A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature/Wood, John George

by John William Cousin

Wood, John George (1827-1889).—Writer on natural history, s. of a surgeon, b. in London, and ed. at home and at Oxf., where he worked for some time in the anatomical museum. He took orders, and among other benefices which he held was for a time chaplain to St. Bartholomew's Hospital. He was a very prolific writer on natural history, though rather as a populariser than as a scientific investigator, and was in this way very successful. Among his numerous works may be mentioned Illustrated Natural History (1853), Animal Traits and Characteristics (1860), Common Objects of the Sea Shore (1857), Out of Doors (1874), Field Naturalist's Handbook (with T. Wood) (1879-80), books on gymnastics, sport, etc., and an ed. of White's Selborne.