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A History of British Birds is a natural history book by Thomas Bewick, published in two volumes. Volume 1, Land Birds, appeared in 1797. Volume 2, Water Birds, appeared in 1804. A supplement was published in 1821. The text in Land Birds was written by Ralph Beilby, while Bewick took over the text for the second volume. The book is admired mainly for the beauty and clarity of Bewick's wood-engravings, which are widely considered his finest work, and among the finest in that medium.
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British Birds has been compared to works of poetry and literature. It plays a recurring role in Charlotte Brontë's novel Jane Eyre. William Wordsworth praised Bewick in the first lines of his poem "The Two Thieves": "Oh now that the genius of Bewick were mine, And the skill which he learned on the banks of the Tyne."
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The book was effectively the first "field guide" for non-specialists. Bewick provides an accurate illustration of each species, from life if possible, or from skins. The common and scientific name(s) are listed, citing the naming authorities. The bird is described, with its distribution and behaviour, often with extensive quotations from printed sources or correspondents. Those who provided skins or information are acknowledged. The species are grouped into families such as "Of the Falcon", using the limited and conflicting scientific sources of the time. The families of land birds are further grouped into birds of prey, omnivorous birds, insectivorous birds, and granivorous birds, while the families of water birds are simply listed, with related families side by side.
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Each species entry begins on a new page; any spaces at the ends of entries are filled with tail-pieces, small, often humorous woodcuts of country life. British Birds remains in print, and has attracted the attention of authors such as Jenny Uglow. Critics note Bewick's skill as a naturalist as well as an engraver.
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== Background ==
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Early scientific works on birds, such as those of Conrad Gessner, Ulisse Aldrovandi and Pierre Belon, relied for much of their content on the authority of the Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle and the teachings of the church, and included much extraneous material relating to the species, such as proverbs, references in history and literature, or its use as an emblem. The arrangement of the species was by alphabetical order in Gessner's Historia animalium, and by arbitrary criteria in most other early works. In the late 16th and early 17th centuries, Francis Bacon had advocated the advancement of knowledge through observation and experiment, and the English Royal Society and its members such as John Ray, John Wilkins and Francis Willughby sought to put the empirical method into practice, including travelling widely to collect specimens and information.
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The first modern ornithology, intended to describe all the then-known birds worldwide, was produced by Ray and Willughby and published in Latin as Ornithologiae Libri Tres (Three Books of Ornithology) in 1676, and in English, as The Ornithology of Francis Willughby of Middleton, in 1678. Its innovative features were an effective classification system based on anatomical features, including the bird's beak, feet and overall size, and a dichotomous key, which helped readers to identify birds by guiding them to the page describing that group. The authors also placed an asterisk against species of which they had no first-hand knowledge, and were therefore unable to verify. The commercial success of the Ornithology is unknown, but it was historically significant, influencing writers including René Réaumur, Mathurin Jacques Brisson, Georges Cuvier and Carl Linnaeus in compiling their own works.
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George Edwards was a leading British naturalist and illustrator in the 17th century. He was the librarian to the Royal College of Physicians with access to their collection of 8,000 books, and he used these, together with stuffed and live animals, to produce illustrated publications. His four-volume A Natural History of Uncommon Birds (1743–1751) and its three supplements covered more than 600 natural history topics, and his publications enabled Linnaeus to name 350 bird species, including many type specimens. When he was researching published sources for his bird project, Bewick relied particularly on Edwards' book and the multi-volume Histoire Naturelle of the French naturalist Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon.
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== Thomas Bewick ==
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Thomas Bewick was born at Cherryburn, a house in the parish of Mickley, Northumberland, and he was apprenticed at the age of 14 to Ralph Beilby, an engraver in Newcastle upon Tyne, and learnt how to engrave on wood and metal.
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The business prospered, becoming Newcastle's leading engraving service with an enviable reputation for high-quality work and good service. Now partners, Bielby and Bewick published their History of Quadrupeds in 1790, and its success encouraged them to consider producing a new book on British birds. In preparation for this major work, Bewick spent several years engraving the necessary wood blocks.
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Bewick became well known for his engravings, including the woodcuts for Oliver Goldsmith's Traveller and The Deserted Village, for Thomas Parnell's Hermit, and for William Somervile's Chase. Perhaps the best known of his prints is The Chillingham Bull, executed on an exceptionally large woodblock for Marmaduke Tunstall, a Yorkshire landowner. Bewick also produced and illustrated several editions of Aesop's Fables throughout his creative life. His success meant that Bewick had at least 30 pupils who worked for him and Beilby as apprentices, the first of whom was his younger brother John.
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Bewick died at his home on 8 November 1828. He was buried in Ovingham churchyard, beside his late wife Isabella, who had died two years earlier on 1 February 1826, and not far from his parents and his brother John.
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== Approach ==
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The preface to A History of British Birds states that "while one of the editors [Bewick] of this work was engaged in preparing the cuts, which are faithfully drawn from Nature, and engraved upon wood, the compilation of the descriptions .. (of the Land Birds) was undertaken by the other [Beilby], subject, however, to the corrections of his friend, whose habits had led him to a more intimate acquaintance with this branch of Natural History", and goes on to mention that the compilation of text was the "production of those hours which could be spared from a laborious employment", namely the long hours of work engraving the minutely detailed wood printing blocks. What the preface does not say is the reason for this statement about the "editors", which was an angry stand-off between Bewick and Beilby. Beilby's original intention was to have an introduction which merely thanked Bewick for his "assistance", and a title-page naming Beilby as the sole author. Bewick's friend (and his wife's godfather) Thomas Hornby heard of this, and informed Bewick. An informal trade panel met to judge the matter, and the preface as printed was the result; Beilby's name did not appear on the title-page.
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Each species of bird is presented in a few pages (generally between two and four; occasionally, as with the mallard or "Common Wild Duck", a few more). The first item is a woodcut print of the bird, always either perched or standing on the ground, even in the case of water birds – such as the smew – that (as winter visitors) do not nest in Britain, and consequently are rarely seen away from water there. Bewick then presents the name, with variations, and the Latin and French equivalents. For example, "The Musk Duck" is also named on the line below as "Cairo, Guinea, or Indian Duck", and the next line "(Anas moschata, Linn.—Le Canard Musque, Buff.)" provides the scholarly references to the giving of the Latin binomial by Linnaeus (Linn) and a French description by Buffon (Buff).
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The text begins by stating the size of the bird. Bewick then describes the bird, typically in one paragraph, naming any notable features such as the colour of the eyes ("irides"), the bill, the legs, and plumage on each part of the body. Next, the origin and distribution of the species are discussed, with notes or quotations from authorities such as John Ray, Gilbert White and Buffon.
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Bewick then mentions any other facts of interest about the bird; in the case of the musk duck, this concerns its "musky smell, which arises from the liquor secreted in the glands on the rump". If the bird hybridizes with other species, this is described, along with whether the hybrids are fertile ("productive").
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Finally, Bewick acknowledges anyone who had helped him. The musk duck is stated to have been drawn from a "living specimen" which was however "excepting the head, entirely white", unlike the "general appearance" shown in the woodcut; the bird "was lent to this work by William Losh, Esq., of Point Pleasant, near Newcastle". Losh, one of Bewick's many collaborators, was a wealthy partner in Losh, Wilson and Bell, manufacturers of chemicals and iron. Many of the birds, especially the rarer species, were necessarily illustrated from skins rather than from life. For example, for the Sabine's snipe, "The author was favoured by N. A. Vigors, Esq., [who had described the supposed species] with a preserved specimen, from which the above figure is taken." In A Memoir (posthumously published in 1862), Bewick states that he intended to "stick to nature as closely as I could", but admits that he had "in several cases" to rely on the stuffed "preserved skins" of his neighbour Richard Routledge Wingate.
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The grouping of species gave Bewick difficulty, as the scientific sources of the time did not agree on how to arrange the species in families, or on a sequence or grouping of those families. Bewick, for example, uses family groups like "Of the Falcon", in which he includes buzzards and sparrowhawks as well as what are now called falcons. The families of land birds are further grouped into birds of prey, omnivorous birds, insectivorous birds, and granivorous birds, while the families of water birds are simply listed, with what seemed to be related families, such as "Of the Anas" (ducks) and "Of the Mergus" (sawbill ducks), side by side.
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Each account is closed with a miniature woodcut known from its position in the text as a tail-piece. These small artworks depict aspects of country life, often with humorous subjects, but all with Bewick's eye for detail, style, and precision. Some add to the illustration of the bird in question, as for example the heron, where the tail-piece shows one heron catching an eel, and another flying away. The tail-piece for Sabine's snipe, a gamebird, shows a hunter firing, and a small bird falling to the ground. There is no exclusion of human life from the images: one tail-piece depicts a works complete with smoking chimney beside a river.
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== Outline ==
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=== Land birds ===
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The first volume "containing the History and Description of Land Birds" begins with a preface, an introduction, and a list of technical terms illustrated with Bewick's woodcuts. The introduction begins:
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In no part of the animal creation are the wisdom, the goodness, and the bounty of Providence displayed in a more lively manner than in the structure, formation, and various endowments of the feathered tribes.
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The birds are divided into granivorous (grain eating) and carnivorous groups, which are explained in some detail. The speed, senses, flight, migration, pairing behaviour and feeding of birds are then discussed, with observations from Spallanzani and Gilbert White, whose Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne was published in 1789. The pleasure of watching birds is mentioned:
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To the practical ornithologist there arises a considerable gratification in being able to ascertain the distinguishing characters of birds as they appear at a distance, whether at rest, or during their flight; for not only every genus has something peculiar to itself, but each species has its own appropriate marks, by which a judicious observer may discriminate almost with certainty.
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Bewick also mentions conservation, in the context of the probable local extinction of a valuable resource:
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"Both this and the Great Bustard are excellent eating, and would well repay the trouble of domestication; indeed, it seems surprising, that we should suffer these fine birds to be in danger of total extinction, although, if properly cultivated, they might afford as excellent a repast as our own domestic poultry, or even as the Turkey, for which we are indebted to distant countries."
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The 1847 edition, revised with additional woodcuts and descriptions, is organized as follows, with the species grouped into families such as the shrikes:
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=== Water birds ===
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The second volume "containing the History and Description of Water Birds" begins with its own preface, and its own introduction. Bewick discusses the question of where many seabirds go to breed, revisits the subject of migration, and concludes with reflections on "an all-wise Providence" as shown in Nature.
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The 1847 edition is organized as follows:
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Foreign Birds
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The 'foreign birds' are not grouped but just listed directly as species, from Bearded Vulture to Mino. Fifteen birds are included, with no description, and despite their placement in the table of contents, they appear at the front of the volume as an 'Appendix'.
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== Reception ==
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Bewick's Birds was an immediate best-seller. When Land Birds appeared, the whole print sold out by the middle of 1798; 1000 copies of the demy size (8+3⁄4 in × 5+5⁄8 in, 220 mm × 140 mm), 850 of the royal octavo (10 in × 6+1⁄4 in, 250 mm × 160 mm), and 24 of the grand imperial (22 in × 30 in, 560 mm × 760 mm).
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=== Contemporary ===
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In 1805, the British Critic wrote that it was "superfluous to expatiate much on the merits of a work" that everyone liked because of "the aptness of its descriptions, the accuracy of its figures, the spirit of its wood engravings, and the ingenious variety of its vignettes."
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The 1829 Magazine of Natural History commented that "Montagu's Ornithological Dictionary and Bewick's Birds .. have rendered [the] department of natural history popular throughout the land".
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Ibis, reviewing the Memoir of Thomas Bewick, written by himself in 1862, compares the effect of Bewick and Gilbert White, writing "It was the pages of Gilbert White and the woodcuts of Bewick which first beguiled the English schoolboy to the observation of our feathered friends", and "how few of our living naturalists but must gratefully acknowledge their early debt to White's 'History' and to the life-like woodcuts of Bewick!" The reviewer judges that "Probably we shall not wrong the cultivated annalist of Selborne by giving the first place to Bewick." However, comparing them as people, "Bewick has not the slightest claim to rank with Gilbert White as a naturalist. White was what Bewick never was, a man of science; but, if no naturalist, Bewick was a lover of nature, a careful observer, and a faithful copier of her ever-varying forms. In this, and in this alone, lies his charm."
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The 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica's entry on Thomas Bewick describes "the British Birds" as "his great achievement, that with which his name is inseparably associated", observing that "Bewick, from his intimate knowledge of the habits of animals acquired during his constant excursions into the country, was thoroughly qualified to do justice to this great task."
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=== Modern ===
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John Brewer, writing in the London Review of Books, says that for his Birds, "Bewick had acquired national renown as the artist who most truthfully depicted the flora and fauna of the British countryside." He adds that "Bewick's achievement was both technical and aesthetic." In his view, Bewick "reconciled nature, science and art. His engravings of British birds, which represent his work at its finest, are almost all rendered with the precision of the ornithologist: but they also portray the animals in their natural habitat – the grouse shelters in his covert, the green woodpecker perches on a gnarled branch, waders strut by streams ..." He observes that "Most of the best engravings include a figure, incident or building which draws the viewer's eye beyond and behind the animal profile in the foreground. Thus the ploughboy in the distant field pulls our gaze past the yellow wagtail ..."
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British Birds, reviewing a "lavishly illustrated" British Library book on Bewick, writes that "No ornithologist will ever regard Thomas Bewick, known primarily for The History of British Birds (1797–1804), as a naturalist of the same standing as contemporaries such as Edward Donovan, John Latham and James Bolton", noting however that Bewick helped to define "a certain English Romantic sensibility". More directly, the review notes that "Bewick was aware that his role was to offer a modest guide to birds that the common man not only could afford but would also want to possess." Bewick was not "a scientist, but he was a perfectionist". The book's text was written by "failed author" Ralph Beilby, but the text is "almost extraneous" given Bewick's masterpiece.
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The Tate Gallery writes that Bewick's " best illustrations ... are in his natural history books. The History of British Birds (2 vols, Newcastle upon Tyne, 1797–1804) reveals Bewick's gifts as a naturalist as well as an engraver (the artist was responsible for the text as well as the illustrations in the second volume)." The article notes that the book makes "extensive use of narrative tailpieces: vignettes in which manifold aspects of north-country life are expressed with affection, humour and a genuine love of nature. In later years these miniature scenes came to be more highly regarded than the figures they accompany."
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Dissenting from the general tone of praise for Bewick, Jacob Kainen cites claims that "many of the best tailpieces in the History of British birds were drawn by Robert Johnson", and that "the greater number of those contained in the second volume were engraved by Clennell. Granted that the outlook and the engraving style were Bewick's, and that these were notable contributions, the fact that the results were so close to his own points more to an effective method of illustration than to the outpourings of genius." Kainen argues that while competent, Bewick "was no Holbein, no Botticelli—it is absurd to think of him in such terms—but he did develop a fresh method of handling wood engraving."
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The Linnean Society writes that the History "shows that he was also an excellent naturalist, a meticulous observer of birds and animals in their habitats."
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The University of Maryland writes that "The Birds is specific to those species indigenous to Britain and is incredibly accurate due to Bewick's personal knowledge of the habits of birds in the wild acquired during his frequent bird-watching expeditions." It adds that "Bewick's woodcarvings are considered a pinnacle example of the medium."
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Jenny Uglow, writing in The Guardian, notes that "An added delight was the way he filled the blank spaces with 'tail-pieces', tiny, witty, vivid scenes of ordinary life." She describes the importance of Birds in Jane Eyre, and ends "He worked with precision and insight, in a way that we associate with poets such as Clare and Wordsworth, Gerard Manley Hopkins and Elizabeth Bishop. To Bewick, nature was the source of joy, challenge and perpetual consolation. In his woodcuts of birds and animals as well as his brilliant tail-pieces, we can still feel this today." However, in her biography of Bewick, she adds that "The country might be beautiful but it also stank: in his vignettes men relieve themselves in hedges and ruins, a woman holds her nose as she walks between the cowpats, and a farmyard privy shows that men are as filthy as the pigs they despise."
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Hilary Spurling, reviewing Uglow's biography of Bewick in The Observer, writes that when Birds appeared, people all over Britain "became his pupils". Spurling cites Charles Kingsley's story of his father's hunting friends from the New Forest mocking him for buying "a book 'about dicky-birds", until, astonished, they saw the book and discovered "things they had known all their lives and never even noticed".
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== In culture ==
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The History is repeatedly mentioned in Charlotte Brontë's 1847 novel Jane Eyre. John Reed throws the History of British Birds at Jane when she is ten; Jane uses the book as a place to which to escape, away from the painful Reed household; and Jane also bases her artwork on Bewick's illustrations. Jane and Mr Rochester use bird names for each other, including linnet, dove, skylark, eagle, and falcon. Brontë has Jane Eyre explain and quote Bewick:
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I returned to my book--Bewick's History of British Birds: the letterpress thereof I cared little for, generally speaking; and yet there were certain introductory pages that, child as I was, I could not pass quite as a blank. They were those which treat of the haunts of sea-fowl; of 'the solitary rocks and promontories' by them only inhabited; of the coast of Norway, studded with isles from its southern extremity, the Lindeness, or Naze, to the North Cape--
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In M. R. James' short story, Casting the Runes, a Bewick print is also referenced, described as "a moonlit road and a man walking along it, followed by an awful demon creature."
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The English romantic poet William Wordsworth began his 1800 poem The Two Thieves; or, the Last Stage of Avarice with the lines
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Peter Hall's 1974 film Akenfield (from the 1969 book by Ronald Blythe) contains a scene where the grandfather as a young man is reaping a cornfield. He weeps when he accidentally crushes a bird's egg, an image derived from Bewick's tail-piece woodcut for the partridge. The woodcut shows a reaper with a scythe, a dead bird and its nest of a dozen eggs on the ground under the scythe, which has just lifted. George Ewart Evans used the image on the title-page of his 1956 book about Blaxhall (near Charsfield, on which 'Akenfield' is probably partly based).
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== Legacy ==
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Bewick's reputation as a wood engraver was at its height in the nineteenth century, with the critic John Ruskin writing that the way Bewick had engraved the feathers of his birds was "the most masterly thing ever done in woodcutting".
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The advent of mechanical printing techniques from the 1860s led to something of a decline in his importance, but his fame, already nationwide across Britain for his Birds, grew during the nineteenth century. In 1830, William Yarrell named Bewick's swan in his honour, and Bewick's son Robert engraved the bird for later editions of British Birds.
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Bewick had met the American naturalist and bird painter John James Audubon in 1827, and had given him a copy of his Quadrupeds for his children. The American returned the compliment by naming a newly-discovered US bird species as Bewick's wren in honour of his friend.
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The way in which Bewick had organised the text and illustrations in his Birds takes the form of, and sets a precedent for, modern field guides. Indeed, the French naturalist François Holandre (1753–1830) assembled a field guide using Bewick's woodcuts as early as 1800.
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== Tail-pieces ==
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A selection of tail-pieces from the book, where they have no captions.
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== Principal editions ==
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Volume 1 first appeared in 1797, and was reprinted several times in 1797, then again in 1798 and 1800. Volume 1 was priced 13s. in boards. Volume 2 first appeared in 1804 (price 11. 4s. in boards). The first imprint was "Newcastle : Printed by Sol. Hodgson, for Beilby & Bewick; London: Sold by them, and G.C. and J. Robinson, 1797–1804." The book was reprinted in 1805, 1809, 1816, and 1817.
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In 1821 a new edition appeared with supplements to both volumes and additional figures, with the imprint "Printed by Edward Walker, Pilgrim-Street, for T. Bewick: sold by him, and E. Charnley, Newcastle; and Longman and co., London, 1821." The book was reprinted in many subsequent versions with a 6th edition in 1826, another in 1832, an 8th edition in 1847, and a royal octavo 'Memorial Edition' in 1885.
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A History of British Birds. First Edition.
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--- Bewick, Thomas; Beilby, Ralph (1797). Volume 1, Land Birds.
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--- Bewick, Thomas (1804). Volume 2, Water Birds.
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=== Selected modern versions ===
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Bewick's British Birds (2010), Arcturus. (hardback) ISBN 978-1-84837-647-2
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Bewick, Thomas; Aesop; Bewick, Jane (2012). Memorial Edition Of Thomas Bewick's Works: A History Of British Birds. (reproduced in original format) Ulan Press.
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== Notes ==
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== References ==
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== Bibliography ==
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Bewick, Thomas (1797–1804). A History of British Birds. Newcastle: Beilby and Bewick.
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Volume 1: Containing the History and Description of Land Birds
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Volume 2: Containing the History and Description of Water Birds
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Birkhead, Tim (2011). The Wisdom of Birds: An Illustrated History of Ornithology. London: Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-0-7475-9822-0.
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Birkhead, Tim (2018). The Wonderful Mr Willughby: The First True Ornithologist. London: Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-1-4088-7848-4.
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Birkhead, Tim; Smith, Paul J.; Doherty, Meghan; Charmantier, Isabelle (2016). "Willughby's Ornithology". In Birkhead, Tim (ed.). Virtuoso by Nature: The Scientific Worlds of Francis Willughby FRS (1635–1672). Leiden: Brill. pp. 268–304. ISBN 978-90-04-28531-6.
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Charmantier, Isabelle; Johnston, Dorothy; Smith, Paul J. (2016). "The legacies of Francis Willughby". In Birkhead, Tim (ed.). Virtuoso by Nature: The Scientific Worlds of Francis Willughby FRS (1635–1672). Leiden: Brill. pp. 360–385. ISBN 978-90-04-28531-6.
|
||||
Dixon, Hugh (2010). Faulkner, Tom E.; Berry, Helen; Gregory, Jeremy (eds.). Thomas Bewick and the North-Eastern Landscape. Northern Landscapes: Representations and Realities of North-East England. Boydell & Brewer. pp. 261–278. ISBN 9781843835417.
|
||||
Johanson, Zerina; Barrett, Paul M.; Richter, Martha; Smith, Mike (2016). Arthur Smith Woodward: His Life and Influence on Modern Vertebrate Palaeontology. Geological Society of London, Special Publications. Vol. 430. London: Geological Society of London. ISBN 978-1-86239-741-5.
|
||||
Kusukawa, Sachiko (2016). "Historia Piscium (1686) and its sources". In Birkhead, Tim (ed.). Virtuoso by Nature: The Scientific Worlds of Francis Willughby FRS (1635–1672). Leiden: Brill. pp. 305–334. ISBN 978-90-04-28531-6.
|
||||
Uglow, Jenny (2006). Nature's Engraver: A Life of Thomas Bewick. Faber and Faber.
|
||||
|
||||
== External links ==
|
||||
The Bewick Society: Publications
|
||||
Newcastle Collection: Bewick
|
||||
The Folio Society
|
||||
Free Project Gutenberg ebook: Why Bewick Succeeded
|
||||
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|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "A History of British Birds (Yarrell book)"
|
||||
chunk: 1/4
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_History_of_British_Birds_(Yarrell_book)"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:49:29.754136+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
William Yarrell's A History of British Birds was first published as a whole in three volumes in 1843, having been serialised, three sheets (=48 pages) every two months, over the previous six years. It is not a history of ornithology but a natural history, a handbook or field guide systematically describing every species of bird known to occur in Britain. A separate article of about six pages, containing an image, a description, and an account of worldwide distribution, together with reports of behaviour, is provided for each species.
|
||||
It quickly became the standard reference work for a generation of British ornithologists, replacing Thomas Bewick's book of the same name through its increased scientific accuracy, but following Bewick in its mixture of scientific data, accurate illustrations, detailed descriptions and varied anecdotes, as well as in the use of small 'tail-piece' engravings at the ends of articles. This made the book attractive to the public as well as to specialists. Yarrell, a newsagent without university education, corresponded widely with eminent naturalists such as Thomas Pennant and Coenraad Jacob Temminck, and consulted the writings of scientists including Carl Linnaeus, to collect accurate information on the hundreds of species illustrated in the work.
|
||||
The book is illustrated with over 500 drawings directly onto wood blocks, mostly by Alexander Fussell. These were then engraved by John Thompson. Publication was initially in 37 parts of three large folded sheets each; these were then collected and bound into volumes. Most of the copies were on octavo paper; some "large paper" format copies were printed in the larger royal octavo with just 50 copies in the very large imperial octavo format. Four editions were produced between 1843 and 1885.
|
||||
|
||||
== Author ==
|
||||
|
||||
William Yarrell (1784–1856) was the son of Francis Yarrell and his wife Sarah, née Blane. William's father and his cousin William Jones were partners as booksellers and newsagents in London. William joined the business in 1803 after leaving school, and inherited the company in 1850.
|
||||
Yarrell had the free time and income to indulge his hobbies of shooting and fishing, and started to show an interest in rare birds, sending some specimens to the engraver and author Thomas Bewick. He became a keen student of natural history and collector of birds, fish, and other wildlife, and by 1825 he had a substantial collection. He was active in the London learned societies, and held senior posts in several for many years. He was treasurer of the Linnean Society from May 1849, until his death in 1856, vice president of the Zoological Society of London from 1839 to 1851, treasurer of the Royal Entomological Society from 1834 to 1852, and was also on the Council of the Medico-Botanical Society.
|
||||
He knew many of the leading naturalists of his day, which helped him in the production of his books and articles, notably his 1836 A History of British Fishes and A History of British Birds.
|
||||
|
||||
== Approach ==
|
||||
Yarrell was aware of earlier bird handbooks, especially Bewick's. A History of British Birds used the same title as Bewick's popular book (1797–1804). Its approach, however, was significantly different in the extensiveness of Yarrell's correspondence and in the increased emphasis on scientific accuracy made possible by the rapid advance in ornithological knowledge in the nineteenth century.
|
||||
|
||||
=== Correspondence and specimens ===
|
||||
Yarrell corresponded widely, consulted existing handbooks of birds, and made use of his membership of the Zoological Society of London and the Linnean Society to find out about recent discoveries. He referenced the work of, amongst others, the ornithologists William Macgillivray, John James Audubon, George Montagu, Prideaux John Selby, Leonard Jenyns, John Gould, Temminck, Nicholas Aylward Vigors and Heinrich von Kittlitz. During the six years of writing, with the regular publication of three-sheet instalments of his Birds, many people across Britain and Europe sent him descriptions, observations and specimens for him to include, and the book is full of references to such contributions. Yarrell explicitly states in his Preface that
|
||||
|
||||
During these six years many occurrences of rare birds, and of some that were even new to Britain, became known to me, either by the communications of private friends and correspondents, or from the examination of the various periodical works which give publicity to such events.
|
||||
In some cases, Yarrell's correspondents and reference books enable him to add an account of a bird's distribution around the world. For the ringed plover, for example, Sven Nilsson speaks for Sweden and the Baltic coast; Mr Hewitson for Norway; Carl Linnaeus for Lapland; a Mr Scoresby for Iceland and Greenland; the zoologist Thomas Pennant for Russia and Siberia; the archaeologist Charles Fellows for Asia Minor [Turkey], and Coenraad Jacob Temminck for Japan. In the case of the wood sandpiper, Dr. Calvert sent a specimen from Malta; Selby and Dr. Andrew Smith, specimens from South Africa; others from India; Gould "mentions having seen skins" from "Chili and the Islands of the Pacific". Yarrell also describes his own observations, in this case with the words "It [the wood sandpiper] is far from being numerous in the localities where I met with it... Although I met with the young in a downy state, and partially feathered, I only obtained one nest with eggs."
|
||||
|
||||
=== Structure ===
|
||||
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|
||||
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|
||||
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|
||||
chunk: 2/4
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_History_of_British_Birds_(Yarrell_book)"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:49:29.754136+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Yarrell broadly follows the lead of Bewick in describing each species in a separate section, with essentially no introduction. The first bird, the Egyptian vulture, is preceded by nothing more than the Index (there is no table of contents) and the heading "British Birds", though there is an introductory paragraph on page 2, inside the Egyptian vulture article. Like Bewick, Yarrell's sections begin with a large wood engraving, depicting the species against a more or less realistic background: that of the Egyptian vulture shows a pyramid and a pair of laden camels. An immediate difference from Bewick is the list of Latin names that follows, with Vultur percnopterus (Bewick), Neophron percnopterus (Selby, Jenyns, Eyton, and Gould), and Cathartes percnopterus (Temminck). This care reflects both the rapidly advancing state of ornithology in the early nineteenth century, and Yarrell's more scientific approach.
|
||||
The account of the first species of each genus, such as the vulture genus Neophron, includes a paragraph on "Generic Characters", describing the beak, legs, wings and any distinguishing features useful for identification. These features are often small, requiring examination or measurement of specimens in the hand, reflecting the fact, repeated many times in the book, that those interested in birds shot them to collect unusual specimens. The Egyptian vulture was recorded from a specimen in Somerset, England, "now in the possession of the Rev. A. Mathew, of Kilve in Somersetshire, [which] was shot near that place in October 1825." The bird was one of a pair, but the other was too wary to be captured. Yarrell then proceeds to describe where the bird can be found, its behaviour and diet, and its detailed appearance. The Egyptian vulture takes up six pages, which is typical; the golden eagle gets eight pages, the hobby only four.
|
||||
Also like Bewick, many articles end with a tail-piece, a small engraving, but here again Yarrell shows himself to be both more serious and less merely decorative than Bewick, with more information to impart. The Egyptian vulture article ends with a large and accurate engraving of another specimen, so the article shows both a young and an old bird, with clearly different plumage which is also described in the text.
|
||||
|
||||
=== Descriptions ===
|
||||
As well as straightforward details of each bird, Yarrell adds many stories, chosen from his own experience, from his correspondents, or from often recently published accounts, to enliven the description of each species according to his taste.
|
||||
For example, the "Fulmar Petrel" quotes John Macgillivray's article "in a recent number of the Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal", describing a visit to St Kilda in June 1840, for a page and a half. It begins:
|
||||
|
||||
This bird exists here in almost incredible numbers, and to the natives is by far the most important of the productions of the island ... [They] daily risk their lives in its pursuit. The Fulmar breeds on the face of the highest precipices, and only on such as are furnished with small grassy shelves, every spot on which, above a few inches in extent, is occupied with one or more of its nests ... The young birds were very clamorous on being handled, and vomited a quantity of clear oil ... which imparts to the whole bird, its nest and young, and even to the rock which it frequents, a peculiar and very disagreeable odour. Fulmar oil is among the most valuable productions of St Kilda. The best is obtained from the old bird. The Fulmar flies with great buoyancy and considerable rapidity, and when at sea is generally seen skimming along the surface of the waves at a slight elevation ...
|
||||
Macgillivray is similarly relied upon for accounts of the pink-footed goose and the goosander as far as the Hebrides are concerned.
|
||||
As with Bewick, Yarrell is unsentimental about hunting. Landrails or corncrakes "are considered most delicate as articles of food, and in such high estimation, that two Landrails are said to be a present for a queen." But he constantly provides accurate stories that inform and entertain the reader:
|
||||
|
||||
Mr Jesse .. says:— A gentleman had a Corn Crake brought to him by his dog, to all appearance quite dead. As it lay on the ground, he turned it over with his foot, and was convinced it was dead. Standing by, however, in silence, he suddenly saw it open an eye. He then took it up; its head fell; its legs hung loose, and it appeared again quite dead. He then put it in his pocket, and before long he felt it all alive, and struggling to escape. He then took it out; it was as lifeless as before. Having laid it again upon the ground and retired to some distance, the bird in about five minutes warily raised its head, looked round, and decamped at full speed.
|
||||
|
||||
== Observations ==
|
||||
|
||||
In addition to the work of collating descriptions and commissioning drawings and engravings, Yarrell also made his own scientific observations of certain topics, including the description of the trachea of several species, and a detailed account, occupying seven pages, of the skull, jaw, musculature, and feeding behaviour of the common crossbill, Loxia curvirostra. The article for the crossbill is one of the longest in the book, at 20 pages. Yarrell introduces his special interest in this bird's head as follows:
|
||||
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|
||||
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|
||||
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|
||||
chunk: 3/4
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_History_of_British_Birds_(Yarrell_book)"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:49:29.754136+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
The peculiar formation and direction of the parts of the beak in the Crossbill, its anomalous appearance, as well as the particular and powerful manner in which it is exercised, had long excited in me a desire to examine the structure of an organ so curious, and the kindness of a friend supplied me with the means.
|
||||
Yarrell at once goes on to explain that the crossbills are unique in making use of "any lateral motion of the mandibles, and it is my object here to describe the bony structure and muscles by which this peculiar and powerful action is obtained." He explains the anatomy and how the jaws are closed, and then how their unique side-to-side motion is achieved:
|
||||
|
||||
When the lateral motion is required, the great pyramidal muscle on the right side pulls the extremity of the lower jaw, to which it is attached backwards; the pterygoid muscle of the left side at the same time powerfully assisting by carrying that side of the lower jaw inwards.
|
||||
He then quotes a Mr. Townson's account of how crossbills feed on pine cones, inserting their beaks between the scales and then forcing them sideways, opening the cone. Yarrell then immediately returns to anatomy, describing in detail (nearly a page) how the tongue is used to extract the seed from between the cone scales. Only then does he return to Mr. Townson, quoting him as saying "The degree of the lateral power is surprising, and they are fond of exercising it for amusement; they are, therefore, not a little mischievous. My pets would often come to my table whilst I was writing, and carry off my pencils ... and tear them to pieces in a minute." Yarrell then adds an observation of his own, and contradicts an opinion of a famous scientist: "Notwithstanding Buffon's assertion to the contrary, they can pick up and eat the smallest seeds ... so perfect and useful is this singular instrument." He goes on to criticise Buffon's description of the crossbill's beak as "an error and defect of Nature, and a useless deformity" as "an erroneous and hasty conclusion". Yarrell concludes by writing "I have never met with a more interesting, or more beautiful example, of the adaptation of means to an end, than is to be found in the beak, the tongue, and their muscles, in the Crossbill".
|
||||
|
||||
== Illustrations ==
|
||||
|
||||
Yarrell's illustrations were wood engravings made using the techniques pioneered by Bewick in which boxwood blocks were engraved on their ends using a burin, a tool with a V-shaped tip. The most expensive part of producing illustrated books in the nineteenth century was the hand colouring of printed plates, mainly by young women. By using monochrome illustrations Yarrell could avoid this outlay and the associated costs of having the illustrations separate from the text and printed on a different grade of paper.
|
||||
Alexander Fussell created most of the drawings for the book. Yarrell thanks Fussell in his Preface for "nearly five hundred of the drawings on wood here employed", and John Thompson (1785–1866) and his sons for the "very long series of engravings" of the drawings. He also thanks his printers, Messrs. Bentley, Wilson and Fley for their care and skill. The pen for the remaining drawings, if any (the title page asserts there are 520 in the book), is not stated. As well as the figures of birds, there are 59 tail-pieces (following Bewick, small woodcuts to fill in the spaces at ends of articles), of which some are whimsical, like Bewick's, but many illustrate anatomical details, especially breastbones and windpipes, and others, although decorative, realistically depict aspects of bird behaviour or human interaction with birds. For example, the tail-piece for the "Jack Snipe" shows a bittern among reeds, swallowing a frog, while that for the "Common Bittern" shows "a mode of shooting an Eagle from a pit".
|
||||
Fussell's work began in 1837 and continued for six years. Many of the drawings were from skins or stuffed specimens, though every bird species is illustrated with a lifelike drawing of the bird standing (or rarely, flying or swimming) in a natural setting. Additional drawings depict nests, feathers, and details of bird anatomy including feet, breastbones, and windpipes. Simon Holloway suggests that Fussell and the engravers Charles Thompson and sons probably made all the illustrations for the first three editions of Yarrell's Birds. Only in the fourth, rewritten edition of 1871–85 were illustrations by other artists (Charles Whymper, J. G. Keulemans, Edward Neale) added. Some of the bird figures, such as "The Snowy Owl" and "Richard's Pipit" in Volume 1, are signed "A. FUSSEL DEL." (A. Fussel drew this), but most are entirely unsigned. Some few, such as "The Black Redstart" and "The Common Cuckoo", are signed "THOMPSON DEL ET SC." (Thompson drew and cut this), so in these cases Fussell was not involved.
|
||||
The quality of the illustrations in Yarrell's books was very high, because he could afford to employ Thompson and his sons. Thompson senior was later to win a médaille d'or at the 1855 Paris Exhibition.
|
||||
|
||||
== Contents ==
|
||||
|
||||
The first edition was organised as follows into four "Orders" of birds. These do not correspond exactly with later taxonomy of the class.
|
||||
|
||||
=== Volume 1 ===
|
||||
Preface (pages v-xii)
|
||||
Index (pages xiii-xxxii)
|
||||
Raptores [Raptors] (Egyptian Vulture - Tengmalm's Owl)
|
||||
Insessores [Perchers] (Great Grey Shrike - Mountain Linnet, or Twite)
|
||||
|
||||
=== Volume 2 ===
|
||||
Insessores (continued, Bullfinch - Nightjar)
|
||||
Rasores (The Ring Dove, or Wood Pigeon - Little Bustard)
|
||||
Grallatores [Waders] (Cream-coloured Courser - Purple Sandpiper)
|
||||
|
||||
=== Volume 3 ===
|
||||
Grallatores (continued, Collared Pratincole - Red-necked Phalarope)
|
||||
Natatores [Swimmers] (Grey-legged Goose - Storm Petrel)
|
||||
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|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "A History of British Birds (Yarrell book)"
|
||||
chunk: 4/4
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_History_of_British_Birds_(Yarrell_book)"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:49:29.754136+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
== Reception ==
|
||||
Contemporaries enjoyed Yarrell's Birds, which sold well through various editions. In The Birds of Shakespeare (1871), James Edmund Harting notes that "an excellent dissertation on the organ of voice in the raven will be found in the second volume of Yarrell's 'British Birds'", and Harting refers to Yarrell when he needs ornithological facts.
|
||||
Thomas R. Forbes, in his biographical paper on Yarrell, writes that "All [editions of Birds] are outstanding because of the author's clear, narrative style, accuracy, careful scholarship, and unassuming charm."
|
||||
Simon Holloway, in his Historical Atlas of Breeding Birds in Britain and Ireland 1875–1900, writes that Yarrell's Birds was "far more thoroughly dealt with than in Bewick's work and, once again, was liberally illustrated with wood-engravings". He adds that the book was "also hugely influential in its day", being "reasonably cheap", and that it was the book that the future authors of "the county avifaunas were bought as children and remained their standard textbook", i.e. that Yarrell influenced a whole generation of ornithological authors in Britain. Holloway used Yarrell's figures to accompany the account of each species of bird in his Historical Atlas.
|
||||
|
||||
The Soffer Ornithology Collection at Amherst College observes that "Yarrell's History was the standard illustrated British bird book of the 19th century and one of the historically great ornithological works. In well chosen prose, Yarrell provides synonymy, generic characters, a description with measurements, local and general distribution and a life history including nidification and eggs and arrival and departure times for each species. The wood engraved text figures have never been surpassed using this technique in terms of accuracy and artistic merit." Soffer suggests that the "fourth edition is perhaps the best, embellished as it is by contributions from Alfred Newton and Howard Saunders".
|
||||
In Ornithology in Scotland, Yarrell's Birds is described as "written by an Englishman and illustrated in a manner calculated to attract the non-scientific ornithologist right at the opening of the era of the great Victorian naturalists". It eclipsed the unfortunate MacGillivray, whose British Birds in contrast "never achieved real popularity", partly because it was illustrated strictly technically, and partly because it appeared at the same time as the first part of Yarrell's work.
|
||||
The bookseller Isabelline Books argues that "Yarrell's History [of British Birds] probably contains the richest collection of colour descriptions in any bird book in the English language", with "various parts of the Bee-Eater described as verditer blue, saffron-yellow, chestnut, duck-green, verdigris-green, buff, greyish-brown and fawn colour. The Roller as berlin-blue, brownish-yellow, coppery-purple and light cinnamon. The Spotted Eagle as chocolate-brown, pale wood-brown and reddish liver-brown. The Golden Oriole had lead-colour toes, other parts oil-green, brocoli-brown and wine-yellow. The Cuneate-Tailed Gull was smoke-brown and pearl-grey, the Turnstone had ferruginus portions, the Little Auk was livid-brown and sooty-brown, while the American Bittern was leaden-brown. The variations in these terms seems to be inexhaustable. They can now be considered a curiousity [sic], somewhat romantic or just pure pedantry on the author's part. But it was a serious attempt to try to define quite subtle colourings."
|
||||
|
||||
== In culture ==
|
||||
Yarrell's Birds was mentioned in a well-known letter to The Times in 1913, when a Fellow of the Royal Society, the naturalist and paleontologist Richard Lydekker, wrote on 6 February that he had heard a cuckoo, explaining that though contrary to Yarrell's statement that records of the bird calling as early as March "must be treated with suspicion, if not with incredulity", it was a definite fact. Six days later on 12 February 1913, Lydekker wrote again, confessing that "the note was uttered by a bricklayer's labourer". Letters about the first cuckoo became a tradition in the newspaper.
|
||||
|
||||
== Editions ==
|
||||
|
||||
Birds was first published "in thirty-seven parts of three sheets each, at intervals of two months; the first Part was issued in July 1837, and the last in May 1843." The sheets were then collected into three volumes, with the addition of "many occurrences of rare birds, and of some that were even new to Britain". The additional birds were listed and briefly described in the Preface, and "the new subjects have been engraved on single leaves, so paged, that the bookbinder may insert these separate leaves among the birds of the genus to which each respectively belongs."
|
||||
The book came out in three different formats. The smallest is "octavo"; the two "large paper" formats are "royal octavo" and "imperial octavo". A supplement appeared in 1845; it was bound into the third volume of the rare "imperial octavo" edition of 1845, of which only 50 copies were printed.
|
||||
The fourth edition was revised and extended by the ornithologists Alfred Newton and Howard Saunders, with some additional illustrations bringing the total number of engravings up to 564.
|
||||
|
||||
First edition, 1843. 3 volumes. John Van Voorst, London. (with a supplement to the first edition, 1845).
|
||||
Second edition, 1845.
|
||||
Third edition, 1856.
|
||||
Fourth edition, 4 volumes. I, 1871–1874. II, 1876–1882. III, 1882–1884. IV, 1884–1885. Vol. I and II edited by Alfred Newton; Vol. III and IV edited by Howard Saunders.
|
||||
|
||||
== Tail-pieces ==
|
||||
Yarrell's tail-pieces, small engravings fitted into spaces at the ends of articles, follow the tradition established by Bewick, but differ in rarely being whimsical. Many are secondary illustrations showing details of bird anatomy or features useful in identification.
|
||||
|
||||
== See also ==
|
||||
A History of British Birds
|
||||
|
||||
== Notes ==
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
|
||||
=== Primary ===
|
||||
|
||||
=== Secondary ===
|
||||
|
||||
== Cited texts ==
|
||||
Jackson, Christine E. (2022). A Newsworthy Naturalist: The Life of William Yarrell. Oxford: John Beaufoy. ISBN 978-1913679-04-0.
|
||||
McGhie, Henry A. (2017). Henry Dresser and Victorian Ornithology: Birds, Books and Business. Manchester: Manchester University Press. ISBN 978-1-78499-413-6.
|
||||
|
||||
== External links ==
|
||||
|
||||
"Yarrell, William" . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). 1911.
|
||||
Volumes of A History of British Birds in archive.org
|
||||
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|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "Adaptive Coloration in Animals"
|
||||
chunk: 1/5
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptive_Coloration_in_Animals"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:48:51.760603+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Adaptive Coloration in Animals is a 500-page textbook about camouflage, warning coloration and mimicry by the Cambridge zoologist Hugh Cott, first published during the Second World War in 1940; the book sold widely and made him famous.
|
||||
The book's general method is to present a wide range of examples from across the animal kingdom of each type of coloration, including marine invertebrates and fishes as well as terrestrial insects, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. The examples are supported by many of Cott's own drawings, diagrams, and photographs. This essentially descriptive natural history treatment is supplemented with accounts of experiments by Cott and others. The book had few precedents, but to some extent follows (and criticises) Abbott Handerson Thayer's 1909 Concealing-Coloration in the Animal Kingdom.
|
||||
The book is divided into three parts: concealment, advertisement, and disguise.
|
||||
Part 1, concealment, covers the methods of camouflage, which are colour resemblance, countershading, disruptive coloration, and shadow elimination. The effectiveness of these, arguments for and against them, and experimental evidence, are described.
|
||||
Part 2, advertisement, covers the methods of becoming conspicuous, especially for warning displays in aposematic animals. Examples are chosen from mammals, insects, reptiles and marine animals, and empirical evidence from feeding experiments with toads is presented.
|
||||
Part 3, disguise, covers methods of mimicry that provide camouflage, as when animals resemble leaves or twigs, and markings and displays that help to deflect attack or to deceive predators with deimatic displays. Both Batesian mimicry and Müllerian mimicry are treated as adaptive resemblance, much like camouflage, while a chapter is devoted to the mimicry and behaviour of the cuckoo. The concluding chapter admits that the book's force is cumulative, consisting of many small steps of reasoning, and being a wartime book, compares animals to military camouflage.
|
||||
Cott's textbook was at once well received, being admired both by zoologists and naturalists and among allied soldiers. Many officers carried a copy of the book with them in the field. Since the war it has formed the basis for experimental investigation of camouflage, while its breadth of coverage and accuracy have ensured that it remains frequently cited in scientific papers.
|
||||
|
||||
== The book ==
|
||||
|
||||
=== Approach ===
|
||||
Adaptive Coloration in Animals is a 500-page book, 10 by 7 inches (250 by 180 mm) in its first edition. It was published by Methuen (in London) and Oxford University Press (in New York) in 1940. It is full of detailed observations of types of camouflage and other uses of colour in animals, and illustrated by the author with clear drawings and photographs. There is a coloured frontispiece showing eight of Cott's paintings of tropical amphibians. The book has 48 monotone plates and several illustrations.
|
||||
Cott's method is to provide a large number of examples, illustrated with his own drawings or photographs, showing animals from different groups including fish, reptiles, birds and insects, especially butterflies. The examples are chosen to illustrate specific adaptations. For example, the fish Chaetodon capistratus is described as follows:
|
||||
|
||||
this species had the habit of swimming very slowly tail first: but when disturbed it darts rapidly off to safety in the opposite direction... C. capistratus adopts the same tactics... [This fish] is of particular interest in that the real eye is obliterated and a false eye substituted in one and the same animal.
|
||||
Cott was well aware that he was publishing in wartime. There are, as Julian Huxley remarks in his 'Introduction', references throughout the book to the human analogues of animal camouflage and concealment. For example, in the section on 'Adaptive Silence', the kestrel is said to "practise dive-bombing attacks", or "after the fashion of a fighter 'plane" to fly down other birds, while "Owls have solved the problem of the silent air-raid"; Cott spends the rest of that paragraph on the "method which has recently been rediscovered and put into practice" of shutting off a bomber's engines and "gliding noiselessly down towards their victims" at Barcelona in the Spanish Civil War. In the concluding chapter, Cott explicitly states "The innumerable visible devices used ... in peacetime and in wartime ... are merely rediscovered ... applications of colour that have already reached a high ... degree of specialization and perfection.. in the animal world", mentioning predator-prey relationships, sexual selection and signalling to rivals. He then compares the "hunting disguises put on ... as a means of approaching, ambushing or alluring game, and the sniping suits, concealed machine-gun posts, and booby traps" with the camouflage of animal predators; and similarly he compares "protective disguises" with the "photographer's hide and the gunner's observation post." In the same section, Cott compares intentionally visible signs with animal warning colours: "The policeman's white gloves have their parallel in the white stripes or spots of nocturnal skunks and carabids. The Automobile Association has adopted a system of coloration [black and yellow] whose copyright belongs by priority to wasps and salamanders."
|
||||
|
||||
=== Structure ===
|
||||
The book addresses its subject under three main headings: concealment, advertisement, and disguise.
|
||||
|
||||
==== Part I: Concealment ====
|
||||
|
||||
The methods by which concealment is attained in nature
|
||||
Cott sets out his view that we have to be re-taught how to see, mentioning Ruskin's "innocence of the eye". He argues that camouflage should, and in animals actually does, use four mechanisms: colour resemblance, obliterative shading (i.e. countershading, the graded shading which conceals self-shadowing of the lower body), disruptive coloration, and shadow elimination.
|
||||
Chapter 1. General colour resemblance.
|
||||
|
||||
Cott gives many examples such as a table of 16 species of green tropical tree-snakes.
|
||||
Chapter 2. Variable colour resemblance. Caterpillars and pupae (as in Poulton's famous experiment) are coloured to match their environment. Mountain hares change colour in winter; many fish, cephalopods, frogs, and crustacea can change colour rapidly.
|
||||
Chapter 3. Obliterative shading.
|
||||
|
||||
Following the artist and amateur naturalist Abbott Handerson Thayer, Cott explains countershading with diagrams, photographs of models and examples of real animals. He shows how helpful it would be for military camouflage with drawings of gun barrels.
|
||||
Chapter 4. Disruptive coloration.
|
||||
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|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "Adaptive Coloration in Animals"
|
||||
chunk: 2/5
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptive_Coloration_in_Animals"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:48:51.760603+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Cott argues with diagrams, drawings, photographs and examples that animals are often extremely effectively disruptively patterned. He analyses the component effects of disruption, including "differential blending" and "maximum disruptive contrast". Cott's figure 7 is a set of nine drawings, arranged as a 3x3 table. On the left is an animal's outline in grey tone against a differently coloured background. In the centre, the same animals are now disruptively patterned against the same plain backgrounds. On the right, the disruptively patterned animals are shown against realistic broken backgrounds containing vegetation or rocks. Cott explains
|
||||
The simplified diagrams in Fig. 7 illustrate the value and effectiveness of maximum disruptive contrasts better than any verbal description... On looking at these drawings from a little distance, it will be seen that the conspicuous patches operate most efficiently in distracting attention from the form of the animals wearing them. By sheer force of their brightness, or blackness, or contrasts, they dominate the picture presented to the eye, apparently destroying their form...
|
||||
Cott goes on to explain that the right-hand drawing shows the effect "of broken surroundings in further blending and confusing the picture", observing that this is the closest to what is seen in nature. His readers are invited to look first at the right-hand images to gain an idea of the power of "these optical devices" as camouflage, putting off the moment when the animal is actually recognised.
|
||||
Chapter 5. Coincident disruptive coloration.
|
||||
|
||||
Animals such as frogs are patterned so that when they are at rest with legs tucked in, their outline is powerfully disrupted with markings that seem to flow across body and leg boundaries. Eyes too are often hidden in stripes or eye masks.
|
||||
Chapter 6. Concealment Of the shadow.
|
||||
|
||||
Cast shadows give away even well-camouflaged animals. Many animals therefore take care to minimise shadow, by lying down, with flattened bodies, or with fringes. Some hawkmoth caterpillars have false shadow patterns to suggest they are parts of other objects.
|
||||
The function of concealing coloration in nature
|
||||
Chapter 7. Concealment in defence, mainly as illustrated by birds.
|
||||
|
||||
Cott considers how effective camouflage is as an adaptation, such as in incubation and rest (sleep) in birds. For instance nightjars are nocturnal, and rest, well camouflaged, on the ground during the day.
|
||||
Chapter 8. Concealment In offence.
|
||||
|
||||
Cott describes the care that predators take when approaching prey, minimizing visible movement and scent, the use of cover for ambush, and "adaptive silence".
|
||||
Chapter 9. Objections and evidence bearing on the theory of concealing coloration.
|
||||
|
||||
In this chapter Cott discusses various objections to the adaptive (evolutionary) nature of camouflage, and provides evidence to dismiss them. Some are "based upon such obvious fallacies that they hardly deserve serious consideration."
|
||||
Chapter 10. The effectiveness of concealing coloration.
|
||||
|
||||
Cott describes simple experiments such as that fish that have changed colour to match a pale background survived better (64% to 42%) on such a background than fish which had not. He also quotes some anecdotal observations on wild animals with similar but not quantified results.
|
||||
|
||||
==== Part II: Advertisement ====
|
||||
The methods by which conspicuousness is attained in nature
|
||||
Chapter 1. The appearance and behaviour of aposematic animals.
|
||||
|
||||
Animals that are genuinely distasteful (aposematic) boldly advertise themselves in black, white, red, and yellow. They are often "sluggish", not running from predators; gregarious; and diurnal, since warning displays only work if they can be seen "by potential enemies".
|
||||
Chapter 2. Warning displays.
|
||||
|
||||
Aposematic animals often have (honest) threat displays; edible prey sometimes have (bluffing) startle displays. For example the frilled lizard, Chlamydosaurus kingii, is illustrated in a drawing by Cott, with its tail raised over the body, stretched up on all four legs, mouth wide open, and frills out both sides of the head, making it a startling sight.
|
||||
Chapter 3. Adventitious warning coloration.
|
||||
|
||||
Some marine animals select aposematic materials as coverings, not only as camouflage. Some birds nest near wasps' nests.
|
||||
Warning coloration in relation to prey
|
||||
Chapter 4. The nature and function of warning coloration, as illustrated by the mammalia.
|
||||
|
||||
Prey like porcupines have warning colours, make noise, and attack predators (even leopards).
|
||||
Chapter 5. The Protective Attributes Of Aposematic Animals In General.
|
||||
|
||||
Evidence is given that conspicuous animals such as caterpillars really are distasteful. Animals with actual poisons are discussed, and how these are secreted, used in bites and stings, or kept to make the animal bitter tasting.
|
||||
Chapter 6. The relation between warning colours and distasteful attributes.
|
||||
|
||||
Various kinds of evidence are presented for aposematism.
|
||||
Chapter 7. The effectiveness of protective attributes associated with warning colours.
|
||||
|
||||
Experimental evidence is presented that insects with warning colours are rejected by predators.
|
||||
Warning coloration in reference to predatory enemies
|
||||
Chapter 8. Experimental evidence that vertebrate enemies learn by experience.
|
||||
|
||||
Experiments by Cott show that toads learn to avoid eating stinging bees.
|
||||
Chapter 9. Evidence of selective feeding by vertebrate enemies in a state of nature.
|
||||
|
||||
Evidence from wild birds and toads demonstrates preferences for particular prey.
|
||||
|
||||
==== Part III: Disguise ====
|
||||
|
||||
Special protective and aggressive resemblance
|
||||
Chapter 1. Special resemblance to particular objects.
|
||||
|
||||
Cott describes leaf-like fish, chameleons, and insects, and other mimetic forms of camouflage. A liana-like snake near Para (a haunt of Henry Walter Bates in Naturalist on the River Amazons) 160 times as long as it was thick is called "a revelation in the art of aggressive resemblance".
|
||||
Chapter 2. Adaptive behaviour in relation to special cryptic resemblance.
|
||||
@ -0,0 +1,51 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "Adaptive Coloration in Animals"
|
||||
chunk: 3/5
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptive_Coloration_in_Animals"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:48:51.760603+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Animals keep still, sway in the wind, or play dead to assist their camouflage. Poulton's examples of twig-like Geometridae caterpillars are praised. There are fine photographs of leaf insects, and Cott's admired drawing of a poor-me-one or potoo, Nyctibius griseus, sitting on its nest mimicking a broken branch. Cott explains, in a section on "Special resemblances in relation to the attitude of rest"
|
||||
This wonderful bird ... habitually selects the top of an upright stump as a receptacle for its egg, which usually occupies a small hollow just, and only just, large enough to contain it.... the stump selected had thrown up a new leader just below the point of fracture;... the bird sat facing this in such a way that when viewed from behind they came into line and blended with the grey stem.
|
||||
Chapter 3. Adventitious Concealing Coloration.
|
||||
|
||||
Cott begins by citing Shakespeare's Macbeth with "until/ Great Birnamwood to the Dunsinane hill/ Shall come against him" to introduce his chapter on the use of materials as camouflage. Animals from crabs to caterpillars are described.
|
||||
|
||||
Conspicuous localized characters
|
||||
Chapter 4. Deflective marks.
|
||||
|
||||
Cott describes markings that help to deflect attack, such as the eyespots of butterfly wings and the twitching cast-off tails of lizards, both acknowledged to Poulton, as well as the distraction displays of birds such as the partridge mentioned by Gilbert White in his Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne.
|
||||
Chapter 5. Directive marks.
|
||||
|
||||
A selection of lures and deceptive markings are described. A large drawing depicts the deimatic warning display of a mantis, Pseudocreobotra wahlbergi with its spined forelegs raised and large spiral eyespots on its spread wings forming an image "suggestive of a formidable foe". Other drawings depict the eyespots of fish such as Chaetodon capistratus, the four-eye butterfly fish, which are "usually towards the tail end" and tending to direct attack away from the head.
|
||||
Alluring and mimetic resemblances
|
||||
Chapter 6. Alluring coloration.
|
||||
|
||||
The bird-dropping spider Ornithoscatoides decipiens, the flower mantis Hymenopus bicornis and other camouflaged hunters are described.
|
||||
Chapter 7. Mimicry: the attributes of mimics.
|
||||
|
||||
Cott follows Poulton in treating mimicry as basically the same as camouflage or "adaptive resemblance". Batesian mimicry and Mullerian mimicry are compared. The behaviour of "Esquimaux seal-hunters" and First World War Q-ships are mentioned.
|
||||
Chapter 8. Breeding parasitism and mimicry in cuckoos.
|
||||
|
||||
The mimicry and behaviour of the European cuckoo, Cuculus canorus is analysed.
|
||||
|
||||
==== Conclusion ====
|
||||
The final chapter confirms that "The force of the facts and arguments used in this work is cumulative in effect." Many small steps of reasoning combine to show that "adaptive coloration... has been... one of the main achievements of organic evolution." The book ends by comparing human artefacts and "natural adaptations", both of which can have goals (recall the publication date of 1940, early in the Second World War) including "the frustration of a predatory animal or of an aggressive Power".
|
||||
|
||||
== Reception ==
|
||||
|
||||
=== Foreword ===
|
||||
Julian S. Huxley wrote a foreword (labelled 'Introduction') which defends the Darwinian concept of adaptation, especially of colour (in animals) and within that frame of mimicry. He makes it clear that "in these last thirty years" (that is, from about 1910 to 1940) he believed that "experimental biologists" professed, even if they did not actually hold, "a radical scepticism on the subject of adaptations", in other words about whether natural selection really could have created the enormous diversity of pattern and colour seen in nature. Huxley quoted the now long-forgotten Aaron Franklin Shull's 1936 Evolution which stated "These special forms [sexual selection, warning colours, mimicry and signalling] of the selection idea... seem destined to be dropped, or at least relegated to very minor places in the Evolution discussion.", and more sharply that "aggressive and alluring resemblance" (Huxley's words) "must probably be set down as products of fancy belonging to uncritical times." Huxley's reply is simply
|
||||
|
||||
Dr. Cott, in this important book, has turned the tables with a vengeance on objectors of this type... Had they taken the trouble to acquaint themselves with even a fraction of the relevant facts to be found in nature, they could never have ventured to enunciate such sweeping criticisms: their objections are a measure of their ignorance.
|
||||
With objections dismissed, Huxley remarks that "Dr. Cott is a true follower of Darwin in driving his conclusions home by sheer weight of example," observing that "Faced with his long lists of demonstrative cases, the reader is tempted to wonder why adaptive theories of coloration have been singled out for attack by anti-selectionists." Huxley also noted Cott's "constant cross-reference to human affairs", and that it was good to know that Cott was applying his principles "to the practice of camouflage in war".
|
||||
Huxley concluded his introduction by describing Adaptive Coloration as "in many respects the last word on the subject", upholding the great tradition of "scientific natural history".
|
||||
|
||||
=== Contemporary reviews (circa 1940) ===
|
||||
Reviewers had little to compare Adaptive Coloration with. The English zoologist Edward Bagnall Poulton, a Darwinian, had written a 360-page book, The Colours of Animals, fifty years earlier in 1890, and he was able, at age 84, to review Cott's work in Nature on its appearance in 1940, beginning with the words
|
||||
|
||||
This excellent work, eagerly awaited for many years, will be most welcome to naturalists, even, we may hope, to the few who have hitherto rejected the Darwinian interpretation which the author has here supported by a mass of additional evidence based on his own observations and those of very many others.
|
||||
The ichthyologist Carl Leavitt Hubbs, reviewing the book for American Naturalist in 1942, began
|
||||
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|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "Adaptive Coloration in Animals"
|
||||
chunk: 4/5
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptive_Coloration_in_Animals"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:48:51.760603+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
In this Neodarwinian epic Dr. Cott stamps himself as a true disciple of the master evolutionist. Indeed, he rivals Darwin in the thorough, objective and penetrating analysis of a major biological problem. An immense body of facts and interpretation, much of it original, has been judiciously considered and brought to bear on the question of the biological significance of coloration.
|
||||
Hubbs notes that Cott is seeming concerned about the scarcity of experimental data for the survival value of camouflage, and accordingly relies on Sumner and Isely's "clear-cut results", but at once continues that Cott relies on "the general lore of natural history". Hubbs also remarks on the "resurgence to Darwinian views", referring to the scepticism about the power of natural selection among both geneticists of the time and to the Lamarckist views of Trofim Lysenko.
|
||||
Hubbs observes that Cott is both an artist and a naturalist as well as a scientist: "In section after section, rivaling one another in fascination, this master of art and of natural history unfolds the biological significance of adaptive coloration in animals." And Cott's emphasis on disruptive patterning and (following Thayer) countershading clearly affected the reviewer: "Particularly impressive is the author's treatment of "coincident disruptive coloration", in which a ruptive mark crosses structural boundaries, so as to obliterate visually such ordinarily conspicuous parts as the eye and the limbs. Concealment of an animal's ordinarily telltale shadow is also stressed". Hubbs's review ends "This book is the work of an artist, and it is a work of art. Every biologist with an interest in any phase of natural history or evolution should keep it at hand."
|
||||
"W.L.S.", reviewing Cott in The Geographical Journal in 1940, begins with "In this large and well-illustrated volume the author discusses at length reason or reasons for the various colour patterns found in the animal kingdom." The reviewer goes on "He has presented us with a vast number of facts and observations which are somewhat difficult to analyse." However "W.L.S." admits that disruptive coloration "is discussed at considerable length by Mr. Cott and many remarkable instances of it are considered in detail". The review ends by mentioning that while biologists (of the 1930s) usually "reject the influence of Natural Selection in evolution, the facts of adaptive coloration as given in Mr. Cott's work are a strong argument in its favour, and must be given due weight. This is what Mr. Cott claims to have accomplished in a volume which will certainly take its place as a most valuable contribution to zoological literature."
|
||||
|
||||
=== Looking back (after 2000) ===
|
||||
Peter Forbes, in his book Dazzled and Deceived, wrote that
|
||||
|
||||
Cott's Adaptive Coloration in Animals must be the only compendious zoology tract ever to be packed in a soldier's kitbag. The book also marks the apotheosis of the descriptive natural history phase of mimicry studies. Although Cott does report experiments on predation to test the efficacy of mimicry and camouflage, the book is essentially a narrative of examples plus theory.
|
||||
Over 60 years after its publication, Adaptive Coloration in Animals remains a core reference on the subject. Sören Nylin and colleagues observe in a 2001 paper that
|
||||
|
||||
Adaptive coloration in animals has been a very active research field in evolutionary biology over the years (e.g. Poulton 1890, Cott 1940, Kettlewell 1973, Sillen-Tullberg 1988, Malcolm 1990), and one in which the Lepidoptera have always featured prominently as model species.
|
||||
As a natural history narrative on what has become an intensely researched experimental subject, Adaptive Coloration could be thought obsolete, but instead, Peter Forbes observes "But Cott's book is still valuable today for its enormous range, for its passionate exposition of the theories of mimicry and camouflage". This width of coverage and continuing relevance can be seen in the introduction to Sami Merilaita and Johan Lind's 2005 paper on camouflage, Background-Matching and Disruptive Coloration, and the Evolution of Cryptic Coloration, which cites Adaptive Coloration no fewer than eight times, quoting his terms "cryptic coloration or camouflage", "concealing coloration", "background matching (also called cryptic resemblance)", "disruptive coloration", resemblance to visual background, and the difficulty a predator has to detect a prey visually.
|
||||
Steven Vogel, in a review of Peter Forbes's book Dazzled and Deceived (2009), echoes Julian Huxley's words of seventy years before (in his 'Introduction') by writing
|
||||
|
||||
The zoologist Hugh Cott had the final word in Adaptive Coloration in Animals (1940), a definitive synthesis of everything known about camouflage and mimicry in nature. Cott ruffled fewer feathers [than Trofim Lysenko or Vladimir Nabokov], and his well-organized and unfanatic ideas proved militarily effective, even under the scrutiny of improved techniques for target detection. Thayer’s principles reemerged in more temperate and rational terms, and camouflage schemes based on them survived both photometric analyses and enemy encounters. Biomimetic camouflage took its place as yet another technique in a sophisticated armamentarium of visual deceptions.
|
||||
Camouflage researcher Roy Behrens cites and discusses Adaptive Coloration frequently in his writings. For example, in his Camoupedia blog, related to the book of the same name, he writes of Cott's drawings of the hind limbs of the Common frog: "Reproduced above is one of my favorite drawings from what is one of my favorite books." He continues "What makes these drawings (and the book itself) even more interesting is that Cott (1900-1987) was not just a zoologist—he was a highly skilled scientific illustrator (these are his own pen-and-ink drawings), a wildlife photographer, and a prominent British camoufleur in World War II." Still in 2011, Behrens can write of Cott's way of thinking, citing his words as models of clear and accurate explanation of the mechanisms of camouflage: "As he so aptly explained it, disruptive patterns work 'by the optical destruction of what is present', while continuous patterns work 'by the optical construction of what is not present.'"
|
||||
|
||||
== Publication history ==
|
||||
Adaptive Coloration in Animals has been published as follows:
|
||||
@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "Adaptive Coloration in Animals"
|
||||
chunk: 5/5
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptive_Coloration_in_Animals"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:48:51.760603+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
1940, Methuen, Frome and London (printed by Butler and Tanner). Foreword by Julian Huxley
|
||||
1940, Oxford University Press, New York
|
||||
1941, Oxford University Press, New York
|
||||
1957, Methuen, London (reprinted with minor corrections)
|
||||
1966, Methuen, London (reprinted with minor corrections)
|
||||
|
||||
== See also ==
|
||||
Concealing-Coloration in the Animal Kingdom (G. H. Thayer, 1909)
|
||||
The Colours of Animals (E. B. Poulton, 1890)
|
||||
Animal Coloration (F. E. Beddard, 1892)
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
|
||||
=== Primary ===
|
||||
|
||||
=== Secondary ===
|
||||
|
||||
== Bibliography ==
|
||||
Behrens, Roy R. (2009). Camoupedia: A Compendium of Research on Art, Architecture and Camouflage. Bobolink Books. ISBN 978-0-9713244-6-6.
|
||||
Cott, Hugh B. (1940). Adaptive Coloration in Animals. Methuen.
|
||||
Forbes, Peter (2009). Dazzled and Deceived: Mimicry and Camouflage. Yale.
|
||||
Hubbs, Carl L. (1942). "Book Review:Adaptive Coloration in Animals: Hugh B. Cott". American Naturalist. 76 (764): 318–321. doi:10.1086/281046. Retrieved 2012-11-16.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
|
||||
Poulton, Edward B. (August 1940). "Book Review:Adaptive Coloration in Animals". Nature. 146 (3692): 144–145. doi:10.1038/146144a0. S2CID 4114423.
|
||||
Poulton, Edward B. (1890). The Colours of Animals. London: Int. Sci. Ser. LXVIII.
|
||||
|
||||
== External links ==
|
||||
Ohio State University: The Camouflage Project: Hugh Cott
|
||||
Smithsonian: A Painter of Angels Became the Father of Camouflage by Richard Meryman, April 1999 (Article contrasting Thayer and Cott)
|
||||
15
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_(book)-0.md
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15
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_(book)-0.md
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|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "Animal (book)"
|
||||
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|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_(book)"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
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|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:48:52.908291+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Animal is a non-fiction coffee table book edited by David Burnie, who was the main-editor, and several co-authors. The full title of the book is: Animal: The Definitive Visual Guide to The World's WildLife. The 624-page book was published by Dorling Kindersley in 2001. The book is printed in full gloss paper and has numerous, full-color pictures.
|
||||
The book is divided into several separate sections, each covering either a specific topic or a class of animals such as mammals or reptiles. The introduction deals with how animals are classified. It also touches on animal behaviour and life cycles. Later content delves into the habitats of animals and how they live in them, Mammals, Birds, Reptiles, Amphibians, Fish, and Invertebrates.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
36
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_Coloration_(book)-0.md
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36
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|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "Animal Coloration (book)"
|
||||
chunk: 1/4
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_Coloration_(book)"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
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|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:48:54.089679+00:00"
|
||||
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|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Animal Coloration, or in full Animal Coloration: An Account of the Principal Facts and Theories Relating to the Colours and Markings of Animals, is a book by the English zoologist Frank Evers Beddard, published by Swan Sonnenschein in 1892. It formed part of the ongoing debate amongst zoologists about the relevance of Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection to the observed appearance, structure, and behaviour of animals, and vice versa.
|
||||
Beddard states in the book that it contains little that is new, intending instead to give a clear overview of the subject. The main topics covered are camouflage, then called 'protective coloration'; mimicry; and sexual selection. Arguments for and against these aspects of animal coloration are intensively discussed in the book.
|
||||
The book was reviewed in 1892 by the major journals including The Auk, Nature, and Science. The scientist reviewers Joel Asaph Allen, Edward Bagnall Poulton and Robert Wilson Shufeldt took up different positions on the book and accordingly praised or criticized Beddard's work.
|
||||
Modern evaluation of the book is from a variety of perspectives, including the history of Darwinism, the history of the Thayer debate on the purpose of camouflage, the mechanisms of camouflage, sexual selection, and mimicry. Beddard is seen as having covered a wide swath of modern biology with both theory and experiment.
|
||||
|
||||
== Context ==
|
||||
|
||||
Beddard (1858–1925) was an English zoologist specializing in Annelid worms, but writing much more widely on topics including mammals and zoogeography. He also contributed articles on earthworms, leeches and nematode worms to the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica. His decision to write an accessible book on animal coloration falls into this pattern. Beddard wrote Animal Coloration at a time when scientists' confidence in Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection was at a low ebb. Beddard's book was part of an ongoing debate among zoologists about how far natural selection affected animals, and how far other forces – such as the direct action of light – might be the causes of observed features such as the colours of animals. Edward Bagnall Poulton's far more strongly pro-Darwinian book The Colours of Animals had appeared just two years earlier in 1890.
|
||||
|
||||
== Approach ==
|
||||
Beddard explains in his preface that the book grew from his 1890 Davis Lectures given for the public at London Zoo. The book "contains hardly anything novel, but professes to give some account of the principal phenomena of coloration exhibited by animals." He also notes that since Poulton's recent book "deal[s] with colour almost entirely from the point of view of natural selection, I have attempted to lay some stress upon other aspects of the question." Similarly, because Poulton treated insects in some detail, Beddard chooses to give more attention to other groups, though "it is impossible not to devote a good deal of space to insects". The examples are mainly from Beddard's own observation of "animals that may be usually seen in the Zoological Society's Gardens", though he also introduces and quotes the work of other scientists, including Henry Walter Bates and Alfred Russel Wallace.
|
||||
|
||||
=== Illustrations ===
|
||||
The book has four colour plates by Peter Smit, who both drew and prepared the chromolithographic plates. Plate 1 is stated in the List of Illustrations "To face page 108", but as bound in the first edition it is used as a Frontispiece, facing the title page.
|
||||
There are also 36 woodcuts (in black and white) in the text, though one of these, "Eolis and Dendronotus" is intentionally repeated as figures 10 and 19 to accompany the text in two places. The woodcuts vary from small line drawings on a simple white background (as in the diagrammatic figure 28 of Psyche helix, and figure 34 of the winter moth) to page-width illustrations like figure 2 which shows ermines in winter pelage, in a realistic depiction with a detailed snowy scene in the background. The woodcuts are certainly by a number of different artists; many are unsigned, but figures 5 and 26 are signed "E.A. Brockhaus X.A" lower right (X=cut, A=Artist), while figure 29 is signed "GM" lower left, and figures 35 and 36 are signed "ES" lower left. Figure 2 bears a monograph "FR", lower left, and figure 7, of the penguin Aptenodytes patagonica is stated to be "from Brehm" (Brehms Tierleben).
|
||||
|
||||
== Structure ==
|
||||
Animal Coloration has a simple structure of six chapters in its 288 pages.
|
||||
|
||||
1. Introductory
|
||||
Beddard distinguishes colour, when an animal has just one, from coloration, when there is some kind of pattern of two or more colours. He discusses the mechanisms of colour production, both structural coloration and pigments, and the reasons for coloration, including the red of haemoglobin used to carry oxygen. Non-adaptive coloration is considered, and a section argues that "the action of natural selection in producing colour changes must be strictly limited".
|
||||
2. Coloration affected by the environment
|
||||
In this chapter Beddard continues to explore the possible direct effect of the environment, i.e. with "no possible relation to natural selection". The effects of different foods, temperature and humidity are discussed. Beddard argues against Poulton's view that natural selection has removed the pigment from cave-dwelling animals, agreeing rather with Wallace that pigment is produced as a by-product. Beddard grants that the change to white of arctic animals in winter looks like natural selection, rather than a direct effect of the environment, but argues that some animals do not change, including the musk ox which he describes as "comparatively defenceless".
|
||||
3. Protective coloration
|
||||
|
||||
"Protection" is a shorthand in Beddard's vocabulary for camouflage necessitated by natural selection, whether of prey for defence against predators hunting by sight, or of predators concealing themselves for attack on watchful prey. He mentions that Wallace includes the green of tree-frequenting animals and the tawny of desert animals under "General Protective Resemblance", and mentions his own experiments which agree with Poulton's observation that lizards "do pass over and leave unnoticed protectively coloured caterpillars". However, Beddard continually tests the validity of this explanation:
|
||||
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tags: "science, encyclopedia"
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date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:48:54.089679+00:00"
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|
||||
Comparative Rarity of Green tree-frequenting Animals an Argument in favour of SelectionIt is not a little surprising to find how few green animals there are ... it is precisely because the sandy colour of desert animals and the transparency of pelagic organisms is so universal, that some general environmental cause appears to be necessary for the explanation of the facts; on the other hand, the picking and choosing among arboreal animals savours distinctly of natural selection.
|
||||
He observes that "Every naturalist traveller appears to have some instance to relate of how he was taken in by a protectively-coloured insect. These stories are told with a curiously exaggerated delight at the deception...", giving as example how Professor Drummond in his book Tropical Africa thought a mantid was a wisp of hay. He picks up on the casually mentioned fact that Drummond's African companion was not deceived, writing that we should not judge camouflage "from the human standpoint".
|
||||
On the other hand, Beddard writes that people who had only seen the giraffe, zebra, and jaguar in the zoo would think them "among the most conspicuously coloured of the Mammalia", but that seen "in their native countries" they are "most difficult to detect".
|
||||
The chapter ends with a discussion of animals that can change colour, including fish like the sole, the chameleon, the horned lizards and the tree frogs including the European species Hyla arborea. He cites Poulton's suggestion that the tree frog's camouflage may be both defensive (protecting from predators) and aggressive (facilitating the hunting of insects).
|
||||
4. Warning coloration
|
||||
|
||||
In this chapter Beddard discusses the warning coloration (aposematism) of animals, which he notes "have a precisely opposite tendency" to camouflage, "viz., to render their possessor conspicuous". He at once says that the explanation was "first devised by Mr. Wallace" for insects. The chapter therefore begins with the insects, often using English species as examples. He examines critically whether eye-like markings and other warnings actually work. He discusses experiments by Poulton on the elephant hawk-moth, where a sand lizard is only briefly startled, and his own at the London zoo using a range of predators and different insects. Beddard is only partially convinced, flirting with Dr. Eisig's theory that the pigments creating the colours of caterpillars are inherently distasteful, and hence that "the brilliant colours (i.e. the abundant secretion of pigment) have caused the inedibility of the species, rather than that the inedibility has necessitated the production of bright colours as an advertisement." So Beddard suggests that "the advent of bird-life proved a disastrous event for these animals, and compelled them to undergo various modifications", except when they were already by luck warning coloured and distasteful.
|
||||
5. Protective mimicry
|
||||
|
||||
This chapter discusses Batesian mimicry, also mentioning observations and opinions of Fritz Müller and Wallace. Beddard grants that Bates's theory is very strongly supported by the observations that Bates made in South America, especially on butterflies, though again he tests the evolutionary explanation in different cases. He cites Wallace's rules of mimicry, such as that the imitators are always the more defenceless, and always less numerous, than their models, as covering all the examples he has given. However, he then states various objections, including that "the Danaidae, themselves an uneatable race of butterflies and models for mimicry, resemble in South America the uneatable Heliconiidae". He points out that this does not meet any of Wallace's rules so it is "not a case of true mimicry", but is "supposed rather to be like that which is seen between various other unpalatable animals". Müllerian mimicry is not mentioned explicitly in the book, though Beddard does write that this example "tends to the advantage of the insects, for their enemies have to learn fewer colours and patterns, and thus are less likely to make mistakes, than if the lesson to be learnt were an excessively complicated one."
|
||||
By the end, Beddard concludes that "Nevertheless, cases of mimicry that do occur—particularly among Lepidoptera—are often so striking that no other explanation ... seems to account for the finishing touches, at least, of the resemblance". He remains sceptical of cases "which are to be appreciated only by insects", as he considers that insects might not have good enough vision for mimicry to work.
|
||||
6. Sexual coloration
|
||||
|
||||
The final chapter begins with examples of sexual dimorphism, such as "the antlers of the stag, the spurs of the cock... and the gorgeous plumes found in the males of the birds of paradise", with other examples chosen from across the animal kingdom. Darwin's theory of sexual selection is explained; Beddard then states the objection that female birds must be supposed to have "a highly-developed aesthetic sense" to choose between similar-looking males, and worse, that females of closely related species must have "immense[ly]" different tastes. He concludes, though, that the question cannot be answered by what we consider improbable, but requires "actual observation". He calls Poulton's arguments for sexual selection "very ingenious", but writes that Wallace's two different (non-selective) explanations "might both be accepted". He concludes that "it is quite possible that sexual selection may have played a subordinate part" in producing sexually dimorphic coloration.
|
||||
|
||||
== Reception ==
|
||||
|
||||
=== Contemporary ===
|
||||
38
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|
||||
|
||||
==== The Auk ====
|
||||
The American zoologist and ornithologist Joel Asaph Allen reviewed Animal Coloration in The Auk in 1893. Allen notes Beddard's remark that the book contains hardly anything novel, so that it is mainly a review of previous theories, but welcomes it as a review of the state of knowledge together with Beddard's critical commentary. Allen notes that Beddard could have gone further in criticising Weismann and Poulton on colour changes, but is "glad to see [that Beddard] is willing to grant that the influence of an animal's surroundings may exercise a direct influence upon its coloration without the intervention of the agency of 'natural selection.'"
|
||||
Allen praises Beddard's "commendable conservatism" in his discussion of camouflage, which he compares to the "credulous spirit" of other authors. Reviewing the chapter on warning coloration, Allen remarks that the great horned owl is known to prey on the skunk, showing that even such a disagreeably pungent animal can be subject to predation.
|
||||
On mimicry, Allen is critical of Bates's theory, arguing that edible mimics (such as flies) are often not protected by resembling distasteful models (such as wasps). Allen notes that Beddard deals with many special cases "as of .. spiders mimicking ants, etc." and finds the arguments against any selective advantage from Batesian mimicry, and so against natural selection, somewhat conclusive. Finally, reviewing the chapter on sexual selection, Allen writes (knowing that Wallace largely rejected sexual selection)
|
||||
|
||||
Mr. Beddard appears to wholly reject Mr. Darwin's much admired theory of 'Sexual Selection,' and quotes at length Mr. Wallace's reductio ad absurdum, which, as illustrating the view of an ultra natural selectionist, may well be here transcribed...
|
||||
Allen then makes some remarks, praising Beddard for the "fine vein of irony" that he uses of
|
||||
|
||||
alleged instances of sexual selection, as in respect to the mating and 'love dances' of spiders. But on the whole his criticisms are suggestive rather than aggressive." and concludes with "we are glad to welcome so healthy an antidote to this mild phase of scientific lunacy as Mr. Beddard's book on 'Animal Coloration.'
|
||||
|
||||
==== Nature ====
|
||||
|
||||
The zoologist Edward Bagnall Poulton, whose work is referred to throughout Beddard's book, reviewed Animal Coloration in Nature in 1892. Poulton is critical of Beddard and other authors, defending Darwin's theory of natural selection as "the most generally accepted explanation of organic evolution" and insisting that in "case after case" the Darwinian explanation turns out to be correct.
|
||||
|
||||
==== Science ====
|
||||
The white supremacist scientist Robert Wilson Shufeldt reviewed Animal Coloration in Science in 1892, praising it as a concise and useful summary of the subject. He admires Macmillan Publishers' handling of the book with its attractive wood-cuts and coloured lithographic plates. He is pleased to find many Americans in the index. He quotes Beddard's distinction between colour and coloration. He considers that the book brings readers fully up to date and even adds a few new ideas. He recommends the book to all working American naturalists.
|
||||
|
||||
==== Popular Science Monthly ====
|
||||
The anonymous reviewer in Popular Science Monthly in December 1892 writes that Beddard has "made a book interesting to both the zoologist and the general reader." On protective coloration, "he raises the question whether as a matter of fact animals are concealed from their foes by their protective resemblances, and shows that there is much evidence on the negative side", and further that such colours are sometimes produced "more simply and directly than by the operation of natural selection." On warning colours, the reviewer notes that Beddard gives "much weight" to Eisig's theory that "the usual bright pigments" in caterpillars (accidentally) cause inedibility, "instead of being produced to advertise it" and that Beddard cautions against assuming that "the sight or taste of animals were the same as that of man".
|
||||
|
||||
=== Modern ===
|
||||
Beddard's Animal Coloration is cited and discussed both by historians of science, and by practising scientists from a number of different fields. For example, the book illuminates the progress of Darwinism, camouflage research, sexual selection, mimicry and the debate on the purpose of animal coloration triggered by Abbott Thayer. These areas are described in turn below.
|
||||
|
||||
==== Darwinism ====
|
||||
The historian Robinson M. Yost explains that Darwinism went into eclipse during the 1890s. At that time, most zoologists felt that natural selection could not be the main cause of biological adaptation, and sought alternative explanations. As a result, many zoologists rejected both Batesian mimicry and Müllerian mimicry. Beddard, writes Yost, explained some problems in the theory of mimicry including that, given how many insect species there are, resemblances between species could arise by chance, and that mimicry was sometimes either useless or actually harmful. In Yost's view, Beddard wanted more evidence that natural selection really was responsible. Yost cites the staunch Darwinist Poulton's hostile review of 1892, which asserts the pre-eminence of Darwin's theory. But, writes Yost, Beddard was not alone in being wary of natural selection.
|
||||
|
||||
==== Camouflage ====
|
||||
The zoologist Martin Stevens and colleagues, in 2006, write that "almost all early discussions of camouflage were of the background-matching type", citing Wallace, Poulton, and Beddard, "until the pioneering work of Thayer (1909) and Cott (1940)", which added disruptive coloration. Cott however both makes use of Beddard as an authority (for the fact that the Hudson's Bay lemming turns white in winter whereas the Scandinavian lemming does not, and for his experiments on the effectiveness of prey coloration on predators) and is critical of him for the "extreme and illogical" opinion held by Beddard and other authors that keeping perfectly still is vital to camouflage. Cott pointed out on that subject that a cryptic colour scheme makes an animal harder to track and to recognize, even while it is moving.
|
||||
35
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||||
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|
||||
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|
||||
|
||||
==== Sexual selection ====
|
||||
The ornithologist Geoffrey Edward Hill, writing in 2002, notes that both Poulton and Beddard discuss sexual selection, and both agreed that "sexual selection by female choice is a likely explanation for the bright coloration of at least some species of birds". In contrast, Hill observes, Cott's detailed 1940 book does not mention it at all; like other zoologists including Wallace and Huxley, Cott preferred explanations "firmly rooted in natural selection".
|
||||
|
||||
==== Mimicry ====
|
||||
The American evolutionary zoologists Jane Van Zandt Brower and Lincoln Pierson Brower followed up the experiments described in the book (pp. 153–159). Beddard, they write, observed the results of feeding the drone fly Eristalis tenax, a harmless but intimidating Batesian mimic of honeybees, to various predators. A chameleon, a green lizard, and a sand skink eagerly consumed the flies, whereas a thrush and a great spotted woodpecker did not. However, they — like Cott before them, they note — were unable to replicate Beddard's claim that toads would eat insects of any kind, including stinging bees and wasps. They describe their own experimental investigations of bees and their drone fly mimics, like Beddard using toads as the predators, concluding that the Batesian mimicry of the honeybee by the drone fly was "highly effective".
|
||||
|
||||
==== The Thayer debate ====
|
||||
The historian of science Sharon Kingsland, in a 1978 paper on Abbott Thayer and the protective coloration debate, uses Beddard repeatedly to illuminate the different strands of the argument. She quotes Beddard (p. 94) on how difficult the question of animal coloration seemed in the 1890s. Thayer — an artist, not a scientist — had dived head-first into the debate. One of the protagonists, notes Kingsland, was Allen, who had reviewed Beddard's book, and who believed that the environment directly influenced animal coloration — Kingsland cites Beddard p. 54 here —, so natural selection seemed to him an unlikely factor, and he pointed out that blending inheritance would dilute the effect of selection. Furthermore, argues Kingsland, again citing Beddard (p. 148), another major protagonist, Alfred Russel Wallace, was emphasizing the problem of conspicuous markings, which could be selected for as warning coloration.
|
||||
Wallace went so far as to argue, notes Kingsland, that bright colours in sexual dimorphism "resulted from a surplus of vital energy", citing Beddard p. 263 ff. Thayer, on the other hand, had exactly one explanation for everything: natural selection for protective coloration, in particular camouflage by countershading, which radically departed from earlier explanations such as Allen's environmental influences (colours might be affected by light) or Beddard's suggestion that dolphins might have dark backs and light bellies as camouflage when seen from above and from below (Kingsland cites Beddard, p. 115).
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
|
||||
=== Primary ===
|
||||
These references indicate where in Beddard's book the quotations come from.
|
||||
|
||||
=== Secondary ===
|
||||
|
||||
== Bibliography ==
|
||||
|
||||
Beddard, Frank Evers (1892). Animal Coloration, An Account of the Principal Facts and Theories Relating to the Colours and Markings of Animals. Swan Sonnenschein, London.
|
||||
Cott, Hugh Bamford (1940). Adaptive Coloration in Animals. Methuen, London.
|
||||
Darwin, Charles (1874). The Descent of Man. Heinemann, London.
|
||||
Darwin, Charles (1859). On the Origin of Species. John Murray, London. Reprinted 1985, Penguin Classics, Harmondsworth.
|
||||
Poulton, Edward Bagnall, Sir (1890). The Colours of Animals. London : Kegan Paul, Trench & Trübner.
|
||||
Thayer, Abbott Handerson and Thayer, Gerald H. (1909). Concealing-Coloration in the Animal Kingdom. New York.
|
||||
27
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||||
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|
||||
title: "Animals Are Like That"
|
||||
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|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animals_Are_Like_That"
|
||||
category: "reference"
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||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:48:55.293246+00:00"
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||||
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|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Animals Are Like That! (1939) was Frank Buck's sixth book, which continued his stories of capturing exotic animals. Animals Are Like That! has entered the public domain in the United States and the full text is available online at HathiTrust.
|
||||
If you should find yourself with a monkey or ape on your hands and no knowledge of what to do with it, Buck told co-author Carol Weld, just treat it like a child. And the elephant, like a man in the tropics, needs a sheltered siesta in mid-afternoon because he is susceptible to sunstroke. Monkeys pick up human ways and copy them. But you should never, never trust a tiger, any more than you should trust a crocodile.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Critical reception ==
|
||||
"Buck describes the animals in their native haunts, the capture of some of them, their characteristics, and their reactions in captivity...filled with adventure and odd bits of animal lore." Booklist 36:170 Jan 1, 1940
|
||||
"The vast legion of Frank Buck's followers will find Animals Are Like That thoroughly
|
||||
enjoyable and instructive reading. When the author doesn't know the answer to some more intangible animal trait he frankly admits his deficiency; but this happens infrequently. Mr. Buck has selected a large number of excellent illustrations..."
|
||||
Springfield Republican p10 Nov 29, 1939
|
||||
"A fascinating study of animal traits." The Montreal Gazette - Dec 9, 1939
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== External links ==
|
||||
Animals Are Like That! full-text at HathiTrust
|
||||
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|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Awful_Splendour"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
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|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:37:33.721849+00:00"
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||||
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|
||||
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|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
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|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaverland"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:37:34.882290+00:00"
|
||||
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||||
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|
||||
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|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
27
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biologia_Centrali-Americana-0.md
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||||
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|
||||
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|
||||
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|
||||
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|
||||
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|
||||
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||||
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||||
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|
||||
|
||||
The Biologia Centrali-Americana is an encyclopedia of the natural history of Mexico and Central America, privately issued in 215 parts from 1879 to 1915 by the editors Frederick DuCane Godman and Osbert Salvin, of the British Museum (Natural History) in London. It was begun by Alfred Maudslay publishing his first long-form description of the Archaeology at Chichen Itza (London: R.H. Porter and Dulau, 1889–1902).
|
||||
This work is still fundamental for the study of Neotropical plants and animals, because it contains almost all that was known of the biodiversity of Mexico and Central America at the time of its publication. Leading scientists of the day were the authors of the volumes. The whole series has 63 volumes with 1677 lithograph plates (more than 900 of which are in color) depicting 18,587 subjects. In total, 50,263 species are treated, of which 19,263 are described as new. Archaeology was added to the already monumental project because of new discoveries in the region.
|
||||
Since the Biologia Centrali-Americana was published, several volumes have been reprinted, but on the whole the series is rare in libraries and mostly absent from Latin American research institutions. The original volumes were printed on acid paper and have suffered from handling of the now brittle pages.
|
||||
The Smithsonian Institution has digitized the encyclopedia for distribution via the internet. All the volumes are available at the Biodiversity Heritage Library.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Source ==
|
||||
Lyal, C.H.C. (2011). "The dating of the Biologia Centrali-Americana". Zoological Bibliography. 1 (2): 67–100.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== External links ==
|
||||
|
||||
Biologia Central-Americana. 1879. {{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help) Complete digitized edition.
|
||||
"Dates of Biologia Centrali-Americana" Archived 2021-06-02 at the Wayback Machine for land and freshwater molluscs.
|
||||
16
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---
|
||||
title: "Cat Sense"
|
||||
chunk: 1/1
|
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source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_Sense"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
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tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:48:59.985303+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Cat Sense is a 2013 non-fiction book written by John Bradshaw. It was published on August 15, 2013, and was chosen by The New York Times as one of its best-sellers in 2013.
|
||||
It was also publicly well received and praised for its humorist approach to its subject: cat psychology.
|
||||
Major newspapers and radios gave good reviews. NPR, for example, included it as an NPR Staff Pick on their "Guide to 2013's Great Reads."
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
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|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chasing_Kangaroos"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:37:55.742214+00:00"
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date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:49:01.154436+00:00"
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|
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---
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---
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||||
title: "Concealing-Coloration in the Animal Kingdom"
|
||||
chunk: 1/6
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concealing-Coloration_in_the_Animal_Kingdom"
|
||||
category: "reference"
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||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:49:03.554381+00:00"
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instance: "kb-cron"
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---
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||||
Concealing-Coloration in the Animal Kingdom: An Exposition of the Laws of Disguise Through Color and Pattern; Being a Summary of Abbott H. Thayer's Discoveries is a book published ostensibly by Gerald H. Thayer in 1909, and revised in 1918, but in fact a collaboration with and completion of his father Abbott Handerson Thayer's major work.
|
||||
The book, illustrated artistically by Abbott Thayer, sets out the controversial thesis that all animal coloration has the evolutionary purpose of camouflage. Thayer rejected Charles Darwin's theory of sexual selection, arguing in words and paintings that even such conspicuous animal features as the peacock's tail or the brilliant pink of flamingoes or roseate spoonbills were effective as camouflage in the right light.
|
||||
The book introduced the concepts of disruptive coloration to break up an object's outlines, of masquerade, as when a butterfly mimics a leaf, and especially of countershading, where an animal's tones make it appear flat by concealing its self-shadowing.
|
||||
The book was criticised by big game hunter and politician Theodore Roosevelt for its central assertion that every aspect of animal coloration is effective as camouflage. Roosevelt's detailed reply attacked the biased choice of examples to suit Abbott Thayer's thesis and the book's reliance on unsubstantiated claims in place of evidence. The book was more evenly criticised by zoologist and camouflage researcher Hugh Cott, who valued Thayer's work on countershading but regretted his overenthusiastic attempts to explain all animal coloration as camouflage. Thayer was mocked to a greater or lesser extent by other scientific reviewers.
|
||||
|
||||
== Overview ==
|
||||
|
||||
Abbott Thayer (1849–1921) was an American artist, known for his figure paintings, often of "virginal, spiritual beauty", which were sometimes, as in his most famous painting, Angel, modeled on his children. He had studied at an art school in Paris, but unlike James McNeill Whistler he returned to the United States. Along with seeking timeless beauty, Thayer also became obsessed with nature, which he felt contained the pure beauty that he was seeking to capture in his paintings.
|
||||
Thayer's close observation led him to notice what scientists such as Edward Bagnall Poulton were just beginning to describe. This was that many animals were "painted" the opposite way to how painters create the appearance of solidity in figures. A canvas is flat, and areas of uniform color painted on a canvas also appear flat. To make a body appear to have depth and solidity, the artist paints in shadows on the body itself. The top of an animal's back, facing the sky, remains bright, while it must become darker towards its underside. Thayer was excited to realize that by reversing such shading, nature could and did make animals appear flat. He was so passionate about this "concealing coloration" theory that he called it his "second child". Poulton had noticed countershading in certain caterpillars, but he had not realized that the phenomenon was widespread, and he championed Thayer's theory in a 1902 article in Nature.
|
||||
However, Thayer was not a scientist, and he lacked a scientist's inclination to attempt to test and disprove every aspect of a new theory. Instead, Thayer came to believe that the theory belonged to artists, with their trained perception: "The whole basis of picture making consists in contrasting against its background every object in the picture", he argued.
|
||||
The obsession led him to deny that animals could be colored for other reasons: for protection by mimicry, as the naturalist Henry Walter Bates had proposed, supported by many examples of butterflies from South America; through sexual selection, as Charles Darwin had argued, again supported by many observations. The unbalanced treatment of animal coloration in Concealing-Coloration in the Animal Kingdom encapsulates Thayer's partial understanding and his rejection of other theories.
|
||||
The same obsession led him, later, to attempt to persuade the military to adopt camouflage based on his ideas, traveling to London in 1915, and writing "passionate letters" to the Assistant Secretary to the US Navy, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, in 1917.
|
||||
|
||||
== Approach ==
|
||||
|
||||
=== Text ===
|
||||
Gerald Thayer describes the book as having two main purposes: to present Abbott Thayer's research to naturalists; and to make the subject available to a wider readership.
|
||||
The book's list of contents reveals Thayer's heavy reliance on bird examples, filling 16 of the 27 chapters. Other vertebrates occupy 5 chapters. Insects receive 3 chapters, of which two are dedicated to lepidoptera - one to caterpillars, one to adult butterflies and moths; the remaining one devotes 14 pages to all other insects, starting with orthoptera including the leaf-mimic grasshoppers.
|
||||
|
||||
=== Illustrations ===
|
||||
The book has 16 colored plates of paintings by Abbott Thayer and Richard S. Meryman, including the well known frontispiece "Peacock amid foliage", and the heavily criticised images of wood ducks, blue jays against snow, roseate spoonbills and flamingoes "at dawn or sunset, and the skies they picture". The last 4 colored plates are of caterpillars. Gerald Thayer claims that "The illustrations are of particular importance, inasmuch as they include what we believe to be the first scientific paintings ever published of animals lighted as they actually are in nature".
|
||||
There are 140 black and white figures, mainly photographs with a few diagrams and drawings. Half the photographs are of birds. The photographs are from various sources, "gleaned from periodicals, or secured by special advertising."
|
||||
|
||||
== Contents ==
|
||||
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|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "Concealing-Coloration in the Animal Kingdom"
|
||||
chunk: 2/6
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concealing-Coloration_in_the_Animal_Kingdom"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:49:03.554381+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Introduction by Abbott H. Thayer. An essay on the psychological and other basic principles of the subject.
|
||||
Outline of the book's scope. "The Law which underlies Protective Coloration"
|
||||
Definition of terms. Obliterative Shading
|
||||
First principles of the use of markings with obliterative shading
|
||||
Picture-patterns, with obliterative shading, on birds. American Woodcock, and Snipe
|
||||
Picture-patterns on obliteratively-shaded birds, continued. Terrestrial Goatsuckers
|
||||
Picture-patterns on counter-shaded birds. Forest Grouse, Owls, European Woodcock
|
||||
Picture-patterns on counter-shaded birds, continued. Grass-patterns, heather-patterns
|
||||
Picture-patterns on counter-shaded birds, continued. Scansorial (climbing) birds
|
||||
Picture-patterns on counter-shaded birds, continued. Shore-birds
|
||||
Picture-patterns on counter-shaded birds, continued. Reed-patterns, etc., of Bitterns
|
||||
Background-picturing on counter-shaded birds, continued. Marsh-birds. Wood Duck
|
||||
Background-picturing on counter-shaded birds, continued. Birds of the ocean
|
||||
Birds, etc. The inherent 'obliterative' power of markings. 'Ruptive' and 'Secant' patterns
|
||||
Birds, etc. Special functions of markings
|
||||
Birds. Masking of bill and feet for offensive purposes
|
||||
Birds, etc. The manifold obliterative power of iridescence
|
||||
Birds, etc. Appendages, and their part in 'obliteration'
|
||||
Birds: miscellany. "Mimicry" (vs 'obliteration')
|
||||
Birds, concluded
|
||||
Mammals
|
||||
Mammals, continued
|
||||
Mammals, concluded
|
||||
Fishes
|
||||
Reptiles and Amphibians
|
||||
Caterpillars
|
||||
A glance at Insects other than Lepidoptera
|
||||
Butterflies and Moths
|
||||
|
||||
== Outline ==
|
||||
|
||||
Chapter 1 sets out the "long-ignored laws" of "protective coloration", an act which "has waited for an artist" to perceive. Thayer explains the principle of countershading with a diagram, arguing that a naive view of being "colored like their surroundings" does not explain how animal camouflage works. He acknowledges the prior work of Edward Bagnall Poulton (The Colours of Animals, 1890) in identifying countershading in caterpillars, quoting some passages where Poulton describes how larvae and pupae can appear flat. Countershading is named as "the law which underlies protective coloration", rather than as one of several principles.
|
||||
Chapter 2 defines the book's terms, equating "mimicry" with "protective resemblance", so that it becomes a form of "protective or disguising coloration". Thayer distinguishes "concealing-colors" (mainly countershading for "invisibility") from the "other" branch of protective coloration, which includes most kinds of mimicry, for "deceptive visibility". The two branches are then named "obliterative coloration" and "mimicry". Mimicry is dismissed as playing "a very insignificant part" in the "higher orders", i.e. it is limited mainly to invertebrates. A fine photograph of a "white fowl, lacking counter-shading, against a flat white cloth" demonstrates that camouflage is more than color matching. Thayer then gives several examples of what he considers countershaded animals.
|
||||
Chapter 3 describes the combination of markings with countershading, with photographs of a model bird and of a woodcock, showing how in the correct position these are well camouflaged with "wonderful obliterative picture-patterns", but wrongly positioned or upside down (with a photograph of a dead woodcock) they are easily visible.
|
||||
Chapters 4 and 5 illustrate more "picture-patterns" in well camouflaged birds including Wilson's snipe and whip-poor-will (nighthawks and goatsuckers, Caprimulgidae). Thayer describes these as showing "obliteration, or merging with the background" but that their patterning is close to mimicry as they "perfectly" resemble objects such as "a stone or mossy log".
|
||||
Chapter 6 argues that some birds such as the ruffed grouse have patterns designed as camouflage against distant backgrounds, with a painting of a bird against a forest background as evidence. "The bird is in plain sight, but invisible". For the great horned owl, a piece of the wing is "super-imposed" on a photograph of a wood, "to show how closely the owl's patterns reproduce such a forest interior." The text describes the owl as having "a highly developed forest-vista pattern". Chapter 7 similarly argues for grass and heather patterns on "terrestrial" (as opposed to arboreal) birds. The disruptively patterned white-tailed ptarmigan is shown in "a very remarkable photograph" by Evan Lewis. Thayer attempts to classify the camouflage types, for example writing
|
||||
|
||||
The principal feature of the pattern made by grasses over ground is a more or less intricate lace-work of crisscrossing, light-colored, linear forms, some straight, some curled and twisted, relieving with varying intensity against dark.
|
||||
Chapter 8 continues the theme with "scansorial" or tree climbing birds. Chapter 9 claims that "obliterative shading, pure and simple, is the rule among the Shore Birds" such as sandpipers and curlew. Chapter 10 describes the "background-picturing" of bitterns, birds which live in reedbeds, where
|
||||
@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "Concealing-Coloration in the Animal Kingdom"
|
||||
chunk: 3/6
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concealing-Coloration_in_the_Animal_Kingdom"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:49:03.554381+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
The light stripes on the bill were repeated and continued by the light stripes on the sides of the head and neck, and together they imitated very closely the look of separate, bright reed-stems; while the dark stripes pictured reeds in shadow, or the shadowed interstices between the stems.
|
||||
Chapter 11 argues (in a way that was heavily criticised when the book appeared, see below) that water birds, some of them highly conspicuous like the jacana and notoriously the male wood duck, are colored for camouflage: "The beautifully contrasted black-and-white bars on the flanks of the Wood Duck (Aix sponsa) are ripple pictures, and as potent [as camouflage], in their place, as the most elaborate markings of land birds". Chapter 12 argues that the "pure white" of ocean birds such as gulls and terns equally functions as camouflage. Thayer admits that these often appear conspicuous, but argues that against varied backgrounds, white offers "the greatest average inconspicuousness against the ocean" (his italics) or against the bright sky when seen from below.
|
||||
Chapter 13 analyses "markings and patterns in detail, starting with a color plate that shows the effect of disruptive patterning, which Thayer calls "strong 'secant' and 'ruptive' patterns". Using a photograph of an oystercatcher at its nest by Cherry and Richard Kearton, Thayer argues that the boldly marked bird (mainly black above, white below, with red beak) is both countershaded and "ruptively" patterned. Chapter 14 discusses the barred markings of hawks and owls, with further fine plates of photographs by the Keartons of disruptively patterned waders and their cryptic chicks. The ringed plover is described as having "eye-masking and 'obliterative' shadow-and-hole-picturing pattern".
|
||||
Chapter 15 describes the leg feather patterns of hawks, asserting that these "pantaloons" mask these "dangerous talons" to facilitate attack, just as their beaks, like the beaks of wading birds, are masked paradoxically with "gaudy colors". Chapter 16 controversially claims that the iridescent colours of, for example, the speculum wing patch of the mallard and other ducks is "obliterative", the "brightly changeable plumage" serving to camouflage the wearer in varying conditions. Thayer asserts that such brightly colored species as the European kingfisher and the purple gallinule are camouflaged:
|
||||
|
||||
Iridescence should perhaps be considered second only to obliterative [counter]shading as a factor in the disguisement of birds; its universality attests its value.
|
||||
Chapter 17 argues that bird plumage has "many devices" to conceal the animals' outlines. Even the "enormously developed feather-appendages" of the birds of paradise are argued to provide camouflage in this way. Sexual display is mentioned but dismissed as not being the sole reason for the colours, outlines and patterns of the male birds. Chapter 18 briefly discusses mimicry, before returning to "the evident paramount importance of the obliterative function", this time of the "brilliant, flowerlike" heads of hummingbirds. The one case that Thayer admits is mimetic is the goatsucker of Trinidad, a plant mimic that perches "by day and night" on a tree stump or branch, where the purpose of the mimicry is crypsis. Chapter 19 concludes the description of bird plumage, claiming that birds from the tropical forests to the "snowy north", including woodpeckers and the blue jay are all "colored for inconspicuousness".
|
||||
Chapters 20, 21, and 22 discuss the "disguising-coloration" of mammals, including the whales which "are equipped with a full obliterative shading of surface-colors". The bats are admitted to have very little in the way of countershading, unlike all other families in the order. Thayer notes that a few species with strong defences such as hedgehogs, porcupines, echidnas, pangolins and "some armadillos" are exceptions, along with some beasts which "enjoy a like security by virtue of their gigantic bigness", including the elephants, rhinoceroses, and hippopotamuses. The domestic hare is shown to be strongly countershaded with a pair of photographs "from life", one sitting and one "laid on its back, outdoors, so that the obliterative shading is reversed". Chapter 21 asserts that zebras "must be extraordinarily inconspicuous" against vegetation, a claim derided by Theodore Roosevelt (see below). Chapter 22 addresses the problem of the "few [beasts] whose bold, clear patterns seem to defy that foremost obliterative law." These include the skunks, the African zoril (striped polecat) and the teledu (stink badger) of Java, which all have dark underparts and white upperparts. Thayer dismisses the aposematism of these species, instead asserting the effectiveness of their camouflage:
|
||||
|
||||
Skunks, teledus, and the rest, long believed by naturalists to be colored for warning conspicuousness (proclaimant of their foul defensive equipment), have, in fact, the universal obliterative coloration.
|
||||
@ -0,0 +1,30 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "Concealing-Coloration in the Animal Kingdom"
|
||||
chunk: 4/6
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concealing-Coloration_in_the_Animal_Kingdom"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:49:03.554381+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Several photographs using stuffed skins of skunks attempt to prove the point. The chapter goes on to claim that roseate spoonbills, flamingoes, and prongbuck are all obliteratively colored. The raccoon's head resembles "the end of a hollow stump or log", while its tail is said to be "distractive", the strong banding serving like an eyespot to divert the attention of a predator to the tail rather than the head while the animal dives down a hole. But Thayer is unable to resist arguing that when "quiet, their tail-bands act obliteratively".
|
||||
Chapter 23 looks at fish, admitting frankly that the authors "know next to nothing about fishes from the standpoint of systematic science", but saying that they have gathered a "trustworthy general estimate" of their "disguising coloration" from market stalls, museums and books. Many fish are countershaded. The bioluminescence of some deep sea fish and other animals is seen as a problem as it is not "obliterative"; the possibility of counterillumination camouflage is not considered.
|
||||
Chapter 24 considers the reptiles and amphibians. These are noted to be predominantly green, often with "ruptive" patterns. Plate 11 treats a "Copperhead snake on dead leaves", the caption explaining that "This is a bona-fide study of a Copperhead Snake among dead leaves—its normal situation." There is a full-page sheet of card, cut out in the shape of the snake lying on a bed of leaves. When this is folded back, a painting by Rockwell Kent and Abbott Thayer "(Also G.H. Thayer and E.B. Thayer)" is revealed, showing the snake's outline powerfully disrupted by its zigzag pattern among the light and shade of the leaf litter.
|
||||
|
||||
Chapter 24 mentions that some terrestrial salamanders "are rather brightly pied with black and whitish, or yellow", while other amphibians "are extremely gaudy—wearing much bright blue, green, purple and sometimes red." It suggests that some of these markings are "baits or targets", again to distract predators from striking at the head, while the salamander markings are left as a problem as the authors "know too little about the habits" of these species. It is admitted that "the disguising coloration of many of them is very obscure."
|
||||
The final chapters 25, 26 and 27 turn to the insects. Chapter 25 looks at caterpillars, with, as Poulton had earlier noted, convincing examples of countershading. Plate 13 shows caterpillars including the "larger-spotted beech-leaf-edge caterpillar" both in position "passing for a part of the leaf on which it is feeding", strongly cryptic and flattened like a slightly browning leaf, and inverted, when its countershading makes it appear conspicuously solid. Chapter 26 looks at other insects and spiders, noting the "famous leaf-mimicking Kallima inachus" butterfly of India, but again claiming that even conspicuous butterflies are in fact "obliterative". Eye-spots are mentioned, but instead of noting that these might be distractive, they are asserted to be "dazzling", appearing as holes, and thus functioning as disruptive camouflage.
|
||||
The text ends with a paragraph that asks if it is "any wonder that artists should feel keen delight in looking at the disguising-patterns worn by animals?" These are "triumphs of art", where the student can find "in epitome, painted and perfected by Nature herself", the typical color and pattern scheme of each kind of landscape.
|
||||
|
||||
Color and pattern, line and shading,—all are true beyond the power of man to imitate, or even fully to discern.
|
||||
An appendix provides extracts from a "very remarkable addition to our subject", Poulton's 1907 observations of color change in chameleons.
|
||||
|
||||
== Reception ==
|
||||
|
||||
=== Contemporary reviews ===
|
||||
|
||||
==== Theodore Roosevelt ====
|
||||
The Thayers' views were vigorously criticised in 1911 by Theodore Roosevelt, an experienced big game hunter and naturalist familiar with animal camouflage as well as a politician, in a lengthy article in the Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History.
|
||||
Roosevelt begins by writing that the Thayers expounded the "doctrine" of concealing coloration "in its extreme form", which he thought had been "pushed to such a fantastic extreme and to include such wild absurdities as to call for the application of common sense thereto." Then, "to show the sweeping claims made", Roosevelt quotes verbatim eight passages from the book, one after the other, 500 words in all, the last one being "'All patterns and colors whatsoever of all animals that ever prey or are preyed upon are under certain normal circumstances obliterative.'"
|
||||
|
||||
He then observes that the Thayers' claims, both in "pictures" and in writing, are not so much arguments as plain "misstatements of facts, or wild guesses put forward as facts." He puts these down to enthusiasm rather than dishonesty, and as an example critiques the picture (the book's frontispiece) of the peacock in a tree
|
||||
@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "Concealing-Coloration in the Animal Kingdom"
|
||||
chunk: 5/6
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concealing-Coloration_in_the_Animal_Kingdom"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:49:03.554381+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
with the blue sky showing through the leaves in just sufficient quantity here and there to warrant the author-artists explaining that the wonderful blue hues of the peacock's neck are obliterative because they make it fade into the sky.
|
||||
This, Roosevelt writes, would be an extremely rare sight in nature. Worse, the female (the peahen) would, he argues, be conspicuous in those conditions. The Thayers have chosen a blue sky to argue that the peacock is camouflaged; but then they choose a white sky to allow the prongbuck's white rump to fade into that background. This, Roosevelt argues, is so dishonest that an engineer who constructed a report in that way would at once be dismissed, and the directors of a corporation who "tried to float shares on the strength of such a report" would be liable to "prosecution for fraud".
|
||||
Roosevelt had recently returned from his African safari, having seen, admired and shot large numbers of animals. He was scornful of Thayer's theories, which he described as "phantasmagoria", and the writer as "a well meaning and ill-balanced enthusiast". Thayer's suggestion that the white markings on the body of the harnessed bush buck are meant to resemble "flecks of water shine" is dismissed as wild, with the observation from personal experience that bush buck spend little time in watery places, while the "situtunga or lechwe, which lack the spots" spend more. Roosevelt does not refrain from harshness: he describes the camouflaged flamingo theory as "probably the wildest" of "all the wild absurdities to which Mr. Thayer has committed himself".
|
||||
|
||||
==== The Auk ====
|
||||
|
||||
Thayer was also roundly criticised in 1911 by herpetologist Thomas Barbour and conservation pioneer John C. Phillips in The Auk, where they wrote that
|
||||
|
||||
Mr. Thayer, however, along with most other enthusiasts in a field with which they can be but partially familiar, has gone too far and claimed too much.
|
||||
Barbour and Phillips warmly welcome Thayer's work on countershading "which he has so excellently demonstrated"; they "protest gently" against his "slightly patronizing" treatment of the camouflage of birds like woodcock and grouse "which has been known and recognized since ornithology began"; and go on to the attack on his claims for the flamingo:
|
||||
|
||||
Flamingoes hardly need this carefully arranged protection that is of value but a few minutes each day, and to be sure we see the curious cloud arrangement depicted on but very few days of the year – if ever.
|
||||
They are equally critical of his roseate spoonbill, observing that the painting looks nothing like "actual skins of the species". As for the wood duck, they point out its [sexual] "dimorphism of plumage", and that the male spends the summer in eclipse plumage, while he is
|
||||
|
||||
most brilliant during the late autumn, winter, and early spring, when their surroundings are of a dead and monotonous color. Hence, if we attributed any protective importance to such color patterns, we should be inclined to consider this of distinct disadvantage."
|
||||
Barbour and Phillips note that Thayer "in his enthusiasm, has ignored or glossed over [sexual dimorphism] with an artistic haze." They also question whether every animal needs protection. "By skilful jugglings we are shown how anything and everything may be rendered inconspicuous," citing the skunk among other boldly black and white animals with both the skunk coloration and the "well-known skunk smell". They conclude by writing that they have "purposely omitted calling special attention to the strong features of the book" and that they have no axe to grind.
|
||||
|
||||
==== The Making of Species ====
|
||||
The English ornithologists Douglas Dewar and Frank Finn write in their 1909 book The Making of Species that Thayer "seems to be of opinion that all animals are cryptically or, as he calls it, concealingly or obliteratively coloured". They note that Edward Bagnall Poulton had written approvingly of Thayer, and that Thayer had asserted that almost all animals were countershaded. They agree that countershading exists, but to his suggestion that it is universal "we feel sorely tempted to poke fun at him", and promptly ask any reader who agrees with Thayer that every animal is countershaded to look at a flock of rooks at sunset. They admit that camouflage is in general advantageous, but point out that the different plumages of seasonally and sexually dimorphic birds cannot all be explained as camouflage, considering the conspicuous colours of the male birds:
|
||||
|
||||
Now, if it be a matter of life-and-death importance to a bird to be protectively coloured, we should expect the showily coloured cock birds to be far less numerous than the dull-plumaged hens... [but] cock birds ... appear to be as least as numerous as the hens. Nor can it be said that this is due to their more secretive habits.
|
||||
They counter the further argument that hens may be in more danger than cocks, through sitting on nests, by observing that in many dimorphic species, the showy cock shares the work of incubating the eggs.
|
||||
|
||||
=== Modern assessment ===
|
||||
|
||||
==== Hugh Cott ====
|
||||
|
||||
The zoologist and camouflage expert Hugh Cott, in his 1940 book Adaptive Coloration in Animals, writes that
|
||||
|
||||
The theory of concealing coloration has been brought to some discredit through the tendency of certain writers to be carried away from the facts by their own enthusiasm, and they have brought down storms of criticism which are sometimes misdirected against the theory itself... Thus we find Thayer straining the theory to a fantastic extreme in an endeavour to make it cover almost every type of coloration in the animal kingdom.
|
||||
Cott attacks Thayer's comprehensive assertion that "all patterns and colors whatsoever...are obliterative", and continues more specifically with a detailed rebuttal of both the text and Thayer's contrived paintings:
|
||||
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|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "Concealing-Coloration in the Animal Kingdom"
|
||||
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|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concealing-Coloration_in_the_Animal_Kingdom"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:49:03.554381+00:00"
|
||||
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|
||||
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|
||||
|
||||
Unfortunately certain of Thayer's explanations and illustrations misrepresent nature and are deceptive because they depend upon observations made under abnormal circumstances.
|
||||
Cott then gives the examples of the peacock in the woods with the blue sky behind the neck; the "flock of red Flamingoes matching a red sunset sky", and the roseate spoonbill "whose pink plumage matches a pink cloud scheme". He then lists the cases of the white flamingo, the skunk and the white rump of the prongbuck, quoting Roosevelt ("The raven's coloration is of course concealing if it is put into a coal scuttle"), notes "How unreasonable are extreme views like that adopted by Thayer", and admits that criticisms of "certain of Thayer's conclusions" are justified, before returning to the attack on those critics, robustly defending the "theory of protective and aggressive resemblance".
|
||||
More favourably, Cott explicitly recognises Thayer's work on countershading, though granting Edward Bagnall Poulton's partial anticipation with his work on the chrysalis of the purple emperor butterfly. Further, Cott quotes Thayer's description of countershading, and Cott's Figure 1, of countershaded fish, is captioned "Diagrams illustrating Thayer's principle of obliterative shading". Implicitly, also, Cott follows Thayer in his Figure 3 "Larva of Eyed Hawk-moth" in both "natural (e.g. 'up-side-down')" and "unnatural" positions; in his Figure 5 drawing of the disruptive effect of the stripes and bold markings of woodcock chicks (like Thayer's Figure 81); in his Plate 7, with (just like Thayer's Figure 7) a photograph of a white cock against a white background; in his Figure 18 and front cover drawings of a copperhead snake lying on a bed of leaves, with and without its disruptive pattern (like Thayer's Plate 11) and so on.
|
||||
|
||||
==== John Endler and Peter Forbes ====
|
||||
The evolutionary biologist John Endler, reviewing the topic of camouflage in Proceedings of the Royal Society B in 2006, cites Thayer's 1909 book three times: for disruption, with "conspicuous elements [which] distract the predator's attention and break up the body outline, making detection of the prey difficult"; for "masquerade, [where] the prey is detected as distinct from the visual background but not recognized as edible.., for example by resembling a leaf"; and for countershading, where "False gradients are common in animal colour patterns, leading to misleading appearance of shape, even when they do not disrupt the body outline". Thayer is by far the earliest source used by Endler; the only other early source he cites (for disruption) is Hugh Cott's 1940 Adaptive Coloration in Animals.
|
||||
The art and science writer Peter Forbes notes that Thayer became obsessed by the "flattening effect" of countershading, and that far from being a scientist, he was "an artist whose idealist fervour, edged by deep insecurity, led him to regard his findings less as discovery than as revelation." Describing Concealing-Coloration as a "magnum opus", Forbes writes that by 1909 "Thayer's prophetic intolerance was in full flood", that he was overcompensating for his need for approval of his artwork, and that he failed to see that acceptance of ideas in science does not depend on "the vehemence with which they are expressed". In Forbes's view, Thayer was battling for the rights of artists over scientists, citing Thayer ("it properly belongs to the realm of pictorial art") in evidence. Apart from Thayer's "bizarre" flamingos, Forbes calls Thayer's opposition to Batesian mimicry "extreme". For Forbes, "Reading Thayer's book today is a strange experience. He sets out with the idea that every single creature is perfectly camouflaged", and then "tries to bludgeon his readers" into agreeing. Forbes is critical of Thayer's rejection of warning coloration, quoting Thayer's daughter Gladys as writing "My father's special mission was tasting butterflies"; Thayer apparently wanted to prove that mimicry was the wrong explanation as both model and mimic tasted the same. Forbes observes that natural selection did not have to contend with human reactions to the taste of butterflies.
|
||||
|
||||
==== David Rothenberg ====
|
||||
The philosopher and jazz musician David Rothenberg, in his 2012 book Survival of the Beautiful on the relationship between aesthetics and evolution, argues that while the Thayers' book set out the principles of camouflage: "From observation of nature ... art contributed to the military needs of society", Thayer, following Charles Darwin, was "swept up in the idea that every animal had evolved to perfectly live in its surroundings", but was emotionally unable to accept the other "half" of Darwin's view of animal coloration:
|
||||
|
||||
Thayer was quite troubled by Darwin's whole notion of sexual selection to explain the evolution of taste and beauty... On the contrary, all animal patterning can be explained by the need to remain .. hidden.. Even what appears garish, including the tail of the peacock, is in fact a sophisticated form of camouflage that can dupe even such a great scientist as Charles Darwin.
|
||||
Rothenberg then discusses the Thayers' account of the wood duck, which Rothenberg calls "our most garishly colored duck". He explains that the Thayers believed they, "trained as artists", had seen what earlier observers had missed:
|
||||
|
||||
The black and white patches and stripes are 'ripple pictures depicting motion and reflections in the water', all ingeniously evolved to hide the bird not by inconspicuousness but by 'disruptive conspicuousness'.
|
||||
|
||||
==== Smithsonian American Art Museum ====
|
||||
The Smithsonian American Art Museum's website, describing the Thayers' book as "controversial", writes sceptically that
|
||||
|
||||
Even bright pink flamingoes would vanish against a similar colored sky at sunset or sunrise. No matter that at times their brilliant feathers were highly visible, their coloration would protect them from predators at crucial moments so that "the spectator seems to see right through the space occupied by an opaque animal." Not all readers were convinced.
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
|
||||
=== Primary ===
|
||||
|
||||
=== Secondary ===
|
||||
|
||||
== Bibliography ==
|
||||
Cott, Hugh. Adaptive Coloration in Animals. Oxford, London and New York, 1940.
|
||||
Dewar, Douglas; Finn, Frank. The making of species. John Lane The Bodley Head, London and New York, 1909.
|
||||
Forbes, Peter. Dazzled and Deceived: Mimicry and Camouflage. Yale, 2009. ISBN 0-300-12539-9
|
||||
Gephart, Emily. Hidden Talents: The Camouflage Paintings of Abbot Handerson Thayer. Cabinet Magazine. Issue 4, Animals, Fall 2001.
|
||||
Meryman, Richard. A Painter of Angels Became the Father of Camouflage Archived 2013-10-30 at the Wayback Machine. Smithsonian Magazine, April 1999.
|
||||
Poulton, Edward B.. The Colours of Animals. Kegan Paul, Trench & Trübner, London, 1890.
|
||||
Rothenberg, David. Survival of the Beautiful: Art, Science and Evolution. Bloomsbury, London, 2011.
|
||||
Thayer, Gerald H.; Thayer, Abbott H. Concealing Coloration in the Animal Kingdom: An Exposition of the Laws of Disguise Through Color and Pattern; Being a Summary of Abbott H. Thayer’s Disclosures. Macmillan, New York, 1909.
|
||||
|
||||
== External links ==
|
||||
Smithsonian American Art Museum: Blue Jays in Winter
|
||||
Ohio State University: The Camouflage Project: Abbott H. Thayer
|
||||
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De materia medica (Latin name for the Greek work Περὶ ὕλης ἰατρικῆς, Peri hulēs iatrikēs, both meaning "On Medical Material") is a pharmacopoeia of medicinal plants and the medicines that can be obtained from them. The five-volume work was written between 50 and 70 CE by Pedanius Dioscorides, a Greek physician in the Roman army. It was widely read for more than 1,500 years until supplanted by revised herbals in the Renaissance, making it one of the longest-lasting of all natural history and pharmacology books.
|
||||
The work describes many drugs known to be effective, including aconite, aloes, colocynth, colchicum, henbane, opium and squill. In total, about 600 plants are covered, along with some animals and mineral substances, and around 1000 medicines made from them.
|
||||
De materia medica was circulated as illustrated manuscripts, copied by hand, in Greek, Latin, and Arabic throughout the medieval period. From the 16th century onwards, Dioscorides' text was translated into Italian, German, Spanish, French, and into English in 1655. It served as the foundation for herbals in these languages by figures such as Leonhart Fuchs, Valerius Cordus, Lobelius, Rembert Dodoens, Carolus Clusius, John Gerard, and William Turner. Over time, these herbals incorporated increasing numbers of direct observations, gradually supplementing and eventually supplanting the classical text.
|
||||
Several manuscripts and early printed versions of De materia medica survive, including the illustrated Vienna Dioscurides manuscript written in the original Greek in 6th-century Constantinople; it was used there by the Byzantines as a hospital text for just over a thousand years. Sir Arthur Hill saw a monk on Mount Athos still using a copy of Dioscorides to identify plants in 1934.
|
||||
|
||||
== Book ==
|
||||
|
||||
Between 50 and 70 AD, a Greek physician in the Roman army, Dioscorides, wrote a five-volume book in his native Greek, Περὶ ὕλης ἰατρικῆς (Peri hules iatrikēs, "On Medical Material"), known more widely in Western Europe by its Latin title De materia medica. He had studied pharmacology at Tarsus in Roman Anatolia (now Turkey). The book became the principal reference work on pharmacology across Europe and the Middle East for over 1,500 years, and was thus the precursor of all modern pharmacopoeias.
|
||||
In contrast to many classical authors, De materia medica was not "rediscovered" in the Renaissance, because it never left circulation; indeed, Dioscorides' text eclipsed the Hippocratic Corpus. In the medieval period, De materia medica was circulated in Latin, Greek, and Arabic. In the Renaissance from 1478 onwards, it was printed in Italian, German, Spanish, and French as well. In 1655, John Goodyer made an English translation from a printed version, probably not corrected from the Greek.
|
||||
While being reproduced in manuscript form through the centuries, the text was often supplemented with commentary and minor additions from Arabic and Indian sources. Several illustrated manuscripts of De materia medica survive. The most famous is the lavishly illustrated Vienna Dioscurides (the Juliana Anicia Codex), written in the original Greek in Byzantine Constantinople in 512/513 AD; its illustrations are sufficiently accurate to permit identification, something not possible with later medieval drawings of plants; some of them may be copied from a lost volume owned by Juliana Anicia's great-grandfather, Theodosius II, in the early 5th century. The Naples Dioscurides and Morgan Dioscurides are somewhat later Byzantine manuscripts in Greek, while other Greek manuscripts survive today in the monasteries of Mount Athos. Densely-illustrated Arabic copies survive from the 12th and 13th centuries. The result is a complex set of relationships between manuscripts, involving translation, copying errors, additions of text and illustrations, deletions, reworkings, and a combination of copying from one manuscript and correction from another.
|
||||
De materia medica is the prime historical source of information about the medicines used by the Greeks, Romans, and other cultures of antiquity. The work also records the Dacian names for some plants, which otherwise would have been lost. The work presents about 600 medicinal plants in all, along with some animals and mineral substances, and around 1,000 medicines made from these sources. Botanists have not always found Dioscorides' plants easy to identify from his short descriptions, partly because he had naturally described plants and animals from southeastern Europe, whereas by the 16th century his book was in use all over Europe and across the Islamic world. This meant that people attempted to force a match between the plants they knew and those described by Dioscorides, leading to what could be catastrophic results.
|
||||
|
||||
== Approach ==
|
||||
Each entry gives a substantial amount of detail on the plant or substance in question, concentrating on medicinal uses but giving such mention of other uses (such as culinary) and help with recognition as considered necessary. For example, on the "Mekon Agrios and Mekon Emeros", the opium poppy and related species, Dioscorides states that the seed of one is made into bread: it has "a somewhat long little head and white seed", while another "has a head bending down" and a third is "more wild, more medicinal and longer than these, with a head somewhat long—and they are all cooling." After this brief description, he moves at once into pharmacology, saying that they cause sleep; other uses are to treat inflammation and erysipela, and if boiled with honey to make a cough mixture. The account thus combines recognition, pharmacological effect, and guidance on drug preparation. Its effects are summarized, accompanied by a caution:
|
||||
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||||
A little of it (taken with as much as a grain of ervum) is a pain-easer, a sleep-causer, and a digester, helping coughs and abdominal cavity afflictions. Taken as a drink too often it hurts (making men lethargic) and it kills. It is helpful for aches, sprinkled on with rosaceum; and for pain in the ears dropped in them with oil of almonds, saffron, and myrrh. For inflammation of the eyes it is used with a roasted egg yolk and saffron, and for erysipela and wounds with vinegar; but for gout with women's milk and saffron. Put up with the finger as a suppository it causes sleep.
|
||||
Dioscorides then describes how to tell a good from a counterfeit preparation. He mentions the recommendations of other physicians, Diagoras (according to Eristratus), Andreas, and Mnesidemus, only to dismiss them as false and not borne out by experience. He ends with a description of how the liquid is gathered from poppy plants, and lists names used for it: chamaesyce, mecon rhoeas, oxytonon; papaver to the Romans, and wanti to the Egyptians.
|
||||
As late as in the Tudor and Stuart periods in Britain, herbals often still classified plants in the same way as Dioscorides and other classical authors, not by their structure or apparent relatedness but by how they smelt and tasted, whether they were edible, and what medicinal uses they had. Only when European botanists like Matthias de l'Obel, Andrea Cesalpino and Augustus Quirinus Rivinus (Bachmann) had done their best to match plants they knew to those listed in Dioscorides did they go further and create new classification systems based on similarity of parts, whether leaves, fruits, or flowers.
|
||||
|
||||
== Contents ==
|
||||
The book is divided into five volumes. Dioscorides organized the substances by certain similarities, such as their being aromatic, or vines; these divisions do not correspond to any modern classification. In David Sutton's view the grouping is by the type of effect on the human body.
|
||||
|
||||
=== Volume I: Aromatics ===
|
||||
Volume I covers aromatic oils, the plants that provide them, and ointments made from them. They include what are probably cardamom, nard, valerian, cassia or senna, cinnamon, balm of Gilead, hops, mastic, turpentine, pine resin, bitumen, heather, quince, apple, peach, apricot, lemon, pear, medlar, plum and many others.
|
||||
|
||||
=== Volume II: Animals to herbs ===
|
||||
Volume II covers an assortment of topics: animals including sea creatures such as sea urchin, seahorse, whelk, mussel, crab, scorpion, electric ray, viper, cuttlefish and many others; dairy produce; cereals; vegetables such as sea kale, beetroot, asparagus; and sharp herbs such as garlic, leek, onion, caper and mustard.
|
||||
|
||||
=== Volume III: Roots, seeds and herbs ===
|
||||
Volume III covers roots, seeds and herbs. These include plants that may be rhubarb, gentian, liquorice, caraway, cumin, parsley, lovage, fennel and many others.
|
||||
|
||||
=== Volume IV: Roots and herbs, continued ===
|
||||
Volume IV describes further roots and herbs not covered in Volume III. These include herbs that may be betony, Solomon's seal, clematis, horsetail, daffodil and many others.
|
||||
|
||||
=== Volume V: Vines, wines and minerals ===
|
||||
Volume V covers the grapevine, wine made from it, grapes and raisins; but also strong medicinal potions made by boiling many other plants including mandrake, hellebore, and various metal compounds, such as what may be zinc oxide, verdigris and iron oxide.
|
||||
|
||||
== Influence and effectiveness ==
|
||||
|
||||
=== In Europe ===
|
||||
|
||||
Writing in The Great Naturalists, the historian of science David Sutton describes De materia medica as "one of the most enduring works of natural history ever written" and that "it formed the basis for Western knowledge of medicines for the next 1,500 years."
|
||||
The historian of science Marie Boas writes that herbalists depended entirely on Dioscorides and Theophrastus until the 16th century, when they finally realized they could work on their own. She notes also that herbals by different authors, such as Leonhart Fuchs, Valerius Cordus, Lobelius, Rembert Dodoens, Carolus Clusius, John Gerard and William Turner, were dominated by Dioscorides, his influence only gradually weakening as the 16th-century herbalists "learned to add and substitute their own observations".
|
||||
Early science and medicine historian Paula Findlen, writing in the Cambridge History of Science: Early Modern Science, calls De materia medica "one of the most successful and enduring herbals of antiquity, [which] emphasized the importance of understanding the natural world in light of its medicinal efficiency", in contrast to Pliny's Natural History (which emphasized the wonders of nature) or the natural history studies of Aristotle and Theophrastus (which emphasized the causes of natural phenomena). Medicine historian Vivian Nutton, in Ancient Medicine, writes that Dioscorides's "five books in Greek On Materia medica attained canonical status in Late Antiquity." Science historian Brian Ogilvie calls Dioscorides "the greatest ancient herbalist", and De materia medica "the summa of ancient descriptive botany", observing that its success was such that few other books in his domain have survived from classical times. Further, his approach matched the Renaissance liking for detailed description, unlike the philosophical search for essential nature (as in Theophrastus's Historia Plantarum). A critical moment was the decision by Niccolò Leoniceno and others to use Dioscorides "as the model of the careful naturalist—and his book De materia medica as the model for natural history."
|
||||
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||||
The Dioscorides translator and editor Tess Anne Osbaldeston notes that "For almost two millennia Dioscorides was regarded as the ultimate authority on plants and medicine", and that he "achieved overwhelming commendation and approval because his writings addressed the many ills of mankind most usefully." To illustrate this, she states that "Dioscorides describes many valuable drugs including aconite, aloes, bitter apple, colchicum, henbane, and squill". The work mentions the painkillers willow (leading ultimately to aspirin, she writes), autumn crocus and opium, which however is also narcotic. Many other substances that Dioscorides describes remain in modern pharmacopoeias as "minor drugs, diluents, flavouring agents, and emollients ... [such as] ammoniacum, anise, cardamoms, catechu, cinnamon, colocynth, coriander, crocus, dill, fennel, galbanum, gentian, hemlock, hyoscyamus, lavender, linseed, mastic, male fern, marjoram, marshmallow, mezereon, mustard, myrrh, orris (iris), oak galls, olive oil, pennyroyal, pepper, peppermint, poppy, psyllium, rhubarb, rosemary, rue, saffron, sesame, squirting cucumber (elaterium), starch, stavesacre (delphinium), storax, stramonium, sugar, terebinth, thyme, white hellebore, white horehound, and couch grass—the last still used as a demulcent diuretic." She notes that medicines such as wormwood, juniper, ginger, and calamine also remain in use, while "Chinese and Indian physicians continue to use liquorice". She observes that the many drugs listed to reduce the spleen may be explained by the frequency of malaria in his time. Dioscorides lists drugs for women to cause abortion and to treat urinary tract infection; palliatives for toothache, such as colocynth, and others for intestinal pains; and treatments for skin and eye diseases. As well as these useful substances, she observes that "A few superstitious practices are recorded in De materia medica," such as using Echium as an amulet to ward off snakes, or Polemonia (Jacob's ladder) for scorpion stings.
|
||||
In the view of the historian Paula De Vos, De materia medica formed the core of the European pharmacopoeia until the end of the 19th century, suggesting that "the timelessness of Dioscorides' work resulted from an empirical tradition based on trial and error; that it worked for generation after generation despite social and cultural changes and changes in medical theory".
|
||||
At Mount Athos in northern Greece Dioscorides's text was still in use in its original Greek into the 20th century, as observed in 1934 by Sir Arthur Hill, Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew:
|
||||
|
||||
At Karyes there is an official Botanist Monk ... he was a remarkable old Monk with an extensive knowledge of plants and their properties. Though fully gowned in a long black cassock he traveled very quickly, usually on foot, and sometimes on a mule, carrying his 'Flora' with him in a large, black, bulky bag. Such a bag was necessary since his 'Flora' was nothing less than four manuscript folio volumes of Dioscorides, which apparently he himself had copied out. This Flora he invariably used for determining any plant which he could not name at sight, and he could find his way in his books and identify his plants—to his own satisfaction—with remarkable rapidity.
|
||||
|
||||
=== Arabic medicine ===
|
||||
|
||||
Along with his fellow physicians of Ancient Rome, Aulus Cornelius Celsus, Galen, Hippocrates and Soranus of Ephesus, Dioscorides had a major and long-lasting effect on Arabic medicine as well as medical practice across Europe. De materia medica was one of the first scientific works to be translated from Greek into Arabic (Arabic:Hayūlā ʿilāj al-ṭibb). It was translated first into Syriac and then into Arabic in 9th century Baghdad. The translators were most often Syriac Christians, such as Hunayn ibn Ishaq, and their work is known to have been sponsored by local rulers, such as the Artuqids.
|
||||
|
||||
==== Manuscripts ====
|
||||
|
||||
===== Leiden Dioscurides (1083) =====
|
||||
Manuscript (Or. 289), dated 1083, an illustrated Arabic translation of Dioscurides' De Materia medica. The work was originally translated from Greek into Arabic via Syriac by Hunayn ibn Ishaq (810–873) with the collaboration of Stephanus b. Bāsīl between 847–861. This translation was slightly revised by Ḥusayn b. Ibrāhīm al-Nātilī in 990–991. The current copy is based on an exemplar in the hand of al-Nātilī. The work was offered to the amīr of Samarqand, Abū ʿAlī al-Simǧūrī. Acquired by Levinus Warner (1619–1665) and bequeathed to Leiden University Library on his death.
|
||||
A digitized version is available via Leiden's Digital Collections.
|
||||
|
||||
===== 1224 manuscript =====
|
||||
One De materia medica manuscript is dated to 1224, but its provenance is uncertain. It is generally cautiously attributed to "Iraq or Northern Jazira, possibly Baghdad". Its folios have been dispersed among multiple institutions and collectors.
|
||||
|
||||
==== Istanbul, Topkapı Palace, Ahmet II 2127 (1229) ====
|
||||
This copy was created by Abd Al-Jabbar ibn Ali in 1229.
|
||||
|
||||
== See also ==
|
||||
Jean Ruel
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
|
||||
== Cited sources ==
|
||||
|
||||
== Further reading ==
|
||||
|
||||
=== Manuscripts and editions ===
|
||||
Note: Editions may vary by both text and numbering of chapters
|
||||
|
||||
== External links ==
|
||||
|
||||
Media related to Manuscripts of Dioscurides, De materia medica at Wikimedia Commons
|
||||
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|
||||
De natura rerum (or Liber de natura rerum) is a thirteenth century work of natural history, written by Flemish Roman Catholic friar and medieval writer. Thomas of Cantimpré. De natura rerum may be Thomas' most significant work, as it's both the one he dedicated more time to (almost twenty years of work, between 1225 and 1244) and the one that had the largest posthumous fortune, as witnessed by the large number of codices that contain this work, but also by the many authors that took inspiration from it.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Contents ==
|
||||
De natura rerum is an encyclopedic work – thus belonging to the encyclopedic genre, largely widespread on the Latin Late Middle Ages – that wants to represent a complete and exhaustive compendium of the previous scientific history, specifically for clergy.
|
||||
A first 'stable' redaction of the work is dated between 1237 and 1240 (as to say, in the period when Thomas is located at the Dominica studium in Paris) and it's structured into nineteen books. Later, anyway, the author himself deeply revises the text, adding many interpolations to it: this second redaction of De natura rerum, dated 1244, is organized into twenty book, of different topics:
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
=== Outline ===
|
||||
Book I: on human body's anatomy;
|
||||
Book II: on the soul;
|
||||
Book III: on the "monstrous men" of the East;
|
||||
Book IV: on quadrupeds animals;
|
||||
Book V: on birds;
|
||||
Book VI: on sea monsters;
|
||||
Book VII: on sea creatures;
|
||||
Book VIII: on snakes;
|
||||
Book IX: on worms;
|
||||
Book X: on common trees;
|
||||
Book XI: on aromatic and medicinal trees;
|
||||
Book XII: on aromatica and medicinal's trees properties;
|
||||
Book XIII: on sources;
|
||||
Book XIV: on precious stones;
|
||||
Book XV: on the seven metals;
|
||||
Book XVI: on the seven celestial regions;
|
||||
Book XVII: on the sphere and the seven planets;
|
||||
Book XVIII: on air motions;
|
||||
Book XIX: on the four elements;
|
||||
Book XX: on eclipses and sidereal motions.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Sources ==
|
||||
Thomas of Cantimpré's De natura rerum depends on several sources, that include in primis the great philosopher Aristotle (a fundamental authority in the Middle Ages, particularly starting from XIII century) and two Latin authors, Pliny the Elder and Gaius Julius Solinus, respectively of the I and the III century. Other names shall be added to these three, for instance St. Ambrose and – coming chronologically closer to Thomas – also the one of Jacques de Vitry. Furthermore, the twentieth book (added in a second moment, as previously said), majorly comes from William of Conches's De philosophia mundi. In this work, Thomas himself also indicates an anonymous 'experimenter'. Apart from the few names easily identifiable, it's certain that Thomas of Cantimpré used a large number of different sources, that are not always easy to recognize.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Reception and textual tradition ==
|
||||
As previously mentioned, the De natura rerum had a considerable fortune, especially during the Renaissance, when the text was frequently plagiarized, mostly for catalogs of animals, but also for catalogs of stones and monsters. Several vernacularizations and also a Dutch translation (Der Naturen Bloeme by Jacob van Maerlant) were realized. Furthermore, Conrad of Megenberg's Buch der Natur (1475) was also inspired by Thomas' De natura rerum.
|
||||
Regarding the textual tradition, De natura rerum had a widespread diffusion, confirmed by the consistent number of codes that contain the text. However, to be more specific, between the hundred of manuscripts of the work, only a few (just two manuscripts) contain the whole work in its integrity, while the largest part of them has a shortened version: thus, the shorter the version of the De natura rerum, the larger diffusion it had.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== External links ==
|
||||
De natura rerum manuscript (1250), scanned and available at archive.org
|
||||
The Thomas Project, a Latin-to-English translation project run by Kalamazoo College
|
||||
19
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Der_Philosophische_Arzt-0.md
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19
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Der_Philosophische_Arzt-0.md
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|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "Der Philosophische Arzt"
|
||||
chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Der_Philosophische_Arzt"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:48:27.930578+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Der Philosophische Arzt is a medical publication published in the late 18th century by Melchior Adam Weikard, a prominent German physician and philosopher to the Russian Empress, Catherine II.
|
||||
The first edition of Der Philosophische Arzt was first published in 1775, but was written perhaps as early as 1770. It was initially published anonymously as was the second edition, though it was widely believed that Weikard was the author. The reason for doing so is unclear but was probably due to anticipated critical reactions to its publication from several sources. A principal one was the Prince-Bishop of Fulda, to whom Weikard served as physician and in a Catholic region where Weikard worked as a spa doctor being supported by the state. According to Otto Schmitt's biography of Weikard published in 1970, the reaction of organized religion to the publication of his textbook was widespread condemnation. This was likely due to his attacks in the textbook on various religious practices for curing medical illnesses. According to Schmidt, the attacks against Weikard continued throughout his career but his patron, Prince Heinrich von Bibra, maintained an amicable relationship with him and supported him financially late in his career despite many people who criticized the Prince for doing so.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== External links ==
|
||||
Google Books: Melchior Adam Weikard (1799). Der philosophische Arzt. In der Andreaeischen Buchhandlung. Retrieved 19 June 2013.
|
||||
@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "Des singularités de la nature"
|
||||
chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Des_singularités_de_la_nature"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:49:08.322001+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Des singularités de la nature is a book on natural history by the French philosopher and author Voltaire, first published in 1768. In it, he defends Preformationism, the idea that organisms develop from tiny versions of themselves. He defends the idea of a supreme being, and the idea that many features of the natural world have been made to benefit people, including noses for smelling and mountains for forming the landscape.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Further reading ==
|
||||
Marguerite Carozzi (1985) "Voltaire's geological observations in Les singularités de la nature" in Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century, volume 215. Oxford; the Voltaire Foundation
|
||||
Porter, Roy (5 January 2009). "Review: Enlightenment Marguerite Carozzi, Voltaire's attitude toward geology. Geneva: Société de Physique et d'Histoire Naturelle, 1983. Pp. 146. SFRp 28". The British Journal for the History of Science. 17 (1): 116. doi:10.1017/S0007087400020732.
|
||||
21
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinosaurs_of_Tendaguru-0.md
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21
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinosaurs_of_Tendaguru-0.md
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@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "Dinosaurs of Tendaguru"
|
||||
chunk: 1/2
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinosaurs_of_Tendaguru"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:49:10.581550+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Dinosaurs of Tendaguru (original title in Swahili: Dinosaria wa Tendaguru) is a Tanzanian booklet for young readers on natural history, focussing on the discovery and subsequent excavations of dinosaur fossils at Tendaguru hill in Lindi Region of South Eastern Tanzania between 1906 and 1913.
|
||||
It was written in the country’s national language Swahili by Tanzanian authors Cassian Magori and Charles Saanane, with illustrations by the German graphic artist Thomas Thiemeyer. The booklet was published in 1998 with the support of the Goethe-Institut in Dar es Salaam, the local branch of the German cultural institute, by E&D Vision Publishing, Tanzania.
|
||||
|
||||
== Contents ==
|
||||
Through its illustrations and a partially fictional story, the book tells the story of dinosaurs that lived approximately 150 million years ago in East Africa. Their skeletons were excavated between 1906 and 1913 in the former colony of German East Africa and until today represent the most important excavations of dinosaur fossils found in Africa. As the booklet is directed towards young readers in Tanzania, the authors invented a partially new narrative to set the story of the discovery, the subsequent excavations, and the scientific knowledge about natural history and the life of dinosaurs into a contemporary Tanzanian perspective. For the first time, this book presented thorough information about the excavations and the reconstructed skeletons of the dinosaurs that are exhibited in the Museum of Natural History in Berlin, Germany, to Tanzanian readers in their own language.
|
||||
During several years, and under supervision of German natural scientists, 230 tons of excavation material containing fossil bones and other remnants of life 150 million years ago were packed into wooden boxes by African workers and carried to the nearby port of Lindi. From the excavation site at the Tendaguru Formation, they were shipped to Hamburg and, finally, to Berlin. Subsequently, scientists at the museum in Berlin reconstructed several skeletons of different dinosaur species, making the fossils of the Tendaguru formation one of the world’s most important collections for ongoing research. The exhibition’s highlight is an almost 14-metre-high skeleton of the species Giraffatitan, the largest dinosaur skeleton on display in the world.
|
||||
Along with presenting scientific knowledge about the existence and environment of the dinosaurs, the presumed reasons for their extinction, and their classification into different species, the story of their discovery is here presented in a different way than in the historical German sources. Whereas the German excavation reports claim that the fossils were first found by a German mining engineer who was surveying the region of Tendaguru, the Tanzanian book attributes this discovery to a local farmer, a wise old man called Mzee Buheti, who by means of magical herbs supplied by his wife Mama Msomoe, is able to travel through time and space guided by a spirit. On one of his travels back millions of years, he comes across huge animals in the region of the Tendaguru hills. Upon his return through the millennia, he witnesses environmental changes that eventually lead to the extinction of the dinosaurs. By means of a time line reaching from the beginning of our universe to the present and showing pictures of different species, the reader is presented with short scientific information about the evolution of the dinosaurs and other species. By choosing the name of Buheti for their protagonist the authors referred to the historical Boheti bin Amrani who was the local "chief supervisor" (Oberaufseher) of more than 100 African workers involved in the excavations When in 1906, the German engineer Bernhard Sattler is surveying the region, it is Mzee Buheti who shows him the place where the fossils were found, thus prompting the excavations and their scientific exploration.
|
||||
In order to present an adequate visual idea of the dinosaurs and their environment, Thomas Thiemeyer, a German illustrator specializing in this subject, created colour plates for both the presumed living conditions and the extinction of dinosaurs, and for the fictitious story of their discovery, told from a contemporary Tanzanian perspective. The text in Swahili was jointly written by the palaeontologist Charles Sanaane and the natural historian Cassian Magori of the University of Dar es Salaam, and edited for young readers by literary writer Bernard Mapalala.
|
||||
|
||||
== Aims of the book ==
|
||||
As scientific research and presentations for the general public of these excavations had usually been published in German or English, very few Tanzanians knew about the existence and history of the fossils from Tendaguru before this book was published. Although the international discussion and demands for cultural cooperation and restitution of African cultural heritage from museums in Europe have become more prominent especially since the 2010s, Tanzania does not possess any biological specimens from Tendaguru, sufficient personal resources nor infrastructure to present dinosaur fossils in an adequate way. In order to make this important historical information accessible to a general local audience, the Goethe-Institut in Dar es Salaam suggested the story of the Tendaguru dinosaurs to the publishers of the book in 1998. - According to Elieshi Lema of E&D Vision Publishing, 4000 copies were produced with the financial help of a sponsor and distributed free of charge to Tanzanian secondary schools. In Kenya, the booklet was also approved as instructional material for primary schools and teacher training colleges. It has since been out of print, but copies exist in libraries in Sweden, Japan and in the United States.
|
||||
33
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinosaurs_of_Tendaguru-1.md
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data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinosaurs_of_Tendaguru-1.md
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|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "Dinosaurs of Tendaguru"
|
||||
chunk: 2/2
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinosaurs_of_Tendaguru"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:49:10.581550+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
== Reception ==
|
||||
In 2009, paleontologist Gerhard Maier mentioned the booklet in his comprehensive study on the history of the excavations African Dinosaurs Unearthed: The Tendaguru Expeditions. He commented on the effect of this booklet as "a most welcome outcome (...) was the popularization of Tendaguru for the people of Tanzania."
|
||||
In 2022, Dinosaria wa Tendaguru was mentioned in the report "Reclaiming restitution" by Open Restitution Africa, an Africa-led heritage project that referred to the Tendaguru fossils as a case study for the discussion on restitution of African cultural heritage.
|
||||
In a 2024 chapter on how the Berlin Dinosaurs got their names, the German authors working for the Natural History Museum in Berlin described how excavation leaders Janensch and Hennig had recorded the work of several African workers at the excavation. This acknowledgement was based on the preliminary names for several specific fossil specimens, including "Abdallahsaurus", named after fossil preparator Sefu Abdallah, "Salimosaurus", named after the excavator Salim Tombali and "Mohammadisaurus", named after Mohammai Keranje. In the same article, the authors also referred to chief overseer Boheti bin Amrani, whose contribution to the excavation was recorded both in the field notes and photographs by Janensch. These specimen names bearing African names were only used in a prelimary way during the excavation of the fossils and later replaced by scientific names of the dinosaur genera.
|
||||
|
||||
At the same time, these temporary names can be seen as evidence of the respect that the German scientists had for the African preparators, and as a recognition of their work and achievements. They point to a temporary suspension of colonial hierarchies for the period in which the expedition’s leaders worked together in the field with local preparators and excavators.
|
||||
|
||||
== See also ==
|
||||
Tendaguru formation
|
||||
Dinosaurs
|
||||
List of African dinosaurs
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
|
||||
== Further reading ==
|
||||
Heinrich, Wolf-Dieter; Bussert, Robert; Aberhan, Martin (2011). "A blast from the past: the lost world of dinosaurs at Tendaguru, East Africa". Geology Today. 27 (3). Wiley: 101–106. Bibcode:2011GeolT..27..101H. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2451.2011.00795.x. ISSN 0266-6979. S2CID 128697039.
|
||||
Tamborini, Marco; Ohl, Michael; Sadock, Musa; Mapunda, Bertram; Magani, Halfan; Vennen, Mareike; Vennen, Mareike; Stoecker, Holger; Heumann, Ina, eds. (2024-12-02). Deconstructing Dinosaurs: The History of the German Tendaguru Expedition and its finds, 1906-2023. Brill. pp. 1–13. doi:10.1163/9789004691063_002. ISBN 978-90-04-69105-6.
|
||||
|
||||
== External links ==
|
||||
Museum of Natural History, Berlin
|
||||
Goethe-Institut Tanzania
|
||||
E&D Vision Publishing
|
||||
Thomas Thiemeyer, homepage of the illustrator
|
||||
@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth's_Deep_History"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:42:29.456627+00:00"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:49:11.776752+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
27
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant_(de_Camp_book)-0.md
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27
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant_(de_Camp_book)-0.md
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|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "Elephant (de Camp book)"
|
||||
chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant_(de_Camp_book)"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:49:12.942498+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Elephant is a science book by L. Sprague de Camp, published by Pyramid Books in July 1964 as part of The Worlds of Science series. The cover title is Elephant: The Fascinating Life Cycle of the World's Largest Land Animal.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Summary ==
|
||||
The book treats its subject comprehensively, covering elephants in captivity and the wild, their use in ancient warfare, modern conflicts between elephants and farmers, and preservation efforts, among other topics. A "generalized account of the life history of elephants, living and fossil, their relatives, and their use throughout history," it deals with "the various aspects of the world's largest land animal, from fossils to captive elephants." It is illustrated with pen-and-ink sketches, maps and charts, and includes eight pages of unnumbered black-and-white photographs, a bibliography and index.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Reception ==
|
||||
The Science News-Letter notes that the book is "[d]esigned for the general reader and student."
|
||||
The Science Teacher praises the book's "academic and sometimes lighthearted text," noting "[t]he author has a knack for interjecting subtleties such as 'nobody has yet fitted an elephant with false teeth.'" It rates the book "an excellent junior high school library reference, especially for students who need a readable source for a class report."
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Relation to other works ==
|
||||
While a decent study, the book is important more for its insight into the mind of the author than in its own right, elephants being a lifelong interest of de Camp's that figures in many of his other literary works. In his early time travel novel Lest Darkness Fall his protagonist Martin Padway pens a similar monograph, while in his historical novel An Elephant for Aristotle details the difficulties in transporting an elephant from India to Greece during ancient times. Two of his short stories imagine bringing back prehistoric Proboscidea from the Pleistocene with a time machine ("The Mislaid Mastodon") or actually resurrecting them through advanced technology ("Employment"). De Camp also wrote a number of articles about elephants, a few of which appeared, together with a chapter selected from the present work, in his later collection The Fringe of the Unknown (1983).
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
18
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabre's_Book_of_Insects-0.md
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18
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabre's_Book_of_Insects-0.md
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@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "Fabre's Book of Insects"
|
||||
chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabre's_Book_of_Insects"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:49:16.483957+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Fabre's Book of Insects is a non-fiction book that is a retelling of Alexander Teixeira de Mattos' translation of Jean-Henri Fabre's Souvenirs entomologiques. It was retold by Mrs. Rodolph Stawell and illustrated by Edward Detmold. It talks about insects in real life, mythology and folklore.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Reception ==
|
||||
A Times Higher Education review says, "It was Fabre's Book of Insects, extracts from that extraordinary man's Souvenirs entomologiques, "retold" – and with an exemplary clarity and simplicity which made me feel enlisted and embraced but never patronised – by a Mrs Rudolph Stawell. Years later I read the full Souvenirs themselves and wondered why I had not done so long before, as soon as I could read French. The magic is Fabre's own, not imported by Mrs Stawell." It was reviewed by The New York Times.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
34
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fauna_Japonica-0.md
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34
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fauna_Japonica-0.md
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@ -0,0 +1,34 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "Fauna Japonica"
|
||||
chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fauna_Japonica"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:49:17.617091+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Fauna Japonica is a series of monographs on the zoology of Japan. It was the first book written in a European language (French) on the Japanese fauna, and published serially in five volumes between 1833 and 1850.
|
||||
The full title is Fauna Japonica sive Descriptio animalium, quae in itinere per Japoniam, jussu et auspiciis superiorum, qui summum in India Batava imperium tenent, suscepto, annis 1825–1830 collegit, notis, observationibus et adumbrationibus illustravit Ph. Fr. de Siebold. Conjunctis studiis C. J. Temminck et H. Schlegel pro vertebratis atque W. de Haan pro invertebratis elaborata.
|
||||
Based on the collections made by Philipp Franz von Siebold (who edited the text) and his successor Heinrich Bürger in Japan, Fauna Japonica's vertebrate volumes were authored by the Leyden Museum naturalists Coenraad Jacob Temminck and Hermann Schlegel. Wilhem de Haan, also at the Leyden museum, wrote the invertebrate volumes assisted by the Japanese artist naturalists Keiga Kawahara, Kurimoto Masayoshi and others. The volumes were a rare chance for European naturalists to learn about the wildlife in isolationist Japan.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Publication ==
|
||||
The 5 volumes that make up Fauna Japonica were published by P. F. von Siebold and Lugduni Batavorum between 1833 and 1850. Originally intended to include all Japanese fauna, the published volumes pertain to Vertebrates and Crustacea only. Though a lot of the content was based on his own collections of specimen, von Siebold was the editor and publisher, not the writer of Fauna Japonica. C. J. Temminck and H. Schlegel authored the Vertebrata volumes, for which von Siebold did write an introduction, and W. de Haan wrote the volume on the Crustacea. While an 1849 letter between Temminck, then director of the Leiden Museum, and the Netherlands Ministry of Internal Affairs, indicates that J. A. Herklots studied the other invertebrates in von Siebold's collection, no volume of his was published in this series.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
=== Dating difficulties ===
|
||||
The publication of the each volume was done in the form of several fascicles called "Decades" over many years. This process poses many problems for modern scientists trying to keep track of the nomenclature of Japanese wildlife, because both text and plates often introduced nomenclature and described new taxa with inconsistent priority. For example, the volume devoted to bird, "Aves", was published in 12 livraisons ("deliveries" in French). The problem is of special concern for de Haan's Crustacea volume, in which many new genera and species were described. The problem arises because of uncertain dating on each component of these volumes. For a sense of how widely dispersed in time the publication of even a single volume can be, the following table records the different dates of publication for the different "Decades" of the first volume of Fauna Japonica, Crustacea.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Reception ==
|
||||
Fauna Japonica was considered important for its comprehensiveness, specifically of relevance to carcinologists. The Crustacea volume especially is consulted by those researching Decapods and Stomatopods. The work was influential on Philipp Franz von Siebold's reputation as a scientist in Europe and Japan. Numerous reprints and facsimiles have been issued since, some including unpublished artwork by collaborator Keiga Kawahara. Von Siebold's collection is now housed at the Horus Botanicus Leiden, the botanical garden in Leiden.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== External links ==
|
||||
|
||||
Digitised volumes in the Biodiversity Heritage Library
|
||||
Kyoto University Library Archived 2014-10-26 at the Wayback Machine
|
||||
0
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feathers
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0
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feathers
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41
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Field_Guide-0.md
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41
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Field_Guide-0.md
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|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "Golden Field Guide"
|
||||
chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Field_Guide"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:49:21.158314+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
The Golden Field Guides are a series of larger pocket-sized books about the natural world which were created by Western Publishing and published under their "Golden Press" line (mostly used for children's books at the time), as a related series to the Golden Guides. Edited by Herbert Zim and Vera Webster, the books were written by experts in their field and illustrated with a simple straightforward style.
|
||||
Unlike the Golden Guides, the Field Guides covered their subjects in greater depth, being more aimed at the high school/college level. They also had sturdier covers, obviously intending that they be used in the field. Most note that they are a "Guide to Field Identification" on the cover. To cover their subject matter in greater depth, and intended as both identification and educational, most of the Field Guides limited themselves to North America, while the Golden Guides were usually worldwide.
|
||||
The series, updated, was relaunched in 2001 as "Golden Field Guides by St. Martin's Press". Certain titles have been discontinued, such as the Amphibians of North America and Families of Birds books.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Series list ==
|
||||
Amphibians of North America, by Hobart Muir Smith (1978) — discontinued by St. Martin's Press
|
||||
Birds of North America, by Chandler Robbins and Bertel Bruun (1966)
|
||||
Eastern Birds, by James Coe (1994) — limited release in original but continued by St. Martin's Press
|
||||
Families of Birds, by Oliver L. Austin (1971) — originally published as a Golden Guide (small format) and later, slightly modified, as Golden Field Guide (large format); later discontinued by St. Martin's Press
|
||||
Reptiles of North America, by Hobart Muir Smith, Edmund D. Brodie, David M. Dennis, and Sy Barlowe (1982)
|
||||
Minerals of the World, by Charles A. Sorrell, illustrations by George F. Sandström (1973) — expansion of the "Rocks and Minerals" pocket guide, then later renamed Rocks and Minerals
|
||||
Seashells of North America, by R. Tucker Abbott (1968)
|
||||
Skyguide, by Mark R. Chartrand and Helmut K. Wimmer (1982) — later renamed Night Sky
|
||||
Trees of North America, by C. Frank Brockman and Rebecca A. Merrilees (1968)
|
||||
Wildflowers of North America, by Frank D. Venning and Manabu C. Saito (1984)
|
||||
There were some other "Golden Guides" issued but not normally considered part of the regular series.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Associated Series list ==
|
||||
National Parks of the World, by Kai Curry-Lindahl, Jean-Paul Harroy, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (1972) — volumes 1 & 2
|
||||
A Golden Guide to Environmental Organizations, by Bruce W. Halstead (1972)
|
||||
The Golden Guide to Lawns, Trees and Shrubs, by John Strohm (1961)
|
||||
The Golden Guide to Flowers A Handbook for Home Gardeners, by John Strohm (1962)
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== External links ==
|
||||
Golden Field Guide from St. Martin's Press
|
||||
@ -0,0 +1,55 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "Gossip from the Forest (Maitland book)"
|
||||
chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gossip_from_the_Forest_(Maitland_book)"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:49:22.332572+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Gossip from the Forest: the Tangled Roots of our Forests and Fairytales is a 2012 book by Sara Maitland about the connections between forests and fairytales in Northern Europe. It is structured around accounts of walks through 12 forests in Scotland and England, one per month of the year, and 12 associated retellings of traditional fairytales, and was published by Granta (ISBN 9781847084293).
|
||||
Maitland has described the book as "a hybrid book ... history and photographs and nature and politics and science and anthropology and fiction (my own retellings of 12 Grimm stories) and, indeed, gossip."
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== The chapters: the forests and the retold tales ==
|
||||
|
||||
March
|
||||
Airyolland Wood, Dumfries and Galloway
|
||||
"Thumbling"
|
||||
April
|
||||
Saltridge Wood, near Stroud, Gloucestershire
|
||||
"The White Snake"
|
||||
May
|
||||
The New Forest, Hampshire
|
||||
"Rumpelstiltskin"
|
||||
June
|
||||
Epping Forest, Greater London and Essex
|
||||
"Hansel and Gretel"
|
||||
July
|
||||
The Great North Wood, Dulwich, Sydenham and Norwood, London
|
||||
"Little Goosegirl"
|
||||
August
|
||||
Staverton Thicks (and Staverton Park), Suffolk
|
||||
"The Seven Swans' Sister" - see "The Six Swans"
|
||||
September
|
||||
Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire
|
||||
"The Seven Dwarves"
|
||||
October
|
||||
Ballochbuie, near Braemar and the Forest of Mar, Aberdeenshire
|
||||
"Rapunzel"
|
||||
November
|
||||
Kielder Forest, Northumberland
|
||||
"Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf"
|
||||
December
|
||||
The Purgatory Wood, near New Luce, Dumfries and Galloway
|
||||
"The Four Comrades" - see "Town Musicians of Bremen"
|
||||
January
|
||||
Glenlee: woods at this house near New Galloway, Dumfries and Galloway
|
||||
"Dancing Shoes" - see "The Twelve Dancing Princesses"
|
||||
February
|
||||
Knockman Wood, Cree Valley, Galloway Hills
|
||||
"The Dreams of the Sleeping Beauty"
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hen's_Teeth_and_Horse's_Toes"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:32:10.294802+00:00"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:49:23.558184+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
72
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Histoire_Naturelle-0.md
Normal file
72
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Histoire_Naturelle-0.md
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@ -0,0 +1,72 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "Histoire Naturelle"
|
||||
chunk: 1/4
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Histoire_Naturelle"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:49:24.741406+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
The Histoire Naturelle, générale et particulière, avec la description du Cabinet du Roi (French: [istwaʁ natyʁɛl]; English: Natural History, General and Particular, with a Description of the King's Cabinet) is an encyclopaedic collection of 36 large (quarto) volumes written between 1749 and 1804, initially by the Comte de Buffon, and continued in eight more volumes after his death (in 1788) by his colleagues, led by Bernard Germain de Lacépède. The books cover what was known of the "natural sciences" at the time, including what would now be called material science, physics, chemistry and technology as well as the natural history of animals.
|
||||
The early volumes (IV to XV) are on quadrupeds. The next group (XVI to XXIV) are on birds, followed by a group on minerals (XXV to XXIX). There followed a group of supplements on geology and related subjects, with additional quadrupeds (XXX to XXXVI). Further supplements covered the reptiles (XXXVII to XXXVIII) and fishes (XXXIX to XXXXIII). Finally there was a volume on cetaceans (XXXXIV). The work was republished in various editions in France, and was translated into languages including English, German, Swedish, Italian, and Russian.
|
||||
Buffon was assisted over the years by a variety of authors with different expertise, including Philippe Guéneau de Montbeillard on birds. The principal illustrator was Jacques de Sève, who prepared some 2000 plates for the encyclopedia, while additional plates on birds were made by François-Nicolas Martinet.
|
||||
The Histoire Naturelle was welcomed by its wealthy readership: the first edition sold out within six weeks. However, it attracted criticism from some priests for its assertion that the Earth was over 6,000 years old, contradicting the biblical account.
|
||||
From the 21st-century perspective of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, the work has been seen as introducing "a secular and realist account of the origins of the earth and its life forms", contrary to the tradition of Descartes. Others such as the botanist Sandra Knapp have commented on Buffon's purple prose, which tended to obscure any ideas in the text. The evolutionary biologist Ernst Mayr called Buffon "the father of all thought in natural history" at his time, setting the scene for evolutionists to address the issues he raised.
|
||||
|
||||
== An encyclopaedic work ==
|
||||
|
||||
The Histoire Naturelle, générale et particulière, avec la description du Cabinet du Roi is the work that the Comte de Buffon (1707–1788) is remembered for. He worked on it for some 50 years, initially at Montbard in his office in the Tour Saint-Louis, then in his library at Petit Fontenet. 36 volumes came out between 1749 and 1789, followed by 8 more after his death, thanks to Bernard Germain de Lacépède. It includes all the knowledge available in his time on the "natural sciences", a broad term that includes disciplines which today would be called material science, physics, chemistry and technology. Buffon notes the morphological similarities between men and apes, although he considered apes completely devoid of the ability to think, differentiating them sharply from human beings. Buffon's attention to internal anatomy made him an early comparative anatomist. "L’intérieur, dans les êtres vivants, est le fond du dessin de la nature", he wrote in his Quadrupèdes, "the interior, in living things, is the foundation of nature's design."
|
||||
|
||||
L’Histoire Naturelle met immense success, almost as great as Encyclopédie by Diderot, which came out in the same period. The first three volumes of L’Histoire Naturelle, générale et particulière, avec la description du cabinet du Roi were reprinted three times in six weeks.
|
||||
|
||||
== Contents by volume ==
|
||||
|
||||
The original edition was arranged as follows:
|
||||
Natural history, and description of the king's cabinet of curiosities
|
||||
|
||||
Volume I : Premier Discours - De la manière d’étudier et de traiter l’histoire naturelle, Second Discours - Histoire et théorie de la Terre, Preuves de la théorie de la Terre, 1749
|
||||
Volume II : Histoire générale des Animaux, Histoire Naturelle de l'Homme, 1749
|
||||
Volume III : Description du cabinet du Roi, Histoire Naturelle de l'Homme, 1749
|
||||
Quadrupèdes (Quadrupeds)
|
||||
|
||||
Volume IV (Quadrupèdes I) : Discours sur la nature des Animaux, Les Animaux domestiques, 1753
|
||||
Volume V (Quadrupèdes II) : 1755
|
||||
Volume VI (Quadrupèdes III) : Les Animaux sauvages, 1756
|
||||
Volume VII (Quadrupèdes IV) : Les Animaux carnassiers, 1758
|
||||
Volume VIII (Quadrupèdes V) : 1760
|
||||
Volume IX (Quadrupèdes VI) : 1761
|
||||
Volume X (Quadrupèdes VII) : 1763
|
||||
Volume XI (Quadrupèdes VIII) : 1764
|
||||
Volume XII (Quadrupèdes IX) : 1764
|
||||
Volume XIII (Quadrupèdes X) : 1765
|
||||
Volume XIV (Quadrupèdes XI) : Nomenclature des Singes, De la dégénération des Animaux, 1766
|
||||
Volume XV (Quadrupèdes XII) : 1767
|
||||
Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux (Birds) (1770–1783)
|
||||
|
||||
Volume XVI (Oiseaux I) : 1770
|
||||
Volume XVII (Oiseaux II) : 1771
|
||||
Volume XVIII (Oiseaux III) : 1774
|
||||
Volume XIX (Oiseaux IV) : 1778
|
||||
Volume XX (Oiseaux V) : 1778
|
||||
Volume XXI (Oiseaux VI) : 1779
|
||||
Volume XXII (Oiseaux VII) : 1780
|
||||
Volume XXIII (Oiseaux VIII) : 1781
|
||||
Volume XXIV (Oiseaux IX) : 1783
|
||||
Histoire Naturelle des Minéraux (Minerals) (1783–1788)
|
||||
|
||||
Volume XXV (Minéraux I) : 1783
|
||||
Volume XXVI (Minéraux II) : 1783
|
||||
Volume XXVII (Minéraux III) : 1785
|
||||
Volume XXVIII (Minéraux IV) : 1786
|
||||
Volume XXIX (Minéraux V) : Traité de l'Aimant et de ses usages, 1788
|
||||
Suppléments à l’Histoire Naturelle, générale et particulière (Supplements) (1774–1789)
|
||||
|
||||
Volume XXX (Suppléments I) : Servant de suite à la Théorie de la Terre, et d’introduction à l’Histoire des Minéraux, 1774
|
||||
Volume XXXI (Suppléments II) : Servant de suite à la Théorie de la Terre, et de préliminaire à l’Histoire des Végétaux - Parties Expérimentale & Hypothétique, 1775
|
||||
Volume XXXII (Suppléments III) : Servant de suite à l'Histoire des Animaux quadrupèdes, 1776
|
||||
Volume XXXIII (Suppléments IV) : Servant de suite à l'Histoire Naturelle de l'Homme, 1777
|
||||
Volume XXXIV (Suppléments V) : Des Époques de la nature, 1779
|
||||
Volume XXXV (Suppléments VI) : Servant de suite à l'Histoire des Animaux quadrupèdes, 1782
|
||||
Volume XXXVI (Suppléments VII) : Servant de suite à l'Histoire des Animaux quadrupèdes, 1789
|
||||
Histoire Naturelle des Quadrupèdes ovipares et des Serpents (Egg-laying Quadrupeds and Snakes) (1788–1789)
|
||||
47
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Histoire_Naturelle-1.md
Normal file
47
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Histoire_Naturelle-1.md
Normal file
@ -0,0 +1,47 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "Histoire Naturelle"
|
||||
chunk: 2/4
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Histoire_Naturelle"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:49:24.741406+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Volume XXXVII (Reptiles I) : Histoire générale et particulière des Quadrupèdes ovipares, 1788
|
||||
Volume XXXVIII (Reptiles II) : Histoire des Serpents, 1789
|
||||
Histoire Naturelle des Poissons (Fish) (1798–1803)
|
||||
|
||||
Volume XXXIX (Poissons I) : 1798
|
||||
Volume XXXX (Poissons II) : 1800
|
||||
Volume XXXXI (Poissons III) : 1802
|
||||
Volume XXXXII (Poissons IV) : 1802
|
||||
Volume XXXXIII (Poissons V) : 1803
|
||||
Histoire Naturelle des Cétacés (Cetaceans) (1804)
|
||||
|
||||
Volume XXXXIV (Cétacés) : 1804
|
||||
|
||||
== Authors and artists ==
|
||||
|
||||
The descriptive and anatomical part of l’Histoire des Quadrupèdes was the work of Louis Jean-Marie Daubenton.
|
||||
Philippe Guéneau de Montbeillard worked on the birds, assisted later by Barthélemy Faujas de Saint-Fond and the abbot Gabriel Bexon.
|
||||
Barthélemy Faujas de Saint-Fond and Louis Bernard Guyton de Morveau provided sources for the mineral volumes.
|
||||
Buffon commissioned Jacques de Sève to illustrate the quadrupeds, while François-Nicolas Martinet illustrated the birds. Some 2000 plates by de Sève adorn the work, representing mammals, reptiles, and some birds.
|
||||
After Buffon's death, the work was continued by Bernard Germain de Lacépède, who described the egg-laying quadrupeds, snakes, fishes and cetaceans in 8 volumes (1788–1804).
|
||||
|
||||
== Approach ==
|
||||
|
||||
Each group is introduced with a general essay. This is followed by an article, sometimes of many pages, on each animal (or other item). The article on the wolf begins with the claim that it is one of the animals with a specially strong appetite for flesh; it asserts that the animal is naturally coarse and cowardly (grossier et poltron), but becoming crafty at need, and hardy by necessity, driven by hunger.
|
||||
The species is named in Greek, Latin, Italian, Spanish, German, English, Swedish, and Polish. The zoological descriptions of the species by Gessner, Ray, Linnaeus, Klein and Buffon himself ("Canis ex griseo flavescens. Lupus vulgaris. Buffon. Reg. animal. pag. 235") are cited. The text is written as a continuous essay, without the sections on identification, distribution and behaviour that might have been expected from other natural histories. Parts concern human responses rather than the animal itself, as for example that the wolf likes human flesh, and the strongest wolves sometimes eat nothing else. Measurements may be included; in the case of the wolf, 41 separate measurements are tabulated, in pre-revolutionary French feet and inches starting with the "Length of the whole body measured in a straight line from the end of the muzzle to the anus........3 feet. 7 inches." (1.2 m); the "Length of the largest claws" is given as "10 lines" (2.2 cm). The wolf is illustrated standing in farmland, and as a complete skeleton standing on a stone plinth in a landscape. The account of the species occupies 32 pages including illustrations.
|
||||
|
||||
== Editions ==
|
||||
|
||||
=== Buffon's original edition continued by Lacépède ===
|
||||
|
||||
The original edition of the Histoire Naturelle by Buffon comprised 36 volumes in quarto, divided into the following series: Histoire de la Terre et de l'Homme, Quadrupèdes, Oiseaux, Minéraux, Suppléments. Buffon edited 35 volumes in his lifetime. Soon after his death, the fifth and final volume of l’Histoire des minéraux appeared in 1788 at the Imprimerie des Bâtiments du Roi. The seventh and final volume of Suppléments by Buffon was published posthumously in 1789 through Lacépède's hands. Lacépède continued the part of the Histoire Naturelle which dealt with animals. A few months before Buffon's death, in 1788, Lacépède published, as a continuation, the first volume of his Histoire des Reptiles, on egg-laying quadrupeds. The next year, he wrote a second volume on snakes, published during the French Revolution. Between 1798 and 1803, he brought out the volume Histoire des Poissons. Lacépède made use of the notes and collections left by Philibert Commerson (1727–1773). He wrote Histoire des Cétacés which was printed in 1804. At that point, the Histoire Naturelle, by Buffon and Lacépède, thus contained 44 quarto volumes forming the definitive edition.
|
||||
|
||||
=== Variations in the editions by Buffon and Lacépède ===
|
||||
Another edition in quarto format was printed by the Imprimerie royale in 36 volumes (1774–1804). It consisted of 28 volumes by Buffon, and 8 volumes by Lacépède. The part containing anatomical articles by Louis Jean-Marie Daubenton was dropped. The supplements were merged into the relevant articles in the main volumes.
|
||||
The Imprimerie royale also published two editions of the Histoire Naturelle in duodecimo format (1752–1805), occupying 90 or 71 volumes, depending on whether or not they included the part on anatomy. In this print format, the original work by Buffon occupied 73 volumes, with the part on anatomy, or 54 volumes without it. The continuation by Lacépède took up 17 duodecimo volumes.
|
||||
|
||||
A de luxe edition of Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux (Birds) (1771–1786) was produced by the Imprimerie royale in 10 folio and quarto volumes, with 1008 engraved and hand-coloured plates, executed under Buffon's personal supervision by Edme-Louis Daubenton, cousin and brother-in-law of Buffon's principal collaborator.
|
||||
33
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Histoire_Naturelle-2.md
Normal file
33
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Normal file
@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "Histoire Naturelle"
|
||||
chunk: 3/4
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Histoire_Naturelle"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:49:24.741406+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
=== Translations ===
|
||||
The Histoire Naturelle was translated (in whole, in part, or abridged) into languages including English, German, Swedish, Russian and Italian.
|
||||
R. Griffith published an early translation of the volume on The Horse in London in 1762. T. Bell published a translation of the first six volumes in London between 1775 and 1776. William Creech published an edition in Edinburgh between 1780 and 1785. T. Cadell and W. Davies published another edition in London in 1812. An abridged edition was published by Wogan, Byrne et al. in Dublin in 1791; that same year R. Morison and Son of Perth, J. and J. Fairbairn of Edinburgh and T. Kay and C. Forster of London published their edition. W. Strahan and T. Cadell published a translation with notes by the encyclopaedist William Smellie in London around 1785. Barr's Buffon in ten volumes was published in London between 1797 and 1807. W. Davidson published an abridged version including the natural history of insects taken from Swammerdam, Brookes, Goldsmith et al., with "elegant engravings on wood"; its four volumes appeared in Alnwick in 1814.
|
||||
German translations include those published by Grund and Holle, 1750–1775; Johann Samuel Heinsius, 1756–1782; Joseph Georg Trassler, 1784–1785; and by Pauli, 1772–1829.
|
||||
Italian translations include the edition published by Appresso Giuseppe Galeazzi in Milan, 1770–1773.
|
||||
Per Olof Gravander translated an 1802–1803 French abridgement into Swedish, publishing it in Örebro in 1806–1807.
|
||||
A Russian version (The General and Particular Natural History by Count Buffon; "Всеобщая и частная естественная история графа Бюффона") was brought out by The Imperial Academy of Sciences (Императорской Академией Наук) in St. Petersburg between 1789 and 1808.
|
||||
An abridged edition for children was published by Frederick Warne in London and Scribner, Welford and Co. c. 1870.
|
||||
|
||||
== Reception ==
|
||||
|
||||
=== Contemporary ===
|
||||
|
||||
The Histoire Naturelle had a distinctly mixed reception in the eighteenth century. Wealthy homes in both England and France purchased copies, and the first edition was sold out within six weeks. But Buffon was criticised by some priests for suggesting (in the essay Les Epoques de Nature, Volume XXXIV) that the Earth was more than 6,000 years old and that mountains had arisen in geological time. Buffon cites as evidence that fossil sea-shells had been found at the tops of mountains; but the claim was seen as contradicting the biblical account in the Book of Genesis. Buffon also disagreed with Linnaeus's system of classifying plants as described in Systema Naturae (1735). In Buffon's view, expounded in the "Premier Discours" of the Histoire Naturelle (1749), the concept of species was entirely artificial, the only real entity in nature being the individual; as for a taxonomy based on the number of stamens or pistils in a flower, mere counting (despite Buffon's own training in mathematics) had no bearing on nature.
|
||||
The Paris faculty of theology, acting as the official censor, wrote to Buffon with a list of statements in the Histoire Naturelle that were contradictory to Roman Catholic Church teaching. Buffon replied that he believed firmly in the biblical account of creation, and was able to continue printing his book, and remain in position as the leader of the 'old school', complete with his job as director of the royal botanical garden. On Buffon's death, the 19-year-old Georges Cuvier celebrated with the words "This time, the Comte de Buffon is dead and buried". Soon afterwards, the French Revolution went much further in sweeping away old attitudes to natural history, along with much else.
|
||||
|
||||
=== Modern ===
|
||||
|
||||
==== Philosophy ====
|
||||
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy calls the Histoire Naturelle "Buffon's major work", observing that "In addressing the history of the earth, Buffon also broke with the 'counter-factual' tradition of Descartes, and presented a secular and realist account of the origins of the earth and its life forms." In its view, the work created an "age of Buffon", defining what natural history itself was, while Buffon's "Discourse on Method" (unlike that of Descartes) at the start of the work argued that repeated observation could lead to a greater certainty of knowledge even than "mathematical analysis of nature". Buffon also led natural history away from the natural theology of British parson-naturalists such as John Ray. He thus offered both a new methodology and an empirical style of enquiry. Buffon's position on evolution is complex; he noted in Volume 4 from Daubenton's comparative anatomy of the horse and the donkey that species might "transform", but initially (1753) rejected the possibility. However, in doing so he changed the definition of a species from a fixed or universal class (which could not change, by definition) to "the historical succession of ancestor and descendant linked by material connection through generation", identified by the ability to mate and produce fertile offspring. Thus the horse and donkey, which produce only sterile hybrids, are seen empirically not to be the same species, even though they have similar anatomy. That empirical fact leaves open the possibility of evolution.
|
||||
|
||||
==== Style ====
|
||||
The botanist Sandra Knapp writes that "Buffon's prose was so purple that the ideas themselves are almost hidden", observing that this was also the contemporary academic opinion. Buffon was roundly criticised by his fellow academics for writing a "purely popularizing work, empty and puffed up, with little real scientific value". Knapp notes that some quite radical ideas are to be found in his work, but that these are almost invisible, given the language they are cloaked in. She quotes Buffon's dramatic description of the lion, which along with the engraving in her view "emphasized both the lion's regal bearing and personality not only in his text but also in the illustration... A reader was left in no doubt as to the importance and character of the animal." She concludes "No wonder the cultured aristocratic public lapped it up – the text reads more like a romantic novel than a dry scientific treatise".
|
||||
17
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Histoire_Naturelle-3.md
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17
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Histoire_Naturelle-3.md
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|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "Histoire Naturelle"
|
||||
chunk: 4/4
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Histoire_Naturelle"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:49:24.741406+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
==== Evolutionary thought ====
|
||||
The evolutionary biologist Ernst Mayr comments that "In this monumental and fascinating Histoire naturelle, Buffon dealt in a stimulating manner with almost all the problems that would subsequently be raised by evolutionists. Written in a brilliant style, this work was read in French or in one of the numerous translations by every educated person in Europe". Mayr argued that "virtually all the well-known writers of the Enlightenment" were "Buffonians", and calls Buffon "the father of all thought in natural history in the second half of the eighteenth century".
|
||||
Mayr notes that Buffon was not an "evolutionist", but was certainly responsible for creating the great amount of interest in natural history in France. He agrees that Buffon's thought is hard to classify and even self-contradictory, and that the theologians forced him to avoid writing some of his opinions openly. Mayr argues however that Buffon was "fully aware of the possibility of 'common descent', and was perhaps the first author ever to articulate it clearly", quoting Buffon at length, starting with "Not only the ass and the horse, but also man, the apes, the quadrupeds, and all the animals might be regarded as constituting but a single family", and later "that man and ape have a common origin", and that "the power of nature...with sufficient time, she has been able from a single being to derive all the other organized beings". Mayr notes, however, that Buffon immediately rejects the suggestion and offers three arguments against it, namely that no new species have arisen in historical times; that hybrid infertility firmly separates species; and that animals intermediate between, say, the horse and the donkey are not seen (in the fossil record).
|
||||
|
||||
== Notes ==
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
57
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historia_Naturalis_Brasiliae-0.md
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57
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historia_Naturalis_Brasiliae-0.md
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|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "Historia Naturalis Brasiliae"
|
||||
chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historia_Naturalis_Brasiliae"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:49:25.885193+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Historia Naturalis Brasiliae (English: Brazilian Natural History), originally written in Latin, is the first scientific work on the natural history of Brazil, written by Dutch naturalist Willem Piso and containing research done by the German scientist Georg Marcgraf, published in 1648. The work includes observations made by the German naturalist H. Gralitzio, in addition to humanist Johannes de Laet. It was dedicated to Johan Maurits, Count of Nassau, who was the patron of the project during the period of Dutch rule in Brazil.
|
||||
The research of the work focuses on the coast of the Northeast, during its occupation by the Dutch West India Company. Marcgraf and Piso had started their field research of the area in 1637. The work covers tropical diseases and Indigenous therapies, but Piso depicts the Indigenous peoples of Brazil as barbarians who lack scientific education. Piso and his contemporaries thought that the Indigenous peoples would be unable to contribute to any studies on medicine and botany.
|
||||
The book had wide circulation in Northern Europe, and was admired for the illustrations accompanying the text. The work remained unsurpassed until the 19th century. In Denmark, Ole Worm followed the book's organizational structure when documenting the natural history of Denmark. He reused some of the book's illustrations n his own work, Museum Wormianum. Carl Linnaeus and Albert Aublet also reused the work of Macgrave in several of their texts and images.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== The work ==
|
||||
Historia Naturalis Brasiliae is a Latin-language scientific work on the natural history of Brazil, published in 1648 as a single volume of about 293 pages. It is regarded as the first scientific work to describe Brazil's natural environment. The work is also notable for its illustrations, with more than 500 images accompanying the text.
|
||||
Written by the Dutch physician Willem Piso, it incorporates research by the German scientist Georg Marcgrave. It also includes observations by the German naturalist H. Gralitzio and contributions by the Dutch humanist Johannes de Laet.
|
||||
The volume brings together observations of Brazilian plants and animals, studies of tropical diseases and their treatment, and accounts of Indigenous medical practices alongside European interpretations of those remedies. It also includes descriptions of the region and its inhabitants.
|
||||
This research was carried out during Marcgrave and Piso's time in Brazil, beginning in 1637, and focused primarily on the coastal regions of northeastern Brazil under the control of the Dutch West India Company.
|
||||
It was published in Leiden and Amsterdam. The title page gives the publication places as Lugdunum Batavorum (Leiden) and Amstelodamum (Amsterdam), and names the publishers as Franciscus Hackius and Ludovicus Elzevirius of the Elzevir publishing house. The volume measured approximately 40 cm (16 in) in height.
|
||||
Modern scholarship has described the work as one of the most complete seventeenth-century accounts of Brazilian flora and fauna, noting its documentation of plant uses, vernacular names, and associated diseases, as well as its preservation of Indigenous and African knowledge within an early modern European scientific framework.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Research focused on the coast of the Northeast Region ==
|
||||
Though referring to Brazil generally throughout the text, the authors' research was of the coastal strip of the Northeast, occupied by the Dutch West India Company. It is based on Marcgraf and Piso's time in Brazil, starting in 1637. It offers an important early European insight into Brazilian flora and fauna by analyzing plants and animals, and studying tropical diseases and Indigenous therapies. Also included is William Piso's interpretation and first opinions of the Indigenous people who he would go on to describe as barbarous and lacking in science. This would lead to concern amongst Piso and his contemporaries that these people might not be able to contribute to studying medicine and botany.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Impact ==
|
||||
Historia Naturalis Brasiliae circulated widely in Northern Europe and beyond after its publication in 1648 and was noted for the quality and quantity of its illustrations. By the mid- to late seventeenth century, it had become an important reference for scholars, particularly those without direct access to Brazil. Its combination of detailed description and visual representation facilitated the study and comparison of tropical plants, animals, and diseases in Europe. The work remained unsurpassed until the nineteenth century.
|
||||
The book also influenced the organization and practice of natural history. In the mid-seventeenth century, the Danish physician and antiquarian Ole Worm adopted a similar structure in his Museum Wormianum, a catalogue of his collection of natural and artificial curiosities, and reused some of its illustrations. Its combination of text and image, along with its systematic treatment of natural subjects, was taken up in subsequent works.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Legacy ==
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
=== 20h-century herbariums ===
|
||||
Relevancy was still found in the 20th century with a herbarium being discovered that would contain a hefty amount of items that were used in the Netherlands during the 17th century. The utility of these documents from John Maurice, Prince of Nassau-Siegen were able to assist other researchers and academics even in a more modern context. This discovery would also cause people to seek out a variety of these books detailing herbariums in order to achieve further information than those available to Maurice.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
=== Influence on ecology and imitation by Ole Worm ===
|
||||
This work would prove to be incredibly influential especially in the field of ecology, being used by a variety of different ecologists in different locations and time. The long lasting influence could be seen outside of just the field of ecology, as well, with various other forms of science utilizing the findings in various ways. In particular, Ole Worm utilized a similar organizational structure when documenting natural history of Denmark while even using some of the images in his work, Museum Wormianum. Carl Linnaeus and Albert Aublet would also use the work of Macgrave in several of their texts and images.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
=== Reception and circulation ===
|
||||
The Brazilian physician and researcher Juliano Moreira said of the work: This clearly masterful work, when carefully reexamined, shows, at each perquisition, new excellences, and thus it is still one of the most authentic glories of Dutch medical literature. We owe to Pies a description, so accurate and meticulous, of the then reigning endemics in Brazil and the means of treating them. He observed the yaws, tetanus, various types of paralysis, dysentery, hemeralopia, maculopapular. He described Ipecac and emeto - cathartic qualities, which aboriginals used long before the famous doctor Adrian Helvetius, grandfather of the notable French philosopher Claudio Adriano Helvetius received from Louis XIV a thousand louis gold, titles and honors for having discovered exactly those same therapeutic virtues. The Treaty of Helvetius titled "Remède contre le cours du ventre.
|
||||
Diverse writers referred to the text, including Miguel Venegas, author of Noticia de la California (1757), Anglo-American Protestant theologian Cotton Mather, who saw in the text evidence of divine planning; and amateur American naturalist Thomas Jefferson, who mentioned Marcgraf in his Notes on the State of Virginia.
|
||||
Carl Linnaeus and Albert Aublet also reused the work of Macgrave in several of their texts and images.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== See also ==
|
||||
Dutch Brazil
|
||||
History of science
|
||||
Natural history
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
39
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Animals-0.md
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39
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Animals-0.md
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|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "History of Animals"
|
||||
chunk: 1/3
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Animals"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:49:27.075544+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
History of Animals (Ancient Greek: Τῶν περὶ τὰ ζῷα ἱστοριῶν, Ton peri ta zoia historion, "Inquiries on Animals"; Latin: Historia Animalium, "History of Animals") is one of the major texts on biology by the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle. It was written in sometime between the mid-fourth century BC and Aristotle's death in 322 BC.
|
||||
Generally seen as a pioneering work of zoology, Aristotle frames his text by explaining that he is investigating the what (the existing facts about animals) prior to establishing the why (the causes of these characteristics). The book is thus an attempt to apply philosophy to part of the natural world. Throughout the work, Aristotle seeks to identify differences, both between individuals and between groups. A group is established when it is seen that all members have the same set of distinguishing features; for example, that all birds have feathers, wings, and beaks. This relationship between the birds and their features is recognized as a universal.
|
||||
The History of Animals contains many accurate eye-witness observations, in particular of the marine biology around the island of Lesbos, such as that the octopus had colour-changing abilities and a sperm-transferring tentacle, that the young of a dogfish grow inside their mother's body, or that the male of a river catfish guards the eggs after the female has left. Some of these were long considered fanciful before being rediscovered in the nineteenth century. Aristotle has been accused of making errors, but some are due to misinterpretation of his text, and others may have been based on genuine observation. He did however make somewhat uncritical use of evidence from other people, such as travellers and beekeepers.
|
||||
The History of Animals had a powerful influence on zoology for some two thousand years. It continued to be a primary source of knowledge until zoologists in the sixteenth century, such as Conrad Gessner, all influenced by Aristotle, wrote their own studies of the subject.
|
||||
|
||||
== Context ==
|
||||
|
||||
Aristotle (384–322 BC) studied at Plato's Academy in Athens, remaining there for some 17 years. Like Plato, he sought universals in his philosophy, but unlike Plato he backed up his views with detailed observation, notably of the natural history of the island of Lesbos and the marine life in the island's lagoon at Pyrrha. This study made him the earliest natural historian whose written work survives. No similarly detailed work on zoology was attempted until the sixteenth century; accordingly Aristotle remained highly influential for some two thousand years. His writings on zoology form about a quarter of his surviving work. Aristotle's pupil Theophrastus later wrote a similar book on botany, Enquiry into Plants.
|
||||
|
||||
== Book ==
|
||||
|
||||
=== Approach ===
|
||||
In the History of Animals, Aristotle sets out to investigate the existing facts (Greek "hoti", what), prior to establishing their causes (Greek "dioti", why). The book is thus a defence of his method of investigating zoology. Aristotle investigates four types of differences between animals: differences in particular body parts (Books I to IV); differences in ways of life and types of activity (Books V, VI, VII and IX); and differences in specific characters (Book VIII).
|
||||
To illustrate the philosophical method, consider one grouping of many kinds of animal, 'birds': all members of this group possess the same distinguishing features—feathers, wings, beaks, and two bony legs. This is an instance of a universal: if something is a bird, it has feathers and wings; if something has feathers and wings, that also implies it is a bird, so the reasoning here is bidirectional. On the other hand, some animals that have red blood have lungs; other red-blooded animals (such as fish) have gills. This implies, in Aristotle's reasoning, that if something has lungs, it has red blood; but Aristotle is careful not to imply that all red-blooded animals have lungs, so the reasoning here is not bidirectional.
|
||||
While there is consensus that the History of Animals was aimed mostly at describing attributes of animals, there is a debate about whether or not it suggests that Aristotle was also interested in producing a taxonomy. Most philosophers who have studied the History of Animals and Aristotle's other writings suggest that Aristotle was not trying to produce a taxonomy, but more recent studies by biologists reach different conclusions.
|
||||
|
||||
=== Contents ===
|
||||
|
||||
Book I The grouping of animals and the parts of the human body. Aristotle describes the parts that the human body is made of, such as the skull, brain, face, eyes, ears, nose, tongue, thorax, belly, heart, viscera, genitalia, and limbs.
|
||||
Book II The different parts of red-blooded animals. Aristotle writes about limbs, the teeth of dogs, horses, man, and elephant; the elephant's tongue; and of animals such as the apes, crocodile, chameleon, birds especially the wryneck, fishes and snakes.
|
||||
Book III The internal organs, including generative system, veins, sinews, bone etc. He moves on to the blood, bone marrow, milk including rennet and cheese, and semen.
|
||||
Book IV Animals without blood (invertebrates) – cephalopods, crustaceans, etc. In chapter 8, he describes the sense organs of animals. Chapter 10 considers sleep and whether it occurs in fish.
|
||||
Books V and VI Reproduction, spontaneous and sexual of marine invertebrates, birds, quadrupeds, snakes, fish, and terrestrial arthropods including ichneumon wasps, bees, ants, scorpions, spiders, and grasshoppers.
|
||||
Book VII Reproduction of man, including puberty, conception, pregnancy, lactation, the embryo, labour, milk, and diseases of infants.
|
||||
Book VIII The character and habits of animals, food, migration, health, animal diseases including bee parasites, and the influence of climate.
|
||||
Book IX Social behaviour in animals; signs of intelligence in animals such as sheep and birds.
|
||||
A tenth book is included in some versions, dealing with the causes of barrenness in women, but is generally regarded as not being by Aristotle. In the preface to his translation, D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson calls it "spurious beyond question".
|
||||
|
||||
=== Observations ===
|
||||
32
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Animals-1.md
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32
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|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "History of Animals"
|
||||
chunk: 2/3
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Animals"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:49:27.075544+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
The History of Animals contains a large number of eye-witness observations, in particular of marine biology, in sharp contrast to Plato's "symbolic zoology". Aristotle's style and precision can be seen in the passage where he discusses the behaviour and anatomy of the cephalopods, mentioning the use of ink against predators, camouflage, and signalling. This is D'Arcy Thompson's translation:
|
||||
|
||||
Of molluscs the sepia is the most cunning, and is the only species that employs its dark liquid for the sake of concealment as well as from fear: the octopus and calamary make the discharge solely from fear. These creatures never discharge the pigment in its entirety; and after a discharge the pigment accumulates again. The sepia, as has been said, often uses its colouring pigment for concealment; it shows itself in front of the pigment and then retreats back into it; it also hunts with its long tentacles not only little fishes, but oftentimes even mullets. The octopus is a stupid creature, for it will approach a man's hand if it be lowered in the water; but it is neat and thrifty in its habits: that is, it lays up stores in its nest, and, after eating up all that is eatable, it ejects the shells and sheaths of crabs and shell-fish, and the skeletons of little fishes. It seeks its prey by so changing its colour as to render it like the colour of the stones adjacent to it; it does so also when alarmed.
|
||||
His observations were almost all accurate, according to the philosopher Anthony Preus, though Mario Vegetti argues that Aristotle sometimes let theory cloud observation.
|
||||
|
||||
Some of Aristotle's observations were not taken seriously by science until they were independently rediscovered in the 19th century. For example, he recorded that male octopuses have a hectocotylus, a tentacle which stores sperm and which can transfer it into the female's body; sometimes it snaps off during mating. The account was dismissed as fanciful until the French naturalist Georges Cuvier described it in his 1817 Le Règne Animal. Aristotle also noted that the young of the dogfish grow inside their mother's body attached by a cord to something like a placenta (a yolk sac). This was confirmed in 1842 by the German zoologist Johannes Peter Müller. Aristotle noted, too, that a river catfish which he called the glanis cares for its young, as the female leaves after giving birth; the male guards the eggs for forty or fifty days, chasing off small fish which threaten the eggs, and making a murmuring noise. The Swiss American zoologist Louis Agassiz found the account to be correct in 1890.
|
||||
Aristotle's methods of observation included dissection (Aristotle's lost companion work, The Dissections, contained illustrations of these), so he observed animal anatomy directly, though his interpretations of the functions of the structures he observed were subject to error. Like other classical authors such as Pliny the Elder, Aristotle also gathered evidence from travellers and people with specialised knowledge, such as fishermen and beekeepers, without much attempt to corroborate what they said.
|
||||
|
||||
=== Apparent errors ===
|
||||
|
||||
The text contains some claims that appear to be errors. Aristotle asserted in book II that female humans, sheep, goats, and swine have a smaller number of teeth than the males. This apparently false claim could have been a genuine observation, if as Robert Mayhew suggests women at that time had a poorer diet than men; some studies have found that wisdom teeth erupt in men more often than women after age 25. But the claim is not true of other species either. Thus, Philippa Lang argues, Aristotle may have been empirical, but he was quite laissez-faire about observation, "because [he] was not expecting nature to be misleading".
|
||||
In other cases, errors may have been wrongly attributed to Aristotle. Katrin Weigmann wrote "[Aristotle's] statement that flies have four legs was repeated in natural history texts for more than a thousand years despite the fact that a little counting would have proven otherwise." However, the historian and philosopher of biology John S. Wilkins notes that Aristotle did not say "all flies have four legs"; he wrote that one particular animal, the ephemeron or mayfly, "moves with four feet and four wings: and, I may observe in passing, this creature is exceptional not only in regard to the duration of its existence, whence it receives its name, but also because though a quadruped it has wings also." Mayflies do in fact walk on four legs, the front pair not being adapted for walking, so, Wilkins concludes, Aristotle was correct.
|
||||
More generally, Aristotle's biology, described across the five books sometimes called On Animals and some of his minor works, the Parva Naturalia, defines what in modern terms is a set of models of metabolism, temperature regulation, information processing, inheritance, and embryogenesis. All of these are wrong in the sense that modern science has replaced them with different models, but they were scientific in that they attempted to explain observed phenomena, proposed mechanisms, and made testable predictions.
|
||||
|
||||
=== Translations ===
|
||||
|
||||
The Arabic translation comprises treatises 1–10 of the Kitāb al-Hayawān (The Book of Animals). It was known to the Arab philosopher Al-Kindī (d. 850) and commented on by Avicenna among others. It was in turn translated into Latin, along with Ibn Rushd (Averroes)'s commentary on it, by Michael Scot in the early 13th century.
|
||||
English translations were made by Richard Cresswell in 1862 and by the zoologist D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson in 1910.
|
||||
A French translation was made by Jules Barthélemy-Saint-Hilaire in 1883. Another translation into French was made by J. Tricot in 1957, following D'Arcy Thompson's interpretation.
|
||||
A German translation of books I–VIII was made by Anton Karsch, starting in 1866. A translation of all ten books into German was made by Paul Gohlke in 1949.
|
||||
|
||||
== Influence ==
|
||||
30
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Animals-2.md
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30
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Animals-2.md
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@ -0,0 +1,30 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "History of Animals"
|
||||
chunk: 3/3
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Animals"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:49:27.075544+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
The comparative anatomist Richard Owen said in 1837 that "Zoological Science sprang from [Aristotle's] labours, we may almost say, like Minerva from the Head of Jove, in a state of noble and splendid maturity".
|
||||
Ben Waggoner of the University of California Museum of Paleontology wrote that
|
||||
|
||||
Though Aristotle's work in zoology was not without errors, it was the grandest biological synthesis of the time, and remained the ultimate authority for many centuries after his death. His observations on the anatomy of octopus, cuttlefish, crustaceans, and many other marine invertebrates are remarkably accurate, and could only have been made from first-hand experience with dissection. Aristotle described the embryological development of a chick; he distinguished whales and dolphins from fish; he described the chambered stomachs of ruminants and the social organization of bees; he noticed that some sharks give birth to live young—his books on animals are filled with such observations, some of which were not confirmed until many centuries later.
|
||||
Walter Pagel comments that Aristotle "perceptibly influenced" the founders of modern zoology, the Swiss Conrad Gessner with his 1551–1558 Historiae animalium, the Italian Ulisse Aldrovandi (1522–1605), the French Guillaume Rondelet (1507–1566), and the Dutch Volcher Coiter (1534–1576), while his methods of looking at time series and making use of comparative anatomy assisted the Englishman William Harvey in his 1651 work on embryology.
|
||||
Armand Marie Leroi's 2014 book The Lagoon: How Aristotle Invented Science and BBC documentary Aristotle's Lagoon set Aristotle's biological writings including the History of Animals in context, and propose an interpretation of his biological theories.
|
||||
|
||||
== Notes ==
|
||||
|
||||
== Editions ==
|
||||
Dean-Jones, Lesley (2023). Historia animalium book X: Aristotle's endoxon, topos and dialectic 'On Failure to Reproduce'. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1107015159.
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
|
||||
== External links ==
|
||||
|
||||
English translation by D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1910. Archive.org – or this
|
||||
English translation by Richard Cresswell. London: Henry G. Bohn, 1862.
|
||||
History of Animals public domain audiobook at LibriVox
|
||||
Historia animalium – 1837 (in Greek)
|
||||
0
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicine
Normal file
0
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicine
Normal file
@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "Migrant Architects of the NHS"
|
||||
chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Migrant_Architects_of_the_NHS"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:48:23.273978+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Migrant Architects of the NHS: South Asian Doctors and the Reinvention of British General Practice (1940s–1980s), written by Julian M. Simpson, and published by Manchester University Press in 2018, is a book which combines archival research, images and interviews to tell the story of the physicians who immigrated to Britain from South Asia and became general practitioners (GPs) during the first four decades of Britain's National Health Service (NHS).
|
||||
The research in the book is the basis of an exhibition on migrant doctors at the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP), London, the opening of which also marked the launch of the book.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Content ==
|
||||
The book combines archival research, images and interviews to tell the story of the physicians who immigrated to Britain from South Asia and entered general practice during the first four decades of the National Health Service. It focuses on physicians from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
|
||||
Intended for students and academic researchers with an interest in the history of migration, South Asian studies, oral history and the history of medicine, the book is also of interest to those curious about the links between the British Empire and medical migration.
|
||||
The book sets out to write the history of migration and empire back into the mainstream of British history. It does so by looking at the history of a "typically British" institution: the National Health Service. Migrant Architects' central argument is that the NHS in its first forty years was built around general practice and that general practice was fundamentally dependent on, and shaped by, medical migration from the Indian subcontinent. Simpson also argues that as South Asian doctors were hugely over-represented in the working class parts of Britain (accounting for 30–50% of GPs in many inner city and industrial areas) they were key to the NHS being able to deliver its core mission of helping the most vulnerable populations.
|
||||
The book concludes with a call for more histories of how migration and empire shaped Britain, with a view to using these new accounts to directly engage in contemporary political debates around migration.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Launch ==
|
||||
Migrant Architects of the NHS was officially launched at an exhibition based on the research done for the book, at the RCGP on 25 April 2018 in the presence of the chief executive of NHS England, Simon Stevens and RCGP president professor Mayur Lakhani. Both paid tribute to South Asian doctors on the occasion of the approaching 70th anniversary of the NHS.
|
||||
Taking up positions in some of the most deprived regions of Britain between 1940 and the 1980s, South Asian GPs were praised by Lakhani as "highly-valued" colleagues of the communities in which they practised.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Reception ==
|
||||
The book received international press coverage, particularly in the former British colonies in South Asia from where many doctors moved to work in Britain:
|
||||
|
||||
Bangladesh's newspapers, Bangla Tribune and the Dhaka Tribune, both reported on the book and its launch in April 2018.
|
||||
In India, the Hindustan Times reported on the exhibition and book, commenting that "Indian doctors who worked for it [the NHS] over the decades are being hailed not only for their contribution but for their central role in its development".
|
||||
In Sri Lanka, the Sunday Times of Sri Lanka noted the role that physicians from South Asia played in making the British primary care system.
|
||||
In New Zealand, Virginia McMillan, correspondent for the New Zealand Doctor, accidentally came across Simpson's research on a visit to London, and responded with a parallel narrative of an Indian physician, Sadanand Hegde, who migrated to New Zealand and practiced there as a GP for over thirty-five years.
|
||||
The inclusion of physicians such as Liverpool's Shiv Pande in the book was welcomed by local politician Richard Kemp.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== External links ==
|
||||
Interview with Julian M. Simpson, 5 July 2018, BBC
|
||||
@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "Novel Therapeutic Targets for Antiarrhythmic Drugs"
|
||||
chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novel_Therapeutic_Targets_for_Antiarrhythmic_Drugs"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:48:25.641149+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Novel Therapeutic Targets for Antiarrhythmic Drugs is a book edited by George Billman and published by John Wiley and Sons in 2010.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Content ==
|
||||
According to the publisher, the book describes the current state of cardiac arrhythmia treatment, and attempts to identify future directions research may take. Its 21 chapters cover a variety of topics related to cardiac arrhythmia and electrophysiology, primarily reviewing known molecular targets for drugs. Subjects covered in the book include both traditional approaches to looking at arrhythmia, such as ion channel effects, and more general issues such as the genetics behind differential response to existing drug therapies. Drug safety and side effects are also cover.
|
||||
The book examines avenues by which new treatments might be developed, with four chapters (10, 13, 16, 17) specifically focused on novel targets. Novel ideas offered included studying sodium-calcium exchanger and ryanodine receptor effects. One chapter (5) is dedicated to examining the targets on which existing drugs operate, and another (8) examines drugs in clinical trial at the time of publication. The chemical structure of existing drugs is not covered. Overall, the book advocates for segregating drug targets by disease type and state, rather than the conventional approach of segregating by likelihood to harm. In addition to pharmacological therapies, the book examines potential alternate treatments to arrhythmia including the effect of endurance training on susceptibility. It also investigates omega-3 fatty acids which have a proven effect on cardiac electrophysiology, but have failed to prove protective when obtained through diet.
|
||||
According to cardiologist Peter R. Kowey, the chapter authors are "eminent scientists" in their respective areas. The list includes "some brilliant industry scientists", but does not include any clinicians or drug trialists, possibly creating a biased perspective, according to Kowey.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Response ==
|
||||
In a review for Circulation, Kowey called the book "an admirable attempt" to develop a more targeted approach to arrhythmia treatment, and said it was "illuminating and far reaching". He particularly liked the advocated approach of segregating drug targets by disease state. Kowey said the book's main weakness was a lack of focus on clinical issues – both in topics covered and author selection. He noted that bringing drugs to the marketplace is expensive and proof of concept clinical trials are necessary to justify the investment. He said "Billman should be congratulated for his willingness to take on what is clearly an extraordinarily complex problem area" and praised him for "[encouraging] blue sky thinking" is his contributions to the book. He also congratulated the chapter authors for making "complex discussions not only interpretable, but topical". Kowey concluded "I would recommend this book to my colleagues and fellows, not only as a reference source, but as a compendium of information that summarizes where we are, and most importantly, the path we must take."
|
||||
In a review for ChemMedChem, medicinal chemistry professor Ahmed S. Mehanna agreed that Novel Therapeutic Targets for Antiarrhythmic Drugs did not adequately cover clinical aspects of drug development. He also said the book could have been better organized and focused too heavily on describing known research, as opposed to the novel treatments implied by the book's title. He did, however, say the book "gives very valuable and comprehensive reviews of arrhythmia and its pharmacological management." Mehanna said the book reviewed topics appropriately and was free of obvious errors. Overall, he recommended the book, calling it "a worthwhile addition to the literature on cardiac arrhythmia and antiarrhythmic drugs."
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
0
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outlive
Normal file
0
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outlive
Normal file
39
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rethinking_Madness-0.md
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39
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rethinking_Madness-0.md
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@ -0,0 +1,39 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "Rethinking Madness"
|
||||
chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rethinking_Madness"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:48:31.471062+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Rethinking Madness: Towards a Paradigm Shift In Our Understanding and Treatment of Psychosis (Sky's Edge Publishing, 2012) is a book by the psychologist Paris Williams that explores creative ways of dealing with madness (psychosis). Williams says that psychotic experiences, which cause significant distress, typically occur deep within the mind. Given suitable conditions, this process can often result in a positive outcome, but Williams avoids the romantic notion that psychosis is always beneficial. Much of what Williams says is in close accord with a recovery approach.
|
||||
Williams says that the term "psychosis" has many meanings, and the definitions that have been put forward are controversial. Even the DSM-IV-TR, says that "the term psychosis has historically received a number of definitions, none of which has achieved universal acceptance".
|
||||
Williams says that the diagnosis of schizophrenia is also the subject of much debate:
|
||||
|
||||
Despite over a century of intensive research, no biological markers or physiological tests that can be used to diagnose schizophrenia have been found, its etiology continues to be uncertain, and we don’t even have clear evidence that the concept of schizophrenia is a valid construct. However, diagnosis and treatment based upon the diagnosis continues unhindered by these serious problems.
|
||||
|
||||
William's definition does not match the dominant psychiatric viewpoint on psychosis, which characterizes it as primarily resulting from brain pathology. Neuroscience research has found that dopamine, serotonin, glutamate, and GABA all tend to functionally abnormally in those with schizophrenia. However, Williams makes the case that correlation is not causation, and he documents in detail how such anomalies could be attributed to other factors, including especially neurological harm caused by the use of the psychiatric medications themselves. In particular, he points out that no reliable biomarkers associated with the diagnosis of schizophrenia (or any of the mental health disorders listed in the DSM-5) have been discovered after many years of intense searching, a fact acknowledged by the Chair of the DSM-V task force himself:
|
||||
|
||||
Biological and genetic markers that provide precise diagnoses that can be delivered with complete reliability and validity [are still] disappointingly distant. We’ve been telling patients for several decades that we are waiting for biomarkers. We’re still waiting.
|
||||
|
||||
A 2020 survey of clinical psychologists in the United Kingdom found that some practitioners have found success incorporating the idea of transformative psychosis into care. The paper concluded that the care models used by clinicians represented an extension of practices recommended by professional organizations such as the American Psychiatric Association and not a qualitatively distinct approach.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== See also ==
|
||||
Elyn Saks
|
||||
David Oaks
|
||||
Stuart A. Kirk
|
||||
Robert Whitaker
|
||||
Peter Breggin
|
||||
Peter Lehmann
|
||||
Thomas Szasz
|
||||
Anatomy of an Epidemic
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== External links ==
|
||||
Official website
|
||||
33
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Histories_of_Medicine-0.md
Normal file
33
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Histories_of_Medicine-0.md
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@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "Social Histories of Medicine"
|
||||
chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Histories_of_Medicine"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:48:32.647654+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Social Histories of Medicine is a book series from Manchester University Press which covers "all aspects of health, illness and medicine, from prehistory to the present, in every part of the world". It runs in collaboration with the Society for the Social History of Medicine and is the third series that the society has been associated with after Studies in the Social History of Medicine (1989–2009) and Studies for the Society for the Social History of Medicine. The editors of the current series are David Cantor and Keir Waddington.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Titles ==
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
=== 2017 ===
|
||||
Payment and Philanthropy in British Healthcare, 1918–48. George Campbell Gosling, 2017. ISBN 978-1-5261-1432-7
|
||||
The Metamorphosis of Autism: A History of Child Development in Britain. Bonnie Evans, 2017. ISBN 978-0-7190-9592-4
|
||||
The Politics of Vaccination: A global history. Christine Holmberg, Stuart Blume and Paul Greenough (Eds.), 2017. ISBN 978-1-5261-1088-6
|
||||
Leprosy and Colonialism: Suriname under Dutch rule, 1750–1950. Stephen Snelders, 2017. ISBN 978-1-5261-1299-6
|
||||
Medical Misadventure in an Age of Professionalisation, 1780–1890. Alannah Tomkins, 2017. ISBN 978-1-5261-1607-9
|
||||
Conserving Health in Early Modern Culture: Bodies and Environments in Italy and England. Sandra Cavallo and Tessa Storey (Eds.), 2017. ISBN 978-1-5261-1347-4
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
=== 2018 ===
|
||||
Migrant Architects of the NHS: South Asian Doctors and the Reinvention of British General Practice (1940s-1980s) by Julian M. Simpson, 2018. ISBN 978-1-7849-9130-2
|
||||
Mediterranean Quarantines, 1750–1914: Space, Identity and Power. John Chircop and Francisco Javier Martinez (Eds.). 2018. ISBN 978-1-5261-1554-6
|
||||
Sickness, Medical Welfare and the English Poor, 1750-1834. Steven King, 2018. ISBN 978-1-5261-2900-0
|
||||
Medical Societies and Scientific Culture in Nineteenth-Century Belgium. Joris Vandendriessche, 2018. ISBN 978-1-5261-3320-5
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
0
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuck
Normal file
0
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuck
Normal file
@ -0,0 +1,56 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "Studies in the Social History of Medicine"
|
||||
chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studies_in_the_Social_History_of_Medicine"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:48:34.977652+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
This is a list of books in the series Studies in the Social History of Medicine. The series was produced by the Society for the Social History of Medicine and Tavistock, later Routledge, between 1989 and 2009. It totalled 37 volumes.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Titles ==
|
||||
Titles in the series were:
|
||||
|
||||
Andrews, Bridie, and Mary P. Sutphen (Eds.), Medicine and Colonial Identity (2003).
|
||||
Barry, Jonathan, and Colin Jones (Eds.), Medicine and Charity before the Welfare State (1991).
|
||||
Bashford, Alison, and Claire Hooker, Contagion (2001).
|
||||
Berridge, Virginia, and Kelly Loughlin, Medicine, the Market and the Mass Media: Producing health in the twentieth century (2006).
|
||||
Cooter, Roger, In the Name of the Child: Health and welfare, 1880–1940 (1992).
|
||||
Cunningham, Andrew, and Ole Peter Grell (Eds.), Health Care and Poor Relief in Protestant Europe, 1500–1700 (2004).
|
||||
Dale, Pamela, and Joseph Melling (Eds.), Mental Illness and Learning Disability since 1850: Finding a place for mental disorder in the United Kingdom (2006).
|
||||
Davidson, Roger, and Lesley A. Hall (Eds.), Sex, Sin and Suffering: Venereal disease and European society since 1870 (2001).
|
||||
De Barros, Juanita, Steven Palmer, and David Wright (Eds.), Health and Medicine in the circum-Caribbean, 1800–1968 (2009).
|
||||
Digby, Anne, and David Wright (Eds.), From Idiocy to Mental Deficiency: Historical perspectives on people with learning disabilities (1997).
|
||||
Elliot, Rosemary, Women and Smoking since 1890 (2008).
|
||||
Ernst, Waltraud, Histories of the Normal and the Abnormal: Social and cultural histories of norms and normativity (2008).
|
||||
Ernst, Waltraud, Plural Medicine, Tradition and modernity, 1800–2000 (2002). ISBN 0415231221
|
||||
Ernst, Waltraud, and Bernard Harris (Eds.), Race, Science and Medicine, 1700–1960 (1999).
|
||||
Forsythe, Bill, and Joseph Melling (Eds.), Insanity, Institutions and Society, 1800–1914: A social history of madness in comparative perspective (1999).
|
||||
Gijswit-Hofstra, Marijke, Hilary Marland and Hans de Waardt, Illness and Healing: Alternatives in Western Europe (2004).
|
||||
Gorsky, Martin and Sally Sheard (Eds.), Financing Medicine: The British Experience since 1750 (2007).
|
||||
Horden, Peregrine and Richard Smith (Eds.), The Locus of Care: Families, communities, institutions, and the provision of welfare since antiquity (1998).
|
||||
Jackson, Mark (ed.), Health and the Modern Home (2008).
|
||||
Johnson, Niall, Britain and the 1918–19 Influenza Pandemic: A dark epilogue (2006).
|
||||
Jones, Colin, and Roy Porter (Eds.), Reassessing Foucault: Power, medicine and the body (1994).
|
||||
Killingray, David, and Howard Phillips (Eds.), The Spanish Influenza Pandemic of 1918–19: New perspectives (2003).
|
||||
Marland, Hilary, and Anne Marie Rafferty (Eds.), Midwives, Society and Childbirth: Debates and controversies in the modern period (1998).
|
||||
Marks, Lara, and Michael Worboys (Eds.), Migrants, Minorities and Health: Historical and contemporary studies (1997).
|
||||
McGann, Susan, and Barbara Mortimer (Eds.), New Directions in Nursing History (2005).
|
||||
Melling, Joseph, and Bill Forsythe, The Politics of Madness: The state, insanity and society in England, 1845–1914 (2006).
|
||||
Moran, James, Leslie Topp and Jonathan Andrews (Eds.), Madness, Architecture and the Built Environment: Psychiatric spaces in historical context (2007).
|
||||
Pelling, Margaret, and Richard M. Smith (Eds.), Life, Death and the Elderly: Historical perspectives (1994).
|
||||
Phillips, Jim, and David F. Smith (Eds.), Food, Science, Policy and Regulation in the Twentieth Century: International and comparative perspectives (2001).
|
||||
Sauerteig, Lutz, and Roger Davidson (ed.), Shaping Sexual Knowledge: A cultural history of sex education in twentieth-century Europe (2009).
|
||||
Schlich, Thomas, and Ulrich Tröhler (ed.), The Risks of Medical Innovation: Risk perception and assessment in historical context (2006).
|
||||
Smith, David, Nutrition in Britain: Science, scientists and politics in the twentieth century (1997).
|
||||
Smith, Leonard, Lunatic Hospitals in Georgian England, 1750–1830 (2007).
|
||||
Stanton, Jenny (ed.), Innovations in Health and Medicine: Diffusion and resistance in the Twentieth Century (2004).
|
||||
Sturdy, Steve (ed.), Medicine, Health and the Public Sphere in Britain, 1600–2000 (2003).
|
||||
Sweet, Helen M., and Rona Dougall (Eds.), Community Nursing and Primary Healthcare in Twentieth-Century Britain (2008)
|
||||
Turner, David M., and Kevin Stagg (Eds.), Social Histories of Disability and Deformity: Bodies, images and experiences (2007).
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "Substance Abuse Disorders in Clinical Practice"
|
||||
chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Substance_Abuse_Disorders_in_Clinical_Practice"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:48:36.123098+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Substance Abuse Disorders in Clinical Practice is a medical text written by Edward C. Senay. First published in 1983 by John Wright PSG, a second edition was published in 1998 by W.W. Norton & Co.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
=== General references ===
|
||||
Ginzburg, Harold M. (January 1984). "Substance Abuse Disorders in Clinical Practice—.- by Edward C. Senay, M.D.; John Wright, Boston, 1983, 243 pages, $22.50". Psychiatric Services. 35 (1): 80–a. doi:10.1176/ps.35.1.80-a. ISSN 1075-2730.
|
||||
Lowinson, Joyce H. (1985-03-22). "Substance Abuse Disorders in Clinical Practice". JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association. 253 (12): 1799. doi:10.1001/jama.1985.03350360125037. ISSN 0098-7484.
|
||||
Mitcheson, Martin C. (June 1984). "Substance Abuse Disorders in Clinical Practice. By Edward C. Senay Boston, Bristol: John Wright PSG. 1983. Pp 243. £19.95". British Journal of Psychiatry. 144 (6): 676. doi:10.1192/S0007125000204169. ISSN 0007-1250.
|
||||
Willenbring, Mark (September 1999). "Substance Abuse Disorders in Clinical Practice, second edition". Psychiatric Services. 50 (9): 1241. doi:10.1176/ps.50.9.1241. ISSN 1075-2730.
|
||||
@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "Survival of the Sickest (book)"
|
||||
chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survival_of_the_Sickest_(book)"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:48:37.312452+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Survival of the Sickest: The Surprising Connections Between Disease and Longevity is a 2007 New York Times Bestselling science book by Sharon Moalem, an evolutionary biologist and neurogeneticist, and Jonathan Prince, senior advisor and speechwriter for the Clinton administration. It was originally titled, Survival of the Sickest: A Medical Maverick Discovers Why We Need Disease.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Overview ==
|
||||
The book is a collection of case studies, which use scientific and historical data to support the individual proposed hypotheses, and the overall argument for a connection between some illnesses and increased longevity. Or, how many of the medical conditions that are diseases were the result of evolutionary changes that gave our ancestors a "leg up in the survival sweepstakes."
|
||||
It contains 266 pages all leading up to part 3.
|
||||
|
||||
Chapter 1: Hemochromatosis, bloodletting, and human iron consumption
|
||||
Chapter 2: Diabetes, climate change, and brown fat
|
||||
Chapter 3: Sunlight, vitamin D, cholesterol, and the physiological makeup of race
|
||||
Chapter 4: Vegetables, fava beans, and the spread of malaria
|
||||
Chapter 5: The virulence of bacteria, Guinea worms, and parasitic diseases
|
||||
Chapter 6: Mutating DNA and “jumping” genes
|
||||
Chapter 7: Genetic suppression and childhood obesity
|
||||
Chapter 8: Cancer cells and childbirth
|
||||
Moalem includes an introduction in which he describes how and why he became interested in the medical sciences. The 2008 paperback edition contains a section entitled "P.S. Insights, Interviews, & More...". Moalem includes recommendations of related books.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Reception ==
|
||||
Survival of the Sickest debuted on the New York Times' bestselling book list and was featured on NBC's Today Show, Comedy Central's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and NPR's The Diane Rehm Show.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== External links ==
|
||||
Harpercollins website listing
|
||||
Amazon.com listing with Publishers Weekly review
|
||||
26
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technica_Curiosa-0.md
Normal file
26
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technica_Curiosa-0.md
Normal file
@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "Technica Curiosa"
|
||||
chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technica_Curiosa"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:48:38.495682+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Technica Curiosa was an early compendium of scientific and medical technologies. It was one part of a two-volume work, the other being Physica Curiosa, authored by the German Jesuit scholar Gaspar Schott and published in 1664 during the early stages of the Scientific Revolution.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Background of the writer ==
|
||||
Schott was an attentive spectator at the demonstrations of Otto von Guericke's vacuum pump and subsequently began extensive experiments and studies on his own. He established a fruitful correspondence with von Guericke and published the earliest account on von Guericke's experiments on air pressure and the vacuum in 1657, titled Experimentum Novum Magdeburgicum as an appendix of his Mechanica Hydraulico-pneumatica. With von Guericke as co-author, he published a reviewed and more detailed account in the Technica Curiosa.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Role in popularizing science ==
|
||||
The work ranks among the early popular science publications and did much to inspire widespread interest in the sciences.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== 21st-century legacy ==
|
||||
In 2017 an online platform, that serves as host for several American science magazines for a modern audience has been titled Technica Curiosa. The site incorporates the popular magazines Popular Astronomy, Popular Electronics, and Mechanix Illustrated, among others.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
53
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Colours_of_Animals-0.md
Normal file
53
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Colours_of_Animals-0.md
Normal file
@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "The Colours of Animals"
|
||||
chunk: 1/5
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Colours_of_Animals"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:49:02.340033+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
The Colours of Animals is a zoology book written in 1890 by Sir Edward Bagnall Poulton (1856–1943). It was the first substantial textbook to argue the case for Darwinian selection applying to all aspects of animal coloration. The book also pioneered the concept of frequency-dependent selection and introduced the term "aposematism".
|
||||
The book begins with a brief account of the physical causes of animal coloration. The second chapter gives an overview of the book, describing the various uses of colour in terms of the advantages it can bring through natural selection. The next seven chapters describe camouflage, both in predators and in prey. Methods of camouflage covered include background matching, resemblance to specific objects such as bird droppings, self-decoration with materials from the environment, and the seasonal colour change of arctic animals. Two chapters cover warning colours, including both Batesian mimicry, where the mimic is edible, and Müllerian mimicry, where distasteful species mimic each other. A chapter then looks at how animals combine multiple methods of defence, for instance in the puss moth. Two chapters examine coloration related to sexual selection. Finally Poulton summarizes the subject with a fold-out table including a set of Greek derived words that he invented, of which "aposematic" and "cryptic" survive in biological usage.
|
||||
The Colours of Animals was well received on its publication, although the book's support for sexual selection was criticised by Alfred Russel Wallace, and its Darwinism and critique of Lamarckism were attacked by Edward Drinker Cope. Wallace liked Poulton's experimental work but was critical of his opinions on sexual selection. The Neo-Lamarckian Cope criticised Poulton's support for Darwin but liked the book's many observations of animal coloration. Modern biologists respect Poulton's advocacy of natural selection and sexual selection, despite the lack at the time of an adequate theory of heredity, and his recognition of frequency-dependent selection.
|
||||
|
||||
== Book ==
|
||||
|
||||
=== Approach ===
|
||||
|
||||
Evidence for natural selection
|
||||
Poulton explains in his Preface that
|
||||
|
||||
My chief object has been to demonstrate the utility of colour and marking in animals. In many cases I have attempted to prove that Natural Selection has sufficed to account for the results achieved; and I fully believe that further knowledge will prove that this principle explains the origin of all appearances except those which are due to the subordinate principle of Sexual Selection...
|
||||
Evidence for sexual selection
|
||||
|
||||
Poulton strongly supports Darwin both on the general theme of natural selection, and on the power of sexual selection in species which are sexually dimorphic (where, usually, the male is showier than the female):
|
||||
|
||||
When we look at the marvellous eyes upon the train of a Peacock, or the more beautiful markings on the feathers of the male Argus Pheasant, it seems impossible that so wonderful and complete a result can have been produced by the aesthetic preferences of female birds. And yet Mr. Darwin shows the relation between these characters and much simpler markings on other parts of the surface. He proves that the one has been derived from the other by gradual modification... Such facts, while eminently suggestive of ... some selective agency, seem to be unexplained by any other theory.
|
||||
Poulton knew his view was controversial, but believed he was winning the argument:
|
||||
|
||||
Mr. Wallace's chief objection is the lack of evidence that the female has any aesthetic preferences at all in the selection of her mate. When, however, he admits that display of their decorative plumage by male birds is 'demonstrated', and that the females are in all probability 'pleased or excited by the display', he certainly admits the possession of an aesthetic sense...
|
||||
Frequency-dependent selection
|
||||
In The Colours of Animals, Poulton introduced the concept of frequency-dependent selection (selection based on how abundant a form is) in the context of a polymorphism which he argued would otherwise soon vanish:
|
||||
|
||||
If we breed from moths developed from the green larvae of, e.g., the Large Emerald, the larvae in the next generation are chiefly green, and after several generations there is little doubt that the brown form would become excessively rare; so also the green form would disappear if we bred from the brown varieties. But in nature both forms are common, and therefore it is certain that both must be advantageous to the species, or one of them would quickly disappear. I believe that it is a benefit to the species that some of its larvae should resemble brown and others green catkins, instead of all of them resembling either brown or green. In the former case the foes have a wider range of objects for which they may mistake the larvae, and the search must occupy more time, for equivalent results, than in the case of other species which are not dimorphic.
|
||||
Mimicry and aposematism
|
||||
|
||||
The basic concept of warning coloration (aposematism, like the black and yellow pattern of a wasp) is approached very simply:
|
||||
|
||||
When an animal possesses an unpleasant attribute, it is often to its advantage to advertise the fact as publicly as possible. In this way it escapes a great deal of experimental 'tasting.' The conspicuous patterns and strongly contrasted colours which serve as the signal of danger or inedibility are known as Warning Colours.
|
||||
In the next paragraph Poulton ties aposematism to mimicry as follows:
|
||||
|
||||
It is these Warning Colours which are nearly always the objects of Protective Mimicry, and it will therefore be convenient to describe the former before the latter.
|
||||
Poulton introduced the term aposematism with the words:
|
||||
|
||||
The second head (Sematic Colours) includes Warning Colours and Recognition Markings: the former warn an enemy off, and are therefore called Aposematic;
|
||||
|
||||
=== Contents ===
|
||||
|
||||
The book's structure emphasises the extent to which Poulton, like Darwin, relied on a mass of evidence, mainly from insects, to make his case:
|
||||
Chapter 1 The Physical Cause of Animal Colours.
|
||||
|
||||
Poulton introduces absorption, scattering, colour due to "thin plates" (structural coloration), diffraction and refraction.
|
||||
Chapter 2 The Uses of Colour.
|
||||
63
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|
||||
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|
||||
title: "The Colours of Animals"
|
||||
chunk: 2/5
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Colours_of_Animals"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:49:02.340033+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
The effects of natural selection in creating or destroying colour are discussed. Colour can be non-significant, e.g. directly useful for absorbing heat, Poulton argues, but "By far the most widespread use of colour is to assist an animal in escaping from its enemies or in capturing its prey; the former is Protective, the latter Aggressive [resemblance, i.e. camouflage]." The topics of mimicry, warning coloration, and sexual selection are introduced.
|
||||
Chapter 3 Protective Resemblances in Lepidoptera.
|
||||
|
||||
Poulton distinguishes "special" from "general" resemblances, meaning mimicking a specific object "of no interest to its enemies", or just harmonising "with the general artistic effect of its surroundings", giving examples from moth caterpillars found in England such as the peppered moth and the brimstone moth.
|
||||
Chapter 4 Protective Resemblances in Lepidoptera (continued), Dimorphism, Etc.
|
||||
|
||||
The privet hawkmoth caterpillar is used as an example of "general resemblance". Dimorphism, where caterpillars of a species are sometimes green, sometimes brown, is discussed. The delicacy of larvae is given as a reason for their "wonderful concealment": one touch from a predator "being practically fatal". The resemblance of Kallima and some moths to dead leaves is examined.
|
||||
Chapter 5 Protective Resemblances In Vertebrata, Etc.
|
||||
|
||||
The camouflage of snakes, female birds that "undertake the duty of incubation", birds' eggs, mammals, fish, and marine molluscs is briefly covered.
|
||||
Chapter 6 Aggressive Resemblances — Adventitious Protection.
|
||||
|
||||
The camouflage of predators including lizards, angler fish, mantises including Hymenopus bicornis and the bird-dropping spider is described. "Adventitious protection", making use of materials from the environment, is illustrated with examples such as the decorator crabs and caddis fly larvae, which build tubes "of grains of sand, small shells (often alive), vegetable fragments".
|
||||
Chapter 7 Variable Protective Resemblance in Vertebrata, Etc.
|
||||
|
||||
The ability of animals including fish, lizards and frogs to change their colours quickly is discussed. The changing of the pelage of arctic animals is attributed to the indirect effect of the change in temperature, i.e. a physiological response not a simple physical effect.
|
||||
Chapter 8 Variable Protective Resemblance In Insects.
|
||||
|
||||
Poulton describes in detail experiments demonstrating that moth pupae take on the colour of the background experienced earlier by the larvae.
|
||||
Chapter 9 Protective Resemblances in Lepidoptera (continued).
|
||||
|
||||
Poulton discusses the metallic appearance of insect pupae, which he says is the reason for the name "chrysalis". He rejects the (Lamarckian) view of the "origin of colour, by the direct influence of environment accumulated through many generations", which he agrees is "a very tempting conclusion", because of "clear evidence that the medium of the nervous system was necessary.
|
||||
Chapter 10 Warning Colours.
|
||||
|
||||
The conspicuous warning colours of many insects, skunks, snakes and salamanders are discussed. "It must have been obvious to any one interested in natural history that the insects met with during a walk in summer may be arranged in two great groups: ... difficult to find ... and ... startling colours and conspicuous attitudes" The association of warning with "nauseous or dangerous" animals is identified. The idea that warning coloured animals must be scarce relative to palatable ones is mentioned, along with the reason why different animals use the same warning colours.
|
||||
Chapter 11 Warning Colours (continued).
|
||||
|
||||
Poulton discusses the relationship of colours used for sexual selection and for warning, and continues the discussion of warning with many examples, including Müllerian mimicry, noting that this can both make a pair of distasteful species converge in appearance, and make a group of such species all resemble each other.
|
||||
|
||||
Chapter 12 Protective Mimicry.
|
||||
|
||||
The chapter looks at Batesian mimicry (where the mimic is edible) in both tropical butterflies and English moths, beginning "We now approach one of the most interesting aspects of our subject".
|
||||
Chapter 13 Protective and Aggressive Mimicry.
|
||||
|
||||
Poulton gives examples of mimicry in other insect groups, remarking the "very imperfect" resemblance of bee hawk-moths to bees, which totally failed to "impose on" a lizard, but noting that the much more convincing mimicry of the hornet clearwing moth was treated with extreme caution by an inexperienced lizard.
|
||||
Chapter 14 The Combination of Many Methods of Defence.
|
||||
|
||||
The chapter describes animals including the puss moth caterpillar which combines a threatening display with camouflage and the ability to eject an irritant fluid for protection. Poulton also discusses the lobster moth caterpillar.
|
||||
Chapter 15 Colours Produced by Courtship.
|
||||
|
||||
Poulton discusses sexual selection in birds, butterflies and moths, and spiders, which he treats as another process alongside but supordinate to natural selection, with arguments against the views of Alfred Russel Wallace. He notes that it was remarkable that biological research since Darwin had focussed mainly on comparative anatomy and embryology, whereas Darwin himself was interested in "questions which concern the living animal as a whole", and observes that there are "comparatively few true naturalists", as opposed to "anatomists, microscopists, systematists, or collectors".
|
||||
Chapter 16 Other Theories of Sexual Colouring.
|
||||
|
||||
In this chapter, Poulton looks at "the causes which Mr. Wallace and other writers believe to have been efficient in producing sexual colouring", such as the principle of "recognition marking". Poulton uses the example of the satin bowerbird as evidence for an aesthetic sense.
|
||||
Chapter 17 Summary And Classification.
|
||||
|
||||
Poulton sums up his views with a fold-out table of "The Colours of Animals Classified According to Their Uses". The Greek derived category names include the now widely used aposematic and cryptic, alongside such epithets as "apatetic", "procryptic", "anticryptic", "episematic" and "epigamic", with variants.
|
||||
|
||||
== Reception ==
|
||||
|
||||
=== On first publication in 1890 ===
|
||||
|
||||
==== Wallace in Nature ====
|
||||
33
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Colours_of_Animals-2.md
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|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "The Colours of Animals"
|
||||
chunk: 3/5
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Colours_of_Animals"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:49:02.340033+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
The co-discoverer of natural selection Alfred Russel Wallace, reviewing Poulton in Nature, was interested by Poulton's observations on thin films producing iridescence: "In some cases dried insects lose some of their metallic colours, but these reappear when the specimen is dipped in water." However, Wallace objected to Poulton's suggestion that arctic birds and mammals are white to reduce heat loss by radiation, for which he argued there was no evidence in favour, while a thicker "covering, such as actually occurs in all arctic animals" would reduce heat loss effectively, and could be observed to do so.
|
||||
Wallace was enthusiastic about Poulton's experimental work on how butterfly larvae vary their coloration according to the background, admiring "a number of ingenious experiments" in which Poulton illuminated the insects in light of one colour or another, causing reliable colour changes which could not be direct, like photography, but had to be mediated by the animal's nervous system:
|
||||
|
||||
In some cases even the cocoons spun by the larvæ are modified by the surrounding colours; and still more curious changes are effected in the larva itself when ... the same species feeds on several plants having differently-coloured leaves. Even the presence of numerous dark twigs has been shown to cause a corresponding change of colour in the larva of the peppered moth (Amphidasis betularia)."
|
||||
Wallace's main criticism, occupying half his lengthy review, was of Poulton's acceptance of sexual selection. He begins by stating "Mr. Poulton fully accepts Darwin's theory of female choice as the source of the greater part of the brilliant colour, delicate patterns, and ornamental appendages that exist among animals, and especially among birds and insects." Wallace then cites Poulton on the courtship behaviour of spiders:
|
||||
|
||||
"'The female always watches the antics of the male intently, but often refuses him in the end, 'even after dancing before her for a long time.' Such observations strongly point towards the existence of female preference based on æsthetic considerations'"
|
||||
at once objecting "To the last four words we demur, as being altogether unproved. Why æsthetic considerations?" Wallace then spends a whole page attacking Poulton on "the possession of an 'æsthetic sense' by those creatures in which sexual ornament occurs". Wallace objects that Poulton asserts the reality of sexual selection with no proof other than mentioning that insects can perceive colour, and that "a few birds collect bright objects, as in the case of the bower-birds".
|
||||
Wallace gives a detailed counter-example to refute Poulton's argument, arguing that "really beautiful combinations of colour and marking" are found on the sea shells of molluscs "where sexual selection has certainly not come into play". To make the point, Wallace lists
|
||||
|
||||
"the cones, cowries, olives, harps, volutes, pectens, and innumerable other molluscan shells; while many of the sea-anemones, and considerable numbers of the caterpillars with warning colours, are equally beautiful."
|
||||
And that was not all. Wallace continued:
|
||||
|
||||
"Still more doubtful and more opposed to reasonable probability is the statement that 'our standards of beauty are largely derived from the contemplation of the numerous examples around us, which... have been created by the æsthetic preferences of the insect world'--alluding... to the colours and structures of flowers as being due to the need of attracting insects to fertilize them."
|
||||
There was, Wallace insisted, "not a particle of evidence" of aesthetic preferences in "an insect's very limited mentality". The mention of the term aesthetic was "not scientific".
|
||||
After so many "preceding remarks" against "the theory of sexual selection", Wallace concludes that "The book is well illustrated by numerous excellent woodcuts and a coloured plate", congratulates Poulton on "having produced so readable and suggestive a volume", and on having "contributed so largely" by "his own researches" into animal coloration.
|
||||
|
||||
==== New York Times ====
|
||||
An anonymous reviewer in the New York Times wrote that "Mr Poulton wishes first of all to put himself right with regard to his attitude to Darwinism", mentioning that in 1888 he had been cited in the Edinburgh Review as attacking Darwinism. The reviewer hastens to agree that Poulton is in fact "ready to combat Wallace, his master, on points wherein that great fellow-laborer with Charles Darwin dissents from the latter's views."
|
||||
As an example of this, the reviewer mentions Poulton's argument that Wallace must be wrong that "the coloring whereby the sexes often differ one from the other in a startling way is occasioned by a surplus vitality" because "sexual colors are only developed in species which court by day or twilight" and then only on parts of the body which the female "would oftenest and best see them".
|
||||
The New York Times reviewer argued that the title should have been less general "for readers are sure to demand too much from so comprehensive a term", given that Poulton refers mainly to insects rather than "wild beasts", but in the end he agreed "that Mr. Poulton has written a very suggestive treatise, well fitted for the general reader".
|
||||
|
||||
==== E.D. Cope in American Naturalist ====
|
||||
21
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Colours_of_Animals-3.md
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|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "The Colours of Animals"
|
||||
chunk: 4/5
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Colours_of_Animals"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:49:02.340033+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
The Neo-Lamarckian Edward Drinker Cope, reviewing the book for the American Naturalist, wrote that "Mr. Poulton supports his own theory of the direct physiological value of the uses of colour to animals by a large amount of experimental evidence brought together from many sources". Cope is attracted by "a detail of great interest" in a caterpillar's camouflage "by the semblance of a small hole to indicate piercing by insect larvae" (ichneumon flies, since they avoid caterpillars that are already parasitised), and is impressed by Poulton's observations of "perhaps the most perfect concealment attained by any butterfly" in the dead leaf butterfly Kallima, first described by Alfred Russel Wallace.
|
||||
While admiring of Poulton's detailed observations, Cope was critical of his support for Darwin, arguing that Poulton failed to explain how the variability that natural selection needs to work on actually arises. (The mechanisms of mutation and genetics were not to become adequately understood until the twentieth century rediscovery of Mendel's work.)
|
||||
Cope also objected to Poulton's critique of Lamarckism, where in a footnote he cites S.B.J. Skertchly as writing that "other butterflies noticed this immunity [and] copied it, to which Cope replies as that "even the American Neo-Lamarckians [like Cope] do not follow their founder so far as to believe that the volition of an animal could account for all the details of mimetic resemblance."
|
||||
|
||||
==== Science journal ====
|
||||
Science reviewed the book in November 1890. The reviewer remarks that "It is impossible in this brief notice to do full justice to the wealth of interesting examples with which the author presents us", and notes that unlike the "hackneyed" examples of mimicry and camouflage in other textbooks, "Many of the observations are original." The reviewer remarks, also, on the "decided antithesis between warning and protective colors", animals being either "as conspicuous as possible", or as cryptic as possible, while the conspicuous ones "are usually accompanied by a nauseating taste, strongly smelling or irritant fluids, etc."
|
||||
The reviewer notes more critically that additional examples of mimicry might have been given, such as of Hymenoptera (bees and wasps) mimicked by Diptera (flies), and would have liked fuller treatment of Bates's "South American heliconids and pierids". The reviewer finds the closing chapters on "colors used in courtship" the most interesting of the book, since zoologists disagreed widely on the subject, and notes that Poulton sided with Darwin and against Wallace "who denies that the so-called secondary sexual characters" can "owe their origin to sexual selection". The reviewer, siding with Poulton, writes that "It would be difficult, we believe, to explain many of the facts cited by Poulton, notably Peckham's observations on the courtship of spiders, from Wallace's standpoint." The review ends with a brief discussion of Poulton's table classifying animal coloration, predicting (correctly) that the "Greek derivatives" such as pseudaposematic and pseudepisematic will not be generally adopted.
|
||||
|
||||
==== British Medical Journal ====
|
||||
The British Medical Journal reviewed the book in July 1890. The review begins by noting that the pre-Darwinian view of colour "to-day appears almost ridiculous", adding that "we now know" that colour is of benefit to the animal, and is subject to natural selection. The reviewer writes that it is among Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) that "protective resemblance or 'cryptic coloration' is most beautifully illustrated, and the book teems with instances" of these, noting that Poulton had "made this part of the subject his own". The review quotes examples including the twig larvae of the Brimstone moth and the "terrifying attitude" of the Puss moth caterpillar.
|
||||
The reviewer, noting Wallace's different opinion, has no difficulty with Poulton's view of sexual selection, that it is "due to an aesthetic sense in the [female] animals", and likes Poulton's expression that "Natural Selection is a qualifying examination which must be passed by all candidates for honours; Sexual Selection is an honours examination in which many who have passed the previous examination will be rejected." The review objects to the "thick type headings to the subdivision of chapters" which it finds too much like "the 'new journalism'". It concludes by urging readers to compare the book with Darwin's Descent of Man and with Wallace's Darwinism.
|
||||
35
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Colours_of_Animals-4.md
Normal file
35
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|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "The Colours of Animals"
|
||||
chunk: 5/5
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Colours_of_Animals"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:49:02.340033+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
=== Modern view ===
|
||||
Poulton was a staunch supporter of Darwin, through a period when there was no adequate theory of heredity and both natural selection and sexual selection had become unpopular among scientists, and was attacked for his support both in The Colours of Animals and outside it. And he is recognised as the first scientist to identify frequency-dependent selection, as described in this book. By 1919, the book was being described in Nature as a classic work.
|
||||
Poulton is paid homage by J.A. Allen and B.C. Clarke for his pioneering work on frequency-dependent selection "by predators acting on non-mimetic polymorphic prey (i.e. for apostatic selection), anticipating many of the points made by later workers. We draw attention to his remarkable insight."
|
||||
The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography comments that Poulton's book "concisely and simply explained the many forms of coloration in terms of natural selection; these forms he ingeniously summarized in a comparative table introducing terms which became the standard nomenclature."
|
||||
In her book The Ant and the Peacock: Altruism and Sexual Selection from Darwin to Today, the Darwinian philosopher and rationalist Helena Cronin writes that in The Colours of Animals, Poulton defended Darwin's theory of sexual selection, stressing the role of female choice. She suggests that while people have therefore taken Poulton for a staunch Darwinist and supporter of sexual selection, he "lost his initial enthusiasm for the theory" and "came to relegate it to a very minor position" in evolution. She writes that Poulton's position was highly influential, stating that later "Darwinian experts on coloration" followed his views, citing Frank Evers Beddard's 1892 Animal Coloration as evidence.
|
||||
In his Introduction to Hugh Bamford Cott's 1940 book Adaptive Coloration in Animals, Julian Huxley praised Cott's work as "a worthy successor to Sir Edward Poulton's The Colours of Animals... The one was a pioneer study, the other is in many respects the last word on the subject".
|
||||
|
||||
== See also ==
|
||||
Animal Coloration (F.E. Beddard, 1892)
|
||||
Concealing-Coloration in the Animal Kingdom (G.H. Thayer, 1909)
|
||||
Adaptive Coloration in Animals (Hugh Cott, 1940)
|
||||
|
||||
== Notes ==
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
|
||||
=== Primary ===
|
||||
|
||||
=== Secondary ===
|
||||
|
||||
== Bibliography ==
|
||||
Poulton, Edward Bagnall, Sir (1890). The Colours of Animals, their meaning and use, especially considered in the case of insects Archived 2019-10-06 at the Wayback Machine. London : Kegan Paul, Trench & Trübner.
|
||||
|
||||
== External links ==
|
||||
Jim Mallet, UCL: Extracts from The Colours of Animals
|
||||
@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_End_of_Night_(book)"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:38:59.515616+00:00"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:49:14.173297+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "The Extermination of the American Bison"
|
||||
chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Extermination_of_the_American_Bison"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:49:15.345339+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
The Extermination of the American Bison is a book by William Temple Hornaday first published in 1889 by the Government Printing Office. It was reprinted from a report Hornaday wrote for the Smithsonian Institution in the years 1886–87.
|
||||
Extermination contains an exhaustive account of bison ecology and the story of the near-entire destruction of the bison population in the United States. The book argues for the consequent necessity of protecting the small number of bison then in Yellowstone National Park.
|
||||
|
||||
The book is divided into three parts. The first relates to the habits, geographical distribution, and probable population of the bison before the European settlement of North America. The second describes the extermination of the animal by industrial-scale bison hunting. It argues that the speed of extermination has been increased by unnecessary slaughter and the lack of legal protection of the bison population, among other things. The third part describes the Smithsonian's 1886 expedition to Montana to obtain specimens for the National Museum of Natural History before bison went extinct in North America. A census of the animals known to exist in captivity on January 1, 1889, showed 256 specimens in the United States and abroad.One contemporary writer notes that a number of scholars consider Extermination to be "the first important text of the American wildlife conservation movement".
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== See also ==
|
||||
Conservation of American bison
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Further reading ==
|
||||
Hornaday, William Temple (1889). The Extermination of the American Bison. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution; Government Printing Office – via Project Gutenberg.
|
||||
@ -0,0 +1,85 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma"
|
||||
chunk: 1/2
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fauna_of_British_India,_Including_Ceylon_and_Burma"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:49:18.789713+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
The Fauna of British India (short title) with long titles including The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma, and The Fauna of British India Including the Remainder of the Oriental Region is a series of scientific books that was published by the British government in India and printed by Taylor and Francis of London. The series was started sometime in 1881 after a letter had been sent to the Secretary of State for India signed by Charles Darwin, Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker and other "eminent men of science" forwarded by P.L.Sclater to R.H. Hobart. W. T. Blanford was appointed editor and began work on the volume on mammals.
|
||||
|
||||
In the volume on the mammals, Blanford notes:
|
||||
|
||||
The need for new and revised descriptive works had, for some years before 1881, been felt and discussed amongst naturalists in India, but the attention of the Government was, I believe, first called to the matter by a memorial dated Sept. 15th of that year, prepared by Mr. P. L. Sclater, the well-known Secretary of the Zoological Society, signed by Mr. Charles Darwin, Sir J. Hooker, Professor Huxley, Sir J. Lubbock, Prof. W. H. Flower, and by Mr. Sclater himself, and presented to the Secretary of State for India. This memorial recommended the preparation of a series of Handbooks of Indian Zoology and my appointment as Editor. It is scarcely necessary to add that to the recommendation of men so highly respected and so well known in the world of Science the publication of the present Fauna of British India is greatly due, and that Mr. Sclater is entitled to the thanks of all interested in the Zoology of India for the important part he took in the transaction. I can only express a hope that the present series as a whole may be worthy of the distinguished support to which, in so great a degree, it owes its origin.
|
||||
The idea was to cover initially the vertebrates, taking seven volumes, and this was followed by a proposal to cover the invertebrates in about 15 to 20 volumes and projected to cost £11,250 to £15,000. Blanford suggested that restricting it to 14 volumes would make it possible to limit the cost to £10,500. After Blanford's death, Arthur Everett Shipley became the editor. The first series was followed by a second edition of some of the volumes such as the mammals, birds, reptiles and butterflies. In 1922–23, Nelson Annandale sought to move the process of preparation of the books and its publication to India. The second edition is sometimes called the "new fauna". There were changes incorporated in this that included for instance the usage of trinomials for the birds. Following Shipley's death in 1927, Lieutenant Colonel John Stephenson, formerly of the Indian Medical Service was appointed editor in May 1928. Publication was stopped during the Second World War. After Indian Independence in 1947 a few volumes were published under the new name of Fauna of India but some of the volumes that were under preparation were never published. The 1953 volume on polychaetes by Pierre Fauvel was published by the Indian Press from Allahabad.
|
||||
|
||||
== Protozoa ==
|
||||
|
||||
Bhatia, B. L. (1936) Vol. I Protozoa:Ciliophora
|
||||
Bhatia, B. L. (1938) Vol. II Protozoa: Sporozoa
|
||||
|
||||
== Coelenterata ==
|
||||
Annandale, Nelson (1911) Freshwater sponges, Hydroids & Polyzoa [251 p - 48 figs - 5 pl ]
|
||||
Burton M (?) Porifera (Not published)
|
||||
|
||||
== Nematoda, Cestoda, Oligochaeta, Annelida etc. ==
|
||||
Stephenson, J. (1923) Oligochaeta xxiv + 518 p - 261 figs
|
||||
Harding, W. A. & John Percy Moore (1927) Hirudinea xxxviii + 302 p - 63 figs - 8 pl (4 col.) - 1 map
|
||||
Southwell, T. (1930) Cestoda. Volume 1. Cestodaria, Bucestoda (excl. Taenioidia)
|
||||
Southwell, T. (1930) Cestoda. Volume 2. Taenioidia
|
||||
Baylis, H. A. (1936) Nematoda. 1. Ascaroidea and Strongyloidea [408 p - 182 figs ]
|
||||
Baylis, H. A. (1939) Nematoda. 2. Filarioidea, Dioctophymoidea and Trichinelloidea [274 p - 150 figs ]
|
||||
Fauvel, Pierre (1953) Polychaeta
|
||||
Bhalerao, DG (?) Trematoda (this was announced but never published)
|
||||
|
||||
== Crustacea ==
|
||||
Although these volumes were sanctioned, they were never published.
|
||||
|
||||
Nilsson-Cantell, CA (?) Cirripedia
|
||||
Chopra BN (?) Brachyura (Oxyrhyncha)
|
||||
Seymour Sewell, RB (?) Copepoda (Calanoids)
|
||||
|
||||
== Echinodermata ==
|
||||
Mortensen, Theodor Echinoidea (This was never produced due to the death of the author. See preface by R B Seymour Sewell in the 1953 Polychaeta volume.)
|
||||
|
||||
== Mollusca ==
|
||||
Blanford W. T. & Godwin-Austen H. H. 1908. Mollusca. Testacellidae and Zonitidae. Taylor & Francis, London. 311 pp.
|
||||
Gude G. K. 1914. Mollusca.−II. (Trochomorphidae--Janellidae). xii + 520 pp., 164 figs.
|
||||
Gude G. K. 1921. Mollusca.−III. Land operculates (Cyclophoridae, Truncatellidae, Assimineidae, Helicinidae). 386 pp.
|
||||
Preston H B 1915. Mollusca. Freshwater Gastropoda & Pelecypoda. Taylor & Francis, London, 244 pp., 29 figs.
|
||||
Prashad, Baini (?) Mollusca 5. Pelecypoda (not published)
|
||||
|
||||
== Arachnida ==
|
||||
Pocock, R.I. (1900) Arachnida (Split PDF)
|
||||
Sharif M (?) Ticks.
|
||||
|
||||
== Hemiptera ==
|
||||
Distant, W.L. (1902) Rhynchota 1. Heteroptera. Pentatomidae, Coreidae, Berytidae (See also Index to Rhynchota)
|
||||
Distant, W.L. (1904) Rhynchota 2. Heteroptera. Family 4 to 16. (Lygaeidae - Capsidae)
|
||||
Distant, W.L. (1906) Rhynchota 3. Heteroptera - Homoptera Heteroptera-family 17 to 24. (Anthoceridae - Coricidae) / Cicadidae, Fulgoridae.
|
||||
Distant, W.L. (1907–8) Rhynchota 4. Homoptera: Membracidae, Cercopidae, Jassidae & Heteroptera: Appendix (initially published in two parts)
|
||||
Distant, W.L. (1911) Rhynchota 5. Heteroptera: Appendix
|
||||
Distant, W.L. (1916) Rhynchota 6. Homoptera. Appendix
|
||||
Distant, W.L. (1918) Rhynchota 7. Homoptera:Appendix to Jassidae, Heteroptera:Addenda
|
||||
|
||||
== Dermaptera ==
|
||||
Burr, M. (1910) Dermaptera (Earwigs) [217 p - 10 pl]
|
||||
|
||||
== Odonata ==
|
||||
Fraser, F.C. (1933) Odonata. 1 Introduction, Coenagriidae 423 p
|
||||
Fraser, F.C. (1934) Odonata. 2 Agriidae, Gomphidae 398 p - 120 figs - 4 col. pl.
|
||||
Fraser, F.C. (1936) Odonata. 3 Cordulegasteridae, Aeshnidae, Libellulidae. 461 p.
|
||||
|
||||
== Orthoptera ==
|
||||
Kirby, WF (1914) Acridiidae
|
||||
Second edition
|
||||
Uvarov, BP (?) Acridiidae
|
||||
Chopard L. (1969) The Fauna of India and the Adjacent Countries. Orthoptera. Vol.2: Grylloidea. Calcutta: Baptist Mission Press.
|
||||
Henry G M (?) Tettigoniidae
|
||||
|
||||
== Blattaria ==
|
||||
Shelford, R. Blattidae (sanctioned but not published)
|
||||
|
||||
== Coleoptera ==
|
||||
@ -0,0 +1,113 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma"
|
||||
chunk: 2/2
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fauna_of_British_India,_Including_Ceylon_and_Burma"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:49:18.789713+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Andrewes, H. (1929) Carabidae 1. Carabinae [ 431 p - 62 figs - 9 pl (1 col) ]
|
||||
Andrewes, H. (1935) Carabidae 2. Harpalinae [ 323 p - 51 figs - 5 pl ]
|
||||
Arrow, G.J. (1910) Lamellicornia 1. Cetoniinae and Dynastinae [xiv + 322 p - 76 figs - 2 col. pl. ]
|
||||
Arrow, G.J. (1917) Lamellicornia 2. Rutelinae, Desmonycinae, Euchirinae [xiii + 387 p - 77 figs - 5 pl (1 col.)]
|
||||
Arrow, G.J. (1931) Lamellicornia 3. Coprinae [428 p - 61 figs - 13 pl (1 col.) - 1 map ]
|
||||
Arrow, G.J. (1949) Lamellicornia 4. Lucanidae & Passalidae[vii + 274 pp., 23 pl]
|
||||
Arrow, G.J. (1925) Clavicornia : Erotylidae, Languriidae & Endomychidae [xv + 416 p - 76 figs - 1 col. pl. - 1 map]
|
||||
Beeson, C.F.C. (?) Platypodidae ()
|
||||
Browne, J Balfour (never published) Dytiscidae, Gyrinidae and Haliplidae
|
||||
Cameron, M. (1930) Staphylinidae 1. (Micropeplinae, Oxytelinae, Oxyporinae, Megalopinae, Steninae, Enaesthetinae) [471 p - 134 figs - 1 map - 3 col. plates]
|
||||
Cameron, M. (1934) Staphylinidae. 2. (Paederinae) 257 p - 2 col. pl.
|
||||
Cameron, M. (1932) Staphylinidae 3. (Staphylininae, Trichophyinae, Termitodiscinae, Pygosteninae, Tachyporinae) 443 p - 4 col. pl.
|
||||
Cameron, M. (1939) Staphylinidae 4. Part 1. Subfam. Pseudopernthinae and Aleocharinae (part)
|
||||
Cameron, M. (1939) Staphylindae 4. Part 2. Aleocharinae.
|
||||
Fowler, W. (1912) Coleoptera. General introduction and Cicindelidae to Paussidae xx + 529 p - 240 figs
|
||||
Gahan, C. (1906) Coleoptera. Cerambycidae 329 p -107 figs
|
||||
Jacoby, Martin & others (1908–1936) Chrysomelidae Volumes 1–4. (Jacoby died before the first volume was published. See preface to the first volume by C T Bingham)
|
||||
Jacoby, M. (1908) Chrysomelidae 1. Eupodes, Camptosomes, Cyclica 534 p - 172 figs - 2 pl
|
||||
Maulik, S. (1919) Chrysomelidae Volume 2 Hispinae and Cassidinae xi + 439 p - 130 figs
|
||||
Maulik, S. (1926) Chrysomelidae Volume 3. Chrysomelinae and Halticinae 442 p - 139 figs - 1 map
|
||||
Maulik, S.(1936) Chrysomelidae Volume 4. Galerucinae 648 p - 144 fig - 1 map - 1 pl - hbk
|
||||
Marshall, Guy A.K. (1916) Rhynchophora, Curculionidae 367 p - 108 figs
|
||||
Sanctioned but not published
|
||||
Beeson CFC Scolytidae
|
||||
Beeson CFC Platypodidae
|
||||
Stebbing, E.P. Buprestidae
|
||||
|
||||
== Diptera ==
|
||||
Brunetti, E. (1912) Diptera : Nematocera excluding Chironomidae & Culicidae 581 p
|
||||
Brunetti, E. (1920) Diptera 2. Brachycera Volume 1 (Stratiomyiidae, Leptidae, Nemestinidae, Cyrtidae, Bombyliidae, Therevidae, Scenopinidae, Mydaidae, Empidae, Lonchopteridae, Platypezidae) 401 p.
|
||||
Brunetti, E. (1923) Diptera 3. Pipunculidae, Syrphidae, Conopidae, Oestridae [424 p - 83 fig - 5 pl]
|
||||
Christophers, S.R. (1933) Diptera Volume 4. Culicidae tribe Anophelini
|
||||
Barraud, P.J. (1934) Diptera Volume 5. (Culicidae) tribes Megarhinini & Culicini
|
||||
R Senior-White, Daphne Aubertin & John Smart (1940) Diptera Volume 6. Calliphoridae
|
||||
Hobby, BM (?) Diptera Volume 7. Asilidae
|
||||
Oldroyd, H (?) Tabanidae
|
||||
van Emden, F I - Muscidae Diptera Volume 7. Part 1 Published 1966 in The Fauna of India - Part 2 was planned but never published.
|
||||
|
||||
== Aphaniptera ==
|
||||
Sharif, M (?) Fleas.
|
||||
|
||||
== Hymenoptera ==
|
||||
Bingham, C.T. (1897) Hymenoptera. Vol. 1. Wasps and bees xxix + 579 pp.
|
||||
Bingham, C. T. (1903) Hymenoptera, Vol. 2. Ants and Cuckoo-wasps 506 pp.
|
||||
Morley, C. (1913) Hymenoptera Vol. 3. Ichneumones Deltoidei 531 p - 152 fig - 1 pl
|
||||
|
||||
== Lepidoptera ==
|
||||
Bingham, C. T. (1905) Butterflies Vol. 1 - Family Nymphalidae
|
||||
Bingham, C. T. (1907) Butterflies Vol. 2 - Families Papilionidae, Pieridae and Lycaenidae
|
||||
George Francis Hampson & others (1892–1937) Moths. 5 volumes
|
||||
Hampson, G. (1892) Moths 1. Saturniidae to Hypsidae 527 p - 333 fig
|
||||
Hampson, G. (1894) Moths 2. Arctiidae, Agrostidae, Noctuidae 609 p - 325 figs
|
||||
Hampson, G. (1895) Moths 3. Noctuidae (cont.) to Geometridae 546 p - 226 figs
|
||||
Hampson, G. (1896) Moths 4. Pyralidae 594 p - 287 figs
|
||||
Bell TRD & F B Scott (1937) Moths. Vol. 5. Sphingidae [537 p - 1 folding map - 15 pl]
|
||||
Second edition
|
||||
Talbot, G. (1939) Butterflies. Vol. 1 Papilionidae, Pieridae, xxix + 600 p - 184 figs - 1 folding map - 3 col. pl.
|
||||
Talbot, G. (1947) Butterflies. Vol. 2 Danaidae, Satyridae, Amathusiidae and Acraeidae. xv + 506 p - 104 figs - 2 col. pl.
|
||||
|
||||
== Reptilia and Amphibia ==
|
||||
Günther, A.C.L.G. (1864) Reptiles of British India [1]. xxvii + 452 p - 26 pl (Not part of the Fauna of British India series, but included here for completeness)
|
||||
Boulenger, G. A. (1890) Reptilia and Batrachia xviii + 541 p - 142 figs
|
||||
Second edition
|
||||
Smith, M. A. (1931–1943) Reptilia and Amphibia. 3 Volumes. (Volume 4 was to cover Amphibia).
|
||||
Smith, M. A. (1931) Reptilia and Amphibia 1: Loricata and Testudines xviii + 185 p - 42 figs - 2 pl
|
||||
Smith, M. A. (1935) Reptilia and Amphibia 2: Sauria xiii + 440 p - 93 figs - 1 pl - 2 maps
|
||||
Smith, M. A. (1943) Reptilia and Amphibia 3: Serpentes xii + 583 p - 166 figs
|
||||
|
||||
== Fishes ==
|
||||
Day, Francis (July 11, 1889) Fishes Volume I Chondropterygii, Teleoste (Physostomi; Acanthopterygii: Percidae)
|
||||
Day, Francis (September 21, 1889) Fishes Volume II Teleostei (Acanthopterygii excl. Percidae; Anacanthini; Lophobranchii; Plectognathi), Leptocardii
|
||||
Second edition
|
||||
Hora, SL (?) (projected to be published in 5 volumes in 1953 but not published)
|
||||
|
||||
== Birds ==
|
||||
Oates, E. W. (Blanford, W. T., editor) (1889) Birds. 1 [582 p]
|
||||
Oates, E. W. (1890) Birds. 2 [424 p]
|
||||
Blanford, W. T. (1895) Birds. 3 [450 p - 102 figs]
|
||||
Blanford, W. T. (1898) Birds. 4 [500 p - 127 figs]
|
||||
Second edition
|
||||
Baker, Stuart (1922) Birds. 1 524 p
|
||||
Baker, Stuart (1924) Birds. 2 606 p - 86 figs
|
||||
Baker, Stuart (1926) Birds. 3 534 p
|
||||
Baker, Stuart (1927) Birds. 4 471 p - 71 figs
|
||||
Baker, Stuart (1928) Birds. 5 469 p - 49 figs
|
||||
Baker, Stuart (1929) Birds. 6 548 p
|
||||
Baker, Stuart (1930) Birds. 7 484 p (Synonymical catalogue Passeres-Grallae)
|
||||
Baker, Stuart (1930) Birds. 8. 326 p (Synonymical catalogue Grallae - Pygopodes; Corrigenda and Addenda)
|
||||
|
||||
== Mammals ==
|
||||
Blanford, WT (1888, 1891) Mammalia
|
||||
Part 1 Primates, Carnivora, Insectivora
|
||||
Part 2 Chiroptera, Rodentia, Ungulata, Cetacea, Sirenia, Edentata
|
||||
Second edition
|
||||
Pocock, R.I. (1939) Mammalia. I. Primates and Carnivora
|
||||
Pocock, R.I. (1941) Mammalia. II. Carnivora :Aeluroidea, Arctoidea
|
||||
Ellerman, J.R, Roonwal, M.L. (ed.) (1961) Mammalia. III. Rodentia
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
|
||||
== External links ==
|
||||
|
||||
Fauna of British India and Fauna of India - scanned volumes
|
||||
@ -0,0 +1,49 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "The Natural History of Alcoholism Revisited"
|
||||
chunk: 1/4
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Natural_History_of_Alcoholism_Revisited"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:48:24.478686+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
The Natural History of Alcoholism Revisited (1995) is a book by psychiatrist George E. Vaillant that describes two multi-decade studies of the lives of 600 American males, non-alcoholics at the outset, focusing on their lifelong drinking behaviours. By following the men from youth to old age it was possible to chart their drinking patterns and what factors may have contributed to alcoholism. Another study followed 100 severe alcoholics from a clinic eight years after their detoxification. The National Review hailed the first edition (1983) as "a genuine revolution in the field of alcoholism research" and said that "Vaillant has combined clinical experience with an unprecedented amount of empirical data to produce what may ultimately come to be viewed as the single most important contribution to the literature of alcoholism since the first edition of AA's Big Book." Some of the main conclusions of Vaillant's book are:
|
||||
|
||||
That alcoholism is as much a social as a medical condition. "Alcoholism can simultaneously reflect both a conditioned habit and a disease."
|
||||
Factors predicting alcoholism were related to ethnic culture, alcoholism in relatives, and a personality that is antisocial and extroverted. An unhappy childhood predicted mental illness but not alcoholism—unless the family problems were due to alcoholism.
|
||||
That alcoholism was generally the cause of co-occurring depression, anxiety, and sociopathic (delinquent) behaviour, not the result.
|
||||
That even though alcoholism is not solely a medical condition, it is therapeutically effective to explain it as a disease to patients. The disease concept encourages patients to take responsibility for their drinking, without debilitating guilt.
|
||||
That for most alcoholics, attempts at controlled drinking in the long term end in either abstinence or a return to alcoholism.
|
||||
That there is as yet no cure for alcoholism, and that medical treatment can only provide short-term crisis intervention.
|
||||
Achieving long-term sobriety usually involves (1) a less harmful, substitute dependency; (2) new relationships; (3) sources of inspiration and hope; and (4) experiencing negative consequences of drinking.
|
||||
|
||||
== Background ==
|
||||
|
||||
=== Study Samples ===
|
||||
Core City: In 1940, Sheldon and Eleanour Glueck of Harvard began a major study of juvenile delinquency in teens from Boston — mostly poor kids in tenements, half without a bathtub in their homes. The control group for the study comprised 456 boys who were assessed as non-delinquent. In 1974 this control group, which Vaillant referred to as the Core City sample, was turned over to him to continue research. The Core City group had a mean IQ of 95, and 48% graduated from high school.
|
||||
College: In 1976 Vaillant inherited another study of more than 200 Harvard sophomores started in 1938—the College sample. The sophomores were white males, selected because they were high achievers and had no known medical or psychological problems. The College sample had a mean IQ of 130, and 76% attended graduate school. Their 1976 mean income was three times that of the Core City group.
|
||||
The research eventually showed that for the Core City sample at age 60, 36% had abused alcohol at some time in their lives; for the College sample at age 70, the figure was 22%.
|
||||
The samples were narrow ("male, white, American, and born between 1919 and 1932.") but were followed for a long period. As critics and Vaillant himself pointed out, the samples did not include important segments of the population such as African-Americans and women. Both samples likely excluded those who began abusing alcohol in early adolescence.
|
||||
The Clinic sample was a group of 100 severe alcoholics who were detoxified at clinic in an urban, municipal hospital (Cambridge Hospital) in Massachusetts during the winter of 1971-1972. The treatment was carried out under what was known as the CASPAR program—Cambridge-Somerville Program for Alcohol Rehabilitation. This group was followed for 8 years to measure the effectiveness of the treatment.
|
||||
|
||||
=== Timeline ===
|
||||
1921: mean birth date of College sample
|
||||
1929: mean birth date of Core City sample
|
||||
1938: study on the College sample begins at Harvard
|
||||
1940: Gluecks begin the Core City study
|
||||
1971-2: Clinic study begins
|
||||
1972-4: Vaillant takes over the College and Core City samples.
|
||||
1983: Vaillant publishes The Natural History of Alcoholism: causes, patterns and paths to recovery.
|
||||
1995: Vaillant publishes a new edition entitled The Natural History of Alcoholism Revisited, which includes the entire text of the 1983 edition plus new material marked "Revisited."
|
||||
1996: The 1995 edition is summarized in a paper by Vaillant and Hiller-Sturmhofel entitled “The Natural History of Alcoholism”.
|
||||
2003: Vaillant brings the studies to a close and summarizes results in a 2003 paper entitled "A 60-year follow-up of alcoholic men".
|
||||
|
||||
=== Definitions ===
|
||||
In the 1983 edition of his book, Vaillant required four positive answers to questions on his Problem Drinking Scale (PDS) to indicate alcohol abuse. To diagnose full-blown alcoholism—i.e. alcohol dependence—he used DSM III, which requires either physical tolerance or physiological withdrawal. For the 1995 edition he abandoned the PDS and used the DSM definitions of both abuse and alcoholism.
|
||||
|
||||
=== Longitudinal study ===
|
||||
A longitudinal study is one that follows test subjects over a long period of time — as opposed to a cross-sectional study, which gives a 'snap-shot' of a group at one point in time. Longitudinal studies tend to examine smaller groups in greater detail, whereas cross-sectional studies are often based on a more representative segment of the population over a short time. The longitudinal method was useful in identifying factors in alcoholism, for instance by investigating whether delinquent behaviour started before or after drinking.
|
||||
|
||||
=== Prospective study ===
|
||||
A prospective study is forward-looking and includes subjects who did not originally have symptoms of the disease being studied. Many retrospective, or backward-looking, studies might take a group of alcoholics and try to determine what common traits might have caused their alcoholism. A prospective study takes a group of healthy individuals and tries to predict which ones would become alcoholic based on their histories—a much broader technique that often yields surprising results.
|
||||
@ -0,0 +1,43 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "The Natural History of Alcoholism Revisited"
|
||||
chunk: 2/4
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Natural_History_of_Alcoholism_Revisited"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:48:24.478686+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
=== Techniques for research on alcoholics ===
|
||||
Alcoholics present special challenges for researchers because they are good at concealing their drunkenness. Vaillant asserts that "Alcoholics are expert forgetters," have inaccurate memories, and give persuasive denials that manifest "an extraordinary ability to deny the consequences of their drinking." For effective interviews, the subject should first be relatively sober. The interviewer should ask non-threatening, non-judgmental questions that do not challenge the alcoholic's right to drink and that minimise guilt. (Failure to observe these guidelines by medical professionals has likely contributed to alcoholics’ reputation for denial.) Interviewers should ask for objective evidence. For example, if an alcoholic claims that his divorce led to him drinking, the interviewer could ask if the alcoholic's spouse ever complained of his drinking before they split. Interviews and questionnaires should always be backed up with interviews with the subject's family, with consultation of medical records, and with searches in public records for evidence of legal problems associated with drinking.
|
||||
|
||||
== Book summary ==
|
||||
|
||||
=== Medical or behavioural disorder? ===
|
||||
A major focus in the book was a comparison of the various definitions of alcoholism:
|
||||
|
||||
the medical model, which focuses on the individual's physical addiction and on symptoms such as ulcers or cirrhosis of the liver;
|
||||
the behavioural model, which focuses on alcoholism as an individual choice that may be influenced by environmental factors;
|
||||
the sociological model, which focuses on the problems the subject creates in society, such as abuse to family members or arrests for drunk driving; and
|
||||
common sense concepts such as "a person is likely an alcoholic if they admit it and have been diagnosed in a clinic."
|
||||
The first interesting observation was that there is no sharp dividing line between alcoholics and non-alcoholics. The number of drinking problems is spread out along a scale, just like IQ and blood pressure; there is not a cluster of alcoholics at the top end of the scale.
|
||||
Vaillant compiled indicators of alcoholism from many sources, medical and sociological, and applied them to the Core City drinkers. Possible criteria included
|
||||
|
||||
frequency of intoxication;
|
||||
binge drinking;
|
||||
complaints from spouses, friends, bosses, or police;
|
||||
accidents and legal problems;
|
||||
attempts at “going on the wagon”;
|
||||
clinical diagnosis;
|
||||
admits problems;
|
||||
the ‘morning shakes’; and
|
||||
health problems.
|
||||
Statistical techniques were used to determine which, if any, of the criteria were the best indicators of alcoholism. Surprisingly, the answer was that all criteria were of roughly equal importance. No particular indicator or cluster of indicators predominated: it was the number and frequency of problems that best defined alcoholism. More importantly, the medical, sociological, and behavioural criteria were equally reliable (i.e. highly correlated). In other words, it was equally valid to call alcoholism a medical or a behavioural disorder—evidence that doctors and sociologists are indeed talking about the same “unitary disorder”.
|
||||
There are some grounds, Vaillant argues, for considering alcoholism a medical disease in the most severe cases. As the disorder worsens, conscious choice becomes less and less important and the alcoholic needs medical assistance to detoxify without risk to life (unlike, for example, heroin, which poses less physical danger to addicts going ‘cold turkey’). In this respect, alcoholism resembles coronary heart disease, which starts as ‘voluntary’, unhealthy behaviours such as poor diet and lack of exercise, but ends in a life-threatening medical condition.
|
||||
|
||||
=== Causes of alcoholism ===
|
||||
Public opinion has it that alcoholics drink because they have underlying anxiety, unhappy childhoods, and lack of self-control. However Vaillant's results indicated that some "obvious" causes of alcoholism such as anxiety or unhappy childhoods, were not significant and that the alcoholic personality—self-centered, immature, dependent, resentful, and irresponsible—was not evident until after the subjects had started to abuse alcohol The type of personality found most likely to become alcoholic was antisocial and extroverted, although most antisocial behaviour observed was a result of alcoholism. The presence or absence of childhood environmental strengths predicted which of the College men would take tranquilizers or require medicine for physical complaints, but did not predict alcoholism. Unhappy family environments caused alcoholism only if the unhappy environments were the result of alcoholism in the first place.
|
||||
The ethnic culture of each man was important. Among the Core City subjects, 61% of whose parents were born in foreign countries, alcoholics were seven times more likely to have Irish than Italian backgrounds. In general, more alcoholics came from countries such as Ireland that prohibited drinking among children but condoned adult drunkenness. Fewer alcoholics came from countries such as Italy that allowed children to drink, especially at meals, and looked down on adult drunkenness.
|
||||
Alcoholism in ancestors was a factor. Men with several alcohol-abusing ancestors (i.e. not members of immediate family) were twice as likely to become alcoholics as those with none. The presence of an alcoholic parent increased the risk of alcoholism by three times, although it was not clear from the data if the factors were genetic or environmental.
|
||||
Other miscellaneous factors leading to alcohol dependence included the rapidity with which the alcohol reaches the brain ("gives a high"); jobs such as journalism that encourage drinking because they have no daily structure; drinking behaviour in one's social group; legal availability of alcohol; cost of alcohol; and social stability—in other words medical, environmental, social, and economic factors.
|
||||
Depression, clinically so often found to occur with alcoholism, was likewise found to be a result of alcoholism. Evidence such as this indicated that alcoholism is not merely a symptom of an underlying disorder, but is an independent disorder in itself.
|
||||
@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "The Natural History of Alcoholism Revisited"
|
||||
chunk: 3/4
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Natural_History_of_Alcoholism_Revisited"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:48:24.478686+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
=== Natural history of alcoholism ===
|
||||
Contrary to popular conception, alcoholism does not start with the first drink, but usually has a gradual onset over 5 to 15 years of continuous alcohol abuse. One surprise to Vaillant was the number of men who were able to abuse alcohol for decades without becoming dependent. Of 29 alcohol abusers in the College sample, seven men were able to drink heavily for a mean of three decades without showing symptoms of dependence.
|
||||
The average age of onset of alcohol abuse was 29 years for the Core City men and 41 years for the College men. Full blown alcoholism, where it appeared, usually lasted a decade or two before sobriety was attained. The number of alcoholics increased steadily until age 40 and then began to decline at a rate of stable remission of 2 to 3% per year. Older alcoholics are relatively rare because of the rate of remission and a higher mortality rate.
|
||||
Seventy-two alcoholics in the Core City sample were successfully followed to age 70. By this age 54% had died, 32% were abstinent, 1% were controlled drinkers, and 12% were still abusing alcohol.
|
||||
By comparison 19 alcoholics in the College sample were successfully followed to age 70. By this age 58% had died, 21% were abstinent, 10.5% were controlled drinkers, and 10.5% were still abusing alcohol.
|
||||
On the topic of whether controlled drinking is advisable as a therapeutic goal, Vaillant concluded that "training alcohol-dependent individuals to achieve stable return to controlled drinking is a mirage." Successful return to controlled drinking is possible, just a rare and unstable outcome that in the long term usually ends in relapse or abstinence, especially for the more severe cases. Vaillant tracked two samples within his study group: 21 alcohol abusers who had attained stable abstinence, and 22 who had returned to a stable pattern of controlled drinking. At the end of 15 years of follow-up, in 1995, one of the 21 abstainers had returned to controlled drinking, and one had relapsed. In contrast, of the 22 controlled drinkers 3 became abstinent and 7 relapsed. For the less severe cases, Vaillant concluded that controlled drinking is a worthwhile and valid goal, but "by the time an alcoholic is ill enough to require clinic treatment, return to asymptomatic drinking is the exception not the rule."
|
||||
|
||||
=== Clinical Treatment ===
|
||||
In the Clinic sample, 100 severe alcoholics treated at the clinic were followed for 8 years. The clinic's methods were multi-modal: detoxification and hospital treatment followed by referral to AA. At the end of the 8 years, 34% of subjects had achieved stable abstinence, 29% had died, and 26% were still abusing alcohol, and the evidence was that other clinical studies had reported similar lack of success. Subjects who had a stable social environment or who frequently went to AA meetings had the highest rates of abstinence. Overall, however, treatment other than AA did not significantly improve the subjects’ outcome. In fact Vaillant reports the dismal fact that fully 95% of the Clinic sample had relapsed at some time during the 8-year study period. Vaillant noted that clinical treatment helped only in the short term, as crisis intervention and detox. There was one indicator, a financial one, of short-term success: clinical intervention had significantly reduced the cost of future health care for the alcoholics.
|
||||
Vaillant's conclusion was that “There is compelling evidence that the results of our treatment were no better than the natural history of the disease.” If clinical treatment had failed to improve on the long-term recovery rates of alcoholics, then what would be the most hopeful route to sobriety?
|
||||
|
||||
=== Paths to recovery ===
|
||||
Research by Vaillant and others found that there were no obvious factors or personality differences to distinguish alcoholics from abstainers; “To a large extent, relapse to and remission from alcoholism remains a mystery.” As was observed in the 1940s in patients with tuberculosis—at that time incurable—recovery depended largely on the patient's own resistance and morale. The same applies to alcoholism, which at present still has no known ‘cure’. As with diabetes, professional help is in training to prevent a relapse and in crisis intervention until patients are strong enough to heal themselves. If natural forces are dominant in the healing process, then treatment should aim to strengthen and support these natural forces, Vaillant argued. The alcoholic needs support in making the required personality change. Thus, achieving long-term sobriety usually involves
|
||||
|
||||
finding a substitute dependency, such as group attendance;
|
||||
experiencing negative consequences of drinking, such as legal problems or a painful ulcer;
|
||||
new, close relationships and social support;
|
||||
a source of inspiration and hope such as a religious group.
|
||||
Vaillant argues that an important contribution health professionals can make is to explain alcoholism to patients as a disease, which encourages the patient to take responsibility for their problem without debilitating guilt, in the same way that a diabetic becomes responsible for proper self care when they become aware of their condition.
|
||||
@ -0,0 +1,40 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "The Natural History of Alcoholism Revisited"
|
||||
chunk: 4/4
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Natural_History_of_Alcoholism_Revisited"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:48:24.478686+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
=== Alcoholics Anonymous ===
|
||||
Vaillant, who is a non-alcoholic Trustee of AA, made the effectiveness of AA one of the key questions to be investigated in his research. Vaillant argues that AA and other similar groups effectively harness the above four factors of healing and that many alcoholics achieve sobriety through AA attendance. However, he also notes that the “effectiveness of AA has not been adequately assessed” and that “direct evidence for the efficacy of AA… remains as elusive as ever. For example, if an alcoholic achieves sobriety during AA attendance, who is to say if AA helped or if he merely went to AA when he was ready to heal?
|
||||
In the Clinic sample, 48% of the 29 alcoholics who achieved sobriety eventually attended 300 or more AA meetings, and AA attendance was associated with good outcomes in patients who otherwise would have been predicted not to remit. In the Core City sample the more severe alcoholics attended AA, possibly because all other avenues had failed—after all, AA meetings are rarely attended for hedonistic reasons. The implication from all three samples was simply that many alcoholics find help through AA.
|
||||
|
||||
== Book reviews ==
|
||||
Vaillant’s academic peers saw The Natural History of Alcoholism as “objective, scholarly, and factual,” “wise” and “comprehensive”, an “outstanding and highly recommended text”, and “one of the few [longitudinal studies] and by far the most thorough and scientific.” James Royce wrote that Vaillant "cites innumerable studies and examines opposing viewpoints on every issue," but that this objectivity made the book harder to read for the general reader since the conclusions were difficult to extract.
|
||||
There were varying opinions on the book's readability. According to David N. Saunders “The book is hard to follow because so much research material is included.” The New York Times advised that the casual reader should skip over most of the technical discussion, whereas The National Review noted only an “occasional thicket of psycho-statistical jargon.”
|
||||
Royce wrote that Vaillant failed to summarize new (in 1983) research findings on alcohol's interaction with the brain, and that Vaillant had not quoted some notable researchers who have argued for the disease model of alcoholism. Saunders held that more discussion of the treatment issues was needed and noted that many of the measurements made before Vaillant took over the studies were very crude.
|
||||
Perhaps the sharpest critic of Vaillant's work was controlled drinking proponent Stanton Peele. In a 1983 review in The New York Times, Peele wrote that "The results of this research do not provide ready support for the disease theory of alcoholism. ... [For example, Vaillant] finds strong evidence in the inner city group for sociocultural causality in alcoholism." In his book Diseasing of America Peele claimed that "Vaillant emphatically endorses the disease model... He sees alcoholism as a primary disease... However, Vaillant's claims are not supported by his own data." Other reviewers held the opposite, that Vaillant did not see alcoholism as a disease. Addiction researcher James E. Royce wrote that "Vaillant avoids a simplistic medical model of alcoholism, pointing up instead its complexity as a socio-psycho-biological illness." David N. Saunders of the School of Social Work, Virginia Commonwealth University, wrote that Vaillant "maintains that alcoholism is both a disease and a behaviour disorder." In his summary at the end of the book, Vaillant in fact wrote that "Alcoholism can simultaneously reflect both a conditioned habit and a disease; and the disease of alcoholism can be as well defined by a sociological model as by a medical model."
|
||||
|
||||
== Footnotes ==
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
Bower, Bruce (1993). "Alcoholics offer surprises in long run" (review of The Natural History of Alcoholism Revisited). Science News 143 June 5, 1993, pp356(1).
|
||||
Lehmann-Haupt, Christopher (1983). "The natural history of alcoholism: causes, patterns and paths to recovery" (book review). The New York Times 132 (May 10, 1983): pp25(N) pC14(L).
|
||||
Mendelson, Jack H. The natural history of alcoholism (book review). Journal of the American Medical Association 275 1, Jan 3, 1996 p 73(1).
|
||||
O'Reilly, Jane (1983). "New Insights into Alcoholism" (book review) Time, Monday, Apr. 25, 1983
|
||||
Peele, Stanton (1983). The natural history of alcoholism (book review). The New York Times Book Review 88 (June 26, 1983): pp10(2).
|
||||
Peele, Stanton (1989). Diseasing of America. San Francisco:Lexington Books.
|
||||
Royce, James E. (1983). "The natural history of alcoholism". America 148 (June 11, 1983) pp462(2).
|
||||
Saunders, David N. (1984). The Natural History of Alcoholism: Causes, Patterns, and Paths to Recovery (book review). Social Work Jul/Aug 84, 29 Issue 4, p406-407.
|
||||
Teachout, Terry. (1984) The natural history of alcoholism; causes, patterns, and paths to recovery (book review). National Review 36 Jan 27, 1984: pp61(1).
|
||||
Vaillant, George E. (1988) "What Can Long-term Follow-up Teach us About Relapse and Prevention of Relapse in Addiction?" British Journal of Addiction 83, p 1147-1157.
|
||||
Vaillant, George E. (1995). The Natural History of Alcoholism Revisited. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-60378-8.
|
||||
Vaillant, George E.; Susanne Hiller-Sturmhofel (1996). "The natural history of alcoholism". Alcohol Health & Research World 20 (3): 152-161.
|
||||
Vaillant, George E. (2003). "A 60-year follow-up of alcoholic men". Addiction, 98, 1043–1051.
|
||||
|
||||
== Further reading ==
|
||||
Warren Thompson, MD, FACP. “Alcoholism.” Emedicine.com.
|
||||
Etiology and Natural History of Alcoholism. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
|
||||
35
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Relaxation_Response-0.md
Normal file
35
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Relaxation_Response-0.md
Normal file
@ -0,0 +1,35 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "The Relaxation Response"
|
||||
chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Relaxation_Response"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:48:30.304385+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
The Relaxation Response is a book written in 1975 by Herbert Benson, a Harvard physician, and Miriam Z. Klipper. The response described in the book is an autonomic reaction elicited by a mental device and a passive attitude that has been used for altered states of consciousness throughout various religious traditions and cultures. The scientific characterization of the relaxation response was initially prompted by research studies on Transcendental Meditation ("TM"), a yogic meditation technique, that was presented primarily to people in the Western world.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Origin ==
|
||||
Benson writes in his book, "We claim no innovation but simply a scientific validation of age-old wisdom". People from the Transcendental Meditation movement, who felt they could reduce blood pressure using TM, visited Harvard Medical School in 1968, asking to be studied. The school, which at the time was studying the relationship of monkeys' behavior and blood pressure, told them "No, thank you." But when they persisted, Benson told them he would study them. He met with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi first to find out if he could agree in advance to any outcome, which Mahesh did. Benson mentions in his book that independent studies were already underway by then-PhD candidate R. Keith Wallace working with Archie Wilson at the University of California, Los Angeles, but that no published studies of TM existed. Benson's study found that when the subjects meditated, their metabolic rate markedly decreased in a matter of minutes. Further studies on subjects with high blood pressure showed that meditation over several weeks lowered blood pressure by a statistically significant amount.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Eliciting the response ==
|
||||
Benson's website and his book describe four essential components of meditation needed to bring about the response: a mental device (a simple word, phrase or activity to repeat to keep the mind from wandering), a passive attitude, a quiet environment, and a comfortable position. From these components, Benson developed a 6-step technique for eliciting the response for study at the Thorndike Memorial Laboratory and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. By 1996, only two of the four components were found to be essential: a mental device and a passive attitude. An updated edition of his book divided the 6 steps further into 9 steps, as is taught at the Benson-Henry Institute at Massachusetts General Hospital. The goal is to activate the parasympathetic nervous system, which causes humans to relax.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Fight-or-flight ==
|
||||
Benson developed the idea of the response, which counters the fight-or-flight response described during the 1920s by Walter Bradford Cannon at the Harvard Medical School. According to Benson more than 60 percent of all visits to healthcare providers are related to stress. Stress causes the “fight or flight” hormones, epinephrine and norepinephrine, to secrete into the bloodstream. This incites or exacerbates a number of conditions. They include hypertension, headaches, insomnia, irritable bowel syndrome and chronic low back pain, as well as heart disease, stroke and cancer.
|
||||
A physician with ABC News adds that the immune system works best when relaxed. He said about twenty deep breaths per day, done "with intention", can accomplish this.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Reception ==
|
||||
In a 1986 US national survey, reported in The New York Times, this best-seller was the number one self-help book that clinical psychologists recommended to their patients.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Notes ==
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
Benson, Herbert (2001) [1975]. The Relaxation Response. HarperCollins. ISBN 0-380-81595-8.
|
||||
16
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tennis_Partner-0.md
Normal file
16
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tennis_Partner-0.md
Normal file
@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "The Tennis Partner"
|
||||
chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tennis_Partner"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:48:39.659473+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
The Tennis Partner is the second of Abraham Verghese's books. Published in 1999, when he was a physician practicing internal medicine in El Paso, Texas, this is an autobiographical memoir, and Abraham Verghese writes of his experience moving to El Paso in the midst of an unraveling marriage. Once there, he meets and eventually becomes a mentor to David Smith, a medical resident at the hospital where Verghese worked and a brilliant tennis player recovering from drug addiction.
|
||||
Because of his own love for the game and as part of his effort to reach out to the troubled resident, Verghese begins to play singles tennis regularly during their free time outside the hospital. What starts as a casual game between the two men eventually develops into a complex ritual that allows them to develop a deep friendship and understanding of the pressures they each face. In the hospital, Verghese is the teacher and Smith the student. On the court, however, Smith, the one-time professional player, becomes the teacher. The story tells of their all too brief friendship as Smith battles and eventually succumbs to his disease, and Verghese's helpless attempts to intervene.
|
||||
While cited as fiction, The Tennis Partner is heavily autobiographical. In 2019, it was ranked by Slate as one of the 50 greatest nonfiction books of the past 25 years.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
43
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Top_100_Drugs-0.md
Normal file
43
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Top_100_Drugs-0.md
Normal file
@ -0,0 +1,43 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "The Top 100 Drugs"
|
||||
chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Top_100_Drugs"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:48:40.830580+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
The Top 100 Drugs: Clinical Pharmacology and Practical Prescribing is a pocket-size medical manual focusing on the most commonly prescribed medicines by the British National Health Service (NHS). It was first published by Churchill Livingstone, Elsevier, in 2014, revised in a second edition in 2018, and again in 2022 in a third edition. It is authored by four clinical pharmacologists from St George's Hospital, London; Andrew Hitchings, Dagan Lonsdale, Daniel Burrage and Emma Baker.
|
||||
The drugs are described in alphabetical order, with each drug or drug class on a double page. Each is subsequently explained in terms of clinical pharmacology and practical prescribing. Intravenous fluids are dealt with later in the book, followed by a self-assessment.
|
||||
The book received a review in Pulse, and in 2018 was listed as an essential reference book for junior doctors by the Pharmaceutical Journal.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Development and publication ==
|
||||
The Top 100 Drugs is a medical manual which aims to reduce risks in prescribing. It includes a list of commonly prescribed medicines by the British NHS, for undergraduate and postgraduate medical education in the UK. It was first published as an e-book by Churchill Livingstone, Elsevier, in 2014. A second edition was published in 2018.
|
||||
The first edition was based on the 100 most frequently prescribed drugs by the NHS in 2006–2009, first described in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology in 2011 by Emma Baker, who identified the drugs with how they appear in the British National Formulary (BNF). The book is authored by Baker and three other clinical pharmacologists from St George's Hospital; Andrew Hitchings, Dagan Lonsdale and Daniel Burrage, and takes into account suggestions from junior doctors. The list was revised in 2015, using data collected from a larger dataset to check that no significant changes had occurred, and formed the basis of the second edition, in which 11 drugs were replaced and the number of self-assessment questions doubled. A third edition was released in 2022.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Content ==
|
||||
The book has 325 pages and being 180 mm (7.1 in) in height and 100 mm (3.9 in) width, it can fit in a pocket. There is a contents page, followed by a list of abbreviations and an introduction.
|
||||
The introduction states how the most frequently prescribed drugs in primary and secondary care were identified. Each drug or class of drugs is listed in alphabetical order, displayed on a double page and explained in two sections; clinical pharmacology and practical prescribing. These are then divided into;
|
||||
|
||||
Common indications: in which conditions the drug is used.
|
||||
Mechanism of action: the way the drug works.
|
||||
Important adverse effects: side effects.
|
||||
Warnings: cautions and reasons where the drug should not be used.
|
||||
Important interactions: effect with other drugs.
|
||||
Prescription: dose and route of administration of drug.
|
||||
Administration: how the drug is given.
|
||||
Communication: information required by people.
|
||||
Monitoring: checks needed for each drug.
|
||||
Cost: mostly highlighting whether a drug is expensive or inexpensive.
|
||||
Clinical tips: a useful fact from the authors' experience.
|
||||
The pharmacology of a drug or drug class is presented with guidance on prescribing. A drug can also be located by organ system or by clinical indication. Intravenous fluids are dealt with towards the end of the book, followed by a self assessment and an index. Unlike the original list, the second includes the newer diabetic drugs, blood thinners and anti-epileptics such as levetiracetam.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Reception ==
|
||||
In 2014, the book received a review from a general practitioner in Pulse, in which they felt it to be aimed towards those unfamiliar with prescribing, but useful as an aid to revising drugs. It was mentioned in the International Journal of Clinical Skills, and in 2018, the Pharmaceutical Journal listed the book in their "nine essential resources for preregistration trainees".
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
19
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Transsexual_Phenomenon-0.md
Normal file
19
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Transsexual_Phenomenon-0.md
Normal file
@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "The Transsexual Phenomenon"
|
||||
chunk: 1/4
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Transsexual_Phenomenon"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:48:43.275697+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
The Transsexual Phenomenon is a medical textbook published by American endocrinologist and sexologist Harry Benjamin in 1966 with The Julian Press. The text is notable for its examination of transsexualism not as a psychological issue, but rather as a somatic disorder that should be treated through medicine. Benjamin argues that transvestism and transsexuality are a spectrum of conditions, requiring different treatments that ranged from hormone replacement therapy to surgical intervention (such as orchiectomy).
|
||||
When initially published, the book was met with a mixed reception but would be later known as the "transsexuals' Bible", a standard for trans care in the medical community. Benjamin and his work (and specifically this text) are credited with the popularization of the term transsexual in medicine. However, some trans scholars argue that the book created many harmful stereotypes still perpetuated by the medical community today, such as the idea that trans people are "born in the wrong body". Scholars criticize Benjamin's reliance on the idea of "passing" and other cisnormative stereotypes. Overall, Benjamin's work was hugely influential in terms of trans visibility in the medical field and set the stage for transgender studies in the modern day. As a note, throughout his work, Benjamin defines a transsexual person as someone who identifies in opposition to their assigned gender at birth (designated by Benjamin as biological sex). In contemporary vernacular, this term can be encompassed under the transgender identity.
|
||||
|
||||
== Background information ==
|
||||
In the 1920s and 30s, Harry Benjamin treated his first patient with cross-gender hormone therapy: a German crossdresser, Otto Spangler, with conjugated estriol (marketed as progynon), as well as x-ray radiation to sterilize the patient. While he saw various transgender people in his clinical practice, it was his work with Alfred Kinsey which would bring Benjamin into more consistent contact with transgender patients. The Transsexual Phenomenon, released in 1966, was the culmination of Benjamin's published work with the trans community. For example, "7 Kinds of Sex" from the popular sex education magazine Sexology was turned into the opening chapter "Symphony of the Sexes". "Transsexualism and Transvestism as Psycho-somatic and Somato-Psychic Syndromes", published in the American Journal of Psychotherapy in 1954, also provided a framework for The Transsexual Phenomenon.
|
||||
|
||||
== Summary ==
|
||||
Benjamin begins his work by differentiating sex into 7 categories: chromosomal sex, morphological sex (developed secondary sex characteristics), genital sex (which, according to Benjamin, determines man or womanhood), germinal sex, hormonal sex, psychological sex, and social sex. He defines that the transsexual is someone whose psychological sex is in opposition to the other sexes. Thus, in treatment, the goal should be "a symphony of the sexes".
|
||||
Benjamin differentiates transvestism, transsexualism, and homosexuality. He defines transvestism as dressing or presenting as the opposite sex, with no discomfort with genital or morphological sex. In contrast, the transsexual experiences intense discomfort around their body and seeks medical interventions in order to live as the opposite sex. The transsexual feels as though they were "born in the wrong body". From this differentiation, Benjamin created a 7-point scale, called the Sex Orientation Scale, which was based on Alfred Kinsey's scale of sexuality. A "Type 0" would be a person with no disagreement within their gender, or in modern terms, a cisgender person. The remaining Types 1-6 are a scale between transvestism and transsexualism, with the two identities acting as the poles.
|
||||
19
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Transsexual_Phenomenon-1.md
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data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Transsexual_Phenomenon-1.md
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|
||||
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|
||||
title: "The Transsexual Phenomenon"
|
||||
chunk: 2/4
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Transsexual_Phenomenon"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:48:43.275697+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Table 1: Harry Benjamin's Sex Orientation Scale (sometimes abbreviated to S.O.S).
|
||||
Benjamin also notes how homosexuality is fundamentally different from both transvestism and transsexualism. In the closing of the section, he essentializes the difference to this: "The transvestite has a social problem. The transsexual has a gender problem. The homosexual has a sex[uality] problem."
|
||||
After introducing the S.O.S scale, Benjamin goes into greater detail about each of these "types". The "pseudo-transvestite", a Type 1 on the S.O.S, does not dress as the opposite sex, but derives great enjoyment from transvestitic fantasy. In contrast, the true transvestite's central "deviation" is cross-dressing, with a strong emotional and sexual urge to do so. The transvestite can be fetishistic (Type 2) or "latent and basically transsexual", (Type 3) where the transvestitism evolves into transsexualism.
|
||||
According to Benjamin, there is no one "so constantly unhappy (before sex change) as the transsexual." He documents that transsexual patients perform self-mutilation in order to more closely align their "genital sex" to their psychological one. In this discussion of genital sex, Benjamin also looks at the sexual activity of the transsexual. Sex can offer an outlet to express their femininity within a fetish, or simply to pass as a woman (in the case of prostitution). Benjamin emphasizes that sex change operations are essential to transsexual people (Types 5 and 6), but they are widely inaccessible and denied by healthcare providers. The inaccessibility of hormonal treatments, as well as societal stigma, make up "the handicaps of the transsexual".
|
||||
Benjamin attempts to find the etiology of transsexualism. He concludes there are no genetic factors that influence the "condition" while finding a link to increased levels of hormones associated with the hormonal sex of the preferred gender. Of the psychological causes, Benjamin looks to both childhood conditioning and imprinting as possible etiologies. Childhood conditioning, from a Freudian perspective, appeared to be a very possible explanation, but Benjamin argues that there are too many situations in which an absent father does not lead to homosexuality, transvestism, or transsexualism.
|
||||
He considers both psychotherapy and hormone therapy for trans women. Benjamin states that since the mind of the transsexual cannot be adjusted to the body, it is logical and justifiable to attempt the opposite: to adjust the body to the mind. He then continues on to detail estrogen therapy, noting the intended results, side effects, including breast growth, and ingestion methods, including oral and parenteral.
|
||||
Benjamin next depicts methods of surgical intervention for transsexuals: namely, castration, penis amputation, and vaginoplasty, arguing for their use if a doctor deems it is the only way to help a patient to "a happier future". He notes several different methods of castration, describing that some surgeons prefer to leave the testicles in their undescended state for fear of legal retribution. Here, he also creates a set of guidelines for which transsexuals would make "convincing" women, and thus, should qualify for surgery, in his eyes, stating that "a heavy masculine build, a height of six feet or more, and a strong, dark beard were causes for worry and doubt." In a passage of particular importance to the rest of his work, he also notes four basic motives for a sex conversion operation: the sexual motive (as he describes it, the want for the possibility of heterosexual relations with a functioning vagina], the gender motive (or, the urgent need to relieve gendered unhappiness), the legal motive (the constant fear of discovery and arrest), and the social motive (the teasing the results from the perception of trans women as a feminine man).
|
||||
Next, Benjamin considers 52 "male transsexuals" (trans women) and the results of their respective operations, noting that 33.3% reported a "good" result, 52.9% reported a "satisfactory" result, 9.8% reported a "doubtful" result, 1.9% reported an "unsatisfactory" result, and 1.9% reported an "unknown" result. The results of these findings pushed Benjamin to conclude, after additional consideration of possible sexual handicaps and a review of the "meager" array of medical literature at the time, that no matter how disturbed a transsexual may still be, they "are better off afterward [an operation] than they were before…"
|
||||
Benjamin also considers the legal aspects of transvestism and transsexuality. Here, he presents an argument against the criminalization of transsexualism and transvestitism, comparing it to homosexuality, addiction, prostitution, and alcoholism as a social issue, not a criminal one. Here, he presents a legal remedy against the arrest of transvestites, based on a model used by the Hamburg Police Department:
|
||||
24
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Transsexual_Phenomenon-2.md
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24
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|
||||
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|
||||
title: "The Transsexual Phenomenon"
|
||||
chunk: 3/4
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Transsexual_Phenomenon"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:48:43.275697+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Based on a physician’s certificate, the Hamburg police department issues a card to the transvestites, not giving them permission to “dress,” but merely stating that this person is known to the department as a transvestite. That is all, but it is enough to absolve the particular person from any suspicion of “criminal intent” in “dressing” and therefore from arrest.
|
||||
Finally, Benjamin presents a single chapter considering "female transsexuals", trans men, of which he reports a 1:6 ratio with "male transsexuals". He connects this disparity to an observed lesser frequency of female homosexual behavior as well, but concedes that the symptomatology between male and female transsexuals is nearly identical, though he describes that female transsexuals wish for "typically masculine occupations… but often they have to be practical and settle for office work." He describes androgen injection as a useful medication to suppress menstrual periods, as well as total hysterectomy, and double mastectomy when desired.
|
||||
The Transsexual Phenomenon concludes with four appendices. The first of which, written by Benjamin, presents a set of concluding remarks. He maintains that the etiology of transsexualism remains obscure, but points to neurology and psychology as disciplines that may provide answers. He predicts that sex reassignment surgery will be accepted as legitimate, operative techniques will be perfected, and legal reforms will follow, but concedes that the respective transsexual patient in the United States has to be born "lucky" to receive suitable treatment. Appendix B, written by Gobind Behari Lal, argues for the complementarity of the human sexes, and for a view of human beings with dual sexes, instead of opposite, of varying proportions. Written by Benjamin's colleague Richard Green, the penultimate appendix considers the history and mythology of transsexualism in Classical and indigenous society. The last appendix in Benjamin's work, compiled by R.E.L. Masters, consists of four autobiographies as well as three biographical profiles of transsexual patients. The book concludes with photographs of several of Benjamin's patients' genitals before and after operation.
|
||||
|
||||
== Publication history ==
|
||||
The Transsexual Phenomenon was first published in 1966 by The Julian Press, and again in 1977 by Warner Press. It was also distributed in 1966 by Ace Publishing Company, and published electronically by Symposium Publishing, based in Düsseldorf, in 1999. On first publication, it was read and reviewed heavily in Germany, as well as the United States.
|
||||
|
||||
== Critical reception ==
|
||||
Upon publication, the book had a mixed reception. The Winter 1966-67 issue of Psychoanalytic Review considered it "worthy of respect as a thoughtful digest of much work and a compassionate view of a phenomenon," but disappointing to psychologists and psychoanalysts. Real Life Guide, however, described it as readable, and to a very high standard of bookmaking. And though Homophile Studies reported frustration with the book for its unclear audience, and apparent promotion of conversion surgery, The American Journal of Psychotherapy described it as a "literary event", writing that "it is satisfying to see that Benjamin's long plea for the right of transsexuals begin to be successful."
|
||||
|
||||
== Cultural influence ==
|
||||
The Transsexual Phenomenon has grown to be known as a "transsexuals' Bible" in scholarship. It is regarded as the first textbook on the subject of transsexualism, and it brought new legitimacy to transsexuality within medicine, helping to open gender identity clinics at Johns Hopkins University, University of Minnesota, Stanford University, and University of California, Los Angeles. Because of the publication of Benjamin's work, "the national picture changed from one of no significant institutional support for transsexual therapy and surgery in 1965 to a situation in 1975 where about twenty major medical centers were offering treatment and some thousand transsexuals had been provided with surgery." Indeed, historian Vern Bullough cites The Transsexual Phenomenon as so influential it singlehandedly popularized the term transsexual in American discourse. In fact, Sandy Stone documents that one can trace the influences of early sexologist David Oliver Cauldwell and Harry Benjamin based on the spelling of transsexual—Cauldwell sometimes only used one "s", while Benjamin always used two.
|
||||
The Transsexual Phenomenon was the first medical text to seriously consider that it was possible for trans people to "successfully" live as the sex and gender they identify with. Thus, some have even argued that its legacy positions Harry Benjamin as the "founding father of contemporary Western transsexualism." in that "all subsequent published works by practitioners perpetuated the stereotype[s]" Benjamin helped to create. The influence of The Transsexual Phenomenon extends individually as well as systemically: for example, historian Susan Stryker also notes that San Francisco police officer Elliott Blackstone, an influential figure in the Compton Cafeteria Riots, became an outspoken advocate against police harassment of transsexuals after reading a copy of The Transsexual Phenomenon.
|
||||
Benjamin's work has also been especially important for the discipline of trans theory, though its reception and influence here is mixed. In the seminal "The Empire Strikes Back: a Posttransexual Manifesto", Sandy Stone documents:
|
||||
38
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Transsexual_Phenomenon-3.md
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38
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|
||||
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|
||||
title: "The Transsexual Phenomenon"
|
||||
chunk: 4/4
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Transsexual_Phenomenon"
|
||||
category: "reference"
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||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:48:43.275697+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
When the first clinics were constituted, Benjamin’s book was the standard reference. And when the first transsexuals were evaluated for their suitability for surgery, their behavior matched up gratifyingly with Benjamin’s criteria. The researchers produced papers which reported on this, and which were used as bases for funding. It took a surprisingly long time--several years--for the researchers to realize that the reason the candidates’ behavioral profiles matched Benjamin’s so well was that the candidates, too, had read Benjamin’s book, which was passed from hand to hand within the transsexual community, and they were only too happy to provide the behavior that led to acceptance for surgery.
|
||||
In this manner, trans historians have argued that transsexuals at early gender clinics expressed Benjamin's criteria of "being in the wrong body" because they, too, had all read The Transsexual Phenomenon—and knew embodying Benjamin's descriptions was the path to the surgical affirmation of their gender identity.
|
||||
Benjamin has also been heavily criticized for his endorsements of heteronormativity and cisnormativity throughout the text, his reliance on notions of "passing", his construction of gender success, and his criteria for "male transsexuals" who would make "suitable" women. Other contemporary critiques of Benjamin also include Jillian St. Jacques, who writes that the legacy of "The Transsexual Phenomenon" shrouds those who no longer identify as transsexual but resist "a return to an a priori sexual designation" in discourses of regret. Nearly 40 years later, Richard Ekins and Dave King published The Transgender Phenomenon, which presents both update and homage to Benjamin's work through chapters "Towards a Sociology of Transgendering", "Migrating Stories", "Oscillating Stories", "Negating Stories", and "Transcending Stories". In arguing that Benjamin's frameworks of transsexualism no longer fit the transgender communities he applied them to, Ekins and King consider a "gender outlaw... beyond the binary" view of transness through the framework of "transgendering", or the act of living between and "beyond" gender(s).
|
||||
|
||||
== See also ==
|
||||
Harry Benjamin
|
||||
Transgender studies
|
||||
Transgender rights
|
||||
Elliott Blackstone
|
||||
Richard Green (sexologist)
|
||||
Sandy Stone
|
||||
Susan Stryker
|
||||
Christine Jorgensen
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
|
||||
== Further reading ==
|
||||
"The Empire Strikes Back: A Posttranssexual Manifesto" by Sandy Stone
|
||||
The Transgender Studies Reader ed. Susan Stryker and Steven Whittle
|
||||
How Sex Changed by Joanne Meyerowitz
|
||||
Transgender History by Susan Stryker
|
||||
"The Transsexual Phenomenon: A Counter History" by Barry Reay
|
||||
The Transgender Phenomenon by Richard Ekins and Dave King
|
||||
"Science, Politics and Clinical Intervention: Harry Benjamin, Transsexualism and the Problem of Heteronormativity" by Richard Ekins
|
||||
Christine Jorgensen: A Personal Autobiography by Christine Jorgensen
|
||||
|
||||
== External links ==
|
||||
A PDF copy of Benjamin's work, uploaded publicly by Trans Reads, and published by Symposium Publishing.
|
||||
14
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Woman_Who_Knew_Too_Much-0.md
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14
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Woman_Who_Knew_Too_Much-0.md
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|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "The Woman Who Knew Too Much"
|
||||
chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Woman_Who_Knew_Too_Much"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:48:50.232380+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
The Woman Who Knew Too Much is a book about Alice Stewart, authored by Gayle Greene, and published by University of Michigan Press in 1999. The foreword is written by Helen Caldicott.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
18
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_preventive_obstacle-0.md
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18
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_preventive_obstacle-0.md
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|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "The preventive obstacle; or, Conjugal onanism"
|
||||
chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_preventive_obstacle;_or,_Conjugal_onanism"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:48:29.122747+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
The preventive obstacle; or, Conjugal onanism is the English translation by P. De Marmon of the third French edition of Louis François Étienne Bergeret's book Des Fraudes dans l'Accomplissement des Fonctions Generatrices (1868). It was published in 1870 by Turner and Mignard Printers and Publishers. In the book, Bergeret used his nineteenth century clinical case studies to demonstrate his anti-contraception beliefs and his theory that sexual excitement without conception was "fraud", which leads to uterine inflammation, "indirect infanticide", and various physical and psychological illnesses in women. In 1874, the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society of London library ordered the book to be burned.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Further reading ==
|
||||
Bergeret, Louis François Étienne (1974). The preventive obstacle; or, Conjugal onanism. New York, Arno Press. (translated by P. De Marmon)
|
||||
16
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Train_Your_Brain-0.md
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16
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Train_Your_Brain-0.md
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|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "Train Your Brain"
|
||||
chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Train_Your_Brain"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:48:42.042404+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Train Your Brain: 60 Days to a Better Brain is an English-language version of a Japanese book written by Ryuta Kawashima. The original book sold over a million copies in Japan. Dr. Kawashima found that by performing simple mathematical calculations and reading books aloud, one could retain mental clarity and stave off the mental effects of aging. The book is based on this research.
|
||||
The first half of the book contains simple mathematical calculations intermingled with memory tests and counting tests. The book recommends that one should do a set of maths questions every day and note the time it takes. This is complemented by a memory test, a counting test, and a stroop test (found at the back of the book) which should be undertaken every five days. A set of graphs are provided at the back of the book so that the results of the tests can be logged.
|
||||
The concepts presented in Train Your Brain would later be used to create the Nintendo DS game Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day!.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "Transsexualism and Sex Reassignment"
|
||||
chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transsexualism_and_Sex_Reassignment"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:48:44.442140+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Transsexualism and Sex Reassignment is a book on gender dysphoria which was edited by sexologists Richard Green and John Money and was published by Johns Hopkins University Press in 1969. It was the first medical textbook to be published on transgender people. The book contained a chapter on hormone replacement therapy written by Christian Hamburger and included an appendix with additional treatment suggestions and guidelines by Harry Benjamin.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
34
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trick_or_Treatment-0.md
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34
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trick_or_Treatment-0.md
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|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "Trick or Treatment?"
|
||||
chunk: 1/2
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trick_or_Treatment?"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:48:45.614970+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Trick or Treatment? Alternative Medicine on Trial (North American title: Trick or Treatment: The Undeniable Facts about Alternative Medicine) is a 2008 book by Simon Singh and Edzard Ernst. The book evaluates the scientific evidence for alternative medicines such as acupuncture, homeopathy, herbal medicine, and chiropractic, and briefly covers 36 other treatments. It finds that the scientific evidence for these alternative treatments is generally lacking. The authors concluded that homeopathy is merely a placebo.
|
||||
Although Trick or Treatment presents evidence that acupuncture, chiropractic and herbal remedies have limited efficacy for certain ailments, the authors conclude that the dangers of these treatments outweigh any potential benefits. Such potential risks outlined by the authors are contamination or unexpected interactions between components in the case of herbal medicine, risk of infection in the case of acupuncture and the potential for chiropractic manipulation of the neck to cause delayed stroke.
|
||||
The book, dedicated in an ironic fashion to Prince Charles, is critical of his advocacy of alternative medicine and the actions of his now-defunct The Prince's Foundation for Integrated Health.
|
||||
|
||||
== Contents ==
|
||||
The book contains six chapters:
|
||||
How do you determine the truth?
|
||||
|
||||
This chapter describes the methods and history of clinical trials, such as the trial to determine a proper treatment for scurvy by James Lind and the story of Florence Nightingale. James Lind was a British physician who pioneered naval hygiene. He recommended that citrus fruit and lemon juice should be included in the diets of seamen to eradicate the illness of scurvy. Lind was able to come to the conclusion that these remedies may reduce this particular illness through the various clinical trials he performed that were successful. Florence Nightingale is another example used in the novel as someone who practiced the scientific medicine and evidence based medicine as she pioneered the profession of nursing.
|
||||
The truth about acupuncture
|
||||
|
||||
This chapter discusses the evidence surrounding acupuncture, a form of alternative medicine in which acupuncturists place needles in the body for the purpose of blocking Ch'i meridians throughout the body, thus encouraging full health. The authors examine the recent history of acupuncture and several various trials of the technique. The authors conclude that acupuncture is essentially a placebo.
|
||||
The truth about homeopathy
|
||||
|
||||
This chapter discusses the evidence surrounding homeopathy, an alternative medicine technique which consists of finding a substance (which causes symptoms similar to the condition needing to be treated in a healthy person), then diluting that substance to an extreme degree. The chapter examines the history of homeopathy and reviews various trials regarding the technique, especially the trial done by Jacques Benveniste, a French researcher. The authors conclude that homeopathy is a placebo. The authors offered a £10,000 prize for anyone who could prove homeopathy was effective.
|
||||
The truth about chiropractic therapy
|
||||
|
||||
This chapter discusses the evidence surrounding chiropractic, an alternative medicine technique which aims to cure illness by manipulating the spine, based on the theory that almost all conditions and diseases are caused by misaligned vertebrae in the spine, blocking the body's vital force. The history of chiropractic, as well as several of the trials on chiropractic are described. The authors conclude that there is no evidence to support most of chiropractic's claims. However, the authors state that chiropractic might be beneficial in certain limited situations concerning back pain. As well, the authors find that chiropractic can be very dangerous, especially when it comes to the manipulation of the neck, and state that patients should "try conventional treatments before turning to a chiropractor for back pain. They are generally cheaper than spinal manipulation and just as likely to be effective."
|
||||
The truth about herbal medicine
|
||||
|
||||
This chapter discusses the evidence surrounding herbal medicine, such as the use of St. John's Wort and Aloe vera. The authors conclude that several herbal medicines can be effective to treat illness, while others, such as bilberry, chamomile, and ginseng, are ineffective.
|
||||
Does the truth matter?
|
||||
|
||||
This chapter discusses the state of alternative medicine in society, focusing on Prince Charles's endorsements of alternative medicine. It is critical of the actions of his now-defunct The Prince's Foundation for Integrated Health.
|
||||
34
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trick_or_Treatment-1.md
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34
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|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "Trick or Treatment?"
|
||||
chunk: 2/2
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trick_or_Treatment?"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:48:45.614970+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
== Reception ==
|
||||
In 2008 and 2009, Trick or Treatment received mostly favorable reviews for its clear and thorough writing although several reviewers were critical that the book lacked acknowledgement of problems present in conventional medicine.
|
||||
Olivia Laing, writing for The Guardian, said "Singh and Ernst are scientists and their mainly dismissive conclusions are based on extensive, though bizarrely unfootnoted, research. In tones of quiet fury, they demolish the claims of acupuncture, chiropractic therapy, . . . and homeopathy." Laing criticized the book for a lack of "acknowledgement of the problems of funding adequate trials" and "discussion of the equivalent risks and inadequacies of conventional medicine" such as the side effects of pharmaceutical drugs.
|
||||
In a review for Nature, Toby Murcott described the book as "thoroughly researched and clearly written", where the authors, in discussing the available randomized clinical trials for each of four treatments, "make repeated claims that they provide the truth, and have even included this word in the title of every chapter. The balance of evidence from randomized controlled trials supports their arguments, but the authors are not tendering a disprovable hypothesis." Murcott expressed concern that the authors' sense of certainty "mirrors that of the proponents of alternative therapies, leaving each position as entrenched as ever."
|
||||
Harriet Hall, in reviewing Trick or Treatment, emphasized that Ernst's views were worthy of "special credibility" as he had previously prescribed homeopathic remedies and was supportive of alternative treatments that were proven to work. Hall said Ernst "accepts claims about herbs that many of us reject" and has "demonstrated his ability to change his mind and follow the evidence."
|
||||
In a review of the book for Complementary Medicine Research, John Kapp said that although he did not agree with their conclusion, Ernst and Singh "deserve praise for bringing a vital subject to the attention of the public in a clear and readable way." Kapp was critical that the authors "castigate alternative medicine for not doing more clinical trials, but fail to acknowledge the cost" and said they fail to address the flawed nature of some drug trials in conventional medicine, pointing towards the 2004 removal of Vioxx from the market as a recent example.
|
||||
Writing for the British Journal of General Practice, Jeremy Swayne (former dean of the Faculty of Homeopathy) said the book was "thorough and clever" and that it "provides excellent counsel about the shortcomings of CAM (and there are many, if you take the whole nebulous field into consideration), and its susceptibility to popular and commercial exploitation. But a recurring lack of truthfulness is the lack of the perspective that would have been provided by relating these to comparable problems in conventional medicine."
|
||||
Donald Marcus reviewed the book for The New England Journal of Medicine and found the writing to be "clear and vivid" with historical anecdotes that "provide a valuable perspective on the subject." Marcus said Trick or Treatment "meets the need for a current, evidence-based survey of alternative therapies to balance the widespread misinformation about them."
|
||||
Writing for The Daily Telegraph, Katie Owen and Sally Cousins described the book as "a clearly written, scrupulously scientific examination of the health claims of key areas of alternative medicine: acupuncture, homeopathy, chiropractic therapy and herbal medicine. The results are stark. In no case, apart from in some limited ways in herbal medicine, do any of these 'therapies' work. On the contrary, they can be life-threatening."
|
||||
|
||||
== Subsequent libel case and freedom of speech ==
|
||||
|
||||
Singh was sued for libel by the British Chiropractic Association (BCA) for comments he wrote in a column in The Guardian about the book. In 2010, after two years, the BCA dropped the case after the Court of Appeal found that Singh was expressing an opinion, rather than stating facts. The presiding judges commented that "this litigation has almost certainly had a chilling effect on public debate which might otherwise have assisted potential patients to make informed choices about the possible use of chiropractic".
|
||||
|
||||
== See also ==
|
||||
Suckers: How alternative medicine makes fools of us all, 2008 book by Rose Shapiro
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
|
||||
== External links ==
|
||||
Simon Singh's website
|
||||
Edzard Ernst's website
|
||||
Trick or Treatment online at Open Library
|
||||
Trick or Treatment at Science-Based Medicine
|
||||
@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "Users' Guides to the Medical Literature"
|
||||
chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Users'_Guides_to_the_Medical_Literature"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:48:46.778342+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
The Users' Guides to the Medical Literature is a series of articles originally published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, later rewritten and compiled in a textbook, now in its third edition. The guides provide practical, clinician-friendly advice on all aspects of evidence-based medicine.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== As articles ==
|
||||
During the late 1970s, a group of clinical epidemiologists at McMaster University including David Sackett prepared a series of articles to assist clinicians interpreting clinical research. These articles, introducing the term "critical appraisal", appeared in the Canadian Medical Association Journal beginning in 1981.
|
||||
In 1990, Gordon Guyatt introduced the term "evidence-based medicine" to stress the role of rigorous, systematic evidence from clinical research in conjunction with patients’ values and preferences in clinical decision-making. A group of academic physicians subsequently formed the international Evidence-based Medicine Working Group and published a 1992 article announcing the "new paradigm" of evidence-based medicine.
|
||||
The Evidence-based Medicine Working Group decided to build on the popular series in the Canadian Medical Association Journal by creating a more practical approach to applying the medical literature to clinical practice. Championed by Drummond Rennie, an editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association, the result was the Users' Guides. The guides originally consisted of 25 topics, covered in a series of 32 articles published in the Journal of the American Medical Association between 1993 and 2000, describing approaches to different types of medical questions and the study designs that may answer them.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Books ==
|
||||
Guyatt and Rennie edited the articles and compiled them to form a book titled Users' Guides to the Medical Literature: A Manual for Evidence-Based Clinical Practice.
|
||||
The books teach a systematic approach to reading and applying the medical literature to individual patient care. It focuses on three questions: whether new information is likely to be valid, what the information says about patient care, and how the information can be used. To demonstrate the clinical relevance of the suggested approach, each section begins with a practical clinical scenario. The chapter is then structured around identifying the best available evidence and applying the three key questions to the evidence, in the context of the clinical scenario. Each chapter concludes with a resolution of the scenario.
|
||||
Most of the book chapters are based on specific types of clinical questions, including questions of therapy, harm, diagnosis, and prognosis. Other chapters deal with general skills that are important for all clinical questions, such as "Finding the Evidence", "Summarizing the Evidence", and "Moving From Evidence to Action".
|
||||
The Users' Guides come in two book versions: the Essentials introduces the concepts of evidence-based medicine (EBM) with which every practicing clinician should be familiar, while the Manual provides a more comprehensive, in-depth exploration of EBM concepts for clinicians seeking a deeper understanding, or for those who wish to teach EBM.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Website ==
|
||||
The complete text of the second edition of the Users' Guides Manual is available online by subscription. The JAMAevidence website also includes a large number of calculators, worksheets and additional aids for the practice of EBM, including the updated and edited collection of another long-running JAMA article series, The Rational Clinical Examination: Evidence-based Clinical Diagnosis.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== External links ==
|
||||
"Users' Guides to Evidence-Based Practice". Centre for Health Evidence. 11 July 2005. Archived from the original on 19 July 2014. Retrieved 1 August 2014. The CHE continues to maintain the full text pre-publication version of this series on behalf of the Evidence-Based Medicine Working Group with permission from the journal.
|
||||
"Online version: Users' Guides to the Medical Literature: A Manual for Evidence-Based Clinical Practice, Second Edition". JAMAevidence. American Medical Association. 2008. Retrieved 1 August 2014.
|
||||
@ -0,0 +1,30 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "Vitamin C and the Common Cold (book)"
|
||||
chunk: 1/1
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_C_and_the_Common_Cold_(book)"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:48:47.915250+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Vitamin C and the Common Cold is a popular book by Linus Pauling, first published in 1970, on vitamin C, its interactions with common cold and the role of vitamin C megadosage in human health. The book promoted the idea that taking large amounts of vitamin C could reduce the duration and severity of the common cold. A Nobel Prize-winning chemist and activist, Pauling promoted a view of vitamin C that is strongly at odds with most of the scientific community, which found little evidence for the alleged health benefits of greatly increased vitamin C intake. The book went through multiple editions, and a revised version that discussed the flu and other diseases, retitled Vitamin C, the Common Cold & the Flu, came out in 1976.
|
||||
The book characterizes the inability of humans and some other animals to produce vitamin C (ascorbic acid) in terms of evolution and Pauling's concept of "molecular disease" (first articulated in his 1949 study, "Sickle Cell Anemia, a Molecular Disease"). Pauling argues that the loss of vitamin C synthesis first arose as a molecular disease, because of a genetic mutation that resulted in the loss of the biochemical capacity to make the vitamin, but because diets of the primate ancestors of humans consisted of high levels of vitamin C from plant sources, the loss of that biochemical mechanism was not harmful and may have even been beneficial. He argues, however, that the subsequent shift to a high-meat, lower-plant diet resulted in widespread vitamin C deficiency.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Research, writing and revisions ==
|
||||
Pauling began studying vitamin C mega-dosage, and orthomolecular medicine more broadly, after he was contacted in 1966 by biochemist Irwin Stone, who suggested that taking enough vitamin C would let him live another fifty years. Pauling reinterpreted the large body of research on vitamin C based on comparative studies of the biochemical genetics of vitamin C synthesis in different species, as well his own theories about "molecular disease" and recent developments in molecular evolution. He criticized the design of studies that did not find positive results for vitamin C mega-dose treatment, and promoted those that did. He and other vitamin C advocates thought the vitamin boosts the body's ability to fight all kinds of infection. By 1970, after following Stone's regimen for four years and studying and debating the issue extensively, Pauling was sure enough that organized medicine had it wrong that he wrote Vitamin C and the Common Cold to popularize his vitamin C message.
|
||||
In 1970, he found an in-depth 1942 study from public health researcher at the University of Minnesota, "Vitamins for the Prevention of Colds", which became a focal point for his subsequent criticism of what he saw as flawed vitamin C research. One chapter was added to the second edition in 1971. By 1976, following confrontations with researchers holding to the mainstream view of vitamin C, Pauling expanded the book to include evidence related to a wide variety of other illnesses, and the flu in particular. That edition and a further revision in 1981 were issued under the title Vitamin C, the Common Cold & the Flu.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Reception ==
|
||||
The book was well received by the public and garnered considerable popular attention, resulting in a rush of vitamin C sales. Paperback editions were issued in 1971 and 1973, and Pauling subsequently authored several related books: Vitamin C and Cancer (1979) and How to Live Longer and Feel Better (1986).
|
||||
The book and Pauling himself faced considerable criticism from scientists and physicians. The book's claim of taking a daily vitamin C intake of 2,300 mg or more for "optimum" health is not supported by scientific evidence. Charles W. Marshall author of Vitamins and Minerals: Help or Harm?, has commented that the "vast majority of reputable medical and nutritional scientists strongly disagree" with Pauling's recommendations. Marshall also noted that "there have been at least 30 experiments done to test the effects of vitamin C against colds in humans. Most biomedical scientists who have analyzed the results of these trials have found Pauling's claims mainly unsupported in 15 of those trials which were the best designed."
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== Notes ==
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
Ted Goertzel and Ben Goertzel, Linus Pauling: A Life in Science and Politics, BasicBooks, 1995. ISBN 0-465-00672-8
|
||||
Linus Pauling, Vitamin C, the Common Cold & the Flu, Berkley Books, 1981. ISBN 0-425-04853-5
|
||||
43
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WHO_Blue_Books-0.md
Normal file
43
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WHO_Blue_Books-0.md
Normal file
@ -0,0 +1,43 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "WHO Blue Books"
|
||||
chunk: 1/2
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WHO_Blue_Books"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:48:49.101051+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
The WHO Classification of Tumours, more commonly known as the WHO Blue Books, is a series of books that classify tumours. They are compiled by expert consensus and published by the World Health Organization's (WHO) International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). They appear in print and online in a series of 15 books, each of which focuses on a major tumour group and defines the cause, mechanism, signs and symptoms, basic structure, diagnosis, epidemiology and outcomes of up to 300 types of tumours.
|
||||
The project was started by the WHO in 1956 and the first series of books was published between 1967 and 1981, as the International Histological Classification of Tumors series. A fifth series was released in 2019. Terms included in the books appear in the international classification of diseases for tumours.
|
||||
The classifications are regularly updated by an editorial board composed mostly of practicing pathologists. The method of classifying tumours in the Blue Books was discussed in an accompanying article in the International Journal of Cancer in June 2020, titled "WHO Classification of Tumours: How should tumors be classified? Expert consensus, systematic reviews or both?"
|
||||
|
||||
== The series ==
|
||||
The WHO Classification of Tumours series, more commonly known as the WHO Blue Books, published by the WHO's IARC, is a series of books that classify tumours according to principally its location and histopathology. They are compiled by expert consensus, teams of specialists at the International Agency for Research on Cancer, who summarize information from literature. Terms included in the books appear in the international classification of diseases for tumours.
|
||||
They are published as a series of 15 books, in addition to a website, which provide information on cancer diagnosis, research, treatment and outcomes, particularly for pathologists and cancer researchers. Each book defines the cause, mechanism, signs and symptoms, basic structure, diagnosis, epidemiology and outcomes of up to 300 types of tumours. Between 150 - 200 authors, including radiologists, surgeons, physicians and epidemiologists, contribute to each book.
|
||||
|
||||
== Editorial board ==
|
||||
The WHO Classification of Tumors Group is headed by Ian Cree. The classifications are updated regularly by an editorial board composed mostly of practicing pathologists, who review and agree on definitions and criteria for each tumor.
|
||||
The editorial board consists of standing members and expert members. Experts are listed in each of the tumour specialties; digestive system tumours, breast tumours, soft tissue and bone tumours, female genital tumours, thoracic tumours. central nervous system tumours, paediatric tumours, urinary and male genital tumours, head and neck tumours, and endocrine and neuroendocrine tumours.
|
||||
|
||||
== History ==
|
||||
The WHO started the project on the blue books in 1956.
|
||||
|
||||
=== First and second series (1967-2000) ===
|
||||
Leslie Sobin edited the first edition, published from 1967 to 1981, as the International Histological Classification of Tumors series. Sobin edited a second edition of 25 volumes, published by Springer between 1982 and 2002.
|
||||
In 1993 the WHO approved a concise classification of tumours affecting the central nervous system. It was later revised in 2007 and then in 2016.
|
||||
|
||||
=== Third series (2000) ===
|
||||
The third edition of 10 volumes, was published in a new style as a series of World Health Organization Classification of Tumors from 2000 to 2005, and edited by Sobin and Paul Kleihues.
|
||||
|
||||
=== Fourth series (2006) ===
|
||||
In 2006, the fourth edition was initiated and guided by series editors Fred Bosman, Elaine S. Jaffe, Sunil R. Lakhani, and Hiroko Ohgaki. It was completed in 2018 and included 12 volumes plus revised versions of central nervous system tumours and blood cancers.
|
||||
The fourth edition of the WHO Classification of Digestive System Tumors was published in 2010. A fourth edition describing breast tumours was published in 2012, Tumours of the Central Nervous System in 2017, and the WHO Classification of Skin Tumors in 2018. In it, the classification of melanoma is based on its mechanism and its association with sun-exposed skin.
|
||||
|
||||
WHO classification of Tumours of the Central Nervous System. Vol. 1 (4th ed.). Lyon (France): International Agency for Research on Cancer. 2016. ISBN 978-92-832-4492-9.
|
||||
WHO Classification of Tumours of Endocrine Organs. Vol. 10 (4 ed.). Lyon (France): International Agency for Research on Cancer. 2017. ISBN 978-92-832-4493-6.
|
||||
WHO Classification of Skin Tumours. Vol. 11 (4th ed.). Lyon (France): International Agency for Research on Cancer. 2018. ISBN 978-92-832-2440-2.
|
||||
|
||||
=== Fifth series (2019) ===
|
||||
A fifth series was released in 2019, in a lighter blue and with a bold "5" on the book spine, to make it distinct from older outdated editions that might inadvertently be referred to. The text appears in two columns; previously there were three. It is the first in the series of the WHO blue books to appear online in its complete form, and includes a few books from the fourth series with the aim of updating books as they develop. Its website uses images and hyperlinks.
|
||||
The first volume to be produced was on the classification of Digestive System Tumours. Seven years after the fourth edition, a fifth edition on Soft Tissue and Bone Tumours was published in May 2020. The fifth Female Genital Tumours was published in September 2020. The fifth edition of Thoracic Tumours was discussed at the 2020 World Conference on Lung Cancer in Toronto. It includes additional chapters "Diagnostic Molecular Pathology" and "Essential or Desirable Diagnostic Criteria", and some new lung cancer types.
|
||||
31
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WHO_Blue_Books-1.md
Normal file
31
data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WHO_Blue_Books-1.md
Normal file
@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
title: "WHO Blue Books"
|
||||
chunk: 2/2
|
||||
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WHO_Blue_Books"
|
||||
category: "reference"
|
||||
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
|
||||
date_saved: "2026-05-05T08:48:49.101051+00:00"
|
||||
instance: "kb-cron"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
Digestive System Tumours. Vol. 1 (5th ed.). Lyon (France): International Agency for Research on Cancer. 2019. ISBN 978-92-832-4499-8.
|
||||
Breast Tumours. Vol. 2 (5th ed.). Lyon (France): International Agency for Research on Cancer. 2019. ISBN 978-92-832-4500-1.
|
||||
Soft Tissue and Bone Tumours. Vol. 3 (5th ed.). Lyon (France): International Agency for Research on Cancer. 2020. ISBN 978-92-832-4502-5.
|
||||
Female Genital Tumours. Vol. 4 (5th ed.). Lyon (France): International Agency for Research on Cancer. 2020. ISBN 978-92-832-4504-9.
|
||||
Thoracic Tumours. Vol. 5 (5th ed.). Lyon (France): International Agency for Research on Cancer. 2021. ISBN 978-92-832-4506-3.
|
||||
Central Nervous System Tumours. Vol. 6 (5th ed.). Lyon (France): International Agency for Research on Cancer. 2021. ISBN 978-92-832-4508-7.
|
||||
Paediatric Tumours. Vol. 7 (5th ed.). Lyon (France): International Agency for Research on Cancer. 2023. ISBN 978-92-832-4510-0.
|
||||
Urinary and Male Genital Tumours. Vol. 8 (5th ed.). Lyon (France): International Agency for Research on Cancer. 2022. ISBN 978-92-832-4512-4.
|
||||
Head and Neck Tumours. Vol. 9 (5th ed.). Lyon (France): International Agency for Research on Cancer. 2024. ISBN 978-92-832-4514-8.
|
||||
|
||||
== Consensus based versus evidence based approach ==
|
||||
The method of classifying tumours in the Blue Books was discussed in an accompanying article in the International Journal of Cancer in June 2020, titled "WHO Classification of Tumours: How should tumors be classified? Expert consensus, systematic reviews or both?" In it, they noted that heavy reliance on expert consensus relative to structured and controlled systematic reviews may result in bias, giving undue weight to particular literature or missing relevant studies. In the first volume of the fifth series, 200 tumours or topics were marked as clinically irrelevant, and up to 130 were reported as "unknown", with no further explanation of whether a detailed literature search was conducted. Interpersonal and cultural factors, dominating characters, and the varying representations in each expert panel, influence decisions. During updating, carrying forward previously incorrectly referenced material could also be a potential problem.
|
||||
The authors noted that biases are reduced somewhat by having an editorial board to oversee evidence and make decisions. They questioned whether these problems could also be reduced by adding evidence‐based practices to the editorial process, but noted that imposing this might not be appropriate, and that some feel that "clinical judgment based on experience" has an importance that may not be emphasised from randomized controlled trials. In conclusion, they proposed four "non‐negotiables" when carrying out literature reviews that affect important decisions for the WHO Blue Book series: transparency, searching rigor, double checking, risk of bias assessment.
|
||||
|
||||
== See also ==
|
||||
Blue book (disambiguation)
|
||||
|
||||
== References ==
|
||||
|
||||
== External links ==
|
||||
"WHO Classification of Tumours Online". tumourclassification.iarc.who.int.
|
||||
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Reference in New Issue
Block a user