Abstract
THIS beautiful little book, of which not more than a hundred copies are to be printed for sale, emanates from the Department of Fine Arts of the University of Reading, and represents a faithful reprint with the preservation of all grammatical, typographical and engraver's errors of two little tracts of the Private College of Amsterdam, copies of which in Great Britain were hitherto only to be found in the British Museum, the University of Glasgow and the Bodleian libraries. In his excellent introduction, Prof. F. J. Cole states that these tracts are the rarest and least known of all the early literature of comparative anatomy. The first tract printed at Amsterdam in 1667 contains notes on the anatomy of the calf, horse, bullock, sheep, swan, duck and dove, and the vivisection of a dog and frog, while the second tract published in 1673 deals mainly with the pancreas of fishes such as the sturgeon, herring, cod, turbot, pike, perch and trout. Of special interest to the biologist are the descriptions of injection of the branchial artery of a calf with mercury, the air sacs of the swan, duck and pigeon, the palatal organ of the carp, the swim bladder and pneumatic duct of the carp, pike and herring, and the ligamentous spiral valve or 'skrew gut' of the· sturgeon.
Observationes Anatomicae Selectiores:
F. J.
Cole
Amstelodamensium 1667–1673. Edited with an Introduction by. Pp. xi+45+59+4 plates. (Reading: Prof. F. J. Cole, University, 1938.) n.p.
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Observationes Anatomicae Selectiores. Nature 142, 235 (1938). https://doi.org/10.1038/142235b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/142235b0