Abstract
THE recent appearance of the one hundred and twentieth volume of the publications of the Ray Society is a step onward in a great national undertaking. In the 'thirties of last century, the idea of producing a ‘fauna’ worthy of British science, in which every species of animal known to occur in Britain should be described and figured, with some account of its habits, habitat and synonymy, by the united labours of several naturalists, each an expert in his own line, was being realised under the sympathetic management of Mr. Van Voorst. Yet in spite of the loving care that he lavished on the production, as is abundantly shown by the charming vignettes which adorn each chapter of his books, it became apparent to the naturalists who in 1843 attended the meeting of the British Association in Cork, that Van Voorst's series had begun with monographs which were ‘best sellers’, such as Bell's “British Quadrupeds”1839, Yarrell's “British Fishes”1836 and “Birds”1843, and that there would remain a considerable residue of un-monographed classes of animals for which neither the British Association, nor the scientific societies, nor publishers would have the funds necessary for publication. “To rescue such precious materials from oblivion, is one of the objects for which the Bay Society was instituted.”
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GUNTHER, R. The Ray Society. Nature 133, 127–128 (1934). https://doi.org/10.1038/133127a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/133127a0