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13153 results in History of science and technology

Page 657 of 658

  • PREFACE

  • Thomas Pennant
  • Book:
    History of Quadrupeds
    Published online:
    05 March 2012
    Print publication:
    20 July 2009, pp v-xiv
    First published in:
    1793

  • Summary

    The following work was originally intended for private amufement, and as an Index, for the more ready turning to any particular animal in the voluminous hiftory of quadrupeds by the late Comte De Buffon: But as it fwelled by degrees to a fize beyond my firft expectation, in the end I was determined to fling it into its prefent form, and to ufher it into the world.

    The prefent edition has prefumed to alter its title of Synopsis to that of History; not only on account of the vaft additions it has received, by favour of my friends, but likewife to prevent confufion among fuch who may think them worthy of the honor of quotation.

    The Synopfis of our illuftrious countryman, Mr. Ray, has been long out of print; and though, from his enlarged knowledge and great induftry one might well fuppofe his Work would for fome time difcourage all further attempts of the fame fort, yet a republication of that Synopfis would not have anfwered our prefent defign: For, living at a period when the ftudy of Natural Hiftory was but beginning to dawn in thefe Kingdoms, and when our contracted Commerce deprived him of many lights we now enjoy, he was obliged to content himfelf with giving defcriptions of the few Animals brought over here, and collecting the reft of his materials from other Writers.

History of Quadrupeds
  • Volume 1
  • Thomas Pennant
  • Published online:
    05 March 2012
    Print publication:
    20 July 2009
    First published in:
    1793
  • Thomas Pennant (1726–98) was a keen geologist, naturalist and antiquary. Linnaeus supported his election to the Royal Swedish Society of Sciences in 1757, and in 1767 he became a Fellow of the Royal Society. His History of Quadrupeds (1793), aimed to promote natural history among a wider readership, originated in an informal index to John Ray's Synopsis of 1693. In his preface, Pennant acknowledges the monumental Histoire naturelle by the Comte de Buffon, as well as works by Klein (1751), Brisson (1756), and particularly the work of Linnaeus, though Pennant strongly disagreed with Linnaueus's classification of primates as including humans with apes. Pennant's two-volume book, beautifully illustrated with over 100 engravings, provides an overview of the state of zoological classification at the end of the eighteenth century. Charles Darwin owned a copy and had it sent to him in South America during the Beagle voyage.

Page 657 of 658