Feejee Mermaid and Other Essays in Natural and Unnatural History

Not many pictures in this book - but lots of words - good words. The subject is handled with respect - which is not always done with topics such as this. The photos and illustrations are not reproduced very well so don't buy it for the pictures. There are some good essays and it reads fast. I have studied this topic for many years so I was prepared for the worst - meaning i wouldn't find much new stuff here - but hey I DID. New info about some old things I have been studying always impresses me and tells me that the writer(s) did their homework.

If you have any interest in the history of biology, this book is for you. It contains ten investigations into natural history at its most weird: learned pigs, barnacle geese growing from trees, vegetable lambs, showers of fish and toads, and the world's cleverest performing horse. The Feejee Mermaid of the title, half a monkey and half a salmon, had a long career in 19th century show business and beyond. A remarkable chapter deals with the criminal prosecution of animals for a variety of offenses, from the middle age onwards. One of the book's great strengths is that it successfully couples a wealth of historical data with modern science; this enabled Bondeson to actually solve the riddle of the Basilisk, a mythical creature born from the egg of a cockerel.Jan Bondeson is apparently a British physician, and not a full-time historian of science. This would explain the book's vivid and readable prose, far from the normal turgid jargon of the 'academic'. Most of the essays are beautifully written, with contemporary quotations in poetry and prose effortlessly woven into the text. Sometimes I found, however, that the book had a lack of cohesion and overall theme. But in the book's best chapter, about spontaneous generation throughout the ages, Bondeson provides a remarkable and unique contribution to the history of biology. He uses his up-to-date knowledge of science to demonstrate that the same long-lasting ideas about generation of living tiaaue can be found in Aristotle's writings and in modern theories about the origins of life.