Kalm's account of his visit to England : on his way to America in 1748 / translated by Joseph Lucas ; with two maps and several illustrations.

  • Pehr Kalm
Date:
1892
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Kalm's account of his visit to England : on his way to America in 1748 / translated by Joseph Lucas ; with two maps and several illustrations. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    very many tomes of an herbarium, among which we par- ticularly examined those which Sir Hans Sloane himself had coliected in Jamaica [T. I. p. 434] ; 336 volumes of dried plants in Royal folio; 011 eacli leaf there were as many plants stuck on as there was room for. [T. I. p. 377.] Sir Hans Sloane’s Library, which pro- bably has few like it among private collections gathered together by one single man, and consists of somewhat more than 48,000 volumes, all bound in superb bindings. [T. I. p. 427.] The 26th May, 1748. To-day I accompanied some gentlemen to Sir Hans Sloane’s to see once more his Natural Samling, and in particular to get to make more exact observations on the Cobra di Capello, Serpent, which has, as it were, glass eyes on the neck, hvilken på nacken har likasom glas Ögon, [whence the French name “ Le Serpent a lunettes,” “ Spectacle Snake ”; also “Naja,” Naia Tripudians (Merv.) M. Morin Reptiles et Poissons, p. 68, illustrated on p. 6g and Frontispiece], and to get to count its scuta abdominalia and squamas caudales, abdominal plates and tail scales, about which Linnceus asked me in a letter. . . . [T. I. p. 437]. The snake, Cobra di Capello, had 183 scuta abdominalia and squamas Caudales. If the small squamce, which lie under the chin, parallel with the scuta abdominalia, are also reckoned,then there are two more. It was difficult enough to count them, because the snake lay in spiritu vini in a sealed glass bottle. [T. I. p. 427.] To describe all this great collec- tion in detail, omständeligen, would fill several Foliantcr : for anyone who has not himself seen this collection would probably have very great diffi- culty in picturing to himself that it is so large. We had to-day the advantage that Sir Hans Sloane
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