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Synopsis

Prepared by order of the council of the marine biological association especially for the use of those interested in the sea-fishing industries. with a preface by e. ray lankester, f.r.s.

Item Description

8vo. 6.5 x 9 inches. xvi + 375 pp. Bound in half dark blue morocco, gilt; spine in compartments with raised bands, decorated gilt, with gilt title. Marbled endpapers. All edges gilt. A little wear to extremities and slight sunning of upper edges of boards and top edges; otherwise a very good clean copy. Signature at head of title. Illustrated by 159 numbered text figures and by 2 folding coloured maps at end. Decorated by publisher's device on verso of title. The first part examines marine fishes in general, including their development and fish culture; the second part describes individual families and species of fish. The author, Joseph Thomas Cunningham (1859-1935) was a marine biologist, who carried out experiments on the pigmentation of flatfish. This led him to the conclusion that the inheritance of acquired characteristics was through a hormonal system rather than by the Darwinian mechanism of sexual selection. Edwin Ray Lankester (1847-1929), who wrote the preface, was an influential invertebrate zoologist and evolutionary biologist, President of the Marine Biological Association and Director of the Natural History Museum, 1898-1907.