scholarly journals William Paley, William Buckland and the Oxford University Museum

Author(s):  
Emma Peacocke

The student of the mammalian chondrocranium, the existing knowledge of which has recently so excellently been summed up by Matthes (1921 b , 1922), cannot but be surprised at the fact that a mammal so interesting and easily available as the shrew has not yet been thoroughly studied by modern methods. Of Parker’s magnificent pioneer work (1885) it is unnecessary to speak; the only other investigator who has turned his attention to the shrew is Levi (1909), who did not, however, make a model of it, and Ärnbäck Christie-Linde (1907), who studied certain special points only. The present work was done in the Department of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy of the Oxford University Museum, on a number of embryos of Sorex araneus , which I owe to the generosity of my friend Mr. C. S. Elton, to whom my thanks are here extended. These embryos were cut into series of sections, and one of these, of an embryo 11 mm. in length, was reconstructed into a blotting-paper—wax model, at a magnification of 80 diameters. In the construction of this model I enjoyed the assistance of Mr. J. H. Beal, which help is hereby gratefully acknowledged. To my wife I am greatly indebted for the preparation of the Plates illustrating the model for publication. Lastly, I take great pleasure in recording my debt to Prof. Goodrich for his constant interest and encouragement in this and kindred work.


Zootaxa ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 4624 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-40
Author(s):  
FELIPE VIVALLO

In this paper the primary types of Centris described by Amédée Lepeletier de Saint-Fargeau in 1841 deposited at Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, France and Hope Entomological Collection, Oxford University Museum of Natural History, United Kingdom were studied. To stabilize the application of some names, lectotypes were designated for C. bimaculata, C. collaris, C. decolorata, C. denudans, C. dorsata, C. ferruginea, C. fuscata, C. maculata (= C. decolorata), C. obsoleta, C. picea, C. poecila, C. trigonoides, C. violacea and C. vittata. Centris picea nomen oblitum is withdrawn from the synonymy of C. lanipes (Fabricius) and proposed as new junior synonym of C. trigonoides nomen protectum. Centris nigrescens is removed from the synonymy of C. vittata and revalidated, proposing C. merrillae Cockerell and C. lanipes ogilviei Cockerell as its new junior synonymies. Lectotypes for this latter species and for C. rubella Smith (= C. ferruginea) were also designated. In addition, due to the impossibility of identifying C. thoracica and the misplacement of its type material, it is proposed to consider it nomen dubium and place it incertae sedis. 


2016 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 145-166 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Riches

William Smith (1769–1839) played an important role in the defence of the fourteen kilometers of coast between Winterton and Eccles, in East Norfolk, UK between 1803 and 1809. Although now known as a geologist, he earned much of his income as an engineer. Smith's main job was to repair the breaches in the Sandhills (sand dunes) that protected farmed lowland behind from sea flooding. At the same time, Smith became involved in several drainage projects in marshes behind the sand dunes which were instigated by ambitious and acquisitive landowners. Smith's nephew, John Phillips (1800–1874), gave a glowing but incomplete account of Smith's East Norfolk work in his Memoir. However, an analysis of the extensive archives in: the Norfolk Record Office, the William Smith Collection in the Oxford University Museum of Natural History and contemporary local newspapers has revealed that after apparent initial success, Smith's work on the Sandhills became more problematical, both technically and financially, and his relationships with local landowners, for whom he worked, became increasingly fractured. The Sandhills work was Smith's first coastal engineering project and, through a combination of his own inexperience and his oversimplification of the coastal processes, his designs did not provide a permanent solution to the erosion of the Sandhills by sea surges nor were his designs retained in subsequent years. Comparison of Smith's design concepts with those used by other contemporary engineers reveal that Smith's limited technical success came from a major earthmoving program to infill the Gaps (breaches) in the Sandhills and the adoption of care and maintenance programs to sustain the sea defences, rather than from any innovative engineering.


Integration and independence in the Mediterranean world - A.T. Grove & Oliver Rackham. The nature of Mediterranean Europe: an ecological history. 384 pages, 313 b&w & colour figures, 35 tables. 2001. New Haven (CT): Yale University Press; 0-300-084439 hardback £45. - Jon P. Mitchell. Ambivalent Europeans: ritual, memory and the public sphere in Malta, xvi+275 pages, 9 figures. 2002. London: Routledge; 0-41527153-3 paperback. - Greg Woolf. Becoming Roman: the origins of provincial civilization in Gaul, xviii+296 pages, 3 maps, 17 illustrations. 1998. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 0-521-41445-8 hardback £40 & US$64.95 - Andrew J. Shortland (ed.). The social context of technological change: Egypt and the Near East, 1650-1550 BC: proceedings of a conference held at St Edmund Hall, Oxford, 12–14 September 2000. x+273 pages, 55 figures, 13 tables. 42 colour photographs. 2001. Oxford: Oxbow; 1-84217-050-3 paperback £28 & US$45. - Eliezer D. Oren (ed.). The Sea Peoples and their world: a reassessment (University Museum Monograph 108, University Museum Symposium Series 11). xx+360 pages, 146 figures, 5 tables. 2000. Philadelphia (PA): University of Pennsylvania Museum; 0-924171-80-4 hardback $59. - Paul Åström Trial trenches at Dromolaxia-Vyzakia adjacent to Areas 6 and 8 (Hala Sullan Tekke 11; Studies in Mediterranean Archaeology XLV: 11). 68 pages, 77 b&w figures, 5 colour figures. 2001. Jonsered: Paul Äslröm; 91-7081-111-3 paperback Kr250. - A.T. Reyes. The stamp-seals of ancient Cyprus. xvii+286 pages, 545 figures. 2001. Oxford: Oxford University School of Archaeology; 0-947816-52-6 hardback £45 & US$65. - Katharina Giesen. Zyprische Fibeln: Typologie und Chronologie. 467 pages, figures, tables. 2001. Jonsorod: Paul Äström; 91-7081-171-7 paperback Kr350. - A.M. Snodgrass. The Dark Age of Greece: an archaeological survey of the eleventh to the eighth centuries BC (2nd edition), xxxiv+456 pages, 138 figures. 2000. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press; 0-7486-1404-4 hardback £57.50, 0-7486-1403-6 paperback £19.95. - Maria Eugenia Aubet. The Phoenicians and the West: politics, colonies and trade (2nd edition; tr. Mary Turton). xv+432 pages, 106 figures, 3 tables. 2001. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 0-52179161-8 hardback £47.50 & US$69.95, 0-521-79543-5 paperback £1 7.95 & US$24.95.

Antiquity ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 76 (291) ◽  
pp. 241-246
Author(s):  
N. James

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