Wild and wonderful: An ethnography of English naturalists By VanessaManceron. Translated by Michael Taylor. Chicago: Hau, 2025. 239 pp.

The SciencesVolume 29, Issue 1 p. 36-38 THE BIRDMAN OF BATAVIA A Dutch Scientist Discovers a New Recipe for Disease Layll Watson, Layll Watson Lyall Watson is a British naturalist, writer, and television producer whose books include Whales of the World, Heaven's Breath, and, most recently. The Water Planet.Search for more papers by this author Layll Watson, Layll Watson Lyall Watson is a British naturalist, writer, and television producer whose books include Whales of the World, Heaven's Breath, and, most recently. The Water Planet.Search for more papers by this author First published: January‐February 1989 https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2326-1951.1989.tb02136.x AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Volume29, Issue1January‐February 1989Pages 36-38 RelatedInformation

The idea of the unity of man and the Universe was developed in many philosophical and religious teachings. However, the first who scientifically substantiates it was Alfred Russel Wallace (1823—1913) — a British naturalist, traveler, geographer, biologist, and anthropologist of the XIX century. He noted that the idea of the «plurality of worlds» of Copernicus, where the Earth is one of the many planets inhabited by intelligent beings, is not supported by observations. Wallace substantiated that the possibility of the emergence of life and mind in the universe depends on many interrelated conditions. He concluded that «any planet in the solar system other than our Earth is uninhabited» and «almost as likely that no other Sun has inhabited planets». Wallace held the view that humans were the only intelligent beings and could have originated exclusively on Earth as the pinnacle of the evolution of the Universe. The researcher admitted the possibility of the existence of other worlds with other physical laws but believed that only in ours it was possible for a man to appear, and that is why our Universe arose.

DR. C. E. RAVEN has followed up his remarkable work on John Ray by another, equally learned, on the early English naturalists. His purpose in the latter "began as a series of biographies. But very soon it became clear that the succession of ‘lives' not only formed a very definite pattern, but that this illustrated and illuminated the progressive change in Western civilization from the medieval to the modern world." Again, "in Man‘s attitude to living nature the process of a gradual overcoming of superstition and fabulous tradition, and the development of the modern scientific spirit as a result, is significant and may be followed from man to man. . . . Little by little nonsense was recognized, fables were exploded, superstitions were unmasked ; and the world outlook built up out of these elements fell to pieces." The thesis is not a new one, nor is it one that admits of serious dispute, but Dr. Raven has brought to bear upon it a wealth of new matter, the result of prolonged and detailed critical research. These notable additions to our knowledge have been exhumed often from little-known and unpromising sources, and they enrich and distinguish the author‘s bio-biographies of such naturalists as William Turner, John Caius, Thomas Penny, Thomas Mouffet, John Gerard, Edward Topsell, John Parkinson and Thomas Johnson. Dr. Raven‘s method, however, has one drawback. It complicates what is known as documentation, and a text frequently halted by the intercalation of bibliographical detail is apt to be tedious to follow. It is better to preserve the flow of the narrative even if it involves some sacrifice of meticulosity. In a future edition we hope to see the author‘s sources collected and printed in alphabetical order at the end of the text. But however this may be, historians of biology must welcome so scholarly an addition to their studies and literature. English Naturalists from Neckam to Ray A Study of the Making of the Modern World. By the Rev. Charles E. Raven. Pp. x + 379. (Cambridge : At the University Press, 1947.) 30s. net.

This chapter examines how the borderline cases pointed out by English naturalists and philosophers in the second half of the seventeenth-century call into doubt the common notion of life as a vegetative power. In the first part of this chapter, I focus on Nehemiah Grew’s notions of life and living beings by comparing his plant anatomy, in which he examines the cases of sponges and corals, with his physico-theology. In the second part, I confront Grew’s views on life to those of John Ray and Ralph Cudworth. My aim is threefold. First, I want to show that there was then no agreement on what a “vital phenomenon” is. Second, I want to emphasize the fact that what we would classify today as physical phenomena, such as gravitation, were then regarded as living phenomena. Third, and accordingly, I would like to challenge the view that the English naturalists and philosophers who then developed a physico-theology simply used empirical vital phenomena in order to refute Descartes’ metaphysics. In my view, there were no such things as “empirical vital phenomena.” Indeed, the very identification and description of the phenomena considered as “vital” was a matter of interpretation, and those different authors did not share the same set of assumptions regarding what kinds of beings are alive. At the very least, they do not share the set of assumptions that define what we regard as “vital.”

Chapter 6 - 1876 Biogeography

The article explores briefly the history of research in one of the most arguable topics in Sinological linguistics — the definition of an ideographic script, i. e. the Chinese writing system perceptions in the Russian and Western sinology of the 19th century. J.-F. Champolion’s and T. Young’s discoveries of the nature of hieroglyphic script, its function and evolution, as well as their decipherment of the ancient Egyptians texts, naturally influenced the broad field of oriental linguistics, having stimulated researches of other hieroglyphic writing systems. The present article touches briefly upon works of the American scholars P. DuPanceau and S. Andrews, the British naturalist G. T. Lay, the French diplomat J.-M. Callery and the well-renowned Russian sinologists I. Bičurin and V. P. Vasilyev. Basing on the selection of works, relevant to the article’s subject matter, the author aims to illustrate the evolution of Sinological knowledge in one of its most arguable topics — the nature hieroglyphic script, its structure and modification over time. Selected passages from the above mentioned authors, their exchange of opinions and comments to each other’s works tend to demonstrate the development of the research methodology itself — the gradual shift from labelling the Chinese script with ideographic stamp to the recognition of its phono-semantic dimensions and its transformation towards a phonetic system of writing.

Alfred Russel Wallace (1823–1913) was a British naturalist, explorer, geographer and biologist, best remembered as the co-discoverer, with Darwin, of natural selection. His extensive fieldwork and advocacy of the theory of evolution led to him being considered one of the nineteenth century's foremost biologists. He was later moved by a variety of personal experiences to examine the concept of spirituality, but his exploration into the potential for compatibility between spiritualism and natural selection alienated him from the scientific community. He was also a social activist, highly critical of unjust social and economic systems in nineteenth-century Britain, and one of the first prominent scientists to express concern over the environmental impact of human activity. This autobiography was first published in 1905. Volume 2 deals with his many eminent acquaintances, including Darwin and Huxley, his lecture tour in America, and his involvement with spiritualism and with social activism.

Актуальность работы обусловлена недостаточной изученностью проблемы понимания объёма видов диатомовых водорослей, особенно в условиях in vitro. Цель исследования – изучить морфологическую изменчивость в культурах двух видов морских пеннатных диатомовых водорослей Nitzschia ventricosa Kitton и Ardissonea crystallina (C. Agardh) Grunow при помощи методов световой и сканирующей электронной микроскопии, а также оценить в эксперименте воздействие солёности на морфологические показатели панциря A. crystallina, использующиеся при диагностике вида; сделать сопутствующие таксономические замечания. Материалом послужили изоляты (клоны и альгологически чистые культуры), полученные в условиях in vitro: изоляты N. ventricosa – из природных популяций прибрежных районов Канарских островов, о-ва Мартиника и штата Техас (Мексиканский залив), изоляты A. crystallinа – из бентосных проб в бухте Казачья (Севастополь, Чёрное море). Морфологическая изменчивость в культурах N. ventricosa и A. crystallinа оказалась сопоставимой с данными, полученными на материале из природных популяций. Обнаруженная вариабельность изученных изолятов позволила уточнить морфологические особенности N. ventricosa. Варьирование в одном клоне N. ventricosa по числу штрихов и фибул оказалось выше, чем обнаруженное в альгологически чистых культурах этого вида. Широкая фенотипическая вариация створок в культурах N. ventricosa и A. crystallinа сопоставима с данными, полученными in situ. Выявлена тенденция возрастания плотности расположения штрихов и ареол и уменьшения ширины клеток A. crystallinа с увеличением солёности в эксперименте. При солёности 8 ‰ вегетативное деление замедлялось, культура погибала. С повышением уровня солёности увеличивались диапазоны варьирования числа штрихов A. crystallinа.

Not all Darwinisms are alike. Biological Darwinism is by now an established fact: its basis (first developed in The Origin of Species, 1859), natural selection, seems to have resisted so far to any serious falsification attempt. However, this idea has, over time, lent itself – with greater or lesser success – to applications even outside the biological sphere. The two books we will deal with in this paper are, in some way, extensions to the non-biological sphere of natural selection. One of them is such an extension in its proper sense: Dan Sperber’s Il contagio delle idee proposes a theory of the diffusion of cultural representations based on the idea of Darwinian natural selection. The other one – Patrick Tort’s Effetto Darwin – aims rather at correcting a bad reading of Darwin’s texts, and the opinion of those who see the British naturalist as the founder of social Darwinism and eugenics. Some “anti-functionalist” considerations will be followed by a description and contextualization of the two texts, an analysis of their Italian translations and, finally, a summary of its results.

Alfred Russel Wallace (1823–1913) was a British naturalist best remembered as the co-discoverer, with Darwin, of natural selection. His extensive fieldwork and advocacy of the theory of evolution led to him being considered one of the nineteenth century's foremost biologists. These volumes, first published in 1869, contain Wallace's acclaimed and highly influential account of extensive fieldwork he undertook in modern Indonesia, Malaysia and New Guinea between 1854 and 1862. Wallace describes his travels around the island groups, depicting the unusual animals and insects he encountered and providing ethnographic descriptions of the indigenous peoples. Wallace's analysis of biogeographic patterns in Indonesia (later termed the Wallace Line) profoundly influenced contemporary and later evolutionary and geological thought concerning both Indonesia and other areas of the world where similar patterns were found. Volume 1 covers the islands of Indonesia and Malaysia.

At first glance it seems impossible to connect Bergson and Darwin. The French philosopher distinguishes between metaphysics of and knowledge of the living (la metaphysique de la vie et la connaissance du vivant) (PM, 28).1 He defends metaphorical conception of evolution as expression of some psychological force, which has nothing to do with physics (CE, 257). This is evolution as a current passing from germ to germ, an immense wave, which starting from centre spreads outwards, as elan vital (CE, 27,266). He asserts that we live the creativity of life as internal feeling sympathy and that we cannot think it in terms of pure understanding (CE, 164). Indeed, our intelligence (I'intelligence) rejects all creation (ibid.). It proceeds by abstraction, separation and elimination. Science is dimension of intelligence, and the life sciences are characterized by inability to understand life (CE, 166). He criticizes the Darwinian interpretation of evolution as mechanistic and artificial, because it is focused on chance and natural selection. The British naturalist is fighting against Creationism. He seems to reject all use of teleological explanations that appeal to divine design or to internal vital force. He attempts to explain life with the help of natural selection, which is, in his terms, hypothesis that can explain some large and independent classes of facts (AP 1,9). Hence, he seems to present well tested theory. In spite of this seemingly unbridgeable gap, we will ask three questions. First, is Bergson speaking of Darwin himself, or of the Neo Darwinian approach when he refers to mechanistic and artificial explanation? Second, does Darwin truly assert that we can explain evolution solely with the help of natural selection and accidental hereditary variations? And third, why do we think it impossible to connect Bergson and Darwin? Are there good reasons, or are we not the victims of posteriori reconstruction of history? Can more adequate

Alfred Russel Wallace (1823–1913) was a British naturalist, explorer, geographer and biologist, best remembered as the co-discoverer, with Darwin, of natural selection. His extensive fieldwork and advocacy of the theory of evolution led to him being considered one of the nineteenth century's foremost biologists. He was later moved by a variety of personal experiences to examine the concept of spirituality, but his exploration into the potential for compatibility between spiritualism and natural selection alienated him from the scientific community. He was also a social activist, highly critical of unjust social and economic systems in nineteenth-century Britain, and one of the first prominent scientists to express concern over the environmental impact of human activity. This autobiography was first published in 1905. Volume 2 deals with his many eminent acquaintances, including Darwin and Huxley, his lecture tour in America, and his involvement with spiritualism and with social activism.

In 1857, British naturalist H. Noel Humphreys published Ocean Gardens, one of first handbooks on aquarium care. In his opening chapter, Humphreys admonished his reader: To appreciate Nature... mind requires a education, without which eye and ear perceive but little of miracles passing before them... .The wonders of ocean floor do not reveal themselves to eyes.' Today, in an era of growing environmental awareness, Humphreys's call to develop our vulgar eyes is as important as it was almost 150 years ago. is seeing that is everything, Humphreys told his readers.2 What has changed in intervening years are means and opportunities available for special he considered imperative in order to appreciate nature. A visit to an aquarium (or related institutions such as marine parks, zoos, and natural history museums) is one form such education can assume. It is character of contemporary seeing-in particular, multiple forms of vision afforded visitors to public aquariums-that constitutes subject of this essay. The recent literature on aquariums is filled with journalistic hyperbole. The steady increase in attendance and growth of new facilities have prompted writers to coin phrases such as of and Aquatic Fever to account for popularity of what Wall Street Journal labeled the ultimate in environmentally correct family entertainment. 3 Attendance figures are impressive; for example, more than 80 percent of adult Americans have visited an aquarium.4 In 1993, number of visitors to major American aquariums reached 35.4 million, up from 2+3 million in 1989.5 Aquarium visits are now so popular that new aquariums, or major additions to existing facilities, are projected or already under construction in dozens of cities. For those individuals charged with serving growing numbers of visitors, challenges inherent in aquarium design involve far more than solving practical problems associated with circulation, lighting and life-support systems. The Age of Aquariums requires that curators, educators and exhibit designers consider design problem of how to provide a built environment to accommodate plants, animals and experiences usually encountered in an unbuilt, natural environment. Public aquariums are hardly new institutions (the New York City aquarium, for example, opened in 1896; and Detroit's Belle Isle Aquarium opened in 1904).6 In recent decades, however, way 1 H. Noel Humphreys, Ocean Gardens (London: Sampson Low & Sons, 1857), 3-9. 2 Humphreys, Ocean Gardens, 9. 3 Robert Frank, Fishing for Business: Cities Hope if They Build an Aquarium, Crowds will come, The Wall Street Journal (27 October 1994); also see: Elaine Underwood, Aquatic Fever, Adweek's Marketing Week (10 February 1992): 22. 4 Andrew J. Nelson, Going Wild, American Demographics 12, no. 2 (February 1990): 36. Nelson reports that, between 1980 and 1987, attendance at aquariums increased by 50 percent and, in 1987, combined attendance figures for aquariums, zoos and wildlife parks reached 103 million visitors. 5 Recent attendance figures for aquariums are reported in: Frank, Fishing for Business. 6 For an account of early history of aquariums, see: Leighton Taylor, Aquariums: Windows to Nature (New York: Prentice Hall, 1993).

Charles Robert Darwin (February 12, 1809–April 19, 1882) was a British naturalist and geologist whose 1859 book On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection provided a seminal foundation for modern evolutionary theory. Darwin was from a wealthy family and was well educated. Many of his published revelations stemmed from a five‐year round‐the‐world voyage (1831–36), which he enjoyed as a young man on the HMS Beagle . During the voyage, Darwin collected and shipped home many scientific specimens, including the bodies of the birds (finches) he famously used to illustrate the concept of natural selection. While traveling, Darwin took copious notes and formulated ideas about the natural, as opposed to miraculous, origins of life and about the nature of the evolutionary processes that shaped different organisms through time. The Origin of Species generated international excitement among naturalists, the clergy, and the public. Darwin's theory was eventually combined with Gregor Mendel's discovery of the laws of genetics (unknown to Darwin) into a comprehensive theory that forms the backbone for contemporary evolutionary biology.

Ctenocheloides, n. gen., is established for a remarkable new species of ctenochelid ghost shrimp, Ctenocheloides attenboroughi, n. gen., n. sp., named after the British naturalist and presenter of numerous BBC nature documentaries, Sir David Attenborough. The holotype, a complete adult female, is presently the only specimen known. It was extracted from a large, mud-cemented piece of rubble collected at a depth of 1.5 m in a mangrove-fringed bay east of Helville, Nosy-Bé, in northwestern Madagascar. Ctenocheloides, n. gen. differs from Ctenocheles, the presumably closest relative and the only other axiidean genus with pectinate cheliped fingers, by the absence of a projecting rostrum, the well-developed corneas, and the shorter and less robust fingers of the major cheliped.