@article{348827,
      author = {Conniff, Richard,},
      url = {http://library.usi.edu/record/348827},
      title = {The species seekers : heroes, fools, and the mad pursuit  of life on Earth /},
      publisher = {W.W. Norton,},
      abstract = {The Species Seekers takes us back in time--before the  words "scientist" or "biologist" even existed--to an era  when a popular fever for the natural world swept through  humanity. Discovering new species wasn't a rarefied  pastime; it was a pandemic, a social disease that struck  every corner of society, claiming such notables as Thomas  Jefferson, who laid out mastodon bones on the floor of the  White House, and Mark Twain, who wanted to explore the  Amazon but went bust in New Orleans and had to make do with  the river at hand. Amid its tales of adventure and  intrigue, The Species Seekers offers unmatched insight into  one of the great revolutions in the history of human  thought. At the start, God was in heaven, man was the  center of the universe, and everyone accepted that the  Earth had been born yesterday for our benefit. But we  weren't sure where vegetable ended and animal began. We  didn't know what species were, or that they could be joined  by common origin. We had no method of identifying the  causes of the pestilential diseases that made death a  constant companion. All that suddenly changed as the  species seekers introduced us to the pantheon of life on  Earth--and our place in it.},
      recid = {348827},
      pages = {x, 464 p. :},
      address = {New York :},
      year = {2011},
}