Moses Harris

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Moses Harris (15 April 1730 – c.1788) was an English entomologist and engraver.^[1]

Moses Harris

Contributions to science

In the Natural System of Colours (1766) he examined the work of Isaac Newton and tried to reveal the multitude of colours which can be created from three basic ones. As a naturalist, Harris wished to understand the relationships between the colours, and how they are coded, and his book attempted to explain the principles, "materially, or by the painters art", by which further colours can be produced from red, yellow and blue. Harris showed what is now known as the subtractive mixing of colours, with his most important observation showing that black will be formed through the superimposition of the three basic colours. Harris also discovered petrified wood.

In 1778, Harris discovered the Muscina levida [assimilis] species of fly. Two years later in 1780, he followed with a discovery of the Muscina prolapsa species of fly. ^[2]

Pictures of Muscina prolapsa and Muscina levida flies

Male Muscina prolapsa
Female Muscina prolapsa
Harris plate from the Aurelian

Works

Natural System of Colours (1766)
The Aurelian or natural history of English insects (1766, 2nd edn 1775)
The English Lepidoptera, or, the Aurelian's Pocket Companion (1775)
An exposition of English insects (1776[-80])
Copper plates for Dru Drury's 'Illustrations of Natural History..'

External links

Special collections Short account four plates.
Section 45:"Object Studies: Hand-Colored Engraving"The Creation of Color in Eighteenth-Century Europe See also Section 3, "Number, Order, Form" and the glossary entry.

References

↑ Mays, Robert (2004). "Harris, Moses (1730–c.1788)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/12413. Retrieved 2012-02-06. (subscription or UK public library membership required)
↑ "ITIS Standard Report Page: Muscina." Integrated Taxonomic Information System. 11 Mar. 2009 <http://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=150028>

Authority control	WorldCat VIAF: 39718627 LCCN: n89667879 ISNI: 0000 0000 8374 6932 GND: 1033177512 SUDOC: 153506857

Persondata
Name	Harris, Moses
Alternative names
Short description	British entomologist
Date of birth	1730
Place of birth
Date of death	1788
Place of death

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