Dr E Rufz - Snakes: Enquête sur le serpent de la Martinique - 1859

Étienne Rufz (often cited as E. Rufz or Rufz de Lavison) published Enquête sur le serpent de la Martinique in 1859, a careful 19th-century investigation of the island’s venomous viper — today known as Bothrops lanceolatus or the Martinique lancehead. Rufz combined natural-history observations, local reports and specimen accounts to describe the snake’s appearance, habits and the human encounters with it; his book became a standard historical source for later researchers studying snake-bite, species distribution and human–snake interactions on Martinique.

Rufz’s account is also used by modern authors to reconstruct historical population pressure on the species: later studies cite his numbers and anecdotes (for example, large tallies of animals reportedly killed around forts and plantations) when discussing the island’s long history of persecution and the conservation status of the lancehead. His 1859 monograph is therefore both a primary natural-history source and an important historical document for conservationists and historians working on Caribbean herpetofauna.

A excellent copy, clean and unmarked, with three lithographed folding plates.