BELL, Thomas A History of British Reptiles. John van Voorst. 1849.
8vo. Original blue cloth, blind stamped borders to sides, gilt lettering to spine; pp. xxiv + 159 + [2, index] + 1, ad.], illustrated throughout with woodcuts; previous owner's inscription to ffep and blind stamp to corner of title page, spine sunned, otherwise very good, internally very clean indeed.
Second edition, preferred for its extra illustrations. Thomas Bell (1792 - 1880) was at the heart of the British zoological establishment. He was the elder cousin of P.H. Gosse and encouraged him in his interests. He also contributed to the theory of evolution by confirming that the Galapagos tortoises were natives of the islands and was instrumental in the publication of Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle. However, when he chaired the meeting of the Linnean Society in 1858 at which Darwin and Wallace presented their famous joint paper, he was less than impressed. His presidential report for May 1859 commented that "The year which has passed has not, indeed, been marked by any of those striking discoveries which at once revolutionize, so to speak, the department of science on which they bear". This accessible, comprehensive and informative book reveals Bell's sense of humour. A number of the wood-engraved tail-pieces are gently comic, not least the one on page 75 which depicts the tail of a viper captioned 'A Tail-piece'.
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