SCIENCE FROM AN EASY CHAIR
BY THE SAME AUTHOR
- Extinct Animals
- The Kingdom of Man
- From an Easy Chair
A.—“YELLOW” OR IMMATURE EEL: NOT DESCENDING TO THE SEA(FEMALE)
B.—“SILVER” OR MATURE EEL IN BRIDAL DRESS DESCENDING TOTHE SEA (FEMALE), A SMALLER INDIVIDUAL THAN “A”
HEAD OF IMMATURE AND MATURE SPECIMENS OF THE COMMON EELOF THE NATURAL SIZE.
ORIGINAL WATER-COLOUR DRAWINGS FROM LIVE SPECIMENS
[Transcriber’s Note: The original images are around 5¾ inches (14.5cm)wide and 1½ inches (4cm) high.]
SCIENCE FROM AN
EASY CHAIR
BY
Sir RAY LANKESTER
K.C.B., F.R.S.
WITH EIGHTY-FOUR ILLUSTRATIONS
SECOND EDITION
METHUEN & CO. LTD.
36 ESSEX STREET W.C.
LONDON
| First Published | April 14th | 1910 |
| Second Edition | May | 1910 |
PREFACE
This volume is a collection of some of the papers which I havecontributed to the Daily Telegraph during the years 1908-1909, underthe title “Science from an Easy Chair.” I have revised and corrected theletterpress, and have added some illustrations. A smaller volumecontaining earlier papers was published by Messrs. Constable in 1908,with the title From an Easy Chair. It is my intention now to produceadditional volumes (under the title “Easy Chair Series”) as theirconstituent articles accumulate, and I hope to be able to publish asecond and a third instalment at no distant date.
I should like to draw the special attention of the reader to theFrontispiece (Plate I.), which is very beautifully executed, and is, Ibelieve, the first coloured drawing yet published showing the differencebetween the adult “silver” eel and the more abundant immature “yellow”eel—sometimes called the “frogmouthed eel.” The original drawings wereprepared for me through the kindness of Dr. Petersen, of Copenhagen, whois the discoverer of many interesting facts about the{vi} common eel, andis director of the Danish Biological Laboratory.
I also wish to draw the attention of any one who is kind enough to lookat this preface to one or two more of my illustrations, because theyare, I think, of exceptional interest, and should be looked at, at once,before a decision not to read the book is made. These are theprehistoric engraving of a horse’s head, with rope-bridle in place, onpage 81;