Abstract
It has been asserted that Petrus Camper (1722-1789) was the first to distinguish the Javan Rhinoceros as a separate species. This opinion is based on a cursory remark in a posthumously published letter to the Russian scientist Peter Simon Pallas. A careful analysis of Camper’s numerous writings on the rhinoceros, both published and unpublished, has produced not the slightest confirmation of this taxonomic achievement. Therefore, it seems premature to label Camper as the discoverer of the Javan Rhinoceros. As Georges Cuvier made ample use of the material collected by Camper, we have also discussed its influence on Cuvier’s ideas with respect to rhinoceros classification.
Highlights
In the course of the 18th century it had become customary to distinguish a single-horned rhinoceros in Asia and a double-horned species in Africa (Rookmaaker, 1981, 1982)
It is rather surprising to find the following remarks in a letter written by Petrus Camper
It seems quite clear that Camper here distinguished two species of rhinoceros in Asia, which must refer to the animals known as the Great Indian Rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis Linnaeus, 1758) and the Javan Rhinoceros [Rhinoceros sondaicus Desmarest, 1822)
Summary
In the course of the 18th century it had become customary to distinguish a single-horned rhinoceros in Asia and a double-horned species in Africa (Rookmaaker, 1981, 1982). It is generally accepted that Camper’s death, in 1789, prevented him to carry out his plan It is this interpretation which Pallas gave in a footnote to Camper (1793: 249n), and subsequently subscribed to by Cuvier (1806: 32, 1812b: 14), De Blainville (1817: 165, 1846: 69), 2 Geoffroy. To shed some light on this vexed question, it is necessary to turn to Camper's unpublished manuscripts, letters and drawings hoping to find additional remarks on the classification of the rhinoceros. We shall confine this discussion to the years after 1782, the year in which Camper published his major monograph on the African rhinoceros
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