The animal Kingdom

New York: G. & C. & H. Carvill, 1831. FIRST AMERICAN EDITION. With 19 (of 20) plates (lacking the first plate in Volume 1). Modern calf-backed marbled boards; some foxing to text leaves in Volume 1, otherwise a very good, clean copy. Bookplate in each volume of the Newburyport Public Library and dated in manuscript Jan. 8, 1859, plus book label on the rear paste-down. First American edition of a landmark in the history of zoology and comparative anatomy, the most comprehensive biological work since Linnaeus. “Cuvier’s valuable work represented the fruits of a lifetime’s study of living and fossil animals. In his day Cuvier exerted an enormous influence on science. He played a leading part in the development of the science of palaeontology and stimulated the study of comparative anatomy” (G&M).

“It is in his classification of the animal kingdom into four main groups, Vertebrata, Mollusca, Articulata and Radiata, that he is so notably succeeded in giving a lead that has been followed by all his successors. . .Cuvier was the first to apply analyses and comparison to the entire animal kingdom. He also saw that this homogeneity in an individual should enable a competent naturalist to reconstruct a complete animal from any significant part of its anatomy” (PMM).