rjohara.net

Search:  

Darwin-L Message Log 33: 1–42 — May 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 May 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.”


-----------------------------------------
DARWIN-L MESSAGE LOG 33: 1-42 -- MAY 1996
-----------------------------------------

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 May 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.

_______________________________________________________________________________

<33:1>From DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu Wed May  1 00:31:47 1996

Date: Wed, 01 May 1996 01:31:08 -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 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 different mail systems work differently, not all subscribers see
the e-mail address of the original sender of each message in the message
header (some people only see "Darwin-L" as the source).  It is therefore
very important to include your name and e-mail address at the end of every
message you post so that everyone can identify you and reply privately if
appropriate.  Remember also that in most cases when you type "reply" in
response to a message from Darwin-L your reply is sent to the group as a
whole, rather than to the original sender.

The following are the most frequently used listserv commands that Darwin-L
members may wish to know.  All of these commands should be sent as regular
e-mail messages to the listserv address (listserv@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu),
not to the address of the group as a whole (Darwin-L@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu).
In each case leave the subject line of the message blank and include no
extraneous text, as the command will be read and processed by the listserv
program rather than by a person.  To join the group send the message:

     SUBSCRIBE DARWIN-L Your Name

     For example: SUBSCRIBE DARWIN-L John Smith

To cancel your subscription send the message:

     UNSUBSCRIBE DARWIN-L

If you feel burdened by the volume of mail you receive from Darwin-L you
may instruct the listserv program to deliver mail to you in digest format
(one message per day consisting of the whole day's posts bundled together).
To receive your mail in digest format send the message:

     SET DARWIN-L MAIL DIGEST

To change your subscription from digest format back to one-at-a-time
delivery send the message:

     SET DARWIN-L MAIL ACK

To temporarily suspend mail delivery (when you go on vacation, for example)
send the message:

     SET DARWIN-L MAIL POSTPONE

To resume regular delivery send either the DIGEST or ACK messages above.

For a comprehensive introduction to Darwin-L with notes on our scope and
on network etiquette, and a summary of all available commands, send the
message:

     INFO DARWIN-L

To post a public message to the group as a whole simply send it as regular
e-mail to the group's address (Darwin-L@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu).

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.

_______________________________________________________________________________

<33:2>From joe@genetics.washington.edu Tue Apr 30 01:54:07 1996

From: Joe Felsenstein <joe@genetics.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: David Stove's "Darwinian Fairytales"
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Date: Tue, 30 Apr 1996 00:01:53 -0700 (PDT)

Jeremy Ahouse wrote:
> 	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.

It sounds like a strawman (or fairy tale).  Although Darwin talked a lot
about the importance of limitation of resources as forcing survival
of the fittest, for a long time evolutionary biologists have been quite
ready to see selection as also acting when one is a lot below the
carrying capacity.  I was astonished to hear that selectionism depends
on being near carrying capacity.   Most contemporary evolutionary biologists
would say the same, I think.

If anything, contemporary ecologists give too _little_ credit to density
dependence.  But whether or not populations spend much time near their
limits, selection can act, it just acts in a different way.  See, for
example, the extensive literature on "r and K selection".

Also, resources other than "food" can be limiting too (nest sites, etc.)

--
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

_______________________________________________________________________________

<33:3>From DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu Wed May  1 12:32:56 1996

Date: Wed, 01 May 1996 13:32:38 -0500 (EST)
From: DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu
Subject: population increase (from Polly Winsor)
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Organization: University of NC at Greensboro

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

From: Mary P Winsor <mwinsor@chass.utoronto.ca>
Subject: population increase
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Date: Mon, 29 Apr 1996 15:38:15 -0400 (EDT)

Jeremy's statement to the effect that the core of Darwinian selection has
to do with increasing populations, or food supplies pressing on
populations, resembles an error students commonly make. I assume neither
Jeremy nor David Stove (whom I haven't seen) were falling into this error,
but here's my correction anyway:

The Malthusian principle of population is not that populations ARE
increasing, it is that they are NOT. (Confusion was increased when
"Malthusian Leagues" in the late 19th century promoted birth control.)
Count the eggs in a fish, seeds on a plant, lifetime offspring of a healthy
elephant, and you will see why the normal STABILITY of a population needs
explaining. In a brief moment of instability (a few rabbits multiplying in
Australia) a species can briefly escape from the pressures that normally
restrain it.

The causes of NON-increase in population are many, at different times
and for different species, and neither Malthus nor Darwin required
starvation. Starvation is only required in the thought experiment, to
counter the optimist who removes disease, predators, accident, war,
every other source of premature mortality.

Polly Winsor   mwinsor@epas.utoronto.ca

p.s. I traced the source of Malthus's ideas to Scottish minister
Robert Wallace, and showed his concept of population was the product
of his experiences counting the number of widows a new life insurance
scheme would have to support. M.P. Winsor "Robert Wallace: predecessor
of Malthus and pioneering actuary," Acta historia scient. nat. et med.
39 (1987):215-224.

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

_______________________________________________________________________________

<33:4>From ahouse@hydra.rose.brandeis.edu Wed May  1 07:34:45 1996

Date: Wed, 1 May 1996 08:34:15 -0400
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
From: "Jeremy C. Ahouse" <ahouse@hydra.rose.brandeis.edu>
Subject: Re: David Stove's "Darwinian Fairytales"

>Jeremy Ahouse wrote:
>> 	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.
>> Stove allows that selection may still be the best explanation
>> but it is clearly far off the mark.
>> This brevity doesn't do the argument justice.
>
>Joe Felsenstein replied:
>It sounds like a strawman (or fairy tale).  Although Darwin talked a lot
>about the importance of limitation of resources as forcing survival
>of the fittest, for a long time evolutionary biologists have been quite
>ready to see selection as also acting when one is a lot below the
>carrying capacity.  I was astonished to hear that selectionism depends
>on being near carrying capacity.   Most contemporary evolutionary biologists
>would say the same, I think.

Joe,
	This is very much what I thought... I like the argument mostly
because it is an early and quick rejoinder to an oversimplified
selectionist story and raises the need to talk population dynamics. To look
at long term population trends and think about the repeated founder effects
in small population K selected species. So it is a good sharpening stone
for moving toward a position where we weigh an increasing number of
factors.

	There does seem to be a tacit assumption in the pop
literature(Dawkins, Dennett) that we can talk in equilibrium ("selection is
molding") terms because a lot of time has passed(?), many populations are
large(?), because if we didn't we would have precious few
generalizations(?).

	There are a few models out there (the dynamics of birth and death
of lineages, coalescent processes in understanding genome dynamics in a
population) that start to help us know when we can confidently ignore the
detailed population history... but it isn't clear to me that we have a good
handle on this. Do you? If so, please send the refs.

	- Jeremy

        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

_______________________________________________________________________________

<33:5>From DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu Thu May  2 12:11:24 1996

Date: Thu, 02 May 1996 13:09:56 -0500 (EST)
From: DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu
Subject: May 2 -- Today in the Historical Sciences
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Organization: University of NC at Greensboro

MAY 2 -- TODAY IN THE HISTORICAL SCIENCES

1551: WILLIAM CAMDEN is born in London, England.  Camden will study at
St. Paul's School and Oxford University, where his interest in antiquities
will begin to develop.  Following the example of an earlier generation of
continental European antiquarians, Camden will travel widely throughout
the British Isles, collecting and describing Roman remains, transcribing
inscriptions, and searching through ecclesiastical and public archives.
The product of his labors, _Britannia_ (London, 1586), will be the first
comprehensive historical and topographical survey of British antiquities,
and it will establish a new standard of scholarship for an entire generation
of British historians.

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.

_______________________________________________________________________________

<33:6>From DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu Sat May  4 14:59:15 1996

Date: Sat, 04 May 1996 15:58:27 -0500 (EST)
From: DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu
Subject: Narrative in the historical sciences (revised bibliography)
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Organization: University of NC at Greensboro

A little while ago I posted a preliminary list of references on the role of
narrative in the historical sciences, with a request for additional items
that might be included.  Debra Journet (dsjourn01@ulkyvm.louisville.edu) and
Linnda  R. Caporael (caporl@rpi.edu) kindly mailed suggestions, and I have
tracked down a few more references from my files also.  The expanded list of
titles appears below.  It is certainly incomplete, and the criteria for
inclusion are a bit fuzzy, but the list ought to provide some starting points
for people interested in the topic.  I will be happy to receive additional
suggestions for titles to include.

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

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

PRELIMINARY BIBLIOGRAPHY ON NARRATIVE IN THE HISTORICAL SCIENCES.  Compiled
by Robert J. O'Hara (darwin@iris.uncg.edu) with additions from Debra Journet
(dsjourn01@ulkyvm.louisville.edu) and Linnda  R. Caporael (caporl@rpi.edu).
4 May 1996.

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

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

Dyke, C.  1990.  Strange attraction, curious liaison:  Clio meets Chaos. The
Philosophical Forum, 21:369-392.

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.

Journet, Debra.  1991.  Ecological theories as cultural narratives:  F. E.
Clements's and  H. A. Gleason's 'stories' of community succession. Written
Communication, 8:446-472.

Journet, Debra.  1995.  Synthesizing  disciplinary  narratives:  George
Gaylord Simpson's _Tempo and Mode in Evolution_.  Social Epistemology,
9:113-150.

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

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

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

MacIntyre, Alisdair.  1977.  Epistemological crises, dramatic narrative and
the philosophy of science.  The Monist, 60:453-472.

Maynard Smith, John.  1987.  Science  and  myth.  Pp. 222-229 in: The Natural
History Reader in Evolution (Niles Eldredge, ed.).  New  York: Columbia
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.]

Miller, Carolyn, and Scott M. Halloran.  1993.  Reading Darwin, reading
nature; or, on the ethos of historical science.  Pp. 106-126 in:
Understanding Scientific Prose (Jack Selzer, ed.).  Madison: University of
Wisconsin Press.

Miller, Hugh.  1939.  History and Science: A Study of the Relation of
Historical and Theoretical Knowledge.  Berkeley: University of California
Press.

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

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

O'Hara, Robert J.  1988.  Homage to Clio, or, toward an historical philosophy
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 (Matthew H. Nitecki & Doris
V. 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.

White, Eric C.  1990.  Contemporary cosmology and narrative theory.  Pp.
91-112 in:  Literature and Science: Theory and Practice (Stuart Peterfreund,
ed.).  Boston: Northeastern University Press.

White, Eric C.  1990.  The end of metanarratives in evolutionary biology.
Modern Language Quarterly, 51:63-81.

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

_______________________________________________________________________________

<33:7>From DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu Sat May  4 15:19:44 1996

Date: Sat, 04 May 1996 16:19:25 -0500 (EST)
From: DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu
Subject: May 4 -- Today in the Historical Sciences
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Organization: University of NC at Greensboro

MAY 4 -- TODAY IN THE HISTORICAL SCIENCES

1556: LUCA GHINI dies at Bologna, Italy.  One of the founders of modern
botany, Ghini was born in Croara d'Imola around 1490.  He studied medicine
at the University of Bologna and taught at Bologna for many years, devising a
method of preserving plants by pressing, drying, and mounting them on cards to
produce the first modern herbarium or "hortus siccus".  Ghini left Bologna in
1544 to take up a professorship at the University of Pisa, and he established
there one of the first university botanical gardens.  He travelled extensively
in the vicinity of Pisa and Bologna collecting specimens for his garden and
herbarium, and his scientific correspondents sent him botanical material from
as far away as Egypt.  Although he published little during his life, Ghini
numbered among his students an entire generation of early modern European
botanists, including Andrea Cesalpino, Ulisse Aldrovandi, Luigi Anguillara,
William Turner, and John Falconer.

1816: THOMAS OLDHAM is born in Dublin, Ireland.  Following undergraduate
study at Trinity College, Dublin, Oldham will travel to Edinburgh where he
will study geology and mineralogy with Robert Jameson.  In 1839 he will return
to Ireland where he will work initially for the Ordnance Survey, and later be
appointed professor of geology at Trinity.  His successful geological work in
Ireland will lead to his appointment as geological surveyor to the British
East India Company, and eventually to the founding of a Geological Survey of
India.  His report _On the Coal Resources of India_ will appear in 1864, and
he will superintend the creation of many Indian geological journals, including
the Survey's _Palaeontologica Indica_ in 1861.

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.

_______________________________________________________________________________

<33:8>From DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu Sat May  4 16:45:54 1996

Date: Sat, 04 May 1996 17:45:35 -0500 (EST)
From: DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu
Subject: Phylogeny conference in London, 14 May 1996 (fwd from CLASS-L)
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Organization: University of NC at Greensboro

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

                  INTERNATIONAL BIOMETRIC SOCIETY
                          BRITISH REGION
                                &
                     INSTITUTE OF MATHEMATICS
                       AND ITS APPLICATIONS

             Phylogenetic Trees & Evolutionary Models

                      Tuesday, 14th May 1996
                            at 9.30am

         a one day meeting at the Natural History Museum
                Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, UK

                         Dr Frank WRIGHT
              (Biomathematics & Statistics Scotland)
              Phylogenetic Trees and Real Data Sets

                          Dr Mark PAGEL
                      (University of Oxford)
        Inferring Evolutionary Processes from Phylogenies

                       Professor Paul SHARP
                    (University of Nottingham)
               Origins & Evolution of AIDS Viruses

                           Dr Sean NEE
                      (University of Oxford)
          Using Phylogenetic Trees to See into the Past

                      Professor David HILLIS
                      (University of Texas)
      Accuracy & Hypothesis Testing in Phylogenetic Analysis

For further details, please contact:

    Clive Moncrieff,
    Head of Biometry,
    Biometrics Section,
    Natural History Museum,
    Cromwell Road,
    London SW7 5BD,
    UK

e-mail: c.moncrieff@nhm.ac.uk.

The registration fee of 25 pounds (same price for students) will include
coffee, lunch and tea.

--
Frank Wright, Biomathematics & Statistics Scotland, University of Edinburgh,
              JCMB, Kings Buildings, Edinburgh EH9 3JZ, Scotland, U.K.
e-mail:       frank@bioss.sari.ac.uk
WWW:          http://www.bioss.sari.ac.uk/~frank

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

_______________________________________________________________________________

<33:9>From wilkins@wehi.EDU.AU Sun May  5 19:22:32 1996

Date: Mon, 06 May 1996 10:25:53 +1000
From: wilkins@wehi.EDU.AU
Subject: Narrative in the historical sciences (revised bibliography)
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu

I suggest adding David Hull's _Science as a Process_ (University of Chicago
Press 1988), since chapters 2-7 provide narratives, self-consciously, on the
history of Darwinism and taxonomy, including some interesting inside narratives
of the pheneticism-cladism constroversies, followed by a discussion of how
historians can address such narratives. It's not directly on narrative as a
topic, but covers metamodels of science in a way that is relevant.

John Wilkins
Head of Communication Services
Walter and Eliza Hall Institute
<http://www.wehi.edu.au/~wilkins/www.html>
<mailto:wilkins@wehi.edu.au>

_______________________________________________________________________________

<33:10>From DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu Thu May  9 00:30:10 1996

Date: Thu, 09 May 1996 01:29:51 -0500 (EST)
From: DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu
Subject: May 9 -- Today in the Historical Sciences
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Organization: University of NC at Greensboro

MAY 9 -- TODAY IN THE HISTORICAL SCIENCES

1892: WALTER ZIMMERMANN is born at Walldurn, Germany.  Following study at the
Karlsruhe Technical University and at Berlin and Freiburg, as well as military
service in the First World War, Zimmermann will be made a lecturer in botany
at the University of Tubingen, and will remain at Tubingen for the rest of his
career.  Zimmermann will publish many works on plant physiology and algology,
but he will be best remembered for his work in phylogeny and phylogenetic
theory.  His comprehensive _Die Phylogenie der Pflanzen_ will appear in 1930,
and his lengthy theoretical paper "Arbeitsweise der botanischen Phylogenetik"
(1931) will influence the later writings of Willi Hennig, and through Hennig,
much of modern systematics: "The task of historical phylogenetics is to find
out 'how it was.'  This task would be completely solved if we could...erect a
gigantic phylogenetic tree of genealogical affinities for all organisms which
ever existed and enter all transformations by which descendants are
distinguished from their ancestors."

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.

_______________________________________________________________________________

<33:11>From DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu Wed May 15 00:40:15 1996

Date: Wed, 15 May 1996 01:39:52 -0500 (EST)
From: DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu
Subject: May 15 -- Today in the Historical Sciences
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Organization: University of NC at Greensboro

MAY 15 -- TODAY IN THE HISTORICAL SCIENCES

1847: EDWIN RAY LANKESTER is born at London, England.  The son of a medical
doctor, Lankester will study zoology and geology at the universities of
Cambridge and Oxford, and will be appointed professor of zoology at University
College, London, in 1872.  A wide-ranging practitioner and theorist of the new
evolutionary anatomy, he will coin a number of words, such as "homoplasy" and
"blastopore", that will become standard terms in the field.  In 1891 Lankester
will be appointed Linacre Professor of Comparative Anatomy at Oxford, and then
in 1898 director of the British Museum (Natural History).  In his retirement
he will write a number of popular books on natural history, including _Extinct
Animals_ (1909) and _Diversions of a Naturalist_ (1915).

1862: "On May 15th, 1862," CHARLES DARWIN will write in his autobiography,
"my little book on the _Fertilisation of Orchids_, which cost me ten months'
work, was published: most of the facts had been slowly accumulated during
several previous years."

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.

_______________________________________________________________________________

<33:12>From DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu Thu May 16 00:30:14 1996

Date: Thu, 16 May 1996 01:29:52 -0500 (EST)
From: DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu
Subject: May 16 -- Today in the Historical Sciences
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Organization: University of NC at Greensboro

MAY 16 -- TODAY IN THE HISTORICAL SCIENCES

1799: EBENEZER EMMONS is born at Middlefield, Massachusetts.  Emmons will
study natural history and medicine at Williams College and at the Berkshire
Medical School, and will eventually succeed his teacher, Chester Dewey, as
professor of natural history at Williams.  One of the pioneers of American
geology, Emmons will do more than any other person to establish in the 1830s
and 1840s a geologic column for North America, independent of those being
developed for England and continental Europe.  His extensive field work in New
York and western New England will form the basis for his _Manual of Mineralogy
and Geology_ (Albany, 1826), and in 1832 he will move from Williams to the new
Rensselaer School (later Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute) in Troy, New York.
Emmons's later career will be marred by a bitter controversy with James Hall
and Louis Agassiz over the strata that he will call the Taconic System, and
Emmons will depart New York for North Carolina in 1851 to take up a position
as state geologist.  He will die in North Carolina in 1863, a casualty of the
American Civil War.

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.

_______________________________________________________________________________

<33:13>From caporl@rpi.edu Thu May 16 09:47:18 1996

Date: Thu, 16 May 1996 10:44:14 -0400
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
From: Linnda Caporael <caporl@rpi.edu>
Subject: Peacock's tail and female choice

I would appreciate help in tracking some information.  Does anyone have a
reference to reseach showing peahens preferences for peacocks with
flamboyant tail feathers?  This seems to be a paradigmatic example, but I
never see references to empirical citations and would like to take a closer
look at the data.

Thanks,
Linnda Caporael

Dr. Linnda Caporael
Science & Technology Studies Department
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Troy NY 12180

_______________________________________________________________________________

<33:14>From TShanaha@lmumail.lmu.edu Thu May 16 12:30:50 1996

Date: Thu, 16 May 1996 10:17:54 -0700
From: TShanaha@lmumail.lmu.edu
Subject: Re: Peacock's tail and female choice
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu, Linnda Caporael <caporl@rpi.edu>

     Linnda (and any interested others),

     You might take a look at:

     Petrie, M., Halliday, T., and Sanders, C. (1991), "Peahens Prefer
     Peacocks with Elaborate Trains," *Animal Behaviour* 41:323-331.

     There is also a (very brief) discussion of this in Helena Cronin
     (1991), *The Ant and the Peacock* (Cambridge: Cambridge University
     Press).

          Hope that this gets you started.

          Timothy Shanahan
          Dept. of Philosophy
          Loyola Marymount University
          Los Angeles, CA 90045-2699

_______________________________________________________________________________

<33:15>From philjohn@uclink.berkeley.edu Thu May 16 15:31:26 1996

Date: Thu, 16 May 1996 13:26:05 -0700
From: Phillip E Johnson <philjohn@uclink.berkeley.edu>
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: Re: Peacock's tail and female choice

On p.222 of _The Ant and the Peacock_, Helena Cronin quotes the
following statement from a 1984 article by Linda Partridge and
Tim Halliday:

  "it is common for the consequences of intersexual selection
to be exemplified by the peacock and birds of paradise.  Evidence
that females actually choose their mates in these species is,
however, slight or non-existent.  Indeed, some recent studies
suggest that elaborate male plumage in these birds may be, at
least in part, the evolutionary result of inter-male competition;
males may be intimidated by the elaborate plumage of rivals in
aggressive encounters.... Such field studies as have been
carried out on species in which the evolution of elaborate
male plumage has classically been attributed to female choice
generally fail to support that hypothesis unequivocally."

Cronin has a lot of interesting information on sexual selection,
but everything seems to end in "maybes."  She notes on p. 229 that
there are great practical difficulties in testing theories
of sexual selection.

Another great "just-so" story bites the dust!

_______________________________________________________________________________

<33:16>From streelma@chuma.cas.usf.edu Thu May 16 15:57:38 1996

Date: Thu, 16 May 1996 16:57:12 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Jeffrey Streelman (BIO)" <streelma@chuma.cas.usf.edu>
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: Re: Peacock's tail and female choice

was a paper in the journal nature last year or the year before regarding
increased fitness of peacocks with brighter tails. not sure of the author.

J.T. Streelman
Department of Biology LIF 136
University of South Florida
Tampa FL 33620-5150
streelma@chuma.cas.usf.edu
(813) 974-2878  974-5233

_______________________________________________________________________________

<33:17>From princeh@husc.harvard.edu Thu May 16 17:15:55 1996

Date: Thu, 16 May 1996 18:15:20 -0400 (EDT)
From: Patricia Princehouse <princeh@husc.harvard.edu>
Subject: Re: Peacock's tail and female choice
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu

Although it's not about peafowl, Linda Fedigan's book _Primate Paradigms_
has an interesting discussion of sexual selection in a chapter called
"Female Choice or Hobson's Choice".

-Patricia Princehouse
princeh@fas.harvard.edu

_______________________________________________________________________________

<33:18>From hanss@zondisk.sepa.tudelft.nl Thu May 16 17:42:50 1996

From: "Hans-Cees Speel" <hanss@zondisk.sepa.tudelft.nl>
Organization:  TUDelft
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Date: Fri, 17 May 1996 00:29:58 +0000
Subject: In Memoriam: Donald T. Campbell

My apologies if this was send before on the list. I tried to send it
before, but it didn't reach me, so I concluded it didn't reach you
too.

This sad news seems important on especially this list. It came from
the PCP list.

Hans-Cees Speel


I just heard about the death of Donald T. Campbell, emeritus professor at
Lehigh University. He died on Sunday, May 5, apparently from the
complications of surgery.

Campbell was one of the truly important thinkers in evolutionary philosophy
and social science methodology, and one of the most cited authors in the
social sciences. He was a past president of the American Psychological
Association, a distinction comparable to a Nobel prize in psychology. As a
recent newsgroup message called him: "A very great experimental
psychologist and methodologist (perhaps the greatest)" (Claire Gilbert
<blazing@crl.com>).

We had made him a honorary "Associate" of the Principia Cybernetica Project
(see http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/MASTHEAD.html), since he had always supported
our plans to collaboratively develop an evolutionary-cybernetic philosophy.
I recently had the chance to collaborate with him on a paper entitled
"Selection at the Social Level" (published in "World Futures", see
http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/WFISSUE.html), and we had plans to write further
joint papers on the evolution of social systems. Alas, that cannot happen
anymore.

I was personally in his debt, as he had helped me at a difficult moment in
my career, when I was at the cross-roads between losing my temporary
research contract and getting a permanent appointment. He wrote some
glowing recommendations (in which I was virtually described as his
intellectual heir), which undoubtedly helped me in securing my position.

The announcement included below emphasizes Campbell's contribution to
experimental methodology. So let me remind you of his more philosophical
contributions. He was the  founder of the domain of "evolutionary
epistemology" (a label he created), in which he generalized Popper's
falsificationist philosophy of science to knowledge processes at all
biological, psychological and social levels.

Within that domain his main contributions are the concepts of: 1)
"Blind-Variation-and-Selective-Retention (BVSR)", where he emphasizes the
fact that knowledge initially can only be developed by trial-and-error, and
2) "vicarious selectors", which allowed him to explain how initially blind
trials could develop into intelligent search guided by knowledge developed
earlier. He generalized the hierarchical organization of vicarious
selectors in his analysis of the phenomenon of "downward causation"
(another term popularized by him), where a higher level system or whole
constrains its parts.

He applied this same evolutionary philosophy to the development of social
systems, arguing that cultural evolution is necessary to explain the
development of human society. The necessary tension between cultural and
biological evolution allowed him to explain the organization of archaic
societies and the emergence of religious systems. He used these insights to
plead for the development of an evolutionary ethics, which could guide our
actions without recurring to arbitrary metaphysical principles. He also
applied these ideas to some problems in present-day society, arguing for
alternative types of social organization, without falling into the trap of
designing utopias which  only work on paper.

The depth and thoroughness of his thinking, his attention to detail, and
the width of the interdisciplinary terrain he covered (from psychology to
anthropology, sociology, education, biology, philosophy and systems
theory), should be an example to us all. Although he is no longer here to
teach us in person, he leaves behind a wealth of writings which will
inspire researchers for the decades to come.

Francis Heylighen

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

> From: Burt Perrin <100276.3165@COMPUSERVE.COM>
>
> I have just learned that Donald T. Campbell has died
> apparently from complications following surgery.
>
> Don Campbell was one of the giants-arguably *the* giant-in evaluation as
> well as in social psychology, philosophy of science, and in many other
> fields. He was one of the few true rennaissance men of our day, although
> I am sure he would reject the label. He spoke with people across many
> different disciplines and many different theoretical orientations,
> acknowledging the contributions of all.
>
> He set the intellectual direction for evaluation. For example, he reminded
> us that that our goal, as researchers and evaluators, is to aim to eliminate
> rival competing hypotheses through the simplest means possible. Campbell may
> be best known within evaluation circle for coining the concept of quasi-
> experimental designs and for advocating use of experimental methods for
> evaluation. Perhaps less well known is that Campbell did not hold these
> methods to be a priori superior to any other. Long before it became
> fashionable to do so, he also strongly defended the use of qualitative
> methods-and indeed of the application of common sense. The method must follow
> the question. Campbell, many decades ago, promoted the concept of
> triangulation - that every method has its limitations, and multiple
> methods are usually needed.
>
> I had the privilege of studying with Campbell in the 60s at Northwestern
> University - before anyone spoke of evaluation. He was my major intellectual
> inspiration. I remember how he frequently welcomed me-a lowly undergraduate-
> into his office - and invariably could insert a hand into a file cabinet or a
> pile of papers on or near his desk - and pull out something he had written
> about almost any conceivable topic.
>
> I will stop now. Program evaluation, psychology, philosophy, and humankind
> has suffered a major loss.
>
> Burt Perrin
> Toronto, Canada
> 100276.3165@compuserve.com

________________________________________________________________________
Dr. Francis Heylighen, Systems Researcher       fheyligh@vnet3.vub.ac.be
PESP, Free University of Brussels, Pleinlaan 2, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium
Tel +32-2-6292525; Fax +32-2-6292489; http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/HEYL.html

_______________________________________________________________________________

<33:19>From staddon@psych.duke.edu Thu May 16 20:00:50 1996

Date: Thu, 16 May 96 21:00:29 EDT
From: staddon@psych.duke.edu (John Staddon)
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: Re: Peacock's tail and female choice

See Nature paperrs by Arak last year or so on a mechanism for the selection of
symmetry in flowers.  Something similar may apply to peacocks.  JS

_______________________________________________________________________________

<33:20>From harveyi@liverpool.ac.uk Fri May 17 03:48:27 1996

Date: Fri, 17 May 1996 09:47:37 +0100
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
From: harveyi@liverpool.ac.uk (Ian Harvey)
Subject: Re: Peacock's tail and female choice

>On p.222 of _The Ant and the Peacock_, Helena Cronin quotes the
>following statement from a 1984 article by Linda Partridge and
>Tim Halliday:

[snip]

>aggressive encounters.... Such field studies as have been
>carried out on species in which the evolution of elaborate
>male plumage has classically been attributed to female choice
>generally fail to support that hypothesis unequivocally."

This may have been true in 1984 when Halliday and Partridge were writing,
but I think most behavioural ecologists would now accept that there are
good studies demonstrating female choice.  Indeed the work by Halliday and
Petrie on peafowl demosntrates both female choice for males with elaborate
trains and that the offspring of males with elaborate trains survive
better.  A recent book by Malte Andersson (1995) _Sexual Selection_
Princeton UP, summarises much of this research

>Cronin has a lot of interesting information on sexual selection,
>but everything seems to end in "maybes."  She notes on p. 229 that
>there are great practical difficulties in testing theories
>of sexual selection.

Yes, there are difficulties but great progress has been made in the last
few years.

>Another great "just-so" story bites the dust!

In fact Petrie's work on peafowl is about the best demonstration of the
'good genes' model of sexual selection!

******************************************************************************
Ian Harvey                                             Tel: +151 794 5028

Population Biology Research Group                      Fax: +151 794 5094
Department of Environmental and Evolutionary Biology
The University of Liverpool                            email:harveyi@liv.ac.uk
PO Box 147, Liverpool L69 3BX, UK
******************************************************************************

_______________________________________________________________________________

<33:21>From ahouse@hydra.rose.brandeis.edu Fri May 17 11:22:38 1996

Date: Fri, 17 May 1996 12:22:20 -0400
To: Darwin-L@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu (Darwin List)
From: ahouse@hydra.rose.brandeis.edu (Jeremy C. Ahouse)
Subject: Rosenberg on Naturalism

Dear DarwinL,

        I very much enjoyed:

Rosenberg, Alex (1996) A Field Guide to Recent Species of Naturalism. Brit
J. Phil. Sci. 47, 1-29.

        Of particular interest to the members of this group may be the
central place that he gives to Darwinian explanations, both as a model of
theorizing and as a way to underwrite notions of progress in science.

        If you find Rosenberg's comments about Larry Laudan interesting you
will then be happy to know that Laudan has a brand new & clear statement of
both his positive (naturalism) and negative
(anti-positivism/postpositivism) projects. Laudan's most stimulating claim
is that _all_ the seeds of postpositivist relativism, constructionism,
anarchism... are sown and growing in positivist soil.

Laudan, Larry (1996) "Beyond positivism and relativism: theory, method, and
evidence" Westview Press.  Q175 .L2938 1996

        - Jeremy

p.s. if this subject really grabs you by the collar you may also wish to
visit with Ruse, Michael (1995) "Evolutionary naturalism: selected essays"
Routledge. B818 .R87 1995

        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

_______________________________________________________________________________

<33:22>From daaf@cerium.demon.co.uk Sat May 18 02:52:09 1996

From: Danny Fagandini <daaf@cerium.demon.co.uk>
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: Re: Peacock's tail and female choice
Date: Fri, 17 May 1996 19:59:00 BST

Phillip E Johnson <philjohn@uclink.berkeley.edu> wrote:

> Another great "just-so" story bites the dust!

That maybe so, but a very recent BBC2 nature study by
David Attenborough specifically on Birds of Paradise
in many locations around the world, over many years,
point to the very opposite.  Sexual selection would
seem to be for real.

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

_______________________________________________________________________________

<33:23>From GRANSOM@ucrac1.ucr.edu Sun May 19 13:59:14 1996

Date: Sun, 19 May 1996 11:58:14 -0700 (PDT)
From: GREG RANSOM <GRANSOM@ucrac1.ucr.edu>
To: DARWIN-L@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: Economics & Narrative

This is a bit delayed, but comes in response to John's
inquiry about the literature on the place of narrative in
the science of economics.  The key texts in this literature
are by D. McCloskey, _The Rhetoric of Economics_, _If Your
So Smart_, and _Knowledge and Persuasion in Economics_.  See
also the essays in D. Lavoie, ed. _Economics and Hermeneutics_,
and Vivienne Brown's essay "The Economy as Text" in R. Backhouse,
ed. _New Directions in Economic Methodology_.  The most import-
ant paper on the relation between history and theory in the
economic literature is F. Hayek, "The Facts of the Social Sciences"
in F. Hayek, _Individualism and Economic Order_.  See also his
"The Theory of Complex Phenomena" in F. Hayek, _Studies in Philosophy,
Politics and Economics_, which treats the common explanatory
strategies of economics, biology, and neuroscience.  On the overall
role of narrative in argument and explanation, I couldn't recommend more
highly Larry Wright's recent essay "Argument and Deliberation:  A
Plea for Understanding" _J. of Philosophy_, Nov. 1995, pp. 565-585.
Joseph Rouse's new _Engaging Science_ is an important characterization
of the way in which the intellegibility and significance of any scientific
practice comes in part from the narrative understanding in which it is
situated.  I might also recommend F. Hayek's "The Uses of 'Gresham's Law'
as an Illustration of 'Historical Theory'" and his "Degrees of Explanation"
both in his _Studies_, for more on the commonalities between the
explanatory strategies of economics and other complex sciences like
biology, which share common problems of the relationship between theory
and history.

Greg Ransom
Dept. of Philosophy
UC-Riverside
gransom@ucrac1.ucr.edu

_______________________________________________________________________________

<33:24>From DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu Mon May 20 11:43:37 1996

Date: Mon, 20 May 1996 12:43:12 -0500 (EST)
From: DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu
Subject: Directory of net resources on Egyptology (fwd)
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Organization: University of NC at Greensboro

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

Date: Tue, 7 May 1996 11:34:59 -0500
From: Will Wagers <wagers@COMPUTEK.NET>
Subject: New Egyptologist Web Page

Dear Egyptologists,

I have created a new resource page _for the Egyptologist_.
The web address is:

     http://denton.computek.net/pub/wagers/ousia/Egyptologist.Shtml

I have tried to make it fast and comprehensive. Please visit the site and
e-mail me your comments, problems, or suggestions. I will be adding
further entries over the next two weeks.

This notice will be cross-posted, so you have my apologies if you happen
to receive it more than once.

Regards,

Will

PS I have lost the URL for CAAL. If you know it, please email me privately.

Will wagers@computek.net

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

_______________________________________________________________________________

<33:25>From DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu Mon May 20 13:11:12 1996

Date: Mon, 20 May 1996 14:10:35 -0500 (EST)
From: DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu
Subject: Administrative notes for the end of term (from the list owner)
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Organization: University of NC at Greensboro

The list owner has finally made it to the end of a hectic semester <whew>,
and hopes that many others on the list can now enjoy a relaxing summer or
winter, depending upon which hemisphere you are in.  (It is 95F today in
North Carolina, so I think I am in the wrong hemisphere.)  I am about to
begin catching up on a backlog of email that had accumulated in my box over
the last few busy weeks.  My apologies to anyone who sent me a message
recently but has not yet had a reply; I will be in touch shortly.

When academic terms end many people change email addresses, and in order to
keep the list running smoothly it will be helpful if subscribers would adjust
their Darwin-L subscriptions as necessary.

If you are moving to a new address or expect to be away for a long
time you may wish to cancel your Darwin-L subscription.  To do so just
send the message:

     unsub Darwin-L

to the address:

     listserv@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu

If you will be checking your mail only infrequently over the next few months
you might prefer to set your subscription to "digest mode", under which you
will continue to receive messages, but each day's collection of posts will be
bundled together into a "digest" message leaving your mailbox less cluttered.
To set your subscription to digest mode send the message:

     set Darwin-L mail digest

to the same address.

New subscribers who have not yet visited the Darwin-L Web Server are invited
to do so (http://rjohara.uncg.edu).  It contains more information about our
list and about the comparative study of the historical sciences.

Bob O'Hara, Darwin-L list owner

Dr. Robert J. O'Hara (darwin@iris.uncg.edu)  |
Cornelia Strong College, 100 Foust Building  |  http://rjohara.uncg.edu
University of North Carolina at Greensboro   |  http://strong.uncg.edu
Greensboro, North Carolina 27412 U.S.A.      |

_______________________________________________________________________________

<33:26>From DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu Mon May 20 13:50:32 1996

Date: Mon, 20 May 1996 14:50:01 -0500 (EST)
From: DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu
Subject: New on the web: Society for the Preservation of Natural History
 Collections
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Organization: University of NC at Greensboro

The Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections was
established several years ago to improve communication about the conservation
of museum collections and to promote responsible collection management.  They
have recently established a web site that may be of interest to many people
on Darwin-L; the details appear below.

Bob O'Hara, Darwin-L list owner

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

Date: Tue, 14 May 1996 11:54:13 -0800
From: Jackie Zak <JZak@Getty.edu>
To: nhcoll-l@ucmp1.Berkeley.EDU
Subject: Web Site for Natural History

A new Web Site is now available for those interested in museums, preservation,
and natural history.

The site is sponsored by the Society for the Preservation of Natural History
Collections (SPNHC) and offers information about the Society, its
publications, committees, meetings, and training.  It also offers links to
other significant sites related to natural history collections and their
preservation.

Please stop by for a visit.  Comments are welcome and should be addressed to
the webmaster.

the URL is:

 http://iscssun.uni.edu/vidal/spnhc

See you there!

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

_______________________________________________________________________________

<33:27>From ronald@hawaii.edu Mon May 20 15:21:29 1996

Date: 	Mon, 20 May 1996 10:20:50 -1000
From: Ron Amundson <ronald@hawaii.edu>
To: Darwin-L List <darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu>
Subject: Darwin quote

I can't seem to put my finger on the quote from Darwin's Notebooks where
he says that he can always remember the facts which he comes across which
support his theory, but he tends to forget the ones which are
inconsistent with his theory -- so he is very careful to write down the
inconsistent ones.

Anyone with quicker fingers than I?

Ron

__
Ron Amundson
University of Hawaii at Hilo
ronald@Hawaii.Edu

_______________________________________________________________________________

<33:28>From pnelson2@ix.netcom.com Tue May 21 10:18:36 1996

Date: Tue, 21 May 1996 08:14:09 -0700
From: pnelson2@ix.netcom.com (Paul A. Nelson)
Subject: Re: Darwin quote
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu

Ron Amundson wrote:

>I can't seem to put my finger on the quote from Darwin's Notebooks where
>he says that he can always remember the facts which he comes across which
>support his theory, but he tends to forget the ones which are
>inconsistent with his theory -- so he is very careful to write down the
>inconsistent ones.

I found the following in Mayr's introduction to the 1964 facsimile reprint of
the first edition of the _Origin_:

      In his _Autobiography_, Darwin wrote: "I had during
      many years followed a golden rule, namely...whenever
      [I came across] a published fact, a new observation or
      thought...which was opposed to my general results to
      make a memorandum of it without fail and at once; for
      I found by experience that such facts and thoughts
      were far more likely to escape from the memory than
      favorable ones.  Owing to this habit very few
      objections were raised against my views which I had
      not at least noticed and attempted to answer."

So it looks like the _Autobiography_ would be the place to look -- although I
have this nagging sense that there's something in this vein in the Notebooks
as well.

Paul Nelson
Univ of Chicago

_______________________________________________________________________________

<33:29>From farrar@datasync.com Tue May 21 11:23:16 1996

From: Paul Farrar <farrar@datasync.com>
Subject: Re: Darwin quote
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Date: Tue, 21 May 1996 11:26:06 -0500 (CDT)

... I had, also, during many years, followed a golden rule, namely, that
whenever a published fact, a new observation or thought came across me,
which was opposed to my general results, to make a memorandum of it
without fail and at once; for I had found by experience that such facts
and thoughts were far more apt to escape from the memory than favourable
ones. Owing to this habit, very few objections were raised against my
views which I had not at least noticed and attempted to answer.

_The Autobiography of Charles Darwin, 1809-1882_, Nora Barlow edition,
1958, Norton. p123, in section "My Several Publications". Also p.45
of Francis D's Bowdlerized version, identical except that the ";" is
a ":".

--
Paul Farrar
http://www.datasync.com/~farrar/
farrar@datasync.com
70053,3464

_______________________________________________________________________________

<33:30>From DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu Tue May 21 21:56:16 1996

Date: Tue, 21 May 1996 22:55:47 -0500 (EST)
From: DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu
Subject: Re: Darwin quote (from Polly Winsor)
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Organization: University of NC at Greensboro

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

From: Mary P Winsor <mwinsor@chass.utoronto.ca>
Subject: Re: Darwin quote
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Date: Tue, 21 May 1996 12:14:43 -0400 (EDT)

The statement is only a few pages after the famous "happened to read
for amusement Malthus" just before the famous paragraph that it is
sometimes said that the theory was in the air, that is, on p. 123 of
Nora Barlow's unexpurgated edition.

Polly Winsor mwinsor@epas.utoronto.ca

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

_______________________________________________________________________________

<33:31>From DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu Tue May 21 22:07:04 1996

Date: Tue, 21 May 1996 23:06:38 -0500 (EST)
From: DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu
Subject: Fulbright scholarships in history (fwd)
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Organization: University of NC at Greensboro

The following notice about Fulbright Scholarships in history may be of
interest to some Darwin-L members.  (The grants are available only to US
citizens, I'm afraid.)  Perhaps someone among us will submit a proposal
for an interdisciplinary study in the historical sciences.

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

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

Date: Tue, 21 May 1996 11:33:28 -0400
From: cies1@ciesnet.cies.org
Subject: Approaching Deadline for 1997-98 Fulbright Scholar Program

FULBRIGHT SCHOLAR PROGRAM: INTERNATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES FOR
U.S. FACULTY AND PROFESSIONALS IN HISTORY

Reminder:  August 1 Deadline Approaching for the 1997-98
           Competition

Visit the Web Site:

Program information and the listing of 1997-98 opportunities
can be accessed via the Fulbright Scholar Program Web site at
http://www.cies.org

Summary:

Below is a brief description of Fulbright grants for U.S.
citizens to engage in lecturing and advanced research
worldwide.  These grants are excellent professional
development opportunities and provide funding to pursue
professional interests abroad.

FULBRIGHT GRANTS FOR U.S. FACULTY AND PROFESSIONALS

Description:

Over 800 awards for college and university faculty and
nonacademic professionals to lecture or pursue advanced
research and/or related professional activity abroad.  For
U.S. candidates, grants are available to nearly 130 countries.

Application Deadline:

U.S. candidates have an August 1 deadline for lecturing or
research awards.  Non-U.S. candidates apply in their home
country for awards to come to the United States.

Areas of Interest:

Opportunities exist in every area of the social sciences, arts
and humanities, sciences, and many professional fields.
Fulbright-supported activities include undergraduate and
graduate teaching, individual advanced research, joint
research collaboration, and more.

Basic Eligibility Requirements:

Ph.D. or equivalent professional/terminal degree at the time
of application and U.S. citizenship (permanent residency is
not sufficient).

For professionals and artists outside academe, recognized
professional standing comparable to that associated with the
doctorate in higher education is required, unless otherwise
noted in the individual award description.

College or university teaching experience is expected at the
level and in the field of the advertised assignment or
proposed lecturing activity for lecturing and combined
lecturing/research awards.

Grant Duration:

Awards range in duration from two months to twelve months.
Most lecturing assignments are for an academic term/semester
or a full academic year.

Language:

Foreign language proficiency may be expected as specified in
the award description or as required for the completion of the
proposed lecturing or research project.

The majority of teaching assignments are in English. The major
exceptions are Central and South America, where Spanish is
usually required, and francophone Africa, where one is
expected to be fluent in French.

Action:

U.S. candidates may view detailed descriptions of award
opportunities and request application materials via the
Fulbright Scholar Program web site:   http://www.cies.org

Requests for hard copy of the awards booklet and application
kit can be made by

  E-mail:      cies1@ciesnet.cies.org
               (Requests for mailing of materials only!)

  Telephone:   202/686-7877

  U.S. mail:   USIA Fulbright Senior Scholar Program
               Council for International Exchange of Scholars
               Box INET
               3007 Tilden St., NW, Suite 5M
               Washington, DC 20008-3009

Non-U.S. candidates must contact the Fulbright commission or
U.S. embassy in their home country.

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

_______________________________________________________________________________

<33:32>From DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu Thu May 23 00:45:24 1996

Date: Thu, 23 May 1996 01:44:55 -0500 (EST)
From: DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu
Subject: May 23 -- Today in the Historical Sciences
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Organization: University of NC at Greensboro

MAY 23 -- TODAY IN THE HISTORICAL SCIENCES

1617: ELIAS ASHMOLE is born at Lichfield, England.  The child of humble
parents, Ashmole will study at the Lichfield Grammar School and then move to
London, where he will receive training in the law.  As a result of several
fortunate political and social connections he will make while in London,
Ashmole will receive a royal appointment in the College of Arms, eventually
becoming a leading authority on the history of heraldry, and a significant
collector of antiquities.  His expanding interests will lead him to the study
of botany, medicine, alchemy, and astrology, and he will be one of the
founding members of the Royal Society in 1660.  Ashmole will offer his
extensive personal collections of antiquities and natural history specimens
to the University of Oxford in 1675, and the Ashmolean Museum, the first
public museum in England, will open at Oxford in 1683.

1707: CARL LINNAEUS is born at Sodra, Smaland, Sweden.  The son of a country
parson, Linnaeus will rise to be one of the most prominent figures in the
history of natural history.  Following study in medicine and botany at the
Universities of Lund and Uppsala, Linnaeus will first spend time travelling
in Lapland, and then will move to Holland where he will receive his medical
degree.  While in Leiden he will publish the first edition of his masterwork,
_Systema Naturae_ (1735), which he will revise and expand many times over the
course of his life.  In 1741 Linnaeus will be appointed professor of medicine
at Uppsala, and through his many students and his voluminous writings on
systematics and natural history, his influence will spread throughout Europe
and 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.

_______________________________________________________________________________

<33:33>From DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu Thu May 23 12:52:12 1996

Date: Thu, 23 May 1996 13:51:22 -0500 (EST)
From: DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu
Subject: Thesaurus Linguae Latinae on the web
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Organization: University of NC at Greensboro

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

Date: Thu, 2 May 1996 16:39:50 -0600 (CST)
From: Ann DeVito <devito@cs.usask.ca>
Subject: new URL for e-TLL home page

Change of URL announcement

The Consortium for Latin Lexicography would like to announce that the Home
Page for the Electronic Thesaurus Linguae Latinae has moved. The new URL is:

      http://www.cs.usask.ca/faculty/devito/e-TLL/

These web pages describe the planned development of a TLL in electronic
form.  We hope to continue to publish progress reports on the Electronic
TLL at this site as work proceeds.

For more information on these web pages, the Electronic TLL project, or
the Consortium for Latin Lexicography, please contact CLL Director Patrick
Sinclair at CLL@uci.edu or CLL Systems Analyst Ann DeVito at
devito@cs.usask.ca.

Ann DeVito, Systems Analyst
Consortium for Latin Lexicography
Dept. of Computer Science
1C101 Engineering Building
University of Saskatchewan
57 Campus Drive
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
CANADA   S7N 5A9
<devito@cs.usask.ca>

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

_______________________________________________________________________________

<33:34>From miller@mpipf-muenchen.mpg.de Thu May 23 09:15:06 1996

Date: Thu, 23 May 1996 16:14:35 +0200
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
From: miller@mpipf-muenchen.mpg.de (Geoffrey Miller)
Subject: Forget the peacock's tail, look at the barn swallow

As Ian Harvey pointed out in his message, Malte Andersson's book _Sexual
Selection_ is an excellent review, but by far the most impressive
single-species case study is Anders Moller's (1994) _Sexual selection and
the barn swallow_ (Oxford UP, 365 pp.), summarizing a decade of research on
sexual selection for reliable indicators ('good genes') in this socially
monogamous bird.

Dr. Geoffrey F. Miller
miller@mpipf-muenchen.mpg.de
Center for Adaptive Behavior and Cognition
Max Planck Institute for Psychological Research
24 Leopoldstr., 80802 Munich, Germany
(+49) (089) 38602-237 (office)
(+49) (089) 342473       (fax)

_______________________________________________________________________________

<33:35>From DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu Thu May 23 15:15:41 1996

Date: Thu, 23 May 1996 16:15:13 -0500 (EST)
From: DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu
Subject: Narrative bibliography now on the Darwin-L Web Server
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Organization: University of NC at Greensboro

The preliminary bibliography on narrative in the historical sciences
that several Darwin-L members contributed to is now available on the
Files page of the Darwin-L Web Server (http://rjohara.uncg.edu).  Please
browse through it if the topic is of interest.

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

_______________________________________________________________________________

<33:36>From DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu Fri May 24 00:30:21 1996

Date: Fri, 24 May 1996 01:29:56 -0500 (EST)
From: DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu
Subject: May 24 -- Today in the Historical Sciences
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Organization: University of NC at Greensboro

MAY 24 -- TODAY IN THE HISTORICAL SCIENCES

1794: WILLIAM WHEWELL is born at Lancaster, England.  The son of a carpenter,
Whewell's precocious intellect will win him admittance to the Heversham
grammar school and then to Trinity College, Cambridge.  He will be made a
fellow of Trinity in 1817, and will remain there throughout his career,
rising to the mastership in 1841, and serving twice as vice-chancellor of
the University.  An extraordinarily polymathic philosopher, historian, and
scientist, Whewell will write extensively on physics, mathematics, theology,
ethics, meteorology, political economy, architecture, Classical literature,
mineralogy, geology, education, and the theory of science.  In 1837 he will
coin the term "palaetiology" for the sciences of historical causation, and he
will later recommend the palaetiological sciences as important elements of a
liberal education: "I have ventured to give reasons why the chemical sciences
(chemistry, mineralogy, electrochemistry) are not at the present time in a
condition which makes them important general elements of a liberal education.
But there is another class of sciences, the palaetiological sciences, which
from the largeness of their views and the exactness of the best portions of
their reasonings are well fitted to form part of that philosophical discipline
which a liberal education ought to include.  Of these sciences, I have
mentioned two, one depending mainly upon the study of language and the other
upon the sciences which deal with the material world.  These two sciences,
ethnography, or comparative philology, and geology, are among those
progressive sciences which may be most properly taken into a liberal education
as instructive instances of the wide and rich field of facts and reasonings
with which modern science deals, still retaining, in many of its steps, great
rigour of proof; and as an animating display also of the large and grand
vistas of time, succession, and causation, which are open to the speculative
powers of man."

1851: The English author, artist, and critic JOHN RUSKIN writes to his friend
Henry Acland: "You speak of the Flimsiness of your own faith.  Mine, which was
never strong, is being beaten into mere gold leaf, and flutters in weak rags
from the letter of its old forms; but the only letters it can hold by at all
are the old Evangelical formulae.  If only the Geologists would let me alone,
I could do very well, but those dreadful Hammers!  I hear the clink of them
at the end of every cadence of the Bible verses."

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.

_______________________________________________________________________________

<33:37>From DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu Sat May 25 16:16:16 1996

Date: Sat, 25 May 1996 17:15:42 -0500 (EST)
From: DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu
Subject: New phylogenetic software, perhaps of interest to linguists as well
 (fwd)
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Organization: University of NC at Greensboro

This notice of a new piece of software for phylogenetic analysis
recently appeared on several natural history lists.  In addition to
being of interest to systematists, this particular package may be of
interest to some of our historical linguists as well.  One of the
controversies in the reconstruction of very old linguistic relationships
is how chance resemblances can be distinguished from genuine historical
"signal".  This topic has begun to attract a lot of attention in
systematics in the last few years, and this software package is an
example of one attempt to address the question.

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

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

Date: Fri, 24 May 1996 18:51:37 -0700
From: James Lyons-Weiler <weiler@ERS.UNR.EDU>
Subject: New Phylogenetics Software

Apologies for semi-redundant and cross postings.  New information
included:

*********************************************************************
************ Announcing RASA 1.1.1 and RASA Plot 1.1.1 **************
*********************************************************************
(updated 5/24/96)

Nascent software for the Mac that will perform "Relative Apparent
Synapomorphy Analysis", a test for the presence of phylogenetic
signal (a.k.a. cladistic hierarchy) in any type of discrete character
data matrix (morphological or molecular), is now available at the
following URL as a binhexed self-extracting archive:

http://loco.biology.unr.edu/archives/rasa/rasa.html

***   and by anonymous ftp at

loco.biology.unr.edu (pub) (rasa)

There you'll find rasa.sea, which contains the following:

RASA 1.1.1      <-- Reads a data file, measures signal,
                    and writes a file readable by:

RASA Plot 1.1.1 <-- Allows you to view in graphical and tabular
                    form the results of the test.

RASA.help       <-- A help file that you might find, well,
                    helpful.

sample1         <-- A sample data file with no signal.
sample2         <-- A sample data file with signal.

README-1.1.1    <-- A file with FAQs, bugs, etc.

Although this software is in the beta stage, I consider the output to be
reliable.  The reference for the algorithm and detailed justification
and discussion of limitations of the approach can be expected in July:

Lyons-Weiler, J., G.A. Hoelzer, and R.J. Tausch. 1996. Relative Apparent
Synapomorphy Analysis (RASA) I: the statistical measurement of
phylogenetic signal.  Molecular Biology and Evolution, in press.

A more sophisticated version in under development.  Send questions off the
list; FAQs will be included in the README file as they arrive.

Direct inquiries to weiler@ers.unr.edu.

                                        James
_______________________________________________________________________________

  \  /   /    \  /           JAMES LYONS-WEILER           ______________
   \/   /      \/                                        |..............|
    \  /       /                                         |..............|
     \/       /              DOCTORAL PROGRAM IN         |..............|
      \      /               ECOLOGY, EVOLUTION, AND     |...***........|
       \    /                CONSERVATION BIOLOGY        |..*****.......|
        \  /                                             |.******.......|
         \/                  1000 VALLEY ROAD/186        |********......|
    ______________           THE UNIVERSITY OF            --------------
   | will perform |          NEVADA, RENO
   |  statistical |          RENO, NEVADA 89512-0013
   | phylogenetic |
   | analyses for |         "(Biology) is not religion; if it were, we'd
   |    food      |          have a much easier time raising money."
    --------------                       -Leon Lederman
_______________________________________________________________________________

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

_______________________________________________________________________________

<33:38>From DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu Wed May 29 15:07:20 1996

Date: Wed, 29 May 1996 16:06:50 -0500 (EST)
From: DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu
Subject: Another bibliography: history of systematics
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Organization: University of NC at Greensboro

Following this message I will send another preliminary bibliography I've
put together, this one on the history of systematics.  I will be grateful
for any suggestions Darwin-L members may have regarding additions, deletions,
or corrections.  The bibliography only includes works published _since
1965_; I didn't make any effort to go back before that date.

As I was putting the bibliography together I was surprised at how much
material I was able to find.  I tend to think of the history of systematics
as a relatively neglected field, and I continue to believe it is in comparison
to the amount of depth the subject exhibits, but there is in fact more
published material available than one might expect.  What is available,
however is extraordinarily scattered -- I wish there were some statistic
by which the degree of scatter in a bibliography could be measured, because
I bet this list would set a record.  This is perhaps one of the reasons
it doesn't feel like there is a lot of material available, because some of
it is in systematics journals, some in history journals, some in philosophy
journals, some in books on general intellectual history, and all in a
variety of languages.  Hopefully that will make this bibliography particularly
useful.

Please feel free to post comments and suggestions to the group as a whole.

Bob O'Hara, Darwin-L list owner

Robert J. O'Hara (darwin@iris.uncg.edu)
Cornelia Strong College, 100 Foust Building
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Greensboro, North Carolina 27412 U.S.A.

_______________________________________________________________________________

<33:39>From DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu Wed May 29 15:16:30 1996

Date: Wed, 29 May 1996 16:15:55 -0500 (EST)
From: DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu
Subject: Preliminary Bibliography: History of Systematics
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Organization: University of NC at Greensboro

PRELIMINARY BIBLIOGRAPHY: RECENT WORKS ON THE HISTORY OF SYSTEMATICS.
Version of May 1996.  Compiled by Robert J. O'Hara, Cornelia Strong
College, 100 Foust Building, University of North Carolina at Greensboro,
Greensboro, North Carolina 27412, U.S.A. (rjohara@iris.uncg.edu).  This
bibliography attempts to list works published *since 1965* that include
substantial treatments of some aspect of the history of systematics,
particularly systematic theory.  I have ordinarily excluded biographical
works and general histories of natural history unless they include
special sections on the history of systematics.  Suggestions for
additions, deletions, and corrections are welcome; I have not seen all
of the items included.  This is the first version of this bibliography,
and it probably contains many gaps.  Revised versions will be posted on
the Darwin-L Web Server (http://rjohara.uncg.edu).

Appel, T.  1980.  Henri de Blainville and the animal series: a nineteenth
century chain of being.  Journal of the History of Biology, 13:291-319.

Atran, Scott.  1990.  Cognitive Foundations of Natural History: Toward an
Anthropology of Science.  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Barsanti, Giulio.  1984.  Linne et Buffon: deux visions differentes de
l'histoire naturelle.  Revue de Synthese, 113-114:83-107.

Barsanti, Giulio.  1988.  Le immagini della natura: scale, mappe, alberi
1700-1800.  Nuncius, 3:55-125.

Barsanti, Giulio.  1992.  La scala, la mappa, l'albero: immagini e
classificazioni della natura fra sei e ottocento.  Florence: Sansoni.

Barsanti, Giulio.  1992.  Buffon et l'image de la nature: de l'echelle des
etres a la carte geographique et l'arbre genealogique.  Pp. ?? in: Buffon
88 (J. Gayon, ed.).  Paris: VRIN, Libraire Philosophique.

Bernier, R.  1975.  Aux sources de la biologie.  Tome premier.  Les vingt
premiers siecles.  La classification.  Montreal: Le presses de l'Universite
du Quebec.

Bernier, R.  1984.  Systeme et methode en taxonomie: Adanson, A.-L. de
Jussieu et A.-P. de Candolle.  Naturaliste Canad., 111:3-12.

Burtt, B. L.  1966.  Adanson and modern taxonomy.  Notes Roy. Botanical
Garden Edinburgh, 26:427-431.

Cain, Arthur J.  1981.  The development of systematic ideas of variation
illustrated by malacology.  Pp. 151-156 in: History in the Service of
Systematics (A. Wheeler & J. H. Price, eds.).  (Society for the
Bibliography of Natural History, Special Publication No. 1.)

Cain, Arthur J.  1990.  Constantine Samuel Rafinesque Schmaltz on
classification: a translation of the early works by Rafinesque with
introduction and notes.  Tryonia, 20.  Philadelphia: Academy of Natural
Sciences.

Cain, Arthur J.  1992.  Was Linnaeus a Rosicrucian?  Linnean, 8(3):23-44.

Cain, Arthur J.  1993.  Linnaeus's Ordines naturales.  Archives of Natural
History, 20:405-415.

Cain, Arthur J.  1994.  Numerus, figura, proportio, situs: Linnaeus's
definitory attributes.  Archives of Natural History, 21:17-36.

Callot, E.  1965.  Systeme et methode dans l'histoire de la botanique.
Rev. Hist. Sci. Applic., 18:45-53.

Craw, Robin.  1992.  Margins of cladistics: identity, difference and place
in the emergence of phylogenetic systematics, 1864-1975.  Pp. 65-107 in:
Trees of Life: Essays in Philosophy of Biology (Paul Griffiths, ed.).
Australasian Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, 11.

Cronk, Q. C. B.  1990.  The name of the pea: a quantitative history of
legume classification.  New Phytologist, 116:163-175.

Dean, J.  1979.  Controversy over classification: a case study from the
history of botany.  Pp. 211-230 in: Natural Order: Historical Studies of
Scientific Culture (B. Barnes and S. Shapin, eds.).  Berkeley: Sage.

Dean, John Philip.  1980.  A Naturalistic Model of Classification and its
Relevance to Some Contorversies in Botanical Systematics, 1900-1950.  Ph.D.
Dissertation, University of Edinburgh.

Dean, John Philip.  1979.  Controversy over classification: a case study
from the history of botany.  Pp. ?? in: Natural Order: Historical Studies
in Scientific Culture (B. Barnes & S. Shapin, eds.).  London.

Di Gregorio, M. A.  1982.  In search of the natural system: problems of
zoological classification in Victorian Britain.  Hist. Philos. Life Sci.,
4:225-254.

Donoghue, Michael J., & J. W. Kadereit.  1992  Walter Zimmerman and the
growth of phylogenetic theory.  Systematic Biology, 41:74-85.

Dupuis, C.  1979.  La "Systematique phylogenetique" de W. Hennig.  Cahiers
de Naturalistes, 34:1-69.

Farber, Paul L.  1982.  The Emergence of Ornithology as a Scientific
Discipline, 1760-1850.  Dordrecht: D. Reidel.

Foucault, Michel.  1970.  The Order of Things.  New York: Random House.

Gaffney, Eugene S.  1984.  Historical analysis of theories of chelonian
relationship.  Systematic Zoology, 33:283-301.

Ghiselin, Michael T.  1969.  The Triumph of the Darwinian Method.
Berkeley: University of California Press.  [Reprinted 1984, University of
Chicago Press.]

Ghiselin, Michael T., & L. Jaffe.  1973.  Phylogenetic classification in
Darwin's Monograph on the Sub-class Cirripedia.  Systematic Zoology,
22:132-140.

Gilmour, J. S. L.  1989.  Two early papers on classification.  Plant
Systematics and Evolution, 167:97-107.

Gruber, Howard E.  1972.  Darwin's 'tree of nature' and other images of
wider scope.  Pp. 121-140 in: On Aesthetics and Science (J. Wechsler, ed.).
Cambridge: MIT Press.

Guedes, M.  1967.  La methode taxonomique de Adanson.  Rev. His. Sci.
Applic., 20:361-386.

Hagen, Joel.  1982.  Experimental taxonomy, 1930-1950: the impact of
cytology, ecology, and genetics on ideas of biological classification.
Ph.D. Dissertation, Oregon State University.

Holman, E. W.  1985.  Evolutionary and psychological effects in pre-
evolutionary classifications.  J. Classific., 2:29-39.

Hull, David L.  1965.  The effect of essentialism on taxonomy: two thousand
years of stasis.  British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 15:314-
366, 16:1-18.

Hull, David L.  1988.  Science as a Process.  Chicago: University of
Chicago Press.  [Includes an account of the recent (post-1960) history of
systematics.]

Knight, D.  1985.  William Swainson: types, circles and affinities.  Pp.
83-94 in: The Light of Nature: Essays in the History and Philosophy of
Science Presented to A. C. Crombie (J. D. North and J. J. Roche, eds.).
Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff.

Larson, James L.  1971.  Reason and Experience: The Representation of
Natural Order in the Work of Carl von Linne.  Berkeley: University of
California Press.

La Vergata, A.  1987.  Au nom de l'espece: classification et nomenclature
au XIXe siecle.  Pp. 193-225 in: Histoire du concept de l'espece dans les
sciences de la vie (S. Atran, ed.).  Paris: Fondation Singer-Polignac.

Lindroth, C. H.  1973.  Systematics specialises between Fabricius and
Darwin, 1800-1859.  Pp. 119-154 in: History of Entomology (R. F. Smith et
al., eds.).  Palo Alto: Annual Reviews.

Mayr, Ernst.  1982.  The Growth of Biological Thought.  Cambridge: Harvard
University Press.

Nelson, Gareth G., & Norman I. Platnick.  1981.  Systematics and
Biogeography: Cladistics and Vicariance.  New York: Columbia University
Press.

Nelson, G.  1979.  Cladistic analysis and synthesis: principles and
definitions, with a historical note on Adanson's Familles des Plantes
(1763-1764).  Systematic Zoology, 28:1-21.

O'Hara, Robert J.  1988.  Diagrammatic classifications of birds, 1819-1901:
views of the natural system in 19th-century British ornithology.  Pp. 2746-
2759 in: Acta XIX Congressus Internationalis Ornithologici (H. Ouellet,
ed.).  Ottawa: National Museum of Natural Sciences.

O'Hara, Robert J.  1991.  Representations of the natural system in the
nineteenth century.  Biology and Philosophy, 6:255-274.

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

O'Hara, Robert. J.  In press.  Trees of history in systematics and
philology.  Memorie della Societa italiana di scienze naturali e del Museo
civico di storia naturale di Milano.

Oppenheimer, Jane M.  1987.  Haeckel's variations on Darwin.  Hoenigswald &
Wiener, 1987:123-135.  [On the tree diagrams of the German evolutionist
Ernst Haeckel.]

de Queiroz, Kevin.  1988.  Systematics and the Darwinian revolution.
Philosophy of Science, 55:238-259.

Reif, Wolf-Ernst.  1983.  Hilgendorf's (1863) dissertation on the Steinheim
planorbids (Gastropoda; Miocene): the development of a phylogenetic
research program for paleontology.  Palaontologische Zeitschrift, 57:7-20.

Rieppel, O.  1987.  Pattern and process: the early classification of
snakes.  Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 31:405-420.

Ritvo, H.  1990.  New presbyter or old priest?  Reconsidering zoological
taxonomy in Britain, 1750-1840.  Hist. Human Sci., 3:259-276.

Sloan, Phillip R.  1972.  John Locke, John Ray, and the problem of the
natural system.  Journal of the History of Biology, 5:1-53.

Sloan, Phillip R.  1979.  Buffon, German biology, and the historical
interpretation of biological species.  British Journal for the History of
Science, 12:109-153.

Sloan, P. R.  1987.  From logical universals to historical individuals:
Buffon's idea of biological species.  pp. 101-140 in: Histoire du concept
de l'espece dans les sciences de la vie (S. Atran, ed.).  Paris: Fondation
Singer-Polignac.

Stafleu, F. A.  1969.  A historical review of systematic botany.  Pp. 16-44
in: Systematic Biology: Proceedings of an International Conference.
Washington: National Academy of Sciences.

Stemerding, D.  1993.  How to make oneself nature's spokesman?  A Latourian
account of classification in eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century
natural history.  Philos. Sci., 8:199-223.

Stevens, Peter F.  1982.  Augustin Augier's "Arbre Botanique" (1801), a
remarkable early botanical representation of the natural system.  Taxon,
32:203-211.

Stevens, Peter F.  1983.  Hauy and A.-P. de Candolle: crystallography,
botanical systematics, and comparative morphology, 1780-1840.  Journal of
the History of Biology, 17:49-82.

Stevens, Peter F.  1984.  Metaphors and typology in the development of
botanical systematics 1690-1960, or the art of putting new wine in old
bottles.  Taxon, 33:169-211.

Stevens, Peter F.  1986.  Evolutionary classification in botany, 1960-1985.
J. Arnold Arbor., 67:313-339.

Stevens, Peter F.  1992.  Species: historical perspectives.  Pp. 302-311
in: Keywords in Evolutionary Biology (E. F. Keller and E. A. Lloyd, eds.).
Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Stevens, Peter F., and S. P. Cullen.  1990.  Linnaeus, the cortex-medulla
theory, and the key to his understanding of plant form and natural
relationships.  J. Arnold Arbor., 71:179-220.

Stresemann, Erwin.  1975.  Ornithology from Aristotle to the Present.
Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Uschmann, G.  1967.  Zur Geschichte der Stammbaum-Darstellungen.  Pp. 9-30
in: Gesammelte Vortrage uber moderne Probleme der Abstammlungslehre, vol. 2
(M. Gersch, ed.).  Jena: Friedrich-Schiller-Universitat.

Vernon, Keith.  1988.  The founding of numerical taxonomy.  British Journal
for the History of Science, 21:143-158.

Vernon, Keith.  1993.  Desperately seeking status: evolutionary systematics
and the taxonomists' search for respectability, 1940-1960.  British Journal
for the History of Science, 26:207-227.

Wagner, Warren H., Jr.  1980.  Origin and philosophy of the groundplan-
divergence method of cladistics.  Systematic Botany, 5:173-193.

Walters, S. M.  1961.  The name of the rose: a review of ideas on the
European bias in angiosperm classification.  New Phytologist, 104:527-546.

Webster, G.  1987.  The saga of the spurges: a review of classification and
relationships in the Euphorbiales.  Botanical Journal of the Linnean
Society, 94:3-46.

Williams, R. L.  1988.  Gerard and Jaume: Two neglected figures in the
history of Jussiaean classification.  Taxon, 37:2-34, 233-271.

Winsor, Mary P.  1969.  Barnacle larvae in the nineteenth century: a case
study in taxonomic theory.  Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied
Sciences, 24:194-209.

Winsor, Mary P.  1976.  The development of Linnean insect classification.
Taxon, 25:57-67.

Winsor, Mary P.  1976.  Starfish, Jellyfish, and the Order of Life.  New
Haven: Yale University Press.

Winsor, Mary P.  1979.  Louis Agassiz and the species question.  Studies in
History of Biology, 3:89-117.

Winsor, Mary P.  1985.  The impact of Darwinism on the Linnaean enterprise,
with special reference to T. H. Huxley.  Pp. 55-84 in: Contemporary
Perspectives on Carl von Linne (J. M. Weinstock, ed.).  University Press of
America.

Winsor, Mary P.  1991.  Reading the Shape of Nature: Comparative Zoology at
the Agassiz Museum.  Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Winsor, Mary P.  1994.  The lessons of history.  Pp. 1-9 in: Models in
Phylogeny Reconstruction (R. W. Scotland, D. J. Siebert, & D. M. Williams,
eds.).  Oxford: Clarendon Press.  (Systematics Association Special Volume
No. 52.)

Winsor, Mary P.  1995.  The English debate on taxonomy and phylogeny, 1937-
1940.  History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences, 17:227-252.

_______________________________________________________________________________

<33:40>From mblsalt@netmedia.co.il Fri May 24 11:43:08 1996

Date: Fri, 24 May 1996 19:38:44 -0700
From: David Bloch <mblsalt@netmedia.co.il>
Organization: Salt & Separation Engineering .
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: population increase

> From: Mary P Winsor <mwinsor@chass.utoronto.ca>
> Subject: population increase
>===============================--

At the risk plunging into a dark unknown Darwinian jungle:-

Salt..... made the world go round, though unfortunately for History and
particularly for archaeologists, salt disolves, leaving no trace, with the
exception of various unexplained artifacts.-  Unless we are made aware of
how salt and its derivatives influenced ancient civilisations, we may fail
to take into account items essential to man's survival and which have
consequently played a major role in our history.

Sexual function is the first to suffer when a man or woman becomes very
salt hungry. As a result, salt starved people find salt a strong Aphrodisiac.
In Cyprus Aphrodite was worshipped both as Goddess of love and of Salt. Her
festivities combine a solumn eating of salt and orgiastic rites. Plutarch put
it.... but it is most probable that the salt raiseth an itching in animals,
and makes them Salacious ...... Aphrodite and Poseidon were not the only
ones to be worshipped for providing salt.

Power to control a population's salt supply,  was power over life and
death. Why were the rabbits in Australia an exception to the 'stability'?

The physiological need for salt, is well documented, though today we tend
to disregard this need, with modern medicine's [mistaken] veiled warnings
of too much salt in our diets. We forget that salt is no less important
than water, in balancing a stable saline environment in the body.

The establishment of early settlements, the increase and decrease of
populations, wars, large demographic shifts and the development of
agriculture have in the past been intimately related to the absence or
presence of salt supplies.

With the development of agriculture, salt became critically important in
preserving meat for distribution in organised communities and for storing
every day essentials, hides, fish, cheese, olives, for dehydrating and
immunising them from bacteria.  Thus the physiological need, estimated
at minimum 10 grams per day per person, and the preservative need,
increased consumption to 20 grams and in some cases 100 grams became
quantitively so great, that it required special attention to guarrantee
the supply, transport, and protection of the salt sources.

The increased consumption of salt above the minimum physiological requirement
had a striking result which may have some importance. This additional salt
intake changed the bromine ratio in the diet since crystallised salt used for
food preservation has a chlorine to bromine ratio of over 2000-1 In other
words it contains almost no bromine.  Since bromine has a sedative effect
on the nervous system one might speculate that a bromine reduction,
stimulated greater activity.

The importance of controlling the salt supply to the community made itself
felt in the everyday process of slaughtering animals in the Abattoirs, such
as the Temple in Jerusalem, and the Parthenon. They were expensive
installations to erect. and the rigorous procedure and hygienic precautions,
taken by kings and priests alike [for they were responsible for the health
of their communities,] demanded that the ritual be pleasing and be profitable.
Under the Roman Empire of the Caesars immense semi-private trade organisations
were set up to handle about one million tons of salt a year for an estimated
population of 100 million people.

The production.of salt was mostly by the easiest method, coastal evaporation
systems, however it appears that the ocean and in particular the Mediterranean
sea levels fluctuated causing either flooding or land locking of the
evaporation pans, and forcing communities to look elswhere.  The reorganisation
of supplies was to be the determining factor in the importance of strategic
towns and supply routes, for example Jerusalem and the Dead Sea, which would
explain the otherwise senseless determination of Roman emperors Vespasian and
Titus to conquer desert strongholds like Masada, at a time when most of Rome's
Italian coast sources were flooded.

***Researching the History of salt ****
*  and its influence on society up
*  to the industrial revolution
*  keywords: sea-levels, money, power
*            craving, dehydration,
*            sacrifice, embalming
*            MRBLOCH SALT ARCHIVE
*http://www.geocities.com/Athens/2707/phys.html
*            E-mail mblsalt@ibm.net
***************************************

_______________________________________________________________________________

<33:41>From LCOOK@fs2.scg.man.ac.uk Thu May 30 06:29:55 1996

From: Laurence Martin Cook <LCOOK@fs2.scg.man.ac.uk>
Organization: University of Manchester, UK
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Date: Thu, 30 May 1996 12:15:53 GMT+1
Subject: Re: salt

Mary Winsor provides an interesting and diverse range of remarks on
the importance of salt.  Reminds me that salt has evidently had a
political significance in India, too.  Alexander Burnes, in Journey
into Bokhara, reports that at the end of the 18th and start of
the 19th Century Ranjit Singh was concerned about control of rock
salt supplies from an area in the northwest frontier, and if I
remember correctly salt monopolies were one of the bones of
contention used by Gandhi against the British administration.  There
is probably a vein which may be mined here, going back a long way.

Laurence Cook

Laurence M. Cook
The Manchester Museum
University of Manchester
Manchester M13 9PL

_______________________________________________________________________________

<33:42>From Michael_Kenny@sfu.ca Fri May 31 10:08:38 1996

Date: Fri, 31 May 1996 07:38:06 -0700 (PDT)
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
From: Michael_Kenny@sfu.ca (Michael Kenny)
Subject: more on salt

The growth of trade networks around salt deposits, and the possible
evolutionary significance of these networks for the emergence of state
structures is an important historical theme. There is a considerable
literature on this topic concerning Africa, one that I became attuned to in
finding that local production of salt is still going on along the shores of
Lake Victoria in SW Kenya; oral historical sources indicated a very
widespread pre-colonial network of canoe-borne trade in salt and other
commodities around the Lake (Kenny, 'Pre-Colonial Trade in Eastern Lake
Victoria,' Azania 14: 97-107 (1979)).

Other important deposits are found in western Uganda. If memory serves
Venice grew up around lagoons in which it was possible to evaporate
sea-salt, and likewise that there was extensive trans-Saharan trade
emanating from the Lake Chad area.

Michael G. Kenny
Dept. of Sociology & Anthropology
Simon Fraser University
Burnaby, B.C.  V5A 1S6; Canada
Michael_Kenny@sfu.ca
phone: (604) 291-4270
fax:   (604) 291-5799

_______________________________________________________________________________
Darwin-L Message Log 33: 1-42 -- May 1996                                   End

© RJO 1995–2022