Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Toils And Perils Of Scientific Publishing In The Late Eighteenth And Early Nineteenth Centuries, Eileen Snyder

The Courier

It is perhaps not realized by the modem armchair naturalist what hardships attended his 'explorer naturalist' predecessor in the early 1800s. In the George Arents Research Library there is an intriguing—indeed, quite outstanding—group of volumes, landmarks in the history of the natural sciences, by American, British, and French botanists, ornithologists, ichthyologists, entomologists, and herpetologists. A study of the various prefaces, introductions, and accompanying advertisements reveals the overwhelming problems that not only attended every fact ,gathering expedition, but seemed as well to plague every stage in the publication of the new materials. Nevertheless, undaunted, these explorers were inspired to do what …