The Seashell on the Mountaintop by Alan Cutler, Dutton/Heinemann, $23.95/£14.99, ISBN 0525947086/0434008575 Reviewed by Roy Herbert
YOU may not have heard of Nicolaus Steno, but he has been called the founder of geology, and The Seashell on the Mountaintop is his astonishing story. He was a Dane, born as Niels Steensen in 1638, who exhibited a unique skill for dissection and anatomical discoveries. Arriving with a respectably Latinised name at the Florentine court of the Medici, he was sent the head of a giant shark caught by Italian fishermen. (Steno’s illustration of this is still a breath catcher.) He…
