Not identified. Various comments in "Animal Mechanics" seem to imply that the contributor was or had been a member of a mechanics' institution. He refers, for instance, to experiments that can be made with simple apparatus; science lectures in mechanics' institutions were frequently accompanied by experiments and demonstrations. He explains certain principles of physics as stated in Charles Bell's Animal Mechanics; Animal Mechanics was among the books published under the superintendence of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge—an organization that brought out books with the needs of mechanics' institutions in mind.

The contributor may be Thomas W. Kelly, a London schoolmaster; member, 1831-1837, of the London Mechanics' Institution (KeIly, George Birkbeck, p. 293n); author of Rosemary Leaves, 1854, and other books of verse.

Harper's reprinted "Animal Mechanics" without acknowledgment to H.W.

Author: Anne Lohrli; © University of Toronto Press, 1971.