- 52 mammals
360 birds
140 reptiles
120 fish
14,000 insects
35 mollusks
5 zoophytes
Who was this man?
Extra credit: Explain why the title of his book is unusual.
March 05, 2008
14712 on a ship
In the middle of the 19th Century, an Englishman sailed home from South America with a collection of animal specimens gathered over his time exploring there. They were:
Who was this man?
Extra credit: Explain why the title of his book is unusual.
360 birds
140 reptiles
120 fish
14,000 insects
35 mollusks
5 zoophytes
Who was this man?
Extra credit: Explain why the title of his book is unusual.
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11 comments:
the geologist carried all these animals on a (snoopy) dog. and all he could get using this big count of specimens was (0,0) of species.
Must be Darwin.
My guesses were wrong. The answer is here: http://www.dispatchesfromthevanishingworld.com/pastdispatches/naturalists/printerbates.html
b and sriram, it ain't Darwin.
Swarup's got it.
How did he know there weren't any duplicates in those 18000 insects?
Reminded me of Dr.Stephen Maturin -- the character in "Master and Commander: far side of the world". Very similar characters.
@gbo : hehehe :-) good joke!
ha, the father of Master Bates!
I'm a little late....but yes, this was Henry Bates. He wrote "The naturalist on the river Amazons" amongst a few other things, but importantly, he struck up this famous friendship with Alfred Russel Wallace. Wallace was a superb scientist who independently came up with the theory of natural selection, and sent his paper to one of his idols, Charles Darwin, for comment. Darwin had been working on his own theory of evolution for years (he was notoriously slow and precise in his work), and must have received the shock of his life when he saw Wallace's paper. Anyway, their joint publication (which Wallace was very pleased with) changed science for ever.
It was indeed Henry Walter Bates. The Alex Shoumatoff article that Swarup links to is an excellent introduction to the man. He and AR Wallace spent two years together in South America.
Bates' book about his explorations in the Amazon area is called "The Naturalist on the River Amazons". Why the apparent plural? As Shoumatoff explains, "Bates preferred a literal translation of the river's Portuguese name, Rio Amazonas".
All in all, quite a man.
GBO, I forgot. He knew there weren't any duplicates because he gave them each a unique name that they would respond to when he called.
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