The Natural History of Aleppo

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The Natural History of Aleppo
Author Alexander Russell, Patrick Russell
Original titleThe natural history of Aleppo, and parts adjacent. Containing a description of the city, and the principal natural productions in its neighbourhood; together with an account of the climate, inhabitants, and diseases; particularly of the plague, with the methods used by the Europeans for their preservation
CountryScotland
Subject Natural history
Publication date
1756

The Natural History of Aleppo is a 1756 book by naturalist Alexander Russell on the natural history of Aleppo. In 1794 his half-brother, Patrick Russell, revised and expanded the text in a second edition. The book is significant for its quality, the contemporary interest it attracted, and for being a product of the Scottish Enlightenment. [1]

When the book was published it was immediately an important European record and perspective on the state of contemporary science in Syria. [2]

The book contains the earliest known description of the Syrian hamster. [3]

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References

  1. Starkey, Janet Catherine Murray (4 July 2013). "Examining editions of The natural history of Aleppo : revitalizing eighteenth-century texts". Era.lib.ed.ac.uk. hdl:1842/7865 . Retrieved 27 December 2015.
  2. Boogert, Maurits H. van den (2010). Aleppo observed : Ottoman Syria through the eyes of two Scottish doctors, Alexander and Patrick Russell (1. publ. ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN   9780199588565.
  3. Murphy, Michael R. (1985). "History of the Capture and Domestication of the Syrian Golden Hamster (Mesocricetus auratus Waterhouse)". In Siegel, Harold I. (ed.). The Hamster : reproduction and behavior. New York: Plenum Press. ISBN   030641791X.