Edward S. Morse

Edward Sylvester Morse (June 18, 1838 – December 20, 1925) was an American zoologist, archaeologist, and orientalist. He was elected in 1876 a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences and in 1886 the president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science for a one-year term.

Quotes

On the approach of winter, land snails bury themselves in the ground, and those that have shells retire within the shell as far as possible, and close the aperture of the shell with a film of the mucus which the body secretes so abundantly. In this condition they remain dormant until revived by the warm weather of spring.
If the pupil will collect a number of snails in the early spring, and keep them confined in a box, with earth, damp leaves, or bits of rotten wood or bark, the snails in the course of a few weeks will lay a number of little eggs. These eggs will be white and round, about the size of a pin’s-head. By careful tending, that is, by keeping the leaves slightly moist, the eggs will hatch out tiny snails, and these will attain half their mature size the first season.
- First Book of Zoölogy (2nd ed.). New York: D. Appleton & Company. 1884. pp. 19–20. (1st edition 1875)

In the gardens of the better classes summer-houses and shelters of rustic appearance and diminutive proportions are often seen. Rustic arbors are also to be seen in the larger gardens. Specially constructed houses of quaint design and small size are not uncommon; in these the ceremonial tea-parties take place. High fences, either of board or bamboo, or solid walls of mud or tile with stone foundations, surround the house or enclose it from the street. Low rustic fences border the gardens in the suburbs. Gateways of various styles, some of imposing design, form the entrances; as a general thing they are either rustic and light, or formal and massive.
- Japanese Homes and Their Surroundings. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1885. p. 9.

One of the reasons why the Catholic Church attains greater success than the Protestants in China is that its missionaries are men, its preachers are men, the Jesuit dresses in Chinese garb, he lives among them and becomes one of them ; he is careful not to interfere with their superstitions only so far as these interfere with his own, and is especially careful not to inveigh against the foot-crushing mutilation. His incense-burning, bead-counting, and picturesque ritual does not widely differ from the Buddhist.
- Glimpses of China and Chinese Homes. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company. 1902. p. 37. text at archive.org

Fifty years ago in Gorham, Maine, while walking along the road I passed an open field and noticed to my astonishment hundreds of fireflies flashing in perfect unison. I watched this curious sight for some time and the synchronism of the flashing was unbroken. Many times after I have watched these luminous insects, hoping to see a repetition of this phenomenon, but the flashes in every instance were intermittent. Since that time I have read about these insects in various books without meeting any allusion to this peculiar behavior. At last I have found a confirmation of my early observations. In Nature of December 9, page 414, is the report of an interesting paper read before the South London Entomological and Natural History Society by K. G. Blair entitled “ Luminous Insects ” in which reference is made to the remarkable synchronism of the flashes in certain European species of fireflies. ...
- (1916) . "Fireflies flashing in unison". Science 43 (1101): 169–170.

Whatever value these records may possess lies in the fact that when they were made, Japan had within a few years emerged from a peculiar state of civilization which had endured for centuries. Even at that time, however (1877), changes had taken place, such as the modern training of its armies; a widespread system of public schools; government departments of war, treasury, agriculture, telegraph, post, statistics, and other bureaus of modern administration, — all these instrumentalities making a slight impress on the larger cities such as Tokyo and Osaka, sufficiently marked, however, to cause one to envy those who only a few years before had seen the people when all the samurai wore the two swords, when every man wore the queue and every married woman blackened the teeth. The country towns and villages were little, if at all, affected by these foreign introductions, and the greater part of my memoranda and sketches were made in the country.
- "Preface". Japan Day by Day, 1877, 1878-79, 1882-83. vol. 1 of 2. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. 1917. pp. vii–xiv. (quote from pp. viii–ix)

Soon after his first arrival in Japan, Morse became interested in everything bearing on the ancient culture of the people. This was shown in the epoch making discovery and excavation of the Omori kitchen midden. Implements and pottery were found there. In 1878 he wrote that he was starting a collection of pottery. ...
In 1890 this great collection was deposited with the Boston Art Museum and two years later the Museum bought it, Morse being made Keeper of Japanese Pottery and holding the office for the rest of his life.
- Leland Ossian Howard, (1935) . "Edward Sylvester Morse 1838–1925". Biographical Memoirs, National Academy of Sciences XVII: 15–16.