8vo. In two volumes. [2], xii, 13-19, [1], 334, [2]; [4], 380pp. Contemporary diced calf, richly tooled in gilt and blind, 'Newall' lettered in gilt to foot of spines. Rubbed and sunned. Paper strips pasted to half-titles in order to obscure early ownership inscriptions, inked ownership inscription of Thos: Clifton to title page of Vol. II.

John Berkenhout (1726-1791), English naturalist and physician. Son of a Dutch merchant, he served in the Prussian and English armies before studying for an MD in Leiden, qualifying in 1765. It is likely that he once more took arms on behalf of the English King in the late 1770s, this time in the rebellious American colonies, where he was arrested as a spy in. His first work, Clavis Anglica, had been published while he was still a medical student at Edinburgh. This present work is extended from his Outlines of the Natural History (London 1769-72), forming an extensive survey of English natural history and was amongst the earliest works to use the Linnaean system of classification. In the preface of this present edition, Berkenhout notes that 'the Linnaean System of Nature is now too universally adopted to require any defence or apology: if it be not the most natural, it is doubtless the most convenient', but also continues that the classification of 'The Fossil Kingdom...is neither that of Linnaeus nor directly that of any other Mineralogist. I flatter myself it will be found more useful than if it were.' The large section on 'Fossils' consists mostly of minerals, but also contains references to scallops, sharks teeth, and petrified wood and is preceded by a two page bibliography of the subject.