Tenney, Sanborn. Elements of Zoology : A Text-Book. Illustrated by 750 Wood Engravings. New York: Scribner, Armstron & Co., 1876. [11753]
Terra cotta cloth with black titles & design to front board, gilt title to spine, very slight edge-wear, 7 3/4 x 5 1/4 inches, tight. xii., 503 clean pp., tight. With 750 wood engravings. Very good. Hardcover.
"This book is intended to give an outline of the Animal Kingdom, and thereby to present the elementary facts and principles of Zoölogy." - Preface.
Sanborn Tenney (1827-1873), b. Stoddard, New Hampshire; d. Buchanan, Michigan. He studied at Amherst College (1849-1853), and afterwards studied geology and zoology at Harvard University with Louis Agassiz, with whom he developed a life-long friendship. Tenney taught natural history at several school in Massachusetts, and publish text-books on geology and other subjects.
"Tenney was an avid creationist, and his opposition to Darwin's theory came to define both his own work and that of his mentor and friend Agassiz. This opposition also played a large role in his becoming one of Vassar's first professors." - Vassar Encyclopedia online.
"Elements of Zoology demonstrates Tenney's great attention to detail; in addition to giving a painstakingly thorough and precise description of the varieties of life on earth - from the vast species of birds, to the unimaginable number of microscopic life forms - he also goes into great detail describing, to the best of his abilities, the musculature and associated biochemistry of a number of organisms. Elements of Zoology depends on observations of the underlying similarities across species that define Darwin's Origins, but unlike Darwin and the other early evolutionists, Tenney believed that the patterns revealed, not the constantly evolving trail of a common ancestor, but the omnipotent hand of God." - ibid.
