Cuvier

1832 · réf. 199225 — London: Printed for Whittaker Treacher and Co 1832. Hardcover. Fair with Good Interior Boards and spine strip are not present; "Insects" written in pen on the spine; signature on front endpaper; ffep is missing at the front; rear endpaper is chipped; textblock edges are toned/scuffed/smudged; interior is clean but does have some light toning and occasional smudging/foxing; textblock is solid; plates are colorful and gorgeous really even with the minor flaws. Boards and spine strip are not present; textblock edges are marbled; 570 pp.; richly illustrated primarily in color. "Georges Cuvier 1769-1832 made a peer of France in 1819 in recognition of his work was perhaps the most important European scientist of his day. His most famous work Le Règne Animal was published in French in 1817; Edward Griffith 1790-1858 a solicitor and amateur naturalist embarked on in 1824 with a team of colleagues an English version which resulted in this illustrated sixteen-volume edition with additional material published between 1827 and 1835. Cuvier was the first biologist to compare the anatomy of fossil animals with living species and he named the now familiar 'mastodon' and 'megatherium'. However his studies convinced him that the evolutionary theories of Lamarck and St Hilaire were wrong and his influence on the scientific world was such that the possibility of evolution was widely discounted by many scholars both before and after Darwin. Volume 14 is the first of two covering insects." -- WorldCat. Printed for Whittaker, Treacher, and Co hardcover books