Joshua Brookes
{{Short description|British anatomist and naturalist}}
{{other people}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2021}}{{Use British English|date=August 2012}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Joshua Brookes
| image = Joshua Brookes by Thomas Phillips.jpg
| alt =
| caption = Joshua Brookes, by Thomas Phillips, 1815
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1761|11|24|df=y}}
| birth_place =
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1833|01|10|1761|11|24|df=y}}
| death_place =
| nationality = British
| other_names =
| occupation = British anatomist and naturalist
| years_active =
| known_for = Fellow of the Royal Society
| notable_works =
}}
Joshua Brookes (24 November 1761 – 10 January 1833) was a British anatomist and naturalist.
Early life
Brookes studied under William Hunter, William Hewson, Andrew Marshall, and John Sheldon, in London. He then attended the practice of Antoine Portal and other eminent surgeons at the Hôtel-Dieu de Paris.{{cite DNB|wstitle=Brookes, Joshua (1761-1833)|volume=6}}
Brookesian Museum
Brookes became a teacher of anatomy in London, and the founder of the Brookesian Museum of Comparative Anatomy. This private museum is described in the 1830 catalogue Museum Brookesianum.{{cite book|title=Museum Brookesianum : a descriptive and historical catalogue of the remainder of the anatomical & zootomical museum, of Joshua Brookes, Esq. F.R.S. F.L.S. F.Z.S. &c.|date=1830|publisher=[London] : Printed by Richard Taylor|url=https://archive.org/details/b22394412|accessdate=28 September 2017}}
Later life
Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1819, Brookes gave up teaching in 1826, in bad health. After vainly endeavouring to dispose of his museum collection entire, he sold it off piecemeal. The final sale took place on 1 March 1830, and on 22 following days. He died on 10 January 1833 in Great Portland Street, London.
Works
Brookes was the first to place the Cheetah in its own genus, which he established in 1828 as Acinonyx.
His published writings included:
- Lectures on the Anatomy of the Ostrich (The Lancet, vol. xii.);
- Brookesian Museum, 1827;
- Catalogue of Zootomical Collection, 1828;
- Address to the Zoological Club of the Linnean Society, 1828;
- Thoughts on Cholera, 1831, proposing hygienic and sanitary precautions; and
- a description of a new genus of Rodentia (Trans. Linn. Soc., 1829).
Legacy
The generic name, Brookesia, is in honour of Joshua Brookes.Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. {{ISBN|978-1-4214-0135-5}}. ("Brookes", p. 40). Joshua Brookes once encountered Chang and Eng, the original Siamese Twins. According to Frederick Drimmer's book Very Special People, Brookes "provided a document declaring that the twins 'constitute a most extraordinary Lusus Naturae [sport of nature], the first instance I have seen of a double living child; they being totally devoid of deception, afford a very interesting spectacle, and they are highly deserving of public patronage.'"
References
- Dobson, J. (1952) Eighteenth Century Anatomists: Joshua Brookes, Practitioner, 180–4.
Notes
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{{DNB|wstitle=Brookes, Joshua (1761-1833)|volume=6}}
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Category:Fellows of the Royal Society
Category:Fellows of the Linnean Society of London
Category:British expatriates in France
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