The Oceanic Hydrozoa: A Description of the Calycophoridae and Physophoridae Observed During the Voyage of HMS Rattlesnake in the Years 1846-1850

London: Ray Society, 1859. First edition.

FINE FOLIO ENGRAVINGS OF TH HUXLEY'S DISCOVERIES DURING THE VOYAGE OF THE HMS RATTLESNAKE.

25x32 cm folio hardcover, tan cloth binding, cancelled library bookplate to front paste-down, i-x, 143 pp, 12 engraved plates by J Basire after Huxley's drawings, each with an explanatory letterpress leaf.

THOMAS H. HUXLEY (1825-1895), "Charles Darwin's champion, was ship's surgeon on the voyage of the 'Rattlesriake' to the Torres Straits off Australia, however the natural history work he conducted on his own time. . . Through extensive shipboard dissections and through library work in Sydney, Australia..., Huxley was able to bring some order to these minute organisms which had been simply lumped together in those two great zoological lumber rooms, Linneaus' Vermes and Cuvier's Radiata. ...Working out the details and relationships of the delicate marine animals he studied set the pattern for his career and gave him a firm grasp of major zoological problems." (D.S.B.). Freeman, 'Brit. Natural History Books', no. 1854.