The oceanic Hydrozoa; a description of the Calycophoridae and Physophoridae observed during the voyage of H.M.S. "Rattlesnake" in the years 1846-1850. With a general introduction.

London, The Ray Society, 1859. Folio (34.9 x 26.1 cm). x, 143 pp.; 12 engraved plates with explanatory text leaves, a few text figures. Contemporary half morocco over grained cloth boards. Spine with five raised bands and gilt title. Yellow endpapers. = A well-bound copy of this important work written by Darwin's Bulldog, the zoologist Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-1895), who was a ship's assistant surgeon and naturalist on board of HMS Rattlesnake. The Rattlesnake charted the Great Barrier Reef and the seas northwards to New Guinea. "Huxley's paper On the anatomy and the affinities of the family of Medusae' was published in 1849 by the Royal Society in its Philosophical Transactions. Huxley united the Hydroid and Sertularian polyps with the Medusae to form a class to which he subsequently gave the name of Hydrozoa. The connection he made was that all the members of the class consisted of two cell layers, enclosing a central cavity or stomach. This is characteristic of the phylum now called the Cnidaria. He compared this feature to the serous and mucous structures of embryos of higher animals. When at last he got a grant from the Royal Society for the printing of plates, Huxley was able to summarise this work in The Oceanic Hydrozoa, published by the Ray Society in 1859'. The value of Huxley's work was recognised and, on returning to England in 1850, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. In the following year, at the age of twenty-six, he not only received the Royal Society Medal but was also elected to the Council" (Wikipedia). Provenance: armorial bookplate of Lord Avebury 'auctor pretiosa facit' mounted on the front pastedown. Most probably John Lubbock, 1st Baron Avebury, 4th Baronet (1834-1913), ".an English banker, Liberal politician, philanthropist, scientist and polymath. Lubbock worked in his family company as a banker but made significant contributions in archaeology, ethnography, and several branches of biology. He coined the terms "Paleolithic" and "Neolithic" to denote the Old and New Stone Ages, respectively. He helped establish archaeology as a scientific discipline, and was influential in debates concerning evolutionary theory. He introduced the first law for the protection of the UK's archaeological and architectural heritage"(Wikipedia). Also on the front pastedown a discrete Newcastle-upon-Tyne bookseller's label. Some shelf wear to spine tends and board edges; several plates rather foxed, as usual. Nissen ZBI, 2065.