Mantell of the Weald

Abstract

GIDEON ALGERNON MANTELL is one of the group of medical men to whom early British geology was so greatly indebted. Their training in anatomy, which was then less restricted than at present to human anatomy, enabled them to interpret fossils and lay the foundations of British palæontology. Mantell, who came of an old Sussex family, had an extensive and successful practice at Lewes. In the intervals of his work he made the first important collection of fossils from the Weald, and is credited by Lyell with having established the freshwater origin of the Wealden formation. His own conclusions as to some of the fragmentary fossils were more correct than those of the best-trained anatomists of his day. Thus he discovered in the Weald, among other important fossils, some teeth and bones of the animal which he called the Iguanodon; he correctly identified it as a colossal herbivorous reptile, whereas Cuvier insisted that the remains were those of the hippopotamus and rhinoceros. Mantell also collected many of the fishes from the Chalk that were described by Agassiz. Sir John Flett, in his preface to the recent Geological Survey Memoir on the geology of the country near Hastings and Dungeness, remarks, “Special mention may be made of Gideon Mantell and W. H. Fitton, whose researches are among the classics of geo-logy.”

Gideon Algernon Mantell, LL.D., F.R.C.S., F.R.S., Surgeon and Geologist.

By Sidney Spokes. Pp. xv + 263 + 7 plates. (London: John Bale, Sons and Danielsson, Ltd., 1927.) 12s. 6d. net.