Lewis Wright's Work
Reference to Lewis Wright's "Illustrated Book of Poultry" and to similar works that followed in its train may be introduced here. Mr. Wright, who has been mentioned in connexion with the Live Stock Journal, joined the editorial staff in 1871 expressly to write this book, and remained a member of it until the end of the century. He was a man of vigorous mind, with a keen interest in philosophy and theology and politics, and, as his work in microscopy showed, an unusual capacity for mastering technicalities. For some years he was a reviewer for the Nonconformist, and in that capacity championed the theory of evolution in days when it had not yet found general acceptance. When the "Illustrated Book of Poultry" was published as a serial, in 1872, it had a very large sale. It confirmed its author's rank as one of the two leading authorities on poultry, the other being W. B. Tegetmeier, the ornithologist, who was for so many years on the Field. The book was revised and reissued many times during Lewis Wright's life, and since his death has been edited by Mr. S. H. Lewer. When its author's regular connexion with the House ceased, he became associated with his brother's firm, the well-known medical publishers at Bristol. A few years afterwards he met his death in an accident on the railway.
The success of the poultry book encouraged the production of other works on canaries and cage birds, in which Fulton and Lewer as well as Wright were concerned, and there were books on horses and dogs by S. Sidney and Vero Shaw, now replaced by the well-known works of Charles Richardson and Robert Leighton.
For books on wild flowers and garden flowers the House had the good fortune to find, in the late Professor Hulme, an author who was both botanist and artist, and took a genuine delight in communicating his knowledge to the public. The son of a landscape painter, he became Art Master at Marlborough College, and afterwards Professor of Geometrical Drawing at King's College, and held other art appointments. He was a lover of nature rather
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