s 



May, "< Mathews and Iredale, " Perry's Arcana." 7 



"PERRY'S ARCANA"— AN OVERLOOKED WORK. 

 By Gregory M. Mathews, F.R.S.E., and Tom Iredale . 



(Communicated by F. G. A. Barnard.) 

 (Read before the Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria, \$th Jan., 191 2.) 

 It rarely happens that a work published in monthly parts, of 

 which twenty-one were issued, and dealing with subjects from 

 every class of natural history, entirely escapes the notice of 

 systematists in every branch of science for one hundred years. 

 That such would appear to be the case with the periodical 

 above named suggests that a resume of its contents will be of 

 interest, especially as many novelties are described and new 

 generic names introduced. 



On the 1st January, 1810, appeared the first part of a monthly 

 journal after the style of the well-known " Naturalists' 

 Miscellany " of Shaw and Nodder. It contained four plates,, 

 with accompanying letter-press and additional pages of in- 

 teresting matter. Twenty similar parts were issued, but as 

 the book now under review does not include the original 

 wrappers we cannot give the title, but the title-page of the 

 bound parts reads : — 



" Arcana or The Museum of Natural History : con- 

 taining the most recent discovered objects. Embellished 



with coloured plates, and corresponding descriptions : 



with Extracts relating to Animals, and remarks 



of celebrated travellers ; combining a general survey of 



Nature. London : Printed by George Smeeton, St. Martin's 



Lane -for James Stratford, 112 Holborn Hill. 1811." 



A page of dedication to J. C. Lettsom, Esq., M.D., &c, is 

 concluded " by George Perry." The first four plates are 

 headed " Zoology, PI. I.," " Conchology, PL I.," " Botany, 

 PI. I.," and " Entomology, PL I." This plan was not implicitly 

 followed, though a similar system of plate division was adopted, 

 the plates dealing with diverse subjects each month. 



We are acquainted with only four copies of the work — one in 

 the Natural History Museum, South Kensington; one in the 

 library of the Zoological Society, London ; one in Sweden,, 

 and the fourth in our private library at Watford. 



We have carefully collated the work, and as the plates are 

 all dated in fours we conclude they were issued as dated. This 

 conclusion is reinforced by internal evidence, as we note in the 

 letter-press to a December plate the following : — " In a former 

 number of the ' Arcana ' (for May) we imparted to our readers 

 a new species of this curious genus." Upon reference we find 

 the plate referred to is dated May. Again, in the September 

 plates a direct reference to the forthcoming publication of a 

 work is given, which work did not appear until after January. 

 1811. Other confirmatory notes we give in the following pages. 



