First Book of Zoology de Morse, Edward S - 1876

New york: D. Appleton and Co., 1876. Second edition.

1876 BEAUTIFUL ILLUSTRATED LITTLE BOOK BY EMINENT AMERICAN ZOOLOGIST WHO BROUGHT DARWIN TO JAPAN.

7 1/2 inches tall hardcover, salmon cloth covered boards, gilt illustration of hermit crab on cover, with embossed design, spine leather, with gilt snail design, all edges marbled, i-xiv, 190 pp, over 160 wood engravings in text, publisher's advertisements at back. Covers and spine bright, corners bumped and worn, binding tight, scattered light foxing of endpapers, pages crisp and clean, very good minus in custom archival mylar cover.

EDWARD SYLVESTER MORSE (1838 – 1925) was an American zoologist, archaeologist, and orientalist. He is considered the "Father of Japanese archaeology." He attended Gould Academy in Bethel, Maine, where he came under the influence of Dr. Nathaniel True who encouraged Morse to pursue his interest in the study of nature. By the age of thirteen he had put together an impressive collection of shells, and despite his lack of formal education, his collections soon earned him the visit of eminent scientists from Boston, Washington and even the United Kingdom. Morse was recommended by Philip Pearsall Carpenter to Louis Agassiz (1807–1873) at the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University for his intellectual qualities and talent at drawing. After completing his studies he served as Agassiz's assistant in charge of conservation, documentation and drawing collections of mollusks and brachiopods until 1862. Morse rapidly became successful in the field of zoology, specializing in malacology. In 1864, he published his first work devoted to molluscs under the title Observations On The Terrestrial Pulmonifera of Maine. In 1867, along with Putnam, Hyatt and Packard, Morse co-founded The American Naturalist, and Morse became one of its editors. In 1874, he became a lecturer at Harvard University. In 1876, Morse was named a fellow of the National Academy of Sciences. In June 1877 Morse first visited Japan in search of coastal brachiopods. His visit turned into a three-year stay when he was offered a post as the first professor of Zoology at the Tokyo Imperial University. He was the first to bring Darwin's theory of evolution to Japan. In 1886 Morse became president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.