Caption
Illustration of American Mastodon (Mammut americanum) tooth. 'The back grinding tooth of the mammoth or Mastodon of Ohio, weight 4lb and 11oz, drawn and engraved by Springsguth from life'. Forming the copperplate hand-tinted frontispiece to Vol 3 of James Parkinson's ' Organic Remains of a Former World'. As D.K. Grayson notes, this was the first book on vertebrate palaeontology in English after Cuvier's demonstration of the reality of extinction. It began the process of absorbing a continental approach to life history into British Natural theology. The book, and its many lavish illustrations, served to inspire aspiring young palaeontologist such as Gideon Mantell and Richard Owen. Their discoveries would in turn revolutionise the science. James Parkinson (1755-1824) was a founder member of the geological society and also the medic who described the degenerative condition that bears his name.
Availability
Only inBelgium, Canada, France, Luxembourg, Switzerland