The cat. An introduction to the study of backboned animals especially mammals.
New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1881. 4to. xxiii, 557 pp., including half-title. FIRST AMERICAN EDITION. Frontispiece and over 200 text illustrations. Publisher’s cloth, spine and corners worn; text clean. Ownership signature of Milton Hopkins dated January 21, 1954 on flyleaf and bookplate of the Morgan School Library on paste-down. Item #16323
First American edition of an exhaustive monograph on the cat, the most common domestic animal. One of the best-known anatomists of his day, Mivart wrote this work as a useful introduction to the study of vertebrate animals. After describing the skeletal structure, the muscles, organs of alimentation, circulation, respiration and secretion, and the nervous system, the author delves into the animal’s development and evolution. “The careful and detailed work he bestowed on Insectivora and Carnivora largely increased our knowledge of the anatomy of these groups” (Encyclopedia Britannica, 1911).
Mivart (1827-1900), a leading Catholic commentator/comparative anatomist, and an initial adherent of the new biology, gradually regarded the tendency to universalize organic evolution as a threat to his deeply-held Catholicism. This conflict led to the publication of On the genesis of species (1871) which attacked Darwinism, though with profound scientific knowledge. Darwin responded to Mivart’s work with the addition of a new chapter in the sixth edition of his Origin of species (1872).
Price: $200.00