sea

Shrimps, Lobsters, and Crabs

Many of us may think of Old Bay and/or butter when we think of shrimp, lobster, and crabs, but for the scientists at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC), these creatures are viewed as part of food webs, as ecological invaders, or as proxies for understanding ecosystem dynamics.

Six Discourses

Sir John Pringle, 1st Baronet, PRS (1707-1782) was a Scottish physician who has been called the "father of military medicine," although Ambroise Paré (1510-1590) and Jonathan Letterman (1824-1872) have also been accorded this sobriquet. After finishing his studies, Pringle settled in Edinburgh at first as a physician, but between 1733 and 1744 was also Professor of Moral Philosophy at Edinburgh University. In 1742 he became physician to the Earl of Stair, then commanding the British army in Flanders.

Opuscula Iuventutis Mathematica Curiosa...

The first part of this work describes a newly invented instrument of the era: a planisphere illustrated with a plate. A planisphere is a star chart analog computing instrument in the form of two adjustable disks that rotate on a common pivot. It can be adjusted to display the visible stars for any time and date. It is an instrument to assist in learning how to recognize stars and constellations. The astrolabe, an instrument that has its origins in the Hellenistic civilization, is a predecessor of the modern planisphere.

A Treatise on Diamonds and Precious Stones

John Mawe (1766-1829) first set out on a career at sea, but after the merchant ship he was in foundered on a reef near Mozambique, he concluded that a sea-faring life was too hazardous and turned to selling the shells, minerals, and other natural-history specimens that he had begun collecting in his travels. He became one of the leading dealers in the booming trade of specimens for curiosity cabinets and scholarly collections throughout Europe.

Beretning om Corvetten Galathea's Reise Omkring Jorden 1845, 46 og 47

The Galathea expedition was Denmark's first circumnavigation, carrying naturalists and artists who collected plants, animals, and ethnographic artifacts along a route that included India, the Nicobar Islands, Java, China, Hawaii, and several parts of South America. This official account by the captain, Steen Bille (1797-1883), held by fewer than 10 libraries in the U.S., is of particular interest to curators who work on Hawaiian material in the National Museum of Natural History's departments of Botany, Vertebrate Zoology, and Anthropology.

Aquatilium Animalium Historiae

Ippolito Salviani's book on aquatic animals is renowned as one of the three 16th century works that established ichthyology as a modern science; SIL holds the other two and this completes the trio. A professor of medicine at the University of Rome and physician to several Popes, Salviani collected fishes in the markets of Rome for anatomical examination to support his systematic studies, correcting and expanding the works of ancient authors (Aristotle, Pliny, et al.).

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