A Course of Elementary Instruction in Practical Biology

1875 T H HUXLEY'S LABORATORY GUIDE TO BIOLOGY (NEWLY COMBINED BOTANY AND ZOOLOGY).

7 inches tall hardcover, red cloth binding, blindstamped publisher's seal to front cover, gilt title to spine, black endpapers, i-xi, 279 pp, 72-page publisher's catalogue. Spine faded, otherwise unmarked and very good in custom archival mylar cover. From Preface: Very soon after I began to teach Natural History, or what we now call Biology, at the Royal School of Mines, some twenty years ago, I arrived at the conviction that the study of living bodies is really one discipline, which is divided into Zoology and Botany simply as a matter of convenience; and that the scientific Zoologist should no more be ignorant of the fundamental phenomena of vegetable life, than the scienific Botanist of those of animal existence. Moreover, it was obvious that the road to a sound and thorough knowledge of Zoology and Botany lay through Morphology and Physiology; and tliat, as in the case of all other physical sciences, so in these, sound and thorough knowledge was only to be obtained by practical work in he laboratory.

THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY (1825 - 1895) was an English biologist and anthropologist who specialized in comparative anatomy. He has become known as Darwin's Bulldog for his advocacy of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. Huxley had little formal schooling and was virtually self-taught. He became perhaps the finest comparative anatomist of the later 19th century. He worked on invertebrates, clarifying relationships between groups previously little understood. Later, he worked on vertebrates, especially on the relationship between apes and humans. After comparing Archaeopteryx with Compsognathus, he concluded that birds evolved from small carnivorous dinosaurs, a belief still widely held today. The thirty-one years during which Huxley occupied the chair of natural history at the Royal School of Mines included work on vertebrate paleontology and on many projects to advance the place of science in British life. When Huxley himself was young there were virtually no degrees in British universities in the biological sciences and few courses. Most biologists of his day either were self-taught or took medical degrees. When he retired there were established chairs in biological disciplines in most universities, and a broad consensus on the curricula to be followed. Huxley was the single most influential person in this transformation. Huxley was also a major influence in the direction taken by British schools: in November 1870, he was elected to the London School Board in its first elections.

Product Info

Publisher: Macmillan and Co.

Year: 1883

Type: Used

Binding: Softcover

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