Edward Griffith (1790–1858) was a British

naturalist Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...

and

solicitor A solicitor is a lawyer who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and enabled to p ...

. He wrote ''General and Particular Descriptions of the Vertebrated Animals'' (1821) and translated

Georges Cuvier Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric, baron Cuvier (23 August 1769 – 13 May 1832), known as Georges Cuvier (; ), was a French natural history, naturalist and zoology, zoologist, sometimes referred to as the "founding father of paleontology". Cuv ...

's ''Règne animal'', making considerable additions (1827–35).

Life

The son of William Griffith of Stanwell,

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, former county in South East England, now mainly within Greater London. Its boundaries largely followed three rivers: the River Thames, Thames in the south, the River Lea, Le ...

, he entered St. Paul's School, London in 1800 and left it in 1806, entering the

Common Pleas A court of common pleas is a common kind of court structure found in various common law jurisdictions. The form originated with the Court of Common Pleas at Westminster, which was created to permit individuals to press civil grievances against one ...

office as a clerk. He afterwards became a solicitor and a master in the Court of Common Pleas. He was one of the original members of the Zoological Society, and a fellow of the Linnean (1822), Antiquaries, and Royal Societies. Griffith died on 8 January 1858.

Works

In 1821 he published the first part of what was intended to be an extensive work, ‘General and Particular Descriptions of the Vertebrated Animals,’ with coloured plates. This first part dealt only with

monkey Monkey is a common name that may refer to most mammals of the infraorder Simiiformes, also known as simians. Traditionally, all animals in the group now known as simians are counted as monkeys except the apes. Thus monkeys, in that sense, co ...

s and

lemur Lemurs ( ; from Latin ) are Strepsirrhini, wet-nosed primates of the Superfamily (biology), superfamily Lemuroidea ( ), divided into 8 Family (biology), families and consisting of 15 genera and around 100 existing species. They are Endemism, ...

s. Incomplete, it may have been abandoned in favour of his translation of Cuvier's ‘Animal Kingdom,’ with considerable additions, in fifteen volumes. This work, which is described as containing ‘descriptions of all the species hitherto named and of many not before noticed,’ was published between 1827 and 1834, Griffith being the chief editor, assisted by Major

Charles Hamilton Smith Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Hamilton Smith, Royal Guelphic Order, KH, Military Order of William, KW, Royal Society, FRS, Linnean Society of London, FLS (26 December 1776 – 21 September 1859) was a British Army officer, artist, naturalist, ant ...

and Edward Pidgeon in the part dealing with the

mammalia A mammal () is a vertebrate animal of the class Mammalia (). Mammals are characterised by the presence of milk-producing mammary glands for feeding their young, a broad neocortex region of the brain, fur or hair, and three middle ear bon ...

, by Edward Pidgeon with the

mollusca Mollusca is a phylum of protostome, protostomic invertebrate animals, whose members are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 76,000 extant taxon, extant species of molluscs are recognized, making it the second-largest animal phylum ...

,Petit, R. E. & Coan., E. V. 2008. The molluscan taxa made available in the Griffith & Pidgeon (1833-1834) edition of Cuvier, with notes on the editions of Cuvier and on Wood's Index Testaceologicus. ''Malacologia'' 50: 219-264.page(s): 22

/ref> by

John Edward Gray John Edward Gray (12 February 1800 – 7 March 1875) was a British zoologist. He was the elder brother of zoologist George Robert Gray and son of the pharmacologist and botanist Samuel Frederick Gray (1766–1828). The same is used for a z ...

with birds. and by

George Robert Gray George Robert Gray (8 July 1808 – 6 May 1872) was an English zoology, zoologist and author, and head of the Ornithology, ornithological section of the British Museum, now the Natural History Museum, London, Natural History Museum, London f ...

with insects. The work is extensively illustrated with coloured plates. It introduces many new names. In addition to scientific works, Griffith published two others of a professional character. The first was ‘A Collection of Ancient Records relating to the Borough of Huntingdon, with Observations illustrative of the History of Parliamentary Boroughs in General,’ London, 1827 isprinted 1727 arising out of an

election petition An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operate ...

, and urging that the borough franchise rightly belonged to all burgesses or resident householders paying

scot and lot Scot and lot is a phrase common in the records of English, Welsh and Irish medieval boroughs, referring to local rights and obligations. The term ''scot'' comes from the Old English word '' sceat'', an ordinary coin in Anglo-Saxon times, eq ...

, and not, as held by a parliamentary committee, to the corporation. The other, published in 1831, is entitled "Cases of supposed Exemption from Poor Rates claimed on the ground of Extraparochiality, with a … Sketch of the Ancient History of the Parish of St. Andrew, Holborn".

References

* English zoologists 1790 births 1858 deaths Fellows of the Royal Society 19th-century British zoologists {{UK-zoologist-stub

Life

Works

See also

References