Entomology
Series: Nineteenth Century Collections Online: Science, Technology, and Medicine, Part II; Nineteenth Century Collections Online: Science, Technology, and Medicine, Part II
Publisher: [publisher not identified]
Published: 1750
Place of publication: [Place of publication not identified]
Language: eng
Number of pages: 537
Subjects: Entomology
Description: A thorough understanding of our environment requires knowledge of the approximately one million species of insects that have been described to date and with which we share the world. As a scientific field, entomology was largely anecdotal until the later eighteenth century. The development of the microscope in the seventeenth century, combined with improvements in printing, led to the reproduction of increasingly accurate woodcuts of insects, allowing researchers to examine the fine details of the insect form. The hundred thousand pages in this collection offer copious examples of this outstanding early iconography, much of it in color plates. As scientists refined their examination of insects through the nineteenth century, they developed a systematic classification of insects and an ever more exact morphology that clarified the structure, organs, and tissues of insects.
Notes: Date range of documents: c1750-1925.

Reproduction of the originals from the Bruce Peel Special Collections Library, University of Alberta.

Various western languages.