Natural history publications arising from Theodore Cantor's visit to Chusan, China, in 1840

• Published in: Archives of natural history Vol. 43; no. 1; pp. 30 - 40
• Main Author: Turner, I. M
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: UK Edinburgh University Press 01.04.2016
• Subjects: Botany; Historical Studies; Insects; Mollusks; Natural history; Plates; Zoology; China; William Griffith; Asiatic Society; Nathaniel Wallich; Zhoushan
• ISSN: 0260-9541; 1755-6260
• DOI: 10.3366/anh.2016.0344

In 1840, Theodore Edward Cantor, nephew of Nathaniel Wallich, served as an assistant surgeon with the British forces on an expedition to China during the First Opium War. Cantor, a keen naturalist, was requested to use the opportunity to collect natural history specimens for the East India Company. Despite only spending four months on Chusan (Zhoushan), Cantor managed to amass a considerable number of specimens on the voyage and during the time in China. Cantor sought assistance from William Griffith with the identification of the plants, Edward Blyth with the birds, William Benson with the molluscs and Frederick Hope with the insects. Cantor published an account of Chusan and its fauna in Annals and magazine of natural history in 1842, but he also submitted the work to the Asiatic Society of Bengal to be published in Asiatick researches with many coloured plates and a chapter on the plants by William Griffith. The cost and slow progress with producing the plates contributed to the demise of Asiatick researches and the failure to publish the Chusan report as intended. William Griffith's paper on the botany was issued in a small number of preprints paginated either from 1 or from 33 in late 1844 or very early 1845. Sets of the twelve hand-coloured lithograph plates that were completed were issued with proof copies of pp 1-32 representing the introductory material written by Cantor as Zoology of Chusan , probably in 1847.