Index to

On the Marine and Fresh-Water Sponges of Devonshire

by

Edward Parfitt

Trans. Devon Assoc., vol. II, Part II, (1868), pp. 443-462.

Prepared by Michael Steer

The Paper was presented at the Association’s July 1868 Honiton meeting. Sponges are simple animals with no tissues. They date back to the earliest periods of Earth’s history. Varieties survive in salt and fresh water. They are important in research aimed at discovering the origins of life. The paper’s author was a self-made scientist. His informative obituary together with a lengthy list of his contributions to the professional literature is available here. In particular he enriched the Association’s Transactions with contributions on a variety of topics, his papers on the flora and fauna of Devon being generally considered monuments of conscientious skill. For the genealogist, the Paper is a cornucopia of names associated with the earliest research into our county’s unique natural history.
The present Paper, from a copy of a rare and much sought-after journal can be downloaded from the Internet Archive. Google has sponsored the digitisation of books from several libraries. These books, on which copyright has expired, are available for free educational and research use, both as individual books and as full collections to aid researchers.