Arthur Everett Shipley – författare

Originally published in 1919, this book contains extracts from diaries kept by Arthur Everett Shipley, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, on a trip to the United States from September to December of 1918 as part of the British University Mission. The text is written in a vivid and readable style, preserving Shipley's recollections of touring America immediately before and after the end of World War One. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in Anglo-American relations.

This early twentieth-century guide to the geography and geology, fauna and flora of Cambridgeshire was written during a period when natural history played a particularly prominent role in British cultural life. The heart of the book is a comprehensive survey of the diversity of animal life in the region, focussing particularly on the insect orders. It also includes chapters on vertebrate palaeontology and archaeology. Two maps show locations of discovery of ancient skulls, as well as important ancient roads that cross the county. There are additional botanical and geological maps. The book provides a valuable baseline for present-day studies of biodiversity or the effects of climate change, and will also appeal to local enthusiasts with an interest in environmental history.

Most of the following essays have appeared in the pages of the Quarterly Review, and I am greatly indebted to the editor and to the proprietor of that periodical for permission to reprint them. The article on ''The Infinite Torment of Flies'' is an address I delivered before the British Association at Pretoria in 1905, and the eighth essay appeared in Science Progress.As far as possible I have tried to avoid the use of long words, and thus escape the censure of recent critics in the Times; but I fear I have not altogether succeeded, and my excuse must be that with new discoveries new conceptions arise, and these conceptions require new names, or we cannot talk or write about them with any precision.The essay dealing with zebras and hybrids was the first to be written, and appeared before the rediscovery of Mendel''s remarkable work, and must be regarded as a pre-Mendelian contribution to a subject which has recently, in connexion with the Deceased Wife''s Sister Bill, again aroused attention. Had it been written later the language and the attitude taken would have been modified by recent research.In the inquiry into the aims and finance of Cambridge University—the only essay which does not deal with{viii} questions of economic zoology—I have had the great advantage of the collaboration of Mr. H. A. Roberts, the Secretary of the Cambridge University Association. But for his help I fear I should have lost my way in the intricate mazes of the University accounts.For the care he has taken in making the Index, I owe thanks to Mr. G. W. Webb, of the University Library.A. E. S.Christ''s College,Cambridge.March 10, 1908.