Search Results: Biology from Kenneth Wilsher

A collection of the many essays and lectures by Darwin's stalwart defender, Huxley, on the subject of evolution.
Ex-Library mark on spine and library stamp on inside front cover - otherwise in very good condition - essentially unread. No markings in the text.

A key book from a fascinating moment in the history of the science of genetics. Weismann summerises and criticises the various current theories of inheritance - Darwin, Lamarck, Nagelli. Exposition of Weismann's germ plasm theory, somatic and germ cells, drawings of the stages of cell division showing what I think would be called chromosoms today - he calls them "loops". Diagrams of how these "loops" could be modified in inheritance. The 1866 work of Mendel was unknown at this time (1892) but repeated or rediscovered by de Vries later in the 1890's.
The two volumes are in very good condition. Pages of the second volume uncut.

A complet but fragile edition of this important historical work. A massive achievment by Chambers (of encyclopedia fame) , summerising scientific knowledge of the origin of the earth, plants, animals and man at the beginning of the Victorian age.
Fascinating sections on Astronomy, Geology, Evolution. Babbage's calculating engine as a kind of complex sequencer cf. evolution is discussed on page 254.
Front cover partly detached. Front three or four pages loose. Not much foxing but all pages rather brittle.