Darwin-L Message Log 32: 1–25 — April 1996

Academic Discussion on the History and Theory of the Historical Sciences

Darwin-L was an international discussion group on the history and theory of the historical sciences, active from 1993–1997. Darwin-L was established to promote the reintegration of a range of fields all of which are concerned with reconstructing the past from evidence in the present, and to encourage communication among scholars, scientists, and researchers in these fields. The group had more than 600 members from 35 countries, and produced a consistently high level of discussion over its several years of operation. Darwin-L was not restricted to evolutionary biology nor to the work of Charles Darwin, but instead addressed the entire range of historical sciences from an explicitly comparative perspective, including evolutionary biology, historical linguistics, textual transmission and stemmatics, historical geology, systematics and phylogeny, archeology, paleontology, cosmology, historical geography, historical anthropology, and related “palaetiological” fields.

This log contains public messages posted to the Darwin-L discussion group during April 1996. It has been lightly edited for format: message numbers have been added for ease of reference, message headers have been trimmed, some irregular lines have been reformatted, and error messages and personal messages accidentally posted to the group as a whole have been deleted. No genuine editorial changes have been made to the content of any of the posts. This log is provided for personal reference and research purposes only, and none of the material contained herein should be published or quoted without the permission of the original poster.

The master copy of this log is maintained in the Darwin-L Archives (rjohara.net/darwin) by Dr. Robert J. O’Hara. The Darwin-L Archives also contain additional information about the Darwin-L discussion group, the complete Today in the Historical Sciences calendar for every month of the year, a collection of recommended readings on the historical sciences, and an account of William Whewell’s concept of “palaetiology.”

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DARWIN-L MESSAGE LOG 32: 1-25 -- APRIL 1996
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DARWIN-L
A Network Discussion Group on the
History and Theory of the Historical Sciences

Darwin-L@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu is an international network discussion group on
the history and theory of the historical sciences.  Darwin-L was established
in September 1993 to promote the reintegration of a range of fields all of
which are concerned with reconstructing the past from evidence in the present,
and to encourage communication among academic professionals in these fields.
Darwin-L is not restricted to evolutionary biology nor to the work of Charles
Darwin but instead addresses the entire range of historical sciences from an
interdisciplinary perspective, including evolutionary biology, historical
linguistics, textual transmission and stemmatics, historical geology,
systematics and phylogeny, archeology, paleontology, cosmology, historical
anthropology, historical geography, and related "palaetiological" fields.

This log contains the public messages posted to Darwin-L during April 1996.
It has been lightly edited for format: message numbers have been added for ease
of reference, message headers have been trimmed, some irregular lines have been
reformatted, and some administrative messages and personal messages posted to
the group as a whole have been deleted.  No genuine editorial changes have been
made to the content of any of the posts.  This log is provided for personal
reference and research purposes only, and none of the material contained herein
should be published or quoted without the permission of the original poster.
The master copy of this log is maintained in the archives of Darwin-L by
listserv@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu, and is also available on the Darwin-L Web Server
at http://rjohara.uncg.edu.  For instructions on how to retrieve copies of this
and other log files, and for additional information about Darwin-L, send the
e-mail message INFO DARWIN-L to listserv@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu, or connect to
the Darwin-L Web Server.

Darwin-L is administered by Robert J. O'Hara (darwin@iris.uncg.edu), Center for
Critical Inquiry in the Liberal Arts and Department of Biology, University of
North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, North Carolina 27412 U.S.A., and it
is supported by the Center for Critical Inquiry, University of North Carolina
at Greensboro, and the Department of History and the Academic Computing Center,
University of Kansas.

_______________________________________________________________________________

<32:1>From DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu Mon Apr  1 21:54:53 1996

Date: Mon, 01 Apr 1996 22:54:23 -0500 (EST)
From: DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu
Subject: List owner's monthly greeting
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Organization: University of NC at Greensboro

Greetings to all Darwin-L subscribers.  On the first of every month I send
out a short note on the status of our group, along with a reminder of basic
commands.  For additional information about the group please visit the
Darwin-L Web Server (http://rjohara.uncg.edu).

Darwin-L seems to be experiencing some technical difficulties at the
moment with the listserv software.  I am investigating the problem and
hope to have it straightened out shortly.  It is possible that some people
may receive two copies of this message; if so, I apologize.

Darwin-L is an international discussion group for professionals in the
historical sciences.  The group is not devoted to any particular discipline,
such as evolutionary biology, but rather seeks to promote interdisciplinary
comparisons across the entire range of "palaetiology", including evolution,
historical linguistics, archeology, geology, cosmology, historical geography,
textual transmission, and history proper.  Darwin-L currently has more than
700 members from over 35 countries.

Because Darwin-L does have a large membership and is sometimes a high-volume
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     INFO DARWIN-L

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I thank you all for your continuing interest in Darwin-L and in the
interdisciplinary study of the historical sciences.

Bob O'Hara, Darwin-L list owner

Dr. Robert J. O'Hara (darwin@iris.uncg.edu)
Senior Tutor, Cornelia Strong College
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Greensboro, North Carolina 27412 U.S.A.

_______________________________________________________________________________

<32:2>From DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu Tue Apr  2 04:50:09 1996

Date: Tue, 02 Apr 1996 01:13:18 -0500 (EST)
From: DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu
Subject: April 2 -- Today in the Historical Sciences
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Organization: University of NC at Greensboro

APRIL 2 -- TODAY IN THE HISTORICAL SCIENCES

1747: JOHANN JACOB DILLENIUS dies at Oxford, England, after an attack of
apoplexy.  Born in Germany in 1687, Dillenius studied medicine at Giessen and
was eventually appointed doctor to the town.  His interest in botany won him
election to the Caesare Leopoldina-Carolina Academia Naturae Curiosum, and
he soon published a flora of the region around Giessen, _Catalogus plantarum
circa Gissam sponte nascentium_ (Frankfurt am Main, 1718).  Because Dillenius
was critical of Bachmann, whose botanical system was then popular, he did not
find favor in German systematic circles, and he emigrated to England in 1721
at the invitation of William Sherard, who hired Dillenius to work on his
botanical encyclopedia.  In England Dillenius was elected a fellow of the
Royal Society, and in 1724 he oversaw the publication of the final edition
of John Ray's _Synopsis plantarum_ (London, 1724).  He played host to Linnaeus
in 1736 when the Swedish botanist visited Oxford, and published _Historia
muscorum_, an influential study of the cryptogams, in 1741.  His herbarium
will be preserved in the collections of Oxford University.

Today in the Historical Sciences is a feature of Darwin-L, an international
network discussion group on the history and theory of the historical sciences.
Send the message INFO DARWIN-L to listserv@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu or connect
to the Darwin-L Web Server (http://rjohara.uncg.edu) for more information.

_______________________________________________________________________________

<32:3>From DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu Wed Apr  3 00:33:50 1996

Date: Wed, 03 Apr 1996 01:33:20 -0500 (EST)
From: DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu
Subject: April 3 -- Today in the Historical Sciences
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Organization: University of NC at Greensboro

APRIL 3 -- TODAY IN THE HISTORICAL SCIENCES

1683: MARK CATESBY is born at Castle Hedingham, Essex, England.  The son of a
lawyer and public official, the young Catesby will develop an early interest
in botany and will become a friend of the prominent English naturalist John
Ray.  From 1712 to 1719 Catesby will live with his sister in the Virginia
colony, and the plants he will collect during his stay in America will bring
him to the attention of a number of other prominent naturalists, including
Sir Hans Sloane.  Catesby will be commissioned to return to America for the
purpose of natural history exploration and collecting, and from 1722 to 1726
he will travel through South Carolina, Florida, and the West Indies.  Upon his
return to England he will publish the acclaimed _Natural History of Carolina,
Florida, and the Bahama Islands_ (1731-1743), a work that will be used by
Linnaeus as the source for his descriptions of North American birds.

Today in the Historical Sciences is a feature of Darwin-L, an international
network discussion group on the history and theory of the historical sciences.
Send the message INFO DARWIN-L to listserv@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu or connect
to the Darwin-L Web Server (http://rjohara.uncg.edu) for more information.

_______________________________________________________________________________

<32:4>From DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu Fri Apr  5 01:42:28 1996

Date: Thu, 04 Apr 1996 23:51:35 -0500 (EST)
From: DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu
Subject: Narrative in the historical sciences
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Organization: University of NC at Greensboro

The nature and function of narrative has long been a topic of interest
in the general philosophy of history, and ought to be a topic of interest
in the historical sciences as well.  A colleague recently passed along to
me a short item in _Scientific American_ about the role of narrative in
economics, and I will forward extracts from it in another message shortly.

It occurs to me that it might be helpful to put together a working
bibliography of papers on narrative in the historical sciences, and in
a few minutes poking around my office I have come up with the following
starters.  Can any other Darwin-L folks suggest additions?  There is a
lot of literature on narrative generally, but I would be interested in
works that specifically deal with narrative in the historical sciences.
There must be literature out there from archeology, perhaps, or linguistics?
And more from evolutionary biology?

Bob O'Hara (darwin@iris.uncg.edu)

--preliminary list---------------------

Hull, David L.  1975.  Central subjects and historical narratives.  History
and Theory, 14:253-274.  [Discusses the species problem.]

Hull, David L.  1981.  Historical narratives and integrating explanations.
Pp. 172-188 in: Pragmatism and Purpose: Essays Presented to Thomas A. Goudge
(Sumner, Slater, & Wilson, eds.).  Toronto: University of Toronoto Press.

Landau, Misia.  1991.  Narratives of Human Evolution.  New Haven: Yale
University Press.

McCloskey, Donald N.  1995.  Once upon a time there was a theory.  Scientific
American, February 1995, p. 25.  [Note on narrative in economics.]

O'Hara, Robert J.  1988.  Homage to Clio, or, toward an historical
philosopy for evolutionary biology.  Systematic Zoology, 37:142-155.

O'Hara, Robert J.  1992.  Telling the tree: narrative representation and
the study of evolutionary history.  Biology and Philosophy, 7:135-160.

Richards, Robert J.  1992.  The structure of narrative explantion in history
and biology.  Pp. 19-53 in: History and Evolution (Nitecki & Nitecki, eds.).
Albany: SUNY Press.

Rouse, Joseph.  1990.  The narrative reconstruction of science.  Inquiry,
33:179-196.

Ruse, Michael.  1971.  Narrative explantion and the theory of evolution.
Canadian Journal of Philosophy, 1:59-74.

---------------------------------------

_______________________________________________________________________________

<32:5>From DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu Fri Apr  5 01:42:34 1996

Date: Fri, 05 Apr 1996 00:14:33 -0500 (EST)
From: DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu
Subject: McCloskey essay on narrative in economics
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Organization: University of NC at Greensboro

This is the short piece by McCloskey on the role of narrative in
economics that I mentioned in my previous message.  I don't find everything
he says convincing, but it is just a short item for a popular journal.
Can anyone point us to other sources on the importance of narrative
in economics?

Bob O'Hara (darwin@iris.uncg.edu)

--begin forwarded article--------------

From: McCloskey, Donald N.  1995.  Once upon a time there was a theory.
Scientific American, February 1995, p. 25.

Determining what drives economic growth or decline depends as much on
storytelling as on data.  For the past decade or so, a new crop of theorists,
including Paul Romer of the University of California at Berkeley and Robert
Lucas of the University of Chicago, has been pushing "endogenous" growth.
These economists argue that development results entirely from economic
factors: once upon a time the U.S. was poor; then its population grew and
became urbanized, allowing business to exploit economies of scale.  As a
result, the country became rich.  There are even mathematical models to prove
it.  Economists understand all the variables in this story -- population,
production costs and profits -- and so it is called endogenous (inside the
economics).

Economic historians such as Joel Mokyr of Northwestern University and Nathan
Rosenberg of Stanford University, meanwhile, favor "exogenous" explanations
based on outside factors, in particular technological change.  Once upon a
time we were all poor; then a wave of gadgets swept over England.  As a
result we are all rich, or well on our way to it, if we will let people
alone.  This story does a better job of explaining, for instance, why China's
per capita income grows by 10 percent a year: the Chinese, like the Koreans
and Japanese before them, adopt the best methods invented thus far and
quickly catch up with more advanced nations, regardles of endogenous factors
in their economy.

The exogenous version has its own problems, but one of the major reasons the
endogenist economic theorists argue against it seems to be that it offends
their narrative sense.  They do not like to have to step outside of economics
to talk about the nature and causes of the wealth of nations.

Are endogenists being unscientific in wanting to tell one kind of story
rather than another?  Is economics as a whole simply not a science because
its practitioners rely on narrative?....

The notion of "science" as divorced from storytelling arose largely during
the past century.  Before then the word -- like its French, Tamil, Turkish
and Japanese counterparts -- meant "systematic inquiry."....

Most sciences do storytelling and model building.  At one end of the gamut
sits Newtonian physics -- the _Principia_ (1687) is essnetially geometric
rather than narrative.  Charles Darwin's biology in _The Origin of Species_
(1859), in contrast, is almost entirely historical and devoid of mathematical
models.  Nevertheless, most scientists, and economists among them, hate to
admit to something so childish-sounding as telling stories.  They want to
emulate Newton's elegance rather than Darwin's complexity.  One suspects the
relative prestige of the two methods has more to do with age than anything
else.  If a proto-Darwin had published in 1687, and a neo-Newton in 1859, you
can bet the prestige of storytelling versus timless modeling would be
reversed.  [I don't find that at all obvious; it would seem to me the nature
of the materials being studied is more important.  --RJO]

Even when economists rely on models, decisions about what to include or what
conclusions to draw turn on some principle of storytelling.  Particularly
important is the sense of beginnings and endings.  To an eclectic Keynesian,
the story "oil prices went up in 1973, causing inflation" is full of meaning.
But for a monetarist, it ends too soon: a rise in oil prices without some
corresponding fall elsewhere is not an equilibrium.  Meanwhile Keynesians
accuse the monetarist plotline of an ill-motivated beginning: focusing on
money, the end of production, ignores where it comes from and why.

So when forecasters debate the impact of Federal Reserve Chairman Alan
Greenspan's latest hike in interest rates, they are not just contesting the
coefficients of their equations.  They are debating which narrative style
best describes the economy.  And in economics, as in other sciences, you
cannot get away from the aesthetics of human stories....

--end forwarded article----------------

_______________________________________________________________________________

<32:6>From ahouse@hydra.rose.brandeis.edu Thu Apr  4 16:51:51 1996

Date: Thu, 4 Apr 1996 17:53:37 -0500
To: Darwin-L@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu (Darwin List)
From: ahouse@hydra.rose.brandeis.edu (Jeremy C. Ahouse)
Subject: new "evolution" web sites

Hi DarwinL,

        The Harvard evolution course page (http://icg.harvard.edu/~bio17)
keeps changing. The running list of study questions may be of particular
interest to those of you who are teaching introductory courses. You can
find the questions by clicking on "A list of questions based on the
lectures" on the "Problem sets & special topics" page. Please send me any
suggestions.

These two sites were announced on the evolutionary programming list*.

    (1) From: jgolden@natural-selection.com (Jim Golden)
        Date: Tue, 5 Mar 1996 14:28:34 -0800
        Subject: Natural Selection Web Page

        We are pleased to announce our new home page at
        www.natural-selection.com.
        Please feel free to visit us there.  If you have any
        questions, please do
        not hesitate to contact us.

        Jim Golden
        jgolden@natural-selection.com

        ------------------------------

    (2) From: jjf@mickey.jsc.nasa.gov
        Date: Sun, 10 Mar 1996 12:27:55 -0600
        Subject: New Genetic Programming Web Site

        I have created a new genetic programming web site.
        Its address is:
        http://tommy.jsc.nasa.gov/~jjf/gp/

        If you have any problems with that URL you can also try:
        http://www.owlnet.rice.edu/~jjf/gp/
        http://www.ecisa.com/users/jjf/www/gp/

____________

       *Compressed back issues of the EP-List Digest are available
        for anonymous FTP from amazon.eng.fau.edu in
        /pub/ep-list/digest/vNN.nMMM.Z (where "NN" is the volume
        number, and "MMM" is the issue number)..

        Jeremy C. Ahouse
        Biology Department
        Brandeis University
        Waltham, MA 02254-9110
ph:     (617) 736-4954
fax:    (617) 736-2405
email:  ahouse@hydra.rose.brandeis.edu
web:    http://www.rose.brandeis.edu/users/simister/pages/Ahouse

_______________________________________________________________________________

<32:7>From DSJOUR01@ULKYVM.LOUISVILLE.EDU Fri Apr  5 07:55:01 1996

Date: Fri, 5 Apr 96  08:56:38 EST
From: Debra Journet <DSJOUR01@ULKYVM.LOUISVILLE.EDU>
Subject: Narrative in the historical sciences
To: <darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu>

Professor and Chair, Dept. of English
Phone: 502-852-6801  Fax:  502-852-4182

I work in the rhetoric of science (an English faculty member) and have been
interested in the role of narrative in the physical sciences for a while.
I have found the following (most of which deal with the representation
of narrative) quite useful:

Miller, C. and S. M. Halloran.  "Reading Darwin, Reading Nature:  Or, on
the Ethos of Historical Science."  Understanding Scientific Prose. Ed.
J. Selzer.  Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1993, 106-126.

Myers, G.  Writing Biology:  Texts in the Social Construction of Scientific
Knowledge.  Madison:  University of Wisconsin Press, 1989.

Mitchell, W.J.T., ed.  On Narrative.  Chicago:  University of Chicago Press,
1981.  [Essays dealing with narrative in a number of disciplines, including
psychoanalysis, history, anthropology]

These may be outside the interests of Darwin-L readers, but two works which
are useful in showing how representations of Darwinian narratives influenced
larger cultural narratives include

Beer, G.  Darwin's Plots.  London: Ark, 1983.

Levine, G.  Darwin and the Novelists: Patterns of Science in Victorian
Fiction.  Madison:  University of Wisconsin Press, 1987.

Examples of my own work applying narrative theory to biological texts
include

Journet, Debra.  "Ecological Theories as Cultural Narratives:  F.E.
Clements's and H. A. Gleason's 'Stories' of Community Succession."
Written Communication.  1991 (8), 446-472.

Journet, Debra.  "Synthesizing Disciplinary Narratives:  George Gaylord
Simpson's Tempo and Mode in Evolution."  Social Epistemology.  1995 (9),
113-150.

Debra Journet
Department of English, University of Louisville
Louisville, KY 40292
dsjour01@ulkyvm.louisville.edu

_______________________________________________________________________________

<32:8>From DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu Sat Apr  6 00:30:43 1996

Date: Sat, 06 Apr 1996 01:30:37 -0500 (EST)
From: DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu
Subject: April 6 -- Today in the Historical Sciences
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Organization: University of NC at Greensboro

APRIL 6 -- TODAY IN THE HISTORICAL SCIENCES

1732: JOSE CELESTINO BRUNO MUTIS Y BOSSIO is born at Cadiz, Spain.  A student
of medicine at Seville and Madrid, Mutis will be appointed physician to the
viceroy of the Spanish colony of Nueva Granada, and he will sail to America in
1760.  He will travel extensively, collecting plants throughout Nueva Granada,
and will correspond with many botanists in Europe including Linnaeus.  He will
die in Santa Fe de Bogota (later Bogota, Colombia) in 1808, but the principal
report of his explorations, _La Flora de la real expedicion botanica del Nuevo
Reino de Granada_, will remain unpublished until 1954.

Today in the Historical Sciences is a feature of Darwin-L, an international
network discussion group on the history and theory of the historical sciences.
Send the message INFO DARWIN-L to listserv@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu or connect
to the Darwin-L Web Server (http://rjohara.uncg.edu) for more information.

_______________________________________________________________________________

<32:9>From DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu Mon Apr  8 01:15:43 1996

Date: Mon, 08 Apr 1996 02:15:37 -0500 (EST)
From: DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu
Subject: April 8 -- Today in the Historical Sciences
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Organization: University of NC at Greensboro

APRIL 9 -- TODAY IN THE HISTORICAL SCIENCES

1739: WILLIAM BARTRAM, son of Ann Mendenhall and the botanist John Bartram, is
born at Kingsessing, Pennsylvania.  As a young man Bartram will accompany his
father on his botanical travels through the Catskill Mountains and Connecticut
in the early 1750s, and he will become a skillful natural history illustrator.
His drawings will be sent to Peter Collinson in London, the elder Bartram's
scientific patron, and Collinson and the British naturalist George Edwards
will commission Bartram to produce some of the illustrations for Edwards's
_Gleanings of Natural History_.  After a series of unsuccessful business
ventures, the elder and younger Bartrams will travel to Florida in 1765, and
William will remain there to try his hand, unsuccessfully again, at farming.
A new London patron, the physician John Fothergill, will offer to support
Bartram on a collecting expedition across southeastern America, and the report
of this trip, _Travels Through North & South Carolina, Georgia, East & West
Florida, the Cherokee Counntry, the Extensive Territories of the Muscogluges
or Creek Confederacy, and the Country of the Chactaws_ (Philadelphia, 1791),
will be soon reprinted in London and translated into French, German, and
Dutch, and will win Bartram fame throughout Europe.  Bartram's vivid and
graceful descriptions of American natural history in the _Travels_, as well as
his accounts of the native peoples of the region, will influence the European
Romantic writers of the early 1800s, and he will act as a teacher to a whole
generation of American naturalists including Thomas Nuttall, Thomas Say, and
Alexander Wilson.

Today in the Historical Sciences is a feature of Darwin-L, an international
network discussion group on the history and theory of the historical sciences.
Send the message INFO DARWIN-L to listserv@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu or connect
to the Darwin-L Web Server (http://rjohara.uncg.edu) for more information.

_______________________________________________________________________________

<32:10>From DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu Mon Apr  8 23:28:25 1996

Date: Tue, 09 Apr 1996 00:28:20 -0500 (EST)
From: DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu
Subject: More suggestions on narrative in the historical sciences (fwd)
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Organization: University of NC at Greensboro

--begin forwarded message--------------

Date: Fri, 05 Apr 1996 09:31:53 -0500
From: "Linnda R. Caporael" <caporl@rpi.edu>
Subject: Narrative
To: darwin@iris.uncg.edu

Here is a contribution to your narrative in history list.

Caporael, L. R. (1994). Of myth and science: Origin stories and evolutionary
scenarios. Social Science Information, 33, 9-23.

Latour, B., & Strum, S. C. (1986). Human social origins: Oh please, tell us
another story. Journal of Social and Biological Structures, 9, 169-187.

Maynard Smith, J. (1987). Science and myth. In N. Eldredge (Ed.), The
Natural History reader in evolution (pp. 222-229). New York City: Columbia
University Press.

--end forwarded message----------------

_______________________________________________________________________________

<32:11>From DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu Wed Apr 10 12:54:30 1996

Date: Wed, 10 Apr 1996 13:54:22 -0500 (EST)
From: DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu
Subject: History of Monte Carlo simulations
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Organization: University of NC at Greensboro

--begin forwarded message--------------

Date: Tue, 9 Apr 1996 14:44:06 -0400 (EDT)
From: Patricia Princehouse <princeh@husc.harvard.edu>
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: Monte Carlo?

A (non-biologically oriented) friend of mine is interested in the history
of monte carlo simulations & wants to know/wants references for the first
and/or most famous use in biology/evolutionary biology.

Any suggestions will be most appreciated.

Thanks,

Patricia Princehouse
princeh@fas.harvard.edu

--end forwarded message----------------

_______________________________________________________________________________

<32:12>From maisel@SDSC.EDU Wed Apr 10 14:04:07 1996

Date: Wed, 10 Apr 1996 12:04:03 -0700 (PDT)
From: Merry Maisel <maisel@SDSC.EDU>
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: Re: History of Monte Carlo simulations

Dear Dr. Princehouse,

I'll be forwarding your message to the SHOT-HC list (society for
the history of technology, history of computing group), as the
members there may well be able to add much to the little knowledge
I possess.  I am not familiar with the history of computational
biology, but I do know that the Monte Carlo method is usually
credited to Stanslaw Ulam, John von Neumann, and Nicholas
Metropolis, who did some of the first Monte Carlo calculations
on the ENIAC, during WW II.  You might consult Metropolis's
reminiscence in _A History of Scientific Computing_ (ACM via
Addison-Wesley, 1990), ed. Stephen G. Nash, pp. 237ff.

Merry Maisel
maisel@sdsc.edu (San Diego Supercomputer Center)

_______________________________________________________________________________

<32:13>From NJOHNSON@albert.uta.edu Wed Apr 10 14:52:13 1996

From: "NORMAN JOHNSON" <NJOHNSON@albert.uta.edu>
Organization:  University of Texas at Arlington
To: DARWIN@steffi.uncg.edu, darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Date: Wed, 10 Apr 1996 14:47:59 CST
Subject: Re: History of Monte Carlo simulations

There is a rather detailed section on Monte Carlo simulations and
their application to the evolutionary dynamics of the t locus in
mouse in a 1960 paper by Lewontin and Dunn. I think this may be one of
the first uses of computer simulations in biology. It makes reference
to a 1958 paper by Bofinger and Bofinger in J. Association for
Computing Machinery.

Lewontin, RC and LC Dunn. 1960 The evolutionary dynamics of a
polymorphism in the house mouse. Genetics 45: 706-722.

Norman

**********************************************************************

Norman Johnson

njohnson@albert.uta.edu

_______________________________________________________________________________

<32:14>From joe@genetics.washington.edu Thu Apr 11 00:13:39 1996

From: Joe Felsenstein <joe@genetics.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: History of Monte Carlo simulations
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Date: Wed, 10 Apr 1996 22:21:12 -0700 (PDT)

Norman Johnson wrote:

> There is a rather detailed section on Monte Carlo simulations and
> their application to the evolutionary dynamics of the t locus in
> mouse in a 1960 paper by Lewontin and Dunn. I think this may be one of
> the first uses of computer simulations in biology. It makes reference
> to a 1958 paper by Bofinger and Bofinger in J. Association for
> Computing Machinery.

That is one early genetic simulation paper but not by any means the first.
(Bofinger and Bofinger is a paper on generating random numbers).
An earlier influential pair of papers was by Alex Fraser in 1957
simulating multiple-locus artificial selection systems:

Fraser, A. S.
Simulation of genetic systems by automatic digital computers. I. Introduction
Australian J. Biological Sciences  10: 484-491  1957

Fraser, A. S.
The simulation of genetic systems by automatic digital computers. II. The
effects of linkage on the rates of advance under selection
Australian J. Biological Sciences  10: 492-499  1957

But even these are not the earliest.   David Fogel, who works on Evolutionary
Computation, pointed out to me that the very first person to do genetic
simulations was (the late and very eccentric) Nils Aall Barricelli, who
had a paper in 1954 in Italian in the journal Methodos.  Interestingly, he
was using simulated genetic systems to solve nongenetic problems, and is thus
the true pioneer of what is now called The Genetic Algorithm.  Barricelli,
who was independently wealthy (his family owned Norway) was associated at
that time with John von Neumann and the computer at the Institute for
Advanced Study.  Most academics didn't see computers until about 1957, hence
Fraser's papers then.

There may be earlier Monte Carlo studies in ecology, but these are the first
in population genetics.  However, if one doesn't require the use of a
computer, note Sewall Wright and H. C. McPhee's random-sampling method for
approximating inbreeding coefficients in large pedigrees (of cattle):

McPhee, H. C.  and S. Wright
Mendelian analysis of the pure breeds of livestock. IV. The British dairy
shorthorns
J. Heredity  17: 397-401  1926

By the way, the first use of computers (not of Monte Carlo methods) in biology
must be

Fisher, R. A.
Gene frequencies in a cline determined by selection and diffusion
Biometrics  6: 353-361  1950

which was done on one of the first two stored-program digital computers
within months of its becoming operational (see the mention by Maurice Wilkes
in a 1975 paper in Nature).

--
Joe Felsenstein         joe@genetics.washington.edu     (IP No. 128.95.12.41)
 Dept. of Genetics, Univ. of Washington, Box 357360, Seattle, WA 98195-7360 USA

_______________________________________________________________________________

<32:15>From mew1@siu.edu Thu Apr 11 16:11:43 1996

Date: Thu, 11 Apr 1996 16:09:30 -0500
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
From: "Margaret E. Winters" <mew1@siu.edu>
Subject: Re: History of Monte Carlo simulations

I had never seen the term "Monte Carlo simulations" until this thread
started -- I can figure out from the discussion what they are (VERY
ROUGHLY), but where does the term come from???

Thanks,
Margaret
-----------------------
Dr. Margaret E. Winters
Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs (Budget and Personnel)
Southern Illinois University at Carbondale
Carbondale, IL  62901

tel: (618) 536-5535
fax: (618) 453-3340
e-mail:	mew1@siu.edu

_______________________________________________________________________________

<32:16>From daaf@cerium.demon.co.uk Fri Apr 12 11:01:40 1996

From: Danny Fagandini <daaf@cerium.demon.co.uk>
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: Re: History of Monte Carlo simulations
Date: Fri, 12 Apr 1996 14:17:56 BST

"Margaret E. Winters" <mew1@siu.edu> wrote:

> I had never seen the term "Monte Carlo simulations" until this thread
> started -- I can figure out from the discussion what they are (VERY
> ROUGHLY), but where does the term come from???

Monte Carlo methods as applied to multi-dimensional integration employ
random numbers as a principle data source thereby reducing the amount
of calculation required.  Many physical and technological problems can
be expressed as functions of more than just a few variables so that
conventional calculus expands exponentially.  Given a sound random
number generator (no trivial matter), statistical methods can be used
and a good text dealing with them will provide ample explanation of
where and when the Monte Carlo method can be properly used.  I should
add that it will not be light reading....

--
danny
daaf@cerium.demon.co.uk

_______________________________________________________________________________

<32:17>From joe@genetics.washington.edu Fri Apr 12 15:50:10 1996

From: Joe Felsenstein <joe@genetics.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: History of Monte Carlo simulations
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Date: Fri, 12 Apr 1996 13:57:44 -0700 (PDT)

Margaret Winters asked:
> I had never seen the term "Monte Carlo simulations" until this thread
> started -- I can figure out from the discussion what they are (VERY
> ROUGHLY), but where does the term come from???

They are simulations (mimicking the behavior of natural entities)
using random numbers.  The "Monte Carlo" is simply there because of the
random numbers -- one is drawing randomly much as one does at the
roulette wheel.  The term dates back to about 1950, I think.

--
Joe Felsenstein         joe@genetics.washington.edu     (IP No. 128.95.12.41)
 Dept. of Genetics, Univ. of Washington, Box 357360, Seattle, WA 98195-7360 USA

_______________________________________________________________________________

<32:18>From jsl@rockvax.rockefeller.edu Sat Apr 13 10:58:36 1996

To: Joe Felsenstein <joe@genetics.washington.edu>
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: Re: History of Monte Carlo simulations
Date: Sat, 13 Apr 1996 12:04:06 EDT
From: Joshua Lederberg <jsl@rockvax.rockefeller.edu>

Beyond biology, according to my Encyclopedia Britannica,
Monte Carlo simulations go back many years to "Student"
(Gossett) in the early days of statistics.

For numerical solutions differential equations in physics,
see Ulam-von Neumann as founders, ca. 1947 in

Aa Rowe, David E, ed.
Ab McCleary, John, ed.
TI The history of modern mathematics.
ST Institutions and applications.
PP Boston MA: Academic Press.  1989
CT   Aspray, William  pp. 307-322
        The transformation of numerical analysis by the
        computer: an example from the work of John von Neumann.

_______________________________________________________________________________

<32:19>From DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu Tue Apr 16 14:32:21 1996

Date: Tue, 16 Apr 1996 15:32:10 -0500 (EST)
From: DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu
Subject: April 16 -- Today in the Historical Sciences
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Organization: University of NC at Greensboro

APRIL 16 -- TODAY IN THE HISTORICAL SCIENCES

1788: GEORGES-LOUIS LECLERC, COMTE DE BUFFON, dies at Paris after a long
illness.  One of the most important scientific figures of 18th-century France,
Buffon worked in optics, chemistry, mathematics, botany, and geology, and
published the encyclopedic _Histoire Naturelle_ in 36 volumes beginning in
1749: "Just as in civil history one refers to titles, looks for medals, or
deciphers ancient inscriptions, in order to work out the epochs of human
revolutions and establish the dates of intellectual events, so also in
natural history it is necessary to rummage through the archives of the world."

Today in the Historical Sciences is a feature of Darwin-L, an international
network discussion group on the history and theory of the historical sciences.
Send the message INFO DARWIN-L to listserv@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu or connect
to the Darwin-L Web Server (http://rjohara.uncg.edu) for more information.

_______________________________________________________________________________

<32:20>From DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu Fri Apr 19 00:57:56 1996

Date: Fri, 19 Apr 1996 01:57:46 -0500 (EST)
From: DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu
Subject: April 19 -- Today in the Historical Sciences
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Organization: University of NC at Greensboro

APRIL 19 -- TODAY IN THE HISTORICAL SCIENCES

1882: CHARLES ROBERT DARWIN, the most celebrated naturalist of his age, dies
at Down House, his home, in Kent, England.  He will be buried in Westminster
Abbey, "a few feet from the grave of Sir Isaac Newton".  The son of a medical
doctor, Darwin contributed to almost every department of natural history in
many papers and in more than twenty books.  His most influential work, _On the
Origin of Species_ (London, 1859), explained the diversity and adaptation of
living things through the processes of descent and natural selection, and
brought systematics into the fold of the historical sciences: "The affinities
of all the beings of the same class have sometimes been represented by a great
tree.  I believe this simile largely speaks the truth.  The green and budding
twigs may represent existing species; and those produced during each former
year may represent the long succession of extinct species.  At each period of
growth all the growing twigs have tried to branch out on all sides, and to
overtop and kill the surrounding twigs and branches, in the same manner as
species and groups of species have tried to overmaster other species in the
great battle for life.  The limbs divided into great branches, and these into
lesser and lesser branches, were themselves once, when the tree was small,
budding twigs; and this connexion of the former and present buds by ramifying
branches may well represent the classification of all extinct and living
species in groups subordinate to groups.  Of the many twigs which flourished
when the tree was a mere bush, only two or three, now grown into great
branches, yet survive and bear all the other branches; so with the species
which lived during long-past geological periods, very few now have living and
modified descendants.  From the first growth of the tree, many a limb and
branch has decayed and dropped off; and these lost branches of various sizes
may represent those whole orders, families, and genera which have now no
living representatives, and which are known to us only from having been
found in a fossil state.  As we here and there see a thin straggling branch
springing from a fork low down in a tree, and which by some chance has been
favoured and is still alive in its summit, so we occasionally see an animal
like the Ornithorhynchus or Lepidosiren, which in some small degree connects
by its affinities two large branches of life, and which has apparently been
saved from fatal competition by having inhabited a protected station.  As
buds give rise by growth to fresh buds, and these, if vigorous, branch out
and overtop on all sides many a feebler branch, so by generation I believe it
has been with the great Tree of Life, which fills with its dead and broken
branches the crust of the earth, and covers the surface with its ever
branching and beautiful ramifications."

Today in the Historical Sciences is a feature of Darwin-L, an international
network discussion group on the history and theory of the historical sciences.
Send the message INFO DARWIN-L to listserv@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu or connect
to the Darwin-L Web Server (http://rjohara.uncg.edu) for more information.

_______________________________________________________________________________

<32:21>From HANSS@sepa.tudelft.nl Fri Apr 19 10:15:26 1996

From: "Hans-Cees Speel" <HANSS@sepa.tudelft.nl>
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Date: Fri, 19 Apr 1996 17:17:28 MET
Subject: path dependency and Darwinian theory

A biological question with regard to path-dependency.

In biological evolutionary theory path dependency plays a role. In my
view path dependency means that a species or population cannot change
into a new form, or statistical genotype-configuration in big steps,
but such changes take many small steps [where the question what big
steps and small steps are is important]. The word path-dependency
thus expresses the fact that the possibilities of new forms are
limited by the organisms, or species as they are at any one moment.

Different views are common, and wel-known is the punctuated opinion
versus the small-steps opinion. I do not want to go into what is right
but would like to know the different mechanisms that are used as
arguments for explanation.

The first argument is of course that we see in the geological record
that there are big steps, or that we don't see them. I do not want to
discuss that, it has been done extensively.
What I do want to know is what explanations are given by whom.

I can think of three different classes of explanations:

First of all, an organismal internal explanation. Because all organisms
have to grow [more or less], and function, and internal [grow-] processes
are quite complex in their functional characteristics, many changes
will cause organisms that will die before becoming adult. This internal
selection mechanism weeds out big variations that might occur within
one generation.

Second, the external explanation, by which I mean that such big
variations might occur, but such animals are very likely to loose in
competition with other organisms without the new variation. Because
species often exist of many different individuals, and these are in
competition, big variation steps will be weeded out. Big variation
steps that result in better fitting genotypes are thus unlikely.

Third, it is possible that the mutation-mechanims simply do not allow
big steps. I do not know if anyone holds that position.

[Maybe there are more?]

My question is thus, what explanations are used for either the
punctuated position, or the opposite, small steps position.

Hoping that someone can shed some light,

greetings
Hans-Cees Speel

Theories come and go, the frog stays [F. Jacob]
-------------------------------------------------------
|Hans-Cees Speel School of Systems Engineering, Policy Analysis and management
|Technical Univ. Delft, Jaffalaan 5 2600 GA Delft PO Box 5015 The Netherlands
|telephone +3115785776 telefax +3115783422 E-mail hanss@sepa.tudelft.nl
HTTP://www.sepa.tudelft.nl/~afd_ba/hanss.html featuring evolution and memetics!

_______________________________________________________________________________

<32:22>From DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu Sat Apr 20 14:56:07 1996

Date: Sat, 20 Apr 1996 15:55:58 -0500 (EST)
From: DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu
Subject: Conference on medical geography (fwd)
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Organization: University of NC at Greensboro

--begin forwarded message--------------

Date: 20 Apr 96 10:32:00 +0200
From: RAINER.BROEMER@LINK-GOE.de (Rainer Broemer)
Subject: Conference on Medical Geography
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu

Conference announcement
Medical Geography
Goettingen (Germany) June 13th - 15th, 1996
Institute for the History of Medicine
Humboldtallee 36
D-37073 GOETTINGEN

Medical geography - the study of large-scale distribution patterns of
human diseases as a function of environmental conditions - was a 19th-
century preoccupation. It incorporated the earlier and contemporaneously
continuing interest in medical topography - the description of the
conditions of health and diseases of particular places. In recent years,
medical geography has experienced a resurgence of popularity, as have in
general our concerns with the relationship of health with theenvironment.
    In the wake of this resurgence, historians have begun to look at
medical geography in historical perspective and examine its practices and
theories, its national traditions and the socio-political conditions of its
19th-century popularity. The time appears ripe for a spring harvest of the
results ofthese early historiographical studies.
    To this end, an international and interdisciplinary meeting is being
organised at the Institute for the History of Medicine in Goettingen,
bringing together historians who are working on complementary aspects of
the history of medical geography. Their papers and the discussions may
help shape aresearch agenda for this fledging of environmental and medical
history.

Thursday, 13 June       Opening
18.00-18.15     Welcome by the Dean of the Medical Faculty
18.15-20.00     Melinda Meade (Chapel Hill):
Medical geography today: a confluence of paradigms and potentials

Friday, 14 June Diseases of Empire
        Chair: Ron Numbers (Madison)
09.00-09.30     Mark Harrison (Sheffield):
Medical topography in early-19th century India
09.30-10.00     Bill Bynum (London):
Before and after Ross: the geography of mosquitoes in India, 1890-1930
10.00-10.30     Annemarie de Knecht-van Eekelen (Amsterdam):
Health and disease in tropical climates: the Dutch in the East Indies
10.30-11.00     Coffee Break
11.00-11.30     W. U. Eckart and Meike Cordes (Heidelberg):
Small pox and vaccination in the former German colony of Togo, West Africa
11.30-12.00     Commentary by the chair/general discussion
12.00-14.00     Lunch Break
        Humboldtian Representations
        Chair: Ulrich Troehler (Freiburg i. Br.)
14.00-14.30     Rainer Broemer (Jena):
The first global distribution map of human diseases: Schnurrers Charte
berdie geographische Ausbreitung der Krankheiten
14.30-15.00     Jane Camerini (Madison):
Worldwide disease maps: Berghaus and the geographische Verbreitung
dervornehmsten Krankheiten
 15.00-15.30    Nicolaas Rupke and Nicola Theus (Goettingen):
Adolph Mhry: Goettingens Humboldtian medical geographer
15.30-16.00     Coffee Break
16.00-16.30     Nicolaas Rupke (Goettingen):
Euro-triumphalism in mid-19th century medical geography
16.30-17.00     Commentary by the chair/general discussion
17.30-22.00     Dinner in the 12th-century Burg-Plesse

Saturday, 15 June       Discourses of Settlement
        Chair: Anne Buttimer (Dublin)
09.00-09.30     Conevery Bolton (Cambridge, USA):
Medical geography and discourses of settlement in 19th-century America
09.30-10.00     Warwick Anderson (Melbourne):
Geography, race and nation: medical geographies and tropical Australia, 1890-
1930
10.00-10.30     Richard Grove (Canberra)
The East India Company, the Australians and the El Nino: colonial
scientists andearly thinking about global telecommunications in the
mechanisms and history of climatic fluctuations, 1750-1890
10.30-11.00     Coffee Break
11.00-11.30     Gerry Kearns (Cambridge, England):
Writing the history of medical geography after Foucault
11.30-12.00     Commentary by the chair/general discussion
12.00-12.15     Closing remarks

Exhibition
Karen Wonders (Goettingen): Early maps of medical geography

Contact:
Prof. N. A. Rupke
Phone: 0551 39 9006 (int. - 49 551 39 9006)
Fax: 0551 39 9554 (int. - 49 551 39 9554)
E-mail: nrupke@gwdg.de

Sponsered by the Deutsche Forschungsmeinschaft (DFG)
## CrossPoint v3.02 ##

--end forwarded message----------------

_______________________________________________________________________________

<32:23>From DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu Fri Apr 26 13:52:58 1996

Date: Fri, 26 Apr 1996 14:52:45 -0500 (EST)
From: DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu
Subject: Recent discoveries at Troy (fwd from ANCIEN-L)
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Organization: University of NC at Greensboro

--begin forwarded message--------------

Date: Tue, 23 Apr 1996 22:30:18 EDT
From: Regan Barr <73132.1127@COMPUSERVE.COM>
Subject: Recent discoveries at Troy
To: Recipients of ANCIEN-L digests <ANCIEN-L@ULKYVM.LOUISVILLE.EDU>

For those of you who haven't been able to get to Troy recently, and want to
see what's going on in the recent excavations, the Institute for
Mediterranean Studies has recently made available a video _in English_
(previously available only in German and perhaps Turkish) with highlights of
the 1993 and 1994 excavation seasons.   Hoepfully, 1995 wil be available
soon, as well.  Here are some highlights (straight from the order form):

Troy Excavations 1993 -- Parts of the Bronze Age defensive system (a rock-cut
ditch) are discovered in the Lower City; within the city, foundations of
houses from Troy III and IV with dome ovens are uncovered.  At Kumtepe, walls
dating to the beginning of the 4th millennium are found.  From the
post-Bronze Age period, mosaic floors from the 4th century A.D. are found in
the Lower City, and evidence of the Fimbria destruction of Troy in 85 B.C. is
uncovered in the Sanctuary.  Restoration of the Odeion continued and a
cuirassed statue of the Roman emperor Hadrian, found in the rubble of the
stage building, is restored. The Hellenistic stairs at the northeast bastion
are also restored.

Troy Excavations 1994 -- Burials of the 5th millennium B.C. are unearthed at
Kumtepe, and levels from Troy I through V are excavated in and around the
Schliemann trench.  New Troy VII houses are found along the southern side of
the mound.  More of the Troy VI rock-cut defensive ditch was uncovered.  From
the post-Bronze Age period, a marble statuette of the goddess Cybele (once
gilded) was found in a Roman well in the Lower City.  The Sanctuary yielded a
Hellenistic building with pebble mosaics, a new Archaic building with an
Aeolic capital (!!), fibulas, and pottery from the "Dark Ages" (1000-700
B.C.).

Anyone who is interesting in getting the video (or perhaps having their
library order it) can get it from: The Institute for Mediterranean Studies
7086 East Aracoma Drive Cincinnati, OH 45237, USA fax: 513 631-1715

The cost is $39.95 for either USA or European (PAL) VHS tapes, plus shipping
and handling (first tape is $4.00 for USA, $5.00 for Canada, $6.00 for
overseas, with $1.00 added for each additional video).  Checks should be made
out to "Friends of Troy."

Regards, Regan Barr

cross-posting to aia, talaros, classics, aegeanet, museum-l, ancien-l

--end forwarded message----------------

_______________________________________________________________________________

<32:24>From ahouse@hydra.rose.brandeis.edu Fri Apr 26 09:33:31 1996

Date: Fri, 26 Apr 1996 10:35:40 -0400
To: Darwin-L@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu (Darwin List)
From: "Jeremy C. Ahouse" <ahouse@hydra.rose.brandeis.edu>
Subject: David Stove's "Darwinian Fairytales"

DarwinL,

	I've just been reading David Stove's recent book. I am wondering
what you all think of it. I won't recapitulate the whole argument. He goes
to the heart of the claim that populations are ever increasing save for
limited food resources. He considers this claim to be core to the Darwinian
selectionist hypothesis and since it is obviously false (many populations
aren't tracking their food supply to the hilt) selectionism is tarnished.
It may still be the best explanation but it is clearly far off the mark.
This brevity doesn't do the argument justice.

	Still I am interested in your reactions to this piece.

	- Jeremy

Stove, David (1995) "Darwinian Fairytales" Aldershot, Hants, England;
Brookfield, Vt.: Avebury. 225 p. Series Name: Avebury series in philosophy.
LC Card Number: 95083037 ISBN: 1-85972-306-3.

p.s. David Stove died in 1994, an appreciation of him is available from the
Australasian Association for the History, Philosophy and Social Studies of
Science on the net:
http://coombs.anu.edu.au/SpecialProj/ASAP/aahpsss/news48/aahpsss48_stove.html i

_______________________________________________________________________________

<32:25>From DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu Tue Apr 30 05:41:49 1996

Date: Tue, 30 Apr 1996 01:16:57 -0500 (EST)
From: DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu
Subject: April 30 -- Today in the Historical Sciences
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Organization: University of NC at Greensboro

APRIL 30 -- TODAY IN THE HISTORICAL SCIENCES

1723: MATHURIN-JACQUES BRISSON is born at Fonetenay-le-Comte, Vendee, France.
The eldest son of a prominent family, Brisson will study philosophy and
theology at the College de Fontenay and the College de Poitiers, and will
enter the seminary of St.-Sulpice in Paris, but in 1747 he will abandon
theology for his true calling, natural history.  Related by marriage to the
naturalist Reaumur, Brisson will be appointed by the Academie des Sciences as
curator and demonstrator of Reaumur's collections, and he will publish his
comprehensive _Ornithologie ou Methode contenant la division des oiseaux en
ordres_ in 1760.  After Reaumur's death, Brisson's collections will pass from
the Academie des Sciences to the Cabinet du Roi under the direction of Buffon,
and personal animosity between the two naturalists will lead Buffon to deny
Brisson any access to the specimens he had been studying for the previous
eight years.  Deprived of his collections, Brisson will turn from natural
history to the study of physics, and will make valuable contributions to
that field until his death in 1806.

Today in the Historical Sciences is a feature of Darwin-L, an international
network discussion group on the history and theory of the historical sciences.
Send the message INFO DARWIN-L to listserv@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu or connect
to the Darwin-L Web Server (http://rjohara.uncg.edu) for more information.

_______________________________________________________________________________
Darwin-L Message Log 32: 1-25 -- April 1996                                 End