ABSTRACT
Aristotle, who wrote a celebrated History of Animals, must surely have visited zoos; his most famous pupil, Alexander the Great, sent back to Greece many creatures which were captured on his military expeditions. During the lengthy opening phase of the evolution of zoos, the cult of the exotic animal also flourished in Ancient Rome, which at least as early as the third century BC had become acquainted, by way of travelling circuses, with a variety of strange animals. When the London Zoological Society started in 1826, it immediately arranged scientific meetings at fortnightly intervals. It also launched a series of what soon became international scientific publications. Regent's Park was ringed by several major teaching hospitals, and for nearly a century the Society's meeting rooms, which were then no more than a mile or so from the Zoo in Regent's Park were accessible to all interested scientists.
