Von Siebold was was given several detailed maps of Japan for his explorations by the court astronomer, Takahashi Kageyasu. When the Japanese government discovered the maps, they accused von Siebold of spying and treason, expelling him from the country. His then 2 year old daughter, Kusumoto Ine, went on to become the first licensed female Japanese physician of Western medicine.

Siebold, Philipp Franz von. Fauna japonica. v. [4.] Aves. ([1844]-1850). Digitized by Harvard University, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Ernst Mayr Library. http://s.si.edu/2rCBqb4.

After enduring these legal difficulties, von Siebold was able to return to the Netherlands in 1829. His vast natural-history collections preceded him to Batavia onboard ships while he was detained. The Dutch contingent that received the collections was actually a bit relieved that von Siebold was not present when the specimens arrived, as they feared that he might disperse them to institutions beyond the Netherlands.

Safely home, von Siebold commissioned Leiden Museum director C. J. Temminck to write Fauna japonica’s mammal volume. Temminck and his museum colleague Hermann Schlegel compiled the bird, reptile, and fish volumes; and Leiden Museum invertebrates curator Wilhelm de Haan wrote the Crustacea volume. The series was originally published in separate fascicles, edited by von Siebold. An unfinished, unpublished echinoderm manuscript for Fauna japonica by J. A. Herklots is now in the archives of the Leiden Museum.

Siebold, Philipp Franz von. Fauna japonica. v. [5]. Mammalia. ([1842-1845]). Digitized by Harvard University, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Ernst Mayr Library. http://s.si.edu/2rCnPR3.

Initially, von Siebold published Fauna japonica partly with his own funds and partly with a grant from the Dutch government. By 1833, the Amsterdam publisher J. Muller became partners with von Siebold in the venture. Until 1840, the plates were lithographed at von Siebold’s own lithographic plant, as indicated by “Lith. d. Nippon,” and later were done at other firms until the Leiden printer A. Arnz took over publication of Fauna japonica’s text and plates entirely.

Because the original volumes of Fauna japonica were issued in a limited (unknown) number, they became so difficult and expensive to obtain that a facsimile edition in four volumes was published in Japan in 1934 in an edition of 350 copies — now that edition has become very difficult to obtain as well. The University of Kyoto has also digitized the volumes of Fauna Japonica.

Siebold, Philipp Franz von. Fauna japonica. v. [1]. Introductions and Crustacea. (1833-1850). Digitized by Harvard University, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Ernst Mayr Library. http://s.si.edu/2rRDwYL.

References:

L. B. Holthuis and T. Sakai. Ph. F. von Siebold and Fauna japonica: a history of early Japanese zoology. Tokyo: Academic Press of Japan, 1970.

L. B. Holthus. “On the dates of publication of W. De Haan’s volume on the Crustacea of P. F. von Siebold’s Fauna japonica,” The Journal of the Society for the Bibliography of Natural History, vol. 3, pt. 1, 1953.

Ueno, Masuzo. “The Western Influence on Natural History in Japan.” Monumenta Nipponica 19, no. 3/4 (1964): 315-39. doi:10.2307/2383175.

Why are names important in science? What is the difference between scientific names (also known as Latin names or taxonomic names) and common names? Why do some species have multiple names? The grant project team for What’s in a Name, supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), set out to find answers and develop exhibits and other ways for anyone to explore this phenomenon. With millions of different species to identify and understand, the process of naming organisms helps scientists organize and understand the tree of life. The physical and virtual results of this exploration creatively demonstrate how scientists identify and name species, how names relate to scientific research and the progression of knowledge, and how museum specimen collections play a crucial role in the process of naming.

Why would something be called “Fried Egg jelly fish”, and also be known as Phacellophora camtschatica?

Image of the Fried Egg Jelly courtesy of gpapadop79 – Own work, CC BY-SA4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=45347541.

Scientific names take the form of “Genus species”. Scientific names serve to distinctively identify an organism and also to show evolutionary relationships. The genus links the organism to its evolutionary relatives while the species name demonstrates its uniqueness (not unlike the family and first name convention of many people in North America). Organisms also have common names. Common names can be confusing—for instance a “Robin” in the United States is a completely different bird than a “Robin” in Europe, but if the scientific name is used, confusion can be reduced via the name unique to the organism.

The system of binomial nomenclature is used to assign species with their two-part Latin names. Carl von Linné (1707 – 1778) established a system of tiered taxonomic classification, which assigned species formal names, in the 18th century. His classification is outlined in his book, Systema Naturae. His purpose was to reduce confusion from the proliferation of common names by supplying a unique name to each organism that also displayed potential relationships with other organisms. The names were formulated from Latin words. Linné even Latinized his own name and is now best known by that name: Carolus Linnaeus.

From the What’s In a Name PDF, page 32: “Carl Linnaeus gave the European Honeybee its name, Apis mellifera, which is Latin for “honey-bearing bee.” By some accounts, Linnaeus later became dissatisfied with the name he bestowed and argued to change it from Apis mellifera, to Apis mellifica, or “honey-making bee.” His mistake, he argued, was that bees make honey within the hive; they do not bear it from the flower. His argument was presumably unsuccessful as the bee still bears the erroneous name.” Image: A European Honeybee, Apis mellifera, visiting a flower that is dusting it with pollen. (JJ Harrison, CC BY-SA 3.0).

Species may be discovered by scientists poring over specimens in a museum or someone exploring an area rich in biodiversity. It is not necessary to be a scientist to name a new species but scientific names must conform to rules laid out by the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature and the International Code for Nomenclature for algae, fungi and plants. Names can reflect a characteristic of a species (Peromyscus leucopus-white-footed mouse) or can be named after a person or location (Mandelia microcornata-a nudibranch named for Nelson Mandela). Sometimes, scientists display a sense of humor when naming: Agra phobia and Agra vation are the scientific names of South American beetles. A hungry entomologist (Neal Evenhuis) named a series of flies (genus) Pieza and most notably, a species Pieza pi.

The results from the work of What’s in a Name? include four interactive exhibit stations at the Harvard Museum of Natural History on Honeybees, the extinct Dimetrodon, Jellies and Poison Ivy. There are also free online resources, including a website and a 60-page free e-book. The online resources include eight more species stories that feature images and references from the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) and include familiar organisms like the dodo and sugar maple, as well as our favorite, the snail Vargapupa biheli named after BHL!

Vargapupa biheli. Image courtesy Dr. Barna Páll-Gergely.

Featured in the exhibit display on Dimetrodon, Stephanie Pierce, Assistant Professor of Vertebrate Paleontology, Harvard University, describes research being done right now on specimens of the fossil species Dimetrodon milleri, in the Museum of Comparative Zoology collection:

The What’s in a Name? project is a partnership between Harvard Museums of Science and Culture (HMSC), the Encyclopedia of Life (EOL), and the BHL, as represented by the Ernst Mayr Library of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University. This project was made possible by IMLS.

For more information about scientific names and naming, check out the following sources

• Bright, M. 2012. The Frog with Self-cleaning Feet: And Other Extraordinary Tales From the Animal World. Biteback Publishing. 304 pages.
• Evenhuis, N. L.2002. Pieza, a new genus of microbombyliids from the New World (Diptera: Mythicomyiidae). Zootaxa 36(1). DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.36.1.1
• Freeland, C. 2008. On Name Finding in the BHL. BHL Blog, March. https://goo.gl/wJIOWC
• Greenstein, B. 2016. How’s your fern and bird coverage, BHL? BHL Blog, August.
• Harvard Museums of Science and Culture. 2017, “What’s in a Name?.” http://whatsinaname.hmnh.harvard.edu/files/imls/files/_whatsinaname_.pdf
• Judd, W. 2014.Weirdest species names. Australian Geographic. March 2014. https://goo.gl/UQ3xMA
•  Zielinski, S. 2009. The World’s Strangest Scientific Names. Smithsonian Magazine. https://goo.gl/D3aMbb

Naturalist, educator, and founder of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz was born on May 28, 1807, in Môtier, Switzerland, the oldest son of prominent pastor Rodolphe Agassiz and Rose Mayor Agassiz. Growing up near Lake Morat, Louis was fascinated by fish, catching them barehanded along with his brother Auguste. Louis was determined to study science, although his family encouraged him to pursue medicine. He studied at the Universities of Munich, Heidelberg, and Erlangen, earning a Ph.D. in 1829 and an M.D. in 1830. His 1829 publication on the fishes of Brazil (Selecta genera et species piscium) attracted the attention of Baron Georges Cuvier (1769-1832), and Agassiz spent the next two years in Paris with Cuvier.

Louis Agassiz at 19, from a pastel drawing by Cecile Braun in Louis Agassiz: his Life and Correspondence. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/1367283.

In 1832, Agassiz became a professor of natural history at the College of Neuchâtel and married Cecile Braun, an artist and the sister of botanist Alexander Braun (1805-1877). At Neuchâtel,  Louis published on diverse subjects, including a five volume work on fossil fish, Recherches sur les Poissons Fossiles. Louis and Cecile had three children while at Neuchâtel: Alexander (1835-1910), Ida (1837-1935) and Pauline (1841-1917).

Agassiz, Louis. Recherches sur les Poissons Fossiles (1833-43). Vol. 2, plate 69c. http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/32033418.

Between 1835-1845, while continuing to study and write about zoological topics, Agassiz also began studying geology, especially the European glaciers. His Etudes sur les Glaciers (1840) and Systeme Glaciaire (1847) were leading works in glacial theory and establishing the existence of an Ice Age.

In 1845, King Frederick William IV of Prussia awarded Agassiz a grant to travel to the United States to study “the natural history of the New World.” Agassiz sailed for Boston in September 1846. He intended to travel for two years, not knowing that he would eventually make Massachusetts his home. At the invitation of prominent businessman John Amory Lowell (1798-1881), Agassiz spoke at the Lowell Institute in Boston in the winter of 1846-47, followed by lectures in New York, Philadelphia and elsewhere on the east coast of the United States. American scientists and ordinary citizens turned out in great numbers to hear him. The published edition of his later (1849) Lowell Lecture series on embryology is available through the BHL. Beyond the lecture hall, Agassiz explored the United States from Lake Superior to the coral reefs of Florida.

Agassiz was enthusiastically welcomed into the academic and cultural life of the Boston area, and was appointed to a three-year post as Professor of Zoology and Geology at Harvard’s Lawrence Scientific School in 1847. Agassiz’ young family had stayed in Europe, where Cecile died of tuberculosis in 1848. After her death, Agassiz decided to relocate in the United States permanently, and his children joined him in Massachusetts. In 1850 Louis married Elizabeth Cabot Cary (1822-1907), who would be a partner in all aspects of his life and a founder of Radcliffe College.

A life-long collector, Agassiz immediately started assembling a zoological teaching collection at Harvard. He put out a call to the public around the U.S. in his Directions for Collecting Fishes and other Objects of Natural History. Agassiz’ texts Principles of Zoology…for the Use of Schools and Colleges and Outlines of Comparative Physiology…for the use of Schools and Colleges were reprinted in multiple editions.

By the late 1850s, Harvard’s facilities (and Agassiz’ home) were bursting with his collections. The need for space and Agassiz’ ambition to create a premier natural history museum in his adopted country led to the founding of the Museum of Comparative Zoology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1859. While Louis was teaching and administering the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University, Elizabeth operated a school for young women at the Agassiz’ home from 1855-1863. More details of their life, together with the three Agassiz children, can be found in the BHL in Louis Agassiz; his life and correspondence by Elizabeth Cary Agassiz, and Elizabeth Cary Agassiz : a Biography by Lucy Allen Paton.

The Thayer Expedition to Brazil in 1865-1866 was an enormous success for Louis and Elizabeth Agassiz, collecting over 34,000 specimens for the MCZ. Louis, who started his career writing about fishes of Brazil collected by J.B. von Spix and C.F.P. von Martius, finally encountered them in their native habitat.

Astronotus ocellatus (Monte Alegre, Brazil) painted by J. Burkhardt during the Thayer Expedition. Special Collections of the Ernst Mayr Library of the MCZ. http://ids.lib.harvard.edu/ids/view/1662402.

Other notables on the expedition were a young William James (1842-1910) and Jacques Burkhardt (ca.1808-1867), Agassiz’ assistant and illustrator. Burkhardt had been Agassiz’ illustrator in Switzerland and joined him in the U.S. An exhibit of Burkhardt’s work from the Thayer expedition is online. In addition to the scientific results published, Louis and Elizabeth Agassiz wrote the popular account A Journey in Brazil.

Although revered as a teacher, scientist and adventurer in his own time, Agassiz has become known for his disagreement with Charles Darwin and evolutionary theory. A product of his religious early 19th century upbringing, Agassiz viewed the world as Creation, and taught that plant and animal species were fixed, not evolving. He was characteristically self-confident and could not be swayed, preferring to joust with Darwin and others while evolution was discussed and accepted in the scientific community.

Louis Agassiz passed away on December 14, 1873, following a stroke, a year after returning from another expedition to South America on the U.S. Coast Survey Hassler. The Museum of Comparative Zoology today holds approximately 21 million specimens, and is an international center for graduate study and field research, including evolutionary biology as well as zoology, taxonomy and paleontology.