Conchology.- Africa.- Adanson (Michel) Histoire Naturelle du Sénégal. Coquillages, first edition, Paris, Claude-Jean-Baptiste Bauche, 1757.

Conchology.- Africa.- Adanson (Michel) Histoire Naturelle du Sénégal. Coquillages, first edition, engraved folding map and 19 plates, some light browning, Richard I. Johnson ink-stamp and remnants of bookplate, contemporary mottled calf, gilt, green morocco labels to spine, spine ends chipped, joints split, corners rubbed, [Nissen ZBI 27], 4to, Paris, Claude-Jean-Baptiste Bauche, 1757.

*** Handsome large paper copy with proof plates.

Between 1749 and 1753 the Frenchman Adanson (1727-1806) endured the rigours of the tropical climate of Senegal to collect and observe its animals and plants. "Although he had intended to publish a monumental treatise on the country's fauna and flora only one volume of his 'Histoire naturelle du Sénégal' appeared... Adanson's careful examination of the soft parts of many molluscs led him to propose a classification founded principally upon anatomical characters. He was the first to utilize the characters of the operculum and the first to classify bivalve shells according to the number of muscle impressions. Fischer-Piette considers that he was also the first zoologist to employ a consistent binominal nomenclature, anticipating by one year therefore the publication of the tenth edition of the Systema Naturae..." (Dance pp.66-68).