Medical Dictionary
Main Entry:
Den·i·so·nia Pronunciation:
"den-&-'sO-nE-&, -ny& Function:
noun : a genus of venomous Australian snakes of thefamily Elapidae including the copperhead (
D. superba)
Denáiáson /'den-&-s&n/,
Sir William Thomas (1804–1871), Australian statesman. Denison wasgovernor of New South Wales from 1854 to 1861. In his spare time he was an avid conchologist. In 1860 he appointed as a curator of the Australian Museum Johann Ludwig Gerard Krefft (1830–1881).Krefft was an all-around zoologist but specialized in snakes. His published works include some 200 articles and a book-length work on the snakes of Australia. One of the species described was theAustralian copperhead, which he named
Denisonia superba after his benefactor.
