Gosse, Philip Henry (1810-1888)

English naturalist who built the first aquarium ever used to house marine animals long-term and wrote many books on marine zoology, including Manual of Marine Zoology 1855, Actinologia Britannica 1858, a work on sea anemones, Introduction to Zoology 1843, and Evenings at the Microscope 1859.

Gosse was born in Worcestershire and was a member of the Plymouth Brethren, an exclusive Christian group that rejected the theory of evolution completely. In 1827, he was appointed as a clerk in Carbonear, Newfoundland, Canada, where he studied natural history in his spare time. He attempted to farm in Canada, but when this failed he taught in Alabama, America, before returning to England 1839.