Biology in the Nineteenth Century: Problems of Form, Function and Transformation

by William L. Coleman

The term 'biology' first appeared in a footnote in an obscure German medical publication of 1800, but a century of subsequent activity was needed to create a thriving science. This book offers a concise yet comprehensive examination of essential themes in this development. To one group of nineteenth-century biologists, largely comprised of anatomists, histologists and embryologists, the appearance and constituent structures of the plant or animal body seemed all-important; they studied organic form and the means by which it was brought into being. A second group concentrated on the vital processes diversely exhibited by all living creatures. They studied function, their self-assigned task as physiologists being to understand the innermost workings of the body. To a third group of workers the greatest concern was the relationship, past and present, between the various kinds of plants and animals and between living things and their changing environment; in studying the transformation of life over vast spans of time, they largely recast the scientific objectives of natural history. Form, function, and transformation thus offer useful vantage points from which to observe the development of the life sciences during the nineteenth century, and it is on a discussion of these themes and their interactions that Professor Coleman's account is based.

Genres: Science, History Of Science, History, Biology

200 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1971

Reviews

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

While studying biological oceanography at Woods Hole, I took breaks from research by walking around Eel Pond, whose shores are graced by a tiny Catholic belfry with bells named after Louis Pasteur (one of the founders of the Germ Theory of Disease) and Gregor Mendel (discoverer of his eponymous Laws, really founder of the Gene Theory of Heredity, though he didn't call them 'genes' ). It was calming, beautiful, and inspiring. So I was surprised to find only passing mentions of these 2 scientists, and their theories (published in the 1860s) in this otherwise comprehensive summary of 19th century biology. This century in effect saw the birth of a discipline of biology. The term 'biology' was coined in 1800, with the implication that a unified set of scientific laws of Life may exist and ought to be pursued; the next decades were spent finding such unities to weave together the heretofore separate threads of medicine, natural history, and the recently developed discipline of chemistry. The first and foremost of such unifications were and are the Cell Theory and the Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection, and this book justly spends many pages on these two immense intellectual achievements. But then there is some questionable wandering into the effects of Darwin's work on sciences outside of biology (specifically anthropology and sociology, curiously not psychology) before a detailed discussion of the then-new physiological project to reduce biology to chemistry. Germs and genes are missing, but maybe the author thought them really more relevant to the story of 20th century biology, Whatever their lacunae, histories of this sort would be a welcome addition to the basic education of all biologists. Know the shoulders on which you stand.

[Karina Montalvo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Introducción histórica a la biología en su contexto social, filosófico y religioso. En este texto se exponen descubrimientos, corrientes, teorías, concepciones, ciencias y métodos desarrollados en la biología en este siglo.

[Aaron · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good introduction to the history of physiology in the 19th century, with some light mention of evolution. Surprisingly not that dated.

[Sarah Porter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Elegant, succinct, and totally accessible to a non-scientist like me. Full of fascinating info and some surprisingly beautiful writing.