Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Gosse, Philip Henry

GOSSE, Philip Henry, British zoölogist, b. in Worcester, England, 6 April, 1810. He removed in infancy to Poole, Dorset, where he displayed his taste for natural history. In 1827 he went to Newfoundland in a mercantile capacity, and while there occupied his leisure in collecting insects and in making colored drawings of them. After residing there for eight years he removed to Lower Canada, and pursued his natural-history researches there for three years. Subsequently he travelled in the United States, resided in Alabama for nearly a year, and made a large collection of drawings of insects, especially of the lepidoptera of that region. He returned to England in 1839, and in 1844 visited Jamaica, where he spent eighteen months in studying the geology of that island, and in making collections. On his return to England he made a special study of the British rotifera, and has conducted his more recent investigations with the aid of the microscope. In 1853 he took an active part in the formation of public and private collections of marine animals. In 1856 Mr. Gosse was elected a fellow of the Royal society. His works, which are numerous, include the following on American natural history: “The Canadian Naturalist” (London, 1840); “Birds of Jamaica” (1847); “Natural History of Birds, Mammals, Reptiles, and Fishes” (1848-'51, 4 vols., 8vo); “Ocean Described” (1849); and “A Naturalist's Sojourn in Jamaica” (1851); “Letters from Alabama” (London, 1859).