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Natural History

Specialty Definition: Natural history

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Natural history is the study of the history and processes of living things. It history is defined differently, depending on the source. Although most definitions include botany and zoology, others extend the topic to include paleontology and biochemistry, as well as parts of geology and physics. A person interested in natural history is known as a naturalist.

In the Eighteenth and welll into the Nineteenth Century, Natutal History as a term was frequently used to refer to all scientific studies, as opposed to political or ecclesiastical history. As such the subject area would include all aspects of physics, astronomy, archeology, etc. We still see this usage in some institution names, such as the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago.

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Natural history."

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Natural History Museum

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

View of the Natural History Museum
from the south east

The Natural History Museum, one of three large museums located in South Kensington, London, England (the others are the Science Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum), is home to life and earth science collections comprising some 70 million specimens or items. There are five main collections: Botany, Entomology, Mineralogy, Palaeontology and Zoology.

The museum is renowned for its Central Hall, which houses the museum's collection of dinosaur skeletons.

The foundation of the collection was a bequest by English doctor Sir Hans Sloane (1660-1753). Sloane's collection, which included dried plants, and animal and human skeletons, was initially housed in Montagu House in Bloomsbury in 1756, and was considered part of the British Museum. In the late 1850s, Professor Richard Owen, Superintendent of the natural history departments of the British Museum, became convinced that the Natural History Museum needed a bigger building. Land in South Kensington was purchased, and in 1864 a competition was held to design the new museum. The winning entry was submitted by Captain Francis Fowke. Work began in 1873 and was completed in 1880. The new museum opened in 1881, although the move from the old museum was not fully completed until 1883. In 1963, the Natural History Museum finally became a museum in its own right, and in 1986 absorbed the adjacent Geological Museum.

In the 1990s the Museum's Mineralogy department, described as "just a collection of rocks in cabinets", was completely rebuilt and relaunched in 1998 as a multimedia exhibition entitled The Earth Galleries, while the other departments were retitled The Life Galleries.

A corridor provides public access between the Life Galleries and the Science Museum. The closest London Underground station is South Kensington.

External Links

• Official website

  Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Natural History Museum."

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Pliny's Natural History

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Pliny the Elder's Natural History is an encyclopedia written by Pliny the Elder.

In its present form the natural History consists of thirty-seven books, the first book including a characteristic preface and tables of contents, as well as lists of authorities, which were originally prefixed to each of the books separately. The contents of the remaining books are as follows:

II, mathematical and physical description of the world;

III - VI, geography and ethnography;

VII, anthropology and human physiology;

VIII - XI, zoology;

XII - XXVII, botany, including agriculture, horticulture and pharmacology;

XXVIII - XXXII, medical zoology;

XXXIII - XXXVII, mineralogy, especially in its application to life and art, including chasing in silver (xxxiii.154-751), statuary in bronze (xxxiv), painting (xxxv.15-941), modelling (151-851), and sculpture in marble (xxxvi).

He apparently published the first ten books himself in AD 77, and was engaged on revising and enlarging the rest during the two remaining years of his life. The work was probably published with little, if any, revision by the author's nephew, who, when telling the story of a tame dolphin, and describing the floating islands of the Vadimonian Lake, thirty years later (viii. 20, ix. 33), has apparently forgotten that both are to be found in his uncle's work (ii. 209, ix. 26). He describes the Naturalis historia, as a Naturae historia, and characterizes it as a "work that is learned and full of matter, and as varied as nature herself."

The absence of the author's final revision may partly account for many repetitions, and for some contradictions, for mistakes in passages borrowed from Greek authors, and for the insertion of marginal additions at wrong places in the text.

In the preface the author claims to have stated 20,000 facts gathered from some 2,000 books and from 100 select authors. The extant lists of his authorities amount to many more than 400, including 146 of Roman and 327 of Greek and other sources of information. The lists, as a general rule, follow the order of the subject matter of each book. This has been clearly shown in Heinrich Brunn's Disputatio (Bonn, 1856).

Pliny's principal authority is Varro. In the geographical books Varro is supplemented by the topographical commentaries of Agrippa which were completed by the emperor Augustus; for his zoology he relies largely on Aristotle and on Juba, the scholarly Mauretanian king, studiorum claritate memorabilior quam regno (v. 16). Juba is also his principal guide in botany. Theophrastus is also named in his Indices.

In the History of Art the original Greek authorities are Duris of Samos, Xenocrates of Sicyon, and Antigonous of Carystus. The anecdotic element has been ascribed to Duris (xxxiv. 61, Lysippum Sicyonium Duris Begat nullius fuisse discipulum etc.); the notices of the successive developments of art, and the list of workers in bronze and painters, to Xenocrates; and a large amount of miscellaneous information to Antigonus. The last two authorities are named in connexion with Parrhasius (xxxv. 68, hanc ei gloriam concessere Antigonus et Xenocrates, qui de pictura scripsere), while Antigonus is named in the indices of xxxiii - xxxiv. as a writer on the toreutic art.

Greek epigrams contribute their share in Pliny's descriptions of pictures and statues. One of the minor authorities for books xxxiv - xxxv is Heliodorus, the author of a work on the monuments of Athens. In the indices to xxxiii - xxxvi an important place is assigned to Pasiteles of Naples, the author of a work in five volumes on famous works of art (xxxvi. 40), probably incorporating the substance of the earlier Greek treatises; but Pliny's indebtedness to Pasiteles is denied by Kalkmann, who holds that Pliny used the chronological work of Apollodorus, as well as a current catalogue of artists. Pliny's knowledge of the Greek authorities was probably mainly due to Varro, whom he often quotes (e.g. xxxiv. 56, xxxv. 173, 156, xxxvi. 17, 39, 41). Varro probably dealt with the history of art in connexion with architecture, which was included in his Disciplinae.

For a number of items relating to works of art near the coast of Asia Minor, and in the adjacent islands, Pliny was indebted to the general, statesman, orator and historian, Gaius Licinius Mucianus, who died before AD 77. Pliny mentions the works of art collected by Vespasian in the Temple of Peace and in his other galleries (xxxiv. 84), but much of his information as to the position of such works in Rome is due to books, and not to personal observation.

The main merit of his account of ancient art, the only classical work of its kind, is that it is a compilation ultimately founded on the lost text books of Xenocrates and on the biographies of Duris and Antigonus.

He shows no special aptitude for art criticism; in several passages, however, he gives proof of independent observation (xxxiv. 38, 46, 63, xxxv. 17, 20, 116 seq.). He prefers the marble Laocoon in the palace of Titus to all the pictures and bronzes in the world (xxxvi. 37); in the temple near the Flaminian Circus he admires the Ares and the Aphrodite of Scopas, "which would suffice to give renown to any other spot." "At Rome indeed (he adds) the works of art are legion; besides, one effaces another from the memory and, however beautiful they may be, we are distracted by the overpowering claims of duty and business; for to admire art we need leisure and profound stillness" (ibid. 26-72).

External Links

• Latin text from Bill Thayer 37 books
• First English translation by Philemon Holland, 1601; books 1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 online
• Second English translation by John Bostock and H. T. Riley, 1855; book 11 online extracts about India from books 26-28 online

  Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Pliny's Natural History."

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Synonyms within Context: Natural History

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Modern Usage: Natural History

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Commercial Usage: Natural History

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Image Slideshow: Natural History

Photos: Natural History More pictures...

Illustrations: Natural History More pictures...

Computer Images: Natural History More pictures...

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Photo Album: Natural History

Thumbnail	Description & Credit	Thumbnail	Description & Credit
	Natural history of common acquired nevi. Ordinary moles begin as uniformly tan or brown macules, 1 to 2 mm in diameter (a), expand to a larger macule (b), progress to a pigmented papule that may be minimally (c) or obviously (d) elevated above the surface of the skin, and terminate as a pink or flesh-colored papule (e). These lesions are junctional (a,b), compound (c,d), and dermal (e) nevi, respectively. Note their smooth borders and clear demarcation from the surrounding skin. Credit: Unknown photographer/artist.		The Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, destination for many tourists. Credit: America's Coastlines.
	Pl. XXXVII. 138. Malacosteus niger, Ayres. From NE edge of Georges Bank in 125 fathoms. 139. Malacosteus choristodactylus, Vaillant. From Vaillant, ""Exped. Scient. du Travailleur et du Talisman." 140. Photostomias Guernei, Collett. From Lutken, "Spolia Atlantica." 141. Thaumatostomias atrox, Alcock. From Alcock, " Annals and Magazine of Natural History.". Credit: National Marine Fisheries Historical Image Collection.		Plate XV. 53. Platytroctes apus, Gunther. Gunther, Challenger Report, Vol. X XII. 54. Anomalopterus pinguis, Vaillant, Goode and Bean. From Vaillant, "Exp ed. Scient. du Travailleur et du Talisman." 55. Aulastomatomorpha phosphorops, Alcock. From Wood-Mason, "Natural History Notes from .... INVESTIGATOR." 56. Leptoderma macrops, Vaillant. From Vaillant, "Exped. Scient. du Travailleur ...". Credit: National Marine Fisheries Historical Image Collection.
	On board at Bergen, from left to right: H. Neuville, of the Natural History Museum at Paris; Professor Brandt of the University of Kiel; A. Fuhrmeister, secretary to the Prince; the artist Lovatelli; and the medical doctor, Dr. Baraduc. Plate IV, print 16. In: "Results of the Scientific Campaigns of the Prince of Monaco." Vol. 89. Credit: Sailing for Science - the NOAA Fleet Then and Now.		Frontispiece to : "Natural History of the European Seas" by Edward Forbes ( posthumously) and edited by Robert Godwin-Austen. Forbes' initials are in the lower right of this whimsical cartoon depicting deep sea dredging for marine fauna. Credit: Sailing for Science - the NOAA Fleet Then and Now.
	Black and white wash painting of Black Ducks by Francis L. Jaques, known for his wildlife portraits and for his background paintings for habitat groups in natural history museums. (Deceased) Return to the Federal Duck Stamp Office Home Page.		Title page of Pliny's Natural history, with decorative border of dolphins and illustration of St. Michael lancing dragon. Credit: Library of Congress.
	Man seated at table examining birds in the Division of Birds at the Natural History Building. Credit: Library of Congress.		Natural History Museum, Boston, Mass. Credit: Library of Congress.
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits.

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Familiar Quotations: Natural History

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Use in Literature: Natural History

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Non-Fiction Usage: Natural History

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Speeches: Natural History

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Expressions: Natural History

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Frequency of Internet Keywords: Natural History

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Modern Translation: Natural History

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Anagrams: Natural History

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