Sánchez, Jesús. Datos para la zoología médica mexicana: arácnidos é insectos. México: Oficina Tipográfica de la Secretaría de Fomento, 1893. viii, 189, iv pages, 9 leaves of plates : illustrations ; 23 cm.

Parra, Alfonso. Atlas histórico de la Escuela Nacional Preparatoria: desde su fundación hasta los momentos de celebrarse el centenario de la proclamación de la Independencia, septiembre 15 de 1910 / México : [Escuela Nacional Preparatoria], 1910. 1 vol.

With the single purpose of serving the country and with the belief that scientific study should be used with practical ends, Doctor Jesús Sánchez elaborated his essay on Mexican Medical Zoology (Datos para la zoología médica mexicana), where he acknowledges “the value of studying the animal kingdom, within which exists a vast variety that can offer both benefits and diseases”.

Equally, he states that it “is not only important to study the organisms living inside our own bodies, it is also necessary to know those whose venoms, when inoculated in the human body, can cause, from very light inconveniences, to very serious symptoms and even death”. That is why the author developed an essay about this topic, identifying, describing and studying arachnids and insects from several parts of Mexico that cause damage to the human health.

Doctor Jesús Sánchez was a physician by profession, a member of the Academy of Medicine, and responsible of the professorships in Zoology and Biology at the National High School and the National School of Agriculture, where he has dedicated several years to the compilation of insects; these where included in his work of Mexican Medical Zoology, published in 1893. A second edition or reprint of this work has never been published.

Thelyphonus giganteus. Vinagrillo. (Seg. Lucas). http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/51139808.

During the development of this work, Doctor Sánchez exchanged knowledge, talks and experiences with the doctors and brothers Alfredo and Eugenio Dugés. Alfredo Dugés was a great illustrator who made a perfect descriptive work of the Aquatic Spider, or hydroarachnid, native of Guanajuato. Dugés directed Sánchez and recommended the research of other zoology scholars, like Fernando Altamirano, Lauro Jimenez, Antonio Peñafiel, Alfonso Herrera and Gumersindo Mendoza, among others, as well as other prominent publications from the naturalists Francisco J. Clavijero and Jose Alzate Ramirez.

Datos para la zoología médica mexicana describes, in a detailed manner, nine orders of arachnids and scorpions, as well as five orders of insects, ants and bees, using a mixture of a colloquial and technical language, explaining symptoms, cures and medicines that can be used to fight against symptoms caused by the bites or contact with insects. Within his work we can find a remarkably detailed index of every order and term, as well as illustrations for context.

7. Horia maculata. 9. Treiodous barranci (macho). 10. Treiodous barranci (hembra). http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/51139812.

One can appreciate nine pages that contain the illustrations of arachnids, scorpions, several insects, ants and bees, elaborated by hand with colours identical to those of the studied animals.

Being a professor of the National High School, Sánchez’s published works supported the students with knowledge and practical applications; he offered his expertise during his lectures and turned new students towards the development of science and knowledge.

Sarcoptes scabiei (hembra). Visto por el dorso. (seg. Gudden). http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/51139802.

Doctor Jesús Sánchez is also the author of other works related to the Mexican Medical Zoology of arachnids and insects, such as: Elementos de historia natural en forma de lecciones de cosas: Obra escrita expresamente para uso de las escuelas primarias de la nación, published in the year 1895 and available in BHL thanks to the Joint Library of Earth Sciences (Biblioteca Conjunta de Ciencias de la Tierra, Instituto de Ciencias del Mar y Limnología, UNAM), and the introduction of the work: Breve noticia de los establecimientos de instrucción dependientes de la Secretaría de Estado y del Despacho de Justicia e Instrucción Pública, edited in the year 1900.

Ladilla o piojo del pubis. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/51139818.

Louis Agassiz Fuertes. The Osprey. v. 1 (1896-97). http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/8767127

The artwork of Puerto Rican-American Louis Agassiz Fuertes has been featured a few times before on the BHL blog. His paintings are beautiful and eye-catching, and always a treat to visit. Through titles available in BHL, we can even see the evolution of Fuertes’s career— from his earliest professional work to his last.

The Ithaca-born ornithologist and artist often drew as a young child, sketching domestic animals and wild birds alike. Earliest recording of his painting birds was at the age of 14 when he was determined to capture the unusual beak of a Red Crossbill. At a young age, his work started to garner him some notoriety with professors at Cornell and the local community, even resulting in an exhibit hosted by the local Christian Association. By 17 he’d even become an Associate Member of the American Ornithologists Union.

However, when he entered Cornell University, Fuertes’s career was still in question. At the time there weren’t any courses in ornithology at Cornell, and his father (despite urgings from his peers) at first did not see how his son’s artistic leanings could provide a suitable life. As a result, Fuertes took courses in architecture.

It was a chance meeting that changed everything. On a trip to Washington, D.C. with the Cornell University Glee Club, Fuertes met with a friend’s uncle. This uncle just happened to be ornithologist Elliot Coues, a founding member of the American Ornithologists Union.

Nest of Western Gnatcatcher. A-Birding on a Bronco. (1896) http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/12789735

Coues recognized Fuertes’s potential, and provided him with advice and material support to encourage his scientific and artistic pursuits. It was clear Fuertes was to become a professional painter of birds, and after college he studied under naturalist and artist Abbott H. Thayer. The two would become quite close, even so far as considering one another family.

Some of Fuertes’s earliest artwork can be found in publications for Cornell University. However his first professional illustrations were printed in A-birding on a Bronco (1896) by Florence Merriam Bailey, published just one year before Fuertes graduated from Cornell. The pen-and-ink drawings mark the start of a career that would eventually have Fuertes in high demand. Although considered his early works, it is clear Fuertes’s youthful sketching had paid off, resulting in a well-developed style demonstrated in detailed images of birds, their nests, and the surrounding flora.

The Little Lover. A-Birding on a Bronco. (1896) http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/12789693

It’s no surprise that Coues would write to The Osprey to note: “[My] examination of a great many of his designs, both in black-and-white and in natural colors, makes me think Mr. Fuertes the most promising young artist of birds now living, and one whose work already places him in the very first rank.”

It’s an interesting look at the early period of Fuertes’s thirty-year career, during which he would become, not just a prolific artist, but a well-liked and admired colleague and professor. His contemporaries would note his kind, light-hearted nature, and his lectures at Cornell would garner a full house at attention. In the tradition of 19th-century professors who considered themselves poets, Albert W. Smith would recite a memorial poem about Fuertes wherein he says, “under touches of his magic brush,/The canvass [sic] came alive.” Smith would go on to say:

All children knew at once he was their friend;
All men and women felt his lasting charm.
He loved all lovely things that love men’s hearts;
And when he found new beauty, lo, he turned
To share it with some friend.

His kind nature would extend to how he treated his specimens, one account noting how he would stroke and coo at a recently shot bird. This love of birds and sympathetic nature are often repeated in articles and obituaries written about him.

In the end Louis shared the natural beauty of the world not just with those around him, but with the general public who had a growing interest in the natural world. His final contributions were the paintings for Album of Abyssinian Birds and Mammals (1930), the originals of which managed to survive unscathed in the car accident which killed Fuertes in 1927. Many publications which feature Fuertes’s artwork remain available to the public, dozens of which are offered through the BHL.

This blog post is a preview of two upcoming Biodiversity Library Exhibitions on women naturalists, and Latino natural history. The exhibitions are sponsored by the Smithsonian Women’s Committee, and will highlight several women and Latino naturalists represented in the BHL collection.

The Golden Lion Tamarin. Illustrated by Louis Sargent. From: Finn, Frank. The Wild Beasts of the World. (v. 1, 1909). http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/19058592

A small, endangered primate, the Golden Lion Tamarin (GLT) (also known as the Golden or Lion Marmoset) gets its name from the trademark, vivid orange “mane” surrounding its face. Don’t let the “lion” part fool you, however. The tamarin averages only 10.3 inches in length and 1.37 lbs.

In the marvelous book The Wild Beasts of the World (v.1, 1909), Frank Finn, an English ornithologist, writes that the GLT is not much larger than the English squirrel, with “paws” quite unlike “ordinary” monkeys. The accompanying illustration, by Louis Sargent, is a breathtaking representation of this adorable New World Monkey.

Interestingly, Finn records that “the present species is one of the most widely-ranging of the Marmosets, being found from the Isthmus of Panama to South-eastern Brazil and New Granada.” Much has changed since the early 1900s. Today, GLTs have extremely limited distribution, confined solely to Brazil, and occupying only 2-5% of their original habitat. In the 1970s, as few as 200 GLTs remained on Earth. Thanks to conservation efforts, led largely by Dr. Devra Kleiman, who passed away in 2010, their wild population is now closer to 3,200.

The Field Book Project* has cataloged a number of Kleiman’s fieldbooks, many focusing on her research with the GLT. Sonoe Nakasone, who cataloged the books and published a blog post about them, noted that Kleiman’s notes were quite different from those of many other researchers she had cataloged in the past, as:

Kleiman didn’t really “collect specimens”. Rather, her notes document animal behavior, activities, diet, as well as external factors affecting the livelihood of tamarins. Kleiman and her team did collect blood, skin, and fur samples, and they did capture tamarins to breed in captivity before reintroducing them into the wild, yet the fundamental purpose and method of research was distinct from traditional natural history field work.

Devra Kleiman and colleague conducting playback study. From the Field Book Project.

Kleiman’s fieldbooks also document a number of her research techniques. She employed three common protocols:

Scans, focals, and playbacks. Scans and focals are systematic observations. Scans focus on all member of a group of animals; focals focus on an individual animal. Both adhere to specific lengths of time and seek specific information about behavior and activities. Playbacks involved projecting recordings of various animal vocalizations in the field. During these experiments, animal responses, if any, were documented and differences between male and female responses noted.

Nakasone also highlights some of the challenges Kleiman faced during her conservation initiatives:

On October 25, 1991, Kleiman remembers a particularly difficult visit to a corporation: “the veep [VP] we meet is very obnoxious—suggesting that people are burned out [with] ecology (mentions a t-shirt entitled “I don’t give a s— about the GLT)”. On March 16, 1990, Kleiman notes the effects of economic instability in Brazil on the project: “they are freezing all interest-bearing overnight accounts […]. Cecilia [Kleiman’s colleague] had $6000 WWF grant in an overnight account. It increased by $1000 interest, but now she can’t touch it.”

Yet despite these and other obstacles like deforestation, poaching, and political instability, Kleiman coordinated the Golden Lion Tamarin Conservation Program for almost 30 years and “was successful at shedding light on the issue of golden lion tamarins and helping to increase the GLT population by 800%.” As Nakaone notes:

Kleiman’s field books are a refreshing and exhilarating alternative to many of her predecessor’s field books because she was a pioneer in the burgeoning field of conservation biology. Her notes reflect not only the advancement of human knowledge, but also the application of that knowledge to ensure the livelihood of species struggling for survival.

“Participants in the Front Royal Conference on Mammalian Behavior, 16-19 August 1980.” Kleiman 2nd row, 2nd from right.

Learn more about Kleiman’s contributions to conservation and biodiversity sciences from the Smithsonian Archives. Explore the GLT in The Wild Beasts of the World, and learn more about the species in EOL. Read Sonoe Nakasone’s full blog post and explore Kleiman’s fieldbooks, cataloged by the Field Book Project.

* The Field Book Project is an initiative to increase accessibility to field book content that documents natural history. Through ongoing partnerships within and beyond the Smithsonian, the project is making field books easier to find and available in a digital format for current research, as well as inspiring new ways of utilizing these rich information sources. 

“Theobroma, the genus name, is from the Greek and translates to “food of the gods,” a designation that chocolate-lovers would agree is befitting.”  Exhibit Curator @ Cornell’s Mann Library, Ashley Miller

Book of the Week

Book of the Week: Cacao and Chocolate

Many of us already know that alongside corn, chocolate was a top food staple for the ancient Olmec, Mayan and Aztec cultures long before it was ever introduced to the western world. However, did you know that the first place that chocolate was sold in America was in Boston, MA? Or that the Spanish monarchy closely guarded the secret Aztec recipe for hundreds of years in order to maintain a European monopoly on the substance? Or that many religious leaders in Europe wished to ban chocolate because women found it more heavenly than priestly sermons at Sunday mass?  We will continue our celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month this week by highlighting a book all about Theobroma cacao — better known to most of us as chocolate. This week’s book of the week, Cocoa and Chocolate, outlines the natural history of the Cocoa tree, the evolution of production methods and health benefits of chocolate. Yes, we said health benefits. It’s hard to believe that something that is so sinfully delicious could actually also be extremely beneficial to your overall health. If you want to feel justified in your addiction to chocolate we suggest reading chapter four which, explains why chocolate is the “perfect food.” Linnaeus even thought so, for he is the one to have christened the species “Theobroma cacao.”

Catesby depiction of Theobroma cacao on Flickr

Theobroma Cacao, Click for the Taxon page @ EOL

How did chocolate finally make its way into my mouth?

It was Conquistador Hernán Cortés who brought chocolate back to the Spanish court in the early 1500’s however, Central American natives were enjoying chocolate long before European contact. There is evidence of cacao bean cultivation that dates back to 1400 BC. The Cacao tree is a native of the Amazon basin but moved-up to Mesoamerica thousands of years ago. This region that stretches from central Mexico through most of Central America is the traditional home of chocolate. The bean from this plant has historically been so engrained in the culture of this region that the Aztecs used the cacao tree as a representation of the universe and as recently as 150 years ago, villagers in outlying areas of “Nicaragua still traded the cacao bean, the fatty seed that grows in a pod from the trunk of the cacao tree, as currency.” (Johnson) In ancient times, chocolate was not sweet but, rather eaten as a spicy energy treat, in bar or beverage form. According to popular legend, Montezuma enjoyed 50 cups of chocolate per day. While we think drinking 2 cups of chocolate per hour seems somewhat excessive, the Swiss fall closely behind Montezuma ranking number one in chocolate consumption by ingesting 22 pounds of chocolate per year; Americans for once seem to exhibit a bit of moderation eating a modest 11½ pounds of chocolate per year. Globally, humans consume 3 billion pounds of chocolate each year.

Aztecs making Chocolate

Chocolate was once a food exclusively for the very rich however, it has made its way to the masses through improved production techniques. The founding of the first American chocolatier, Walter Baker & Co. predates the founding of America by twelve years, having established itself in in Dorchester, Mass in 1765.  It seems that early American settlers were more interested in eating chocolate than having a country to call their own. At least we know that they had their priorities straight! To keep-up with the American appetite for chocolate, Walter Baker & Co. revolutionized the production methods of the cacao bean, and were thus able to produce vast quantities so that all could enjoy.

How is chocolate good for your overall health?

In researching chocolate, we found all sorts of studies and vetted factoids that confirm that indeed, chocolate is both heavenly and healthful. Here is a point-by-point summary of what we found:

• Vitamins & Nutrients: Chocolate contains essential trace elements and nutrients such as iron, calcium, phosphorus, potassium, and the vitamins A, B1, C, D, and E. Additionally, it is the highest natural food source of magnesium.

• Heart Health: The flavonoids in chocolate and cocoa encourage vascular wall improvement and the function of blood vessels. The Mayo Clinic report suggests that moderate amounts of dark chocolate may be used to reduce the risk of blood clots and platelet formation in the arteries that can lead to stroke – similar to a low-dose aspirin.

• Mood enhancer: Chocolate contains small amounts of a chemical called phenylethylamine (PEA) that is a mild mood elevator.This chemical produces happy feelings in our brain of joy and love.

• Antioxidants: Part of the polyphenol group, antioxidants present in chocolate neutralize or delay the processes that age to the body’s cells and tissues by attacking free radicals in our bloodstream. (Note: milk binds to antioxidants, inhibiting their absorption. Thus, milk chocolate is not a source of antioxidants)

• Mild stimulant: Chocolate contains a number of natural stimulants, such as caffeine and theobromine; these coupled with sugar can certainly provide an energy boost.

Lastly, in no particular order, chocolate has multiple other benefits such as reducing high-cholesterol, hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, joint problems and pre-menstrual symptoms. Did we mention that chocolate also tastes amazing?

Ask yourself this: Are you eating enough chocolate? Please feel free to use any of the above excuses to get out there and enjoy a food fit for the gods.

Chocolatey Links

Book of the Week: Biologia Centrali Americana

Biologia author Frederick Godman

In 1876, two men by the names of Frederick Godman and Osbert Salvin began work on perhaps the most comprehensive account of the flora and fauna of Mexico and Central America ever undertaken. Entitled Biologia Centrali Americana, this 63 volume work, published over the course of 36 years, relates nearly all information known at the time on the mammals, birds, fish, mollusks, insects, arachnids, and botany in the region. Accompanied by over 1,600 lithographic plates, 900 of which are colored, Biologia Centrali Americana is arguably the single most authoritative work on Mexico and Central America’s turn-of-the-century biodiversity and constitutes a perfect candidate to help us celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month!

Great Things have Small Beginnings

Biologia author Osbert Salvin

Godman and Salvin became fast friends while attending Cambridge, where their mutual enthusiasm for natural history solidified their lifelong friendship. Early interest in ornithology prompted them, along with 18 other friends and young ornithologists, to establish a new, and ultimately extremely influential, journal dedicated to ornithology, the Ibis (learn more about the Ibis in our previous book of the week post).

Welcome to the New World

In Fall, 1857, the pair’s first interaction with Central America transpired, when Salvin visited the area to study palm nuts and their potential application in candle making. Finding the inquiry disappointing, Salvin spent the remainder of his time studying the birds and insects of the region, which ultimately led to a publication detailing the 381 known bird species of Central America in the first volume of the new Ibis journal.

Though Salvin returned to England in 1858, he was forever mesmerized by the biodiversity he encountered in Central America. He quickly returned to the area in 1859 and continued collecting bird and insect specimens, which he initially detailed in an article written for the Ibis.

Members of the Morpho genus in Biologia

In August, 1861, Godman joined Salvin on his third expedition to Central America. It was in Yzabal, where the expedition originated, that Godman had his first magical encounter with the region’s biodiversity:

This place will, however, always be associated in my mind with my first sight of a living example of one of the most striking and gorgeous of all butterflies, Morpho peleides. I was sitting on the trunk of a fallen tree in the forest, when it came floating past me, but I was so overcome with astonishment and delight at this wonderful vision that, although I had a butterfly net in my hand, I was utterly unable to rise in pursuit until it was too late to capture it.

Godman and Salvin spent nearly two years trekking through Central America, exploring, to name a few, Quirigua, Zacapa, Guatemala City, Duenas, Escuintla, San Germonimo, Coban, Cubilguitz, and Choctum, and collecting a wide range of specimens, including birds, butterflies, and fish. Salvin describes the pragmatic method by which he obtained fish specimens in the Rio Grande:

…I employed Indians to poison some nine miles of the water in order to make a collection of fish…The method adopted for this purpose was to beat the plant (Tephrosia toxicaria) on the rocks until a froth not unlike soap-suds was formed, this when mixed with the water caused the fish to sicken and some to the surface…Vast numbers were obtained, and from them I made a selection and preserved a good many specimens in spirit (aguardiente), but was somewhat disappointed to find there were but few species represented.

Fish of the genus Ailurichthys in Biologia

Though this first joint expedition ended in 1863, Godman and Salvin traveled back to the New World many times to study and accumulate more specimens (including trips to Mexico in the late 1880s), often bringing along additional subject specialist. Salvin’s wife, Caroline Maitland, accompanied Salvin on his final voyage to Central America, during which time she painted the illustrations of the flora found in the botanical volumes of Biologia.  The pair also employed various collection experts to gather specimens in specific region for their growing body of preserved Central American wildlife.

A Monumental Undertaking

The Manatee in Biologia

In 1876, the suggestion to publish a comprehensive work describing the biodiversity collected in Central America sparked the origins of Biologia. Originally intended to be published in six quarto parts a year, each supplemented with six colored plates, resulting in a total of 60 parts over 10 years, the continuous supply of fresh specimens, and abundance of material to be published, necessitated a total of 215 parts in zoology, 5 volumes in botany, and 17 parts in archaeology, spanning 36 years of publication.

Godman and Salvin worked diligently on the title until June 1, 1898, when Salvin unexpectedly died. At the point of his death, only 141 of the 215 parts of Zoology and 8 of the 17 parts of Archaeology had been completed (all botany volumes were completed at the time of Salvin’s death). With help from additional authors, Godman persevered “with a heavy heart,” and in 1915, the final part was issued, bringing this monumental undertaking to a close.

New World Feathers

As Godman and Salvin were both avid ornithologists, and as their publishing enterprises together began with an ornithological journal, we thought it fitting to feature the Aves Atlas from Biologia Centrali Americana in our post. The Atlas contains 79 plates illustrating the species found in the three previous bird volumes.

Godman relayed particular frustrations, and ultimate triumphs, with describing the birds of Mexico. As he outlines:

In working out the Mexican Birds we found ourselves hampered for want of an authentically named collection of North American species for comparison, which did not exist in Europe at that time. In order to remedy this, I acquired the Henshaw collection, numbering 13,326 specimens, and this was rendered still more valuable through the courtesy of the authorities at the United States National Museum, who allowed Mr. Ridgway, the highest authority in America, to go through and verify all the names on the labels attached.

As the Smithsonian (National Museum of Natural History) paid a key role in deciphering the ornithological specimens contained in this work, it is no wonder that they, in collaboration with many of our other BHL partners, would build a virtual exhibition dedicated to Biologia.

We’ve presented a few of our favorite illustrations from the Aves Atlas below. Be sure to check out all of the images on Flickr and the entire set of Atlases in BHL. Delve even further into these illustrations with our Book of the Week Pinterest board.

Finally, check back on our blog, Twitter, Facebook and Flickr for more posts celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month!

We hope you enjoyed this post. Interested in guest-blogging for BHL? We’d love that! Natural history, biodiversity and conservation topics are especially welcomed. Email us your ideas at [email protected].