Bondeson (A Cabinet of Medical Curiosities, 1997) is back with
another mind-blowing collection of scientific anomalies and
mysteries. Presented here are ten investigations into natural
history at its most odd and occasionally macabre: barnacle geese
purported to grow from trees, lambs born of plants in the wilds of
Tartary, toads-in-the-hole blinking back the sunlight after being
unlocked from centuries encased in solid stone. Bondeson has chosen
his subjects not just for their outrageous qualities, but for their
staying power over the years and the wealth of primary sources he
could tap in shaping his stories, which read like spry narrative
histories. What is perhaps most bizarre is the sheer number of
animals that served as objects of fixation in 17th-19th-century
Europe: drumming hares, vaulting apes, counting horses, dancing
dogs, starling cardsharps. Bondeson gives plausible explanations
where he can - he often has to give many explanations, for his
subjects keep reappearing in new guises - though he never forces
his hand, and many of the solutions were found at the time of the
animal's fame. Mermaids, for example, be they "Feejee" or
otherwise, are shown to have been a quilt of odd parts: head of
orangutan and baboon, tail of salmon, with quill and horn
accessories. That rain of frogs and fish may well have been the
fallout of a waterspout, while the philosopher pigs - adepts at
math and telling time, they were considered proof of the
transmigration of souls - probably responded to hand signals.
Bondeson wedges all manner of other stranger-than-life items into
his tales: "an ambassador who forgot to remove his hat when meeting
a Russian prince was punished by having the hat nailed to his skull
by the palace guard." Bondeson doesn't seek important truths behind
the grotesqueries, nor trenchant social criticisms. If he educates,
it's as a broadly inquisitive and keen naturalist; that he amuses
is not a point for debate. (Kirkus Reviews)
In his new collection of essays, Jan Bondeson tells ten
fascinating stories of myths and hoaxes, beliefs and Ripley-like
facts, concerning the animal kingdom. Throughout he recounts--and
in some instances solves--mysteries of the natural world which have
puzzled scientists for centuries.
Heavily illustrated with photographs and drawings, the book
presents astounding tales from across the rich folklore of animals:
a learned pig more admired than Sir Isaac Newton by the English
public, an elephant that Lord Byron wanted to employ as his butler,
a dancing horse whose skills in mathematics were praised by William
Shakespeare, and, of course, the extraordinary creature known as
the Feejee Mermaid. This object became the foremost curiosity of
London in the 1820s and later in the century toured the United
States under the management of P. T. Barnum. Bearing a striking
resemblance to a wizened and misshapen monkey with a fishtail, the
mermaid was nonetheless proclaimed a genuine specimen by
"experts."
Bondeson explores other zoological wonders: toads living for
centuries encased in solid stone, little fishes raining down from
the sky, and barnacle geese growing from trees until ready to fly.
In two of his most fascinating chapters, he uncovers the origins of
the basilisk, considered one of the most inexplicable mythical
monsters, and of the Vegetable Lamb of Tartary. With the head and
body of a rooster and the tail of a snake, the basilisk was said to
be able to kill a person with its gaze. Bondeson demonstrates that
belief in this fabulous creature resulted from misinterpretations
of rare events in natural history. The vegetable lamb, a mainstay
of museums in the seventeenth century, was allegedly half plant,
half animal: it had the shape of a little lamb, but grew from a
stem. After examining two vegetable lambs still in London today,
Bondeson offers a new theory to explain this old fallacy.
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