.25 f.l.

49 Lepidosiren [Protopterus annectens] a skel. r. lat. b sk. dors, c whole animal, lat. dors. &
transverse section d superficial body musculature, 1. lat.: 4 w.d. & 2 i.d. H.S. del. P: I.e. pl.23
f.4,5,1,2; pl.24 f.l

50 [? Hippurites] a 1. valve b ? section through r. valve c r. valve: 3 p.d. Annot. d,e [? Buc-
cinum undatum] 3 diss, ant.: 3 wash d. f [? Carinaria or Pterotrachea] animal swimming, lat.:
1 c.d.

51 a Chiton spiniferus [Chaetopleura spinulosa] vent. & dors. : 2 w.d. [ ?Cooper del.] Annot. b Doris dors,
diss.: 1 w.d. c [Genus unident. possibly f Spondylus] 1 w.d. W.C. del. Annot. d [Pecten maximus]
1. valve with incrustation [Musculus marmoratus] 6 views: lower [ ?Chaetognatha] lanceolate
specimen diss, magnified & nat. size [11*5 mm] 2 w. & p.d.

52 a-e Strombus [Lambis] chiragoa 8 general diss.: 10 w. & i.d. Annot.

53 a Cypraea 4 d. o Conus 10 d. c,d Strombus [Lambis] 6 d. including shells e Terebellum 5 d.
including shell f Cypraea 16 d. 2 with shells. Annot. a-f All general diss. All w.d.

54 [Octopus, unident.] Japanese ivory sculpture (Netsuke) showing bather attacked by octopus: 5 c.d.
one P: Trans, zool. Soc. Lond. 11 1881 p. 166 f.4. Annot.

55 a| Nautilus [Cenoceras] striatus median section 5 i. & w.d. Annot. b Nautilus pompilius diss, of
animal removed from shell: 1 p.d. Annot. c Nautilus [Cenoceras] obesus side view of internal cast
of shell: 1 p.i. & w.d. d f [Cenoceras] shell & internal mould & view with side partly cut away,
3 p.i. & wash d. e [? Eutrephoceras or Cenoceras] side partly cut away: 3 p.i. & wash d. f3f Am-
monites lingulatus [indeterminate Oppelid ammonite] lat. & aptychi f4 | Ammonites [Oppelia]
subradiatus ant. with pair of aptychi in the aperture: 3 p.d. [R.O. del.] f P: Proc. zool. Soc.
Lond. 1878 pl.60 f.1,2 glO f [Hildoceras bifrons] ant. & lat.: 2 d. gll f [Lytoceras fimbriatum]
2d. gl2 f [Harpoceras] 2 d. gl3 [Belemnitida, unident.] 6 d. g All pen, i. & wash d. Annot.

56 a,b Pholadomya [candida] morphology of animal removed from shell: a with details of mantle:

3 w.d. H.S. del. Annot. Mentioned Proc. malac. Soc. Lond. 40 1972 p.47 c Calypeopsis [Calyptraea
byronensis] shell, dors. & vent. & 6 diss.: 8 w. & i.d. R.O. del. P: Trans, zool. Soc. Lond. 1 1835
pl.30 f.1-7 d Clavagella [(Bryopa) lata] 9 diss, parts: 8 p. & w.d. R.O. del. P: I.e. pl.30 f.8-16

57 a [Teredo] lat. with added detail: 2 w.d. Annot. b Teredo gigantea [Kuphus polythalmia] lat. view
of case: 1 w.d. W.C. del. Annot. Mentioned in Phil. Trans. R. Soc. 96 1806 p.269 c [Pennella]
6 parts including 3 diss. ; 6 w.d. Annot.

58 a left Teredo Annot. centre Teredo banksii Annot. right Teredo clava [? Uperotus clavus] Annot.

4 i. sketches b Teredo [? navalis] 11 p.i. & w. sketches: verso [Teredo navalis] 3 diss.: 3 w.
sketches [W.C. del.]. Teredo gigantea [Kuphus polythalmia] c case, external: 1 w.d. Annot. P:
Phil. Trans. R. Soc. 96 1806 pp.269-275 d case, internal: 1 w.d. P: I.e. pi. 11 f.6. verso end of
case: 1 w.d. P: I.e. pl.10 f.2 e case, part of exterior: 1 w.d. Annot. Both c & e are parts of a
specimen figured I.e. pi. 10 f.l f case, transverse sections & external appearance: 4 w. & p.d.
[W.C. del.] Annot. P: I.e. pl.10 f.5,4; pl.ll f.7

59 a Spirula [peronii] [S. spirula] al lat. a4 ant. a5,6 post. a7 distal end of body x 2: all
specimen with mantle laid open : al5 diss, of head & internal organs: Spirula [reticulata] a3 lat.
of mutilated specimen a9 distal end of body x 4 : alO section of distal end. Spirula al2 in-
ternal structures al3 circulatory structures al4 liver: unnumbered peduncle magnified un-
numbered [unident.] part. 15 p.d. P: Adams, A. Zool. Voy. Samarang Lond. 1848 Mollusca pl.4

CATALOGUE OF RICHARD OWEN COLLECTION OF DRAWINGS 133

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Spirula [australis] diss. bl2p. & i.d. c9p. & i.d. d6p. & i.d. b-dP: Ann. Mag. nat. Hist. (5)
3 1879 p.1-3 e Anatomy including diss.: 7 p. & w.d. Bergeau del. P: Proc. zool. Soc. Lond. 1880
pl.32

60 a Sepioteuthis brevis [lessoniana] vent, diss.: 1 w.d. T. Rymer Jones del. P: Trans, zool. Soc. Lond.
11 1881 pl.26 f.l HOLOTYPE of S. brevis b Sepiola [Sepietta] owenii <J reproductive organs:
1 p.d. R.O. del. P: I.e. pl.26 f.2 (c-g) Loligopsis ocellata c suckers & transverse section of ten-
tacle d mouth e gladius f beak & suckers g whole animal, dors.: 10 i. & w.d. d-g H.S. del.
P: I.e. pl.26 f.3-8, pl.27 HOLOTYPE of L. ocellata

61 Onychoteuthis raptor [banksii] a gills & digestive system c vent, diss.: 2 p. & 1 i.d. R.O. del. P:
I.e. pl.29 f.2— 4 HOLOTYPE of O. raptor b [Plectoteuthis [Architeuthis] grandis] 3 views of ten-
tacles including section & suckers: 4 wash d. P: I.e. pi. 34, 35

62 Enoploteuthis cookii a mouth, vertical section b beak, lat.: 2 i. & w.d. T. Rymer Jones del. P:
I.e. pl.31 f.l ; pl.30 f.2 c systemic ventricle, diss, d section of unciferous actabulum e cephalic
arm, distal end, transverse section f cephalic arm showing tentacles: 5 w.d. P: I.e. pl.32 f.l— 6
g body, transverse section showing fins: 1 wash d. P: I.e. pl.31 f.4 HOLOTYPE

63 Enoploteuthis cookii post, end, dors.: 1 wash d. P: I.e. pl.31 f.3. Annot. [Specimen collected on
Capt Cook's 1st Voyage was in Hunterian Mus. Coll. No. E 1066 probably destroyed by bomb
in 1941.] HOLOTYPE

64 Enoploteuthis cookii vent.: 1 wash d. P: I.e. p.31 f.2. Annot. HOLOTYPE

65 a [? Sepiola] dors.: 1 w.d. b Tritaxeopus [Octopus (Tritaxeopus)] cornutus whole animal, dors. &
detail of mouth: 2 w. & i.d. P: I.e. pl.23 f.1,2. HOLOTYPE of T. cornutus

66 Ommastrephes ensifer whole animal, dors. & details of tentacles 3 d. (1 c. 1 i. 1 p.) P: I.e. pl.28.
Annot. HOLOTYPE

67 a Octopus semipalmatus [Tremoctopus vidaceus] whole animal, dors. & vent, diss.: 2 p.d. R.O. del.
P: I.e. 2 1838 pl.21 f.12,13 b [Argonauta hians] ovum: 1 p.d. R.O. del. P: I.e. pl.21 f.l 5 c Sepio-
teuthis and valves, closed & open: 2 p.d. R.O. del. P: I.e. pl.21 f.l 6 d Sepia officinalis statocyst,
diss.: 1 p.d. [R.O. del.] P: I.e. pl.21 f.17 e Cranchia scabra 5 d. numbered 1-5: Loligo laticeps
[Onykia carribaea] 5 d. numbered 6-10: entire animals & diss, parts: 10 p.d. R.O. del. P: I.e.
pl.21 f.l— 10 f Argonauta hians mantle diss.: 2 wash d. Annot. g Loligo laticeps [Onykia carri-
baea] oral view: 1 p.d. [R.O. del.] P: I.e. pl.21 f.ll h Nautilus pompilius tentacle, inner surface
magnified: 1 c.d. P: Ann. Mag. nat. Hist. 12 1843 p.308 f.l

68 a Caninia [Canininula] lineata longitudinal diss. nat. size & enlarged detail: 2 p.d. & w.d. b [Fam-
ily Nereidae, unident.] A,B dors. & vent. C head with pharynx everted D,E parapodia, mid-
body & post end: 5 p.i. & w.d. R.O. del. c [Polychaeta, unident.] ant. end, dors.: 1 p. & w.d.
d [Family Phyllodocidae, unident.] ant. end, dors.: 1 w.d. e [Nephtys] dors, view with pharynx
everted: 1 w.d. C. A. 0[wen] del. f [Echiuroinea; genus unident.] diss.: 3 w.d. R.O. del. Annot.
g Ascaris halichoris [Dujardinascaris halicoris] diss. & detail of ant. region: 2 p.d. R.O. del.
hi Linguatula proboscidae h2 Sipunculus phalloides [?part] detail: Strongylus [Dioctophyme]
gigas h3 diss, of post. & ant. ends: 4 p.d. R.O. del. i uterus & vagina, diss.: 1 p.d. R.O. del.

69 [Arenicola] a entire specimen, external appearance & details of parts: 5 p. & w.d. b alimentary
canal diss, out: 2 p. & w.d. c [Moniezia] whole specimen, segments & scolex: 5 w.d. Annot.
d | Helminthodes [? antiquus] entire specimen: 1 photo. Annot. [? specimen announced by O. C.
Marsh in Amer. J. Sci. 38 1864 p.415] e,f [Lumbricidae] vent. diss, showing alimentary canal &
typhlosole: 2 p. & wash d. Annot.

70 a Trichosoma [Capillaria] caprimulgi head, tail, eggs, anus & vulva: 5 p.d. b Taenia decupata
[possibly Anoplotaenia dasyuri or Dasyurotaenia robusta] ant. end of worm, scolex & lat. portion
of strobila: 3 p.d. Annot. Linguatula taenioides c vent, view & ova: 6 p.d. & autograph descrip-
tion g,h ant. & post, ends of worm, vent. diss. : 4 p.d. i nervous & reproductive system diss,
out: 3 p.d. R.O. del. P: Trans, zool. Soc. Lond. 1 1835 c pl.41 f.10,15,16 g-i pl.41 f.l 1-14
d [? Breinlia] whole animal, alimentary canal, diss.: 2 p.d. Annot. e Trichospira or Trichina
[Trichinella spiralis] cysts & worm: 7 p.d. R.O. del. Annot. f [Trichinella spiralis] cysts & worm:
3 wash d. Annot. j Trichina [Trichinella] spiralis cysts & worm diss, out: 9 p. & c.d. R.O. del.
P: I.e. pl.41 f.1-9 k Distoma clavatum [Hirudinella clavata] external anatomy & diss, vent.: 4 p.d.
P: I.e. pl.41 f.l 7-20 1 Taenia lamelligera anatomy, including details of segments: 3 p.d. R.O. del.
P: I.e. pl.41 f.21-23 m Trichospira [Trichinella spiralis] manuscript notes for drawings made by
'Mr. Paget' [later Sir James Paget] from . . . demonstrations by J. Jos. Bennett . . . confirmed by

Robt. Brown, F.R.S [It is not clear to which drawing this refers - none signed by Paget or

credited to him ? f.]

134 J. M. INGLES AND F. C. SAWYER

Folio

71 a5 Lernentoma nodosa [Chondr acanthus nodosus] 2 w.d. a6 Lernentoma [Acanthochondria] cornuta
2 w.d. b Lernentoma gobina [Diocus gobinus] 2 w.d. engr. P: Jones, T. Rymer Outline . . . organ-
ization . . . Anim. Kingdom 4th ed. Lond. 1871 f.351a,b. c Lernoeca radiata [Chondracanthodes
radiatus] 2 w.d. engr. P: I.e. f.351c,d. d [Lernaeopoda] 7 w.d. R.O. del. Annot. e2 [Clavella
adunca] 2 w.d. e lower [Kroyeria] 2 p.d. f [Lernaeocera branchialis] 1 w.d. Annot. g Goodsirus
[Hemioniscus] balani developmental stages: 8 i.d. Annot. h Lepeophtheirus pectoralis 2 w.d.
Annot. i Peniculus clavatus 2 w.d. Annot. All except d, e lower & g copies of plates in Muller, O. F.
Zoologiae Danicae . . . fasc. 1-2 Hauniae, 1777-80, pis 33 & 118

72 Limulus polyphemus diss, to show al alimentary canal, dors.: a2 circulatory system, dors. P:
Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond. 28 1873 pl.36 b longitudinal diss, to show internal anatomy: f.1,2 P: I.e.
pi. 3 7 cl central nervous system, vent.: c2 eye & ocular nerve: c5 entosternon & attached
muscles: c6,7 $ reproductive system P: I.e. pl.38. c3,4 f Phacops conophthalmus [Chasmops
extensa] eye & magnified sections: P: I.e. pl.38: All p. drawings

73 a Porcellana coccinea [Petrolisthes coccineus] dors. & vent. & details of parts: 4 w. & i.d. P: Zool.
Capt. Beeche/s Voyage Lond. 1839 pl.26 f.1,2 bl Gelasimus [Macrophthalmus] telescopicus
described by R. Owen Cat. Mus. R. Coll. Surgeons of England pt. 4 fasc. 1 Lond. 1830 p.78 No.
291 b3 Grapsus [Metagrapsus] thukuhar described by R. Owen I.e. p.80 No. 294 B: 9 i. & w.d.
P: Zool. Capt. Beechefs Voyage, Lond. 1839 pl.21 c [lActurus] 1. lat. & details of parts: 5 w.d.
Annot. dl P