The Natural History of Aleppo

1756 book by Alexander Russell

The Natural History of Aleppo

Title page for The Natural History of Aleppo and parts adjacent containing a description of the city, and the principal natural productions in its neighborhood; together with an account of the climate, inhabitants, and diseases particularly of the plague, with the methods used by the Europeans for their preservation (1756)

Author| Alexander Russell, Patrick Russell
Original title| The natural history of Aleppo, and parts adjacent. Containing a description of the city, and the principal natural productions in its neighbourhood; together with an account of the climate, inhabitants, and diseases; particularly of the plague, with the methods used by the Europeans for their preservation
Subject| Natural history

Publication date

| 1756
Publication place| Scotland

The Natural History of Aleppo is a 1756 book by naturalist Alexander Russell on the natural history of Aleppo. In 1794 his half-brother, Patrick Russell, revised and expanded the text in a second edition. The book is significant for its quality, the contemporary interest it attracted, and for being a product of the Scottish Enlightenment.[1]

When the book was published it was immediately an important European record and perspective on the state of contemporary science in Syria.[2]

The book contains the earliest known description of the Syrian hamster.[3]

## References

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1. ^ Starkey, Janet Catherine Murray (4 July 2013). "Examining editions of The natural history of Aleppo : revitalizing eighteenth-century texts". Era.lib.ed.ac.uk. hdl:1842/7865. Retrieved 27 December 2015.
2. ^ Boogert, Maurits H. van den (2010). Aleppo observed : Ottoman Syria through the eyes of two Scottish doctors, Alexander and Patrick Russell (1. publ. ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199588565.
3. ^ Murphy, Michael R. (1985). "History of the Capture and Domestication of the Syrian Golden Hamster (Mesocricetus auratus Waterhouse)". In Siegel, Harold I. (ed.). The Hamster : reproduction and behavior. New York: Plenum Press. ISBN 030641791X.

## External links

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* The Natural History of Aleppo at Internet Archive
* 2008 sale of book by Christie's