The number 10

A very happy New Year to one and all!

By chance, today is also my 10th Blip Anniversary. What better way to celebrate  than an old etching of combat among hermit crabs, which are, of course, decapods or 10 legged-animals.

The print comes from comes from the 1869 book The World of the Sea, a translation by the Rev. H. Martyn Hart of Le Monde de la Mer by Mons. Moquin Tandon (1866).

Today the classification of animals is a most complex matter involving the latest advances in molecular biology. In Monsieur Tandon's day things were much more down to earth. He had this to say on the classification of crabs and lobsters etc.

"The alimentary use of the crustaceans is everywhere recognised, so that the classification proposed by Count Marsigli for the hard shell inhabitants of the Mediterranean, if not scientific, is eminently practical. He divided the crustaceans of the Great Sea into those which are eaten and those which are not eaten."