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Darwin-L Message Log 6: 31–69 — February 1994
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 February 1994. 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 6: 31-69 -- FEBRUARY 1994
----------------------------------------------
DARWIN-L
A Network Discussion Group on the
History and Theory of the Historical Sciences
_______________________________________________________________________________
<6:31>From john.wilkins1@udev.monash.edu.au Mon Feb 7 17:21:21 1994
Date: Tue, 08 Feb 1994 09:59:52 +1000
From: John Wilkins <john.wilkins1@udev.monash.edu.au>
Subject: quinarianism
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Andie Palmer wrote:
[quote]
Hunn's article presents some interesting ideas regarding the
constraints of human memory on categorization. In
particular, Hunn examines the correlation between toponymic
(placename) density and population density for 10 Native
American groups (plus groups in Tonga and Australia) and
finds that " the relationship between population density and
toponymic density is mediated by individual memory, in
particular by an information-processing limitation that I
will call the magic number 500." Individuals from each group
are found to have place-name repertoires close to 500,
whether from densely or sparsely populated areas, within
their respective territories.
[unquote]
I vaguely recall that the size of the bands of early humans was about 500.
Perhaps the mental equipment evolved to permit social links to be maintained
within the band. What evolutionary story could be given for other numeric
skills, and what is the relationship between cultural mathematical extensions
and "native" mathematical ability?
Just some lazy musings.
John Wilkins - Manager, Publishing, Monash University,
Wellington Road, Clayton, Victoria 3168 [Melbourne] Australia
Internet: john.wilkins@udev.monash.edu.au
Tel: (+613) 905 6009; fax: 905 6029
====Monash neither knows, nor approves, of what I say====
_______________________________________________________________________________
<6:32>From DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu Mon Feb 7 22:16:59 1994
Date: Mon, 07 Feb 1994 23:20:03 -0400 (EDT)
From: DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu
Subject: Hexaemeral bibliography (fwd from MEDTEXTL)
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Organization: University of NC at Greensboro
The "hexaemeral" literature is the literature of the first six days
of the creation as described in Genesis. Much early work in scriptural
geology grew out of the hexaemeral tradition (see Rudwick's wonderful new
book _Scenes From Deep Time_ which reprints early illustrations for each
day), so I thought this bibliography which just appeared on MEDTEXTL might
be of interest to some Darwin-L members. Most of this material would have
certainly been hard for me to find unless someone had pointed me to it.
Bob O'Hara (darwin@iris.uncg.edu)
--Begin forwarded message---------------
Date: Sun, 6 Feb 1994 20:13:59 -0600
From: "Charles D. Wright" <cdwright@UX1.CSO.UIUC.EDU>
Subject: Genesis and the Hexaemeral tradition
It seems like we haven't had a fresh medtextl bibliography for weeks.
(What's the matter with you, Avril?) Here's one I prepared for a seminar
on the Junius Manuscript a couple of years ago. I've added a few
late-breaking items, but this comes with the usual disclaimer that it is no
more than a starter bibliography. I have emphasized works that contain
substantial bibliographies of secondary literature and lists of primary
texts (so for the most part I don't bother to list primary texts here), and
monographs or articles that deal comprehensively with particular Genesis
topics (up to but not beyond Noah). The references for vernacular texts are
obviously highly selective, but the secondary guides I list should lead one
to all the major and many of the minor relevant texts. As usual, you'll
have to supply your own umlauts and accents.
I would appreciate any corrections or additions medtextlers may have,
especially major reference works or general surveys of special topics.
Charlie Wright
Genesis and the Hexaemeral Tradition in the Middle Ages
Annual Bibliography
One of the best ways to locate recent work on Genesis in the medieval
tradition is through Medioevo Latino (11 vols. to date). Look under the
heading "Fortleben: Biblia Sacra: Pentateuchus." Also try the serial
bibliographies in Bibliographica Patristica and Bulletin signaletique:
Histoire et sciences de religions.
General Reference Works and Surveys
Hans Martin v. Erffa, Ikonologie der Genesis: Die christlichen Bildthemen
aus dem Alten Testament und ihre Quellen (Munich, 1989). Coverage through
the Tower of Babel, with exhaustive bibliography.
F. E. Robbins, The Hexaemeral Literature: A Study of the Greek and Latin
Commentaries on Genesis (Chicago, 1912).
J. M. Evans, Paradise Lost and the Genesis Tradition (Oxford, 1968). Covers
Latin biblical epics, Jewish and Christian commentaries and paraphrases,
medieval vernacular treatments, drama. *Lists Genesis commentaries and
poetic paraphrases, pp. 295-7.* Supplementary bibliography geared towards
medieval traditions is given by M. Benskin and Brian Murdoch, "The Literary
Tradition of Genesis," Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 76 (1975), 389-403.
R. E. McNally, The Bible in the Early Middle Ages (Westminster, MD, 1959).
*Lists biblical commentaries composed between 650 and 1000, pp. 89-94
(General Commentaries on the Bible) and 95-6 (Commentaries on the Old
Testament, Genesis).*
Johannes Zahlten, Creatio Mundi: Darstellungen der sechs Schopfungstage und
naturwissenschaftliches Weltbild im Mittelalter, Stuttgarter Beitrage zur
Geschichte und Politik 13 (Stuttgart, 1979). *Includes extensive
bibliography and an alphabetical list of commentaries on Genesis, pp.
284-97.*
Gunar Freibergs, "The Medieval Latin Hexameron from Bede to Grosseteste,"
unpubl. Ph.D. diss., University of Southern California, 1981. [not seen]
Michael W. Twomey, "Medieval Encyclopedias," in R. E. Kaske, Medieval
Literary Imagery (Toronto, 1986), Appendix, pp. 182-215. Covers medieval
"scientific" treatises, which are often organized according to hexaemeral
topics.
J. F. Kelly, "A Catalogue of Early Medieval Hiberno-Latin Biblical
Commentaries (I)," Traditio 44 (1988), 537-71. Includes references to
several unpublished Hiberno-Latin commentaries on Genesis.
A. Williams, The Common Expositor (Chapel Hill, 1948). On Hexaemeral
commentaries in the Renaissance.
P. Agaesee and A. Solignac, trans, Oeuvres de saint Augustin: La Genese au
sens litteral, in Bibliotheque Augustinienne 48-9. Has exceptionally full
explanatory notes on a wide variety of topics.
J. O'Toole, The Philosophy of Creation in the Writings of Saint Augustine
(Washington, D.C., 1944).
Special Topics
Chronography
W. Adler, Time Immemorial: Archaic History and its Sources in Christian
Chronography, Dumbarton Oaks Studies 26 (Washington, D.C., 1989).
Hildegard Tristram, Sex aetates mundi: die Weltzeitalter bei den
Angelsachsen und den Iren (Heidelberg, 1985).
De natura rerum
See in general Zahlten, Creatio Mundi (above). Isidore's Etymologiae and
De natura rerum were extremely influential. For the backgrounds, see J.
Fontaine, Isidore de Seville et la culture classique dans l'Espagne
wisigothique, 2 vols., Etudes Augustiniennes (Paris, 1959). For cosmology
and geography there's always P. Duhem, Le system du monde, 5 vols. (Paris,
1913-17), and J. K. Wright, The Geographical Lore of the Time of the
Crusades (New York, 1925).
In Principio
In Principio: Interpretations de premiers versets de la Genese, Etudes
Augustiniennes (Paris, 1973). Essays by various hands, many dealing with
patristic interpretations.
Lucifer and the Fallen Angels
P. E. Dustoor, "Legends of Lucifer in Early English and in Milton," Anglia
54 (1930), 213-68.
Geoffrey Burton Russell, Lucifer: The Devil in the Middle Ages (Ithaca,
NY, 1977).
Neil Forsyth, The Old Enemy: Satan and the Combat Myth (Princeton, 1987)
Bernard J. Bamberger, Fallen Angels (Philadelphia, 1952). Focus is on
Rabbinic traditions.
Leo Jung, Fallen Angels in Jewish, Christian and Mohammedan Literature
(Philadelphia, 1926)
Paradise
Arturo Graf, "Il mito del paradiso terrestre," in his Miti, Leggende e
Superstizioni del Medio Evo, vol. 1 (Torino, 1892).
H. R. Patch, The Other World According to Descriptions in Medieval
Literature (Cambridge, MA, 1950).
Reinhold R. Grimm, Paradisus Coelestis Paradisus Terrestris: Zur
Auslegungsgeschichte des Paradieses im Abendland bis um 1200, Medium Aevum
33 (Munich, 1977).
Mary Irma Corcoran, Milton's Paradise with Reference to the Hexameral
Background (Washington, DC, 1945). Lists commentaries on Genesis and other
relevant primary sources, pp. 138-43.
A. B. Giamatti, The Earthly Paradise and the Renaissance Epic (Princeton,
1966).
Adam and Eve
Brian Murdoch, The Fall of Man in the Early Middle High German Biblical
Epic (Goppingen, 1972).
Brian Murdoch, The Recapitulated Fall (Amsterdam, 1974).
Lutz Rorich, Adam und Eva: Das erste Menschenpaar in Volkskunst und
Volksdichtung (Stuttgart, 1968).
M. E. Stone, A History of the Literature of Adam and Eve (Atlanta, 1992).
[not seen]
The Serpent
H. A. Kelly, "The Metamorphosis of the Eden Serpent during the Middle Ages
and Renaissance," Viator 2 (1971), 301-32.
Cain and Abel
V. Aptowitzer, Kain und Abel in der Agada den Apokryphen, der
hellenistischen, christlichen und muhammedanischen Literatur (Vienna and
Leipzig, 1922).
O. F. Emerson, "Legends of Cain, Especially in Old and Middle English,"
PMLA 21 (1906), 831-929.
Ruth Mellinkoff, The Mark of Cain (Berkeley, CA, 1981).
Ruth Mellinkoff, "Cain's Monstrous Progeny in Beowulf," Anglo-Saxon England
8 (1979), 143-62; 9 (1981), 183-97.
Ricardo J. Quinones, The Changes of Cain: Violence and the Lost Brother in
Cain and Abel Literature (Princeton, 1991).
Anna Ulrich, Kain und Abel in der Kunst: Untersuchungen zur Ikonographie
und Auslegungsgeschichte (Bamberg, 1981).
Seth
Esther Quinn, The Quest of Seth for the Oil of Life (Chicago, 1973).
A. F. J. Klijn, Seth in Jewish, Christian and Gnostic Literature,
Supplements to Novum Testamentum 46 (Leiden, 1977).
Noah
J. P. Lewis, A Study of the Interpretation of Noah and the Flood (Leiden,
1968).
F. Lee Utley, "Noah, His Wife, and the Devil," in Studies in Biblical and
Jewish Folklore, ed. R. Patai, F. Lee Utley, and D. Noy (Bloomington, IN,
1960), pp. 59-91
Don Cameron Allen, The Legend of Noah: Renaissance Rationalism in Art,
Science, and Letters (Urbana, IL, 1963).
A. Dundes, The Flood Myth (Berkeley, CA, 1988).
Tower of Babel
A. Borst, Der Turmbau von Babel, 4 vols. (Stuttgart, 1957).
Rabbinic literature
L. Ginzberg, The Legends of the Jews, 6 vols. (Philadelphia)
L. Ginzberg, Die Haggada bei den Kirchenvatern und in der apokryphischen
Litteratur (Berlin, 1900)
M. Grunbaum, Neue Beitrage zur semitischen Sagenkunde (Leiden, 1893)
Biblical Folklore
Oskar Dahnhardt, Natursagen, 2 vols. (Leipzig, 1907-12).
J. G. Frazer, Folk-Lore of the Old Testament (London, 1918). Excerpted
from The Golden Bough.
Some Medieval Vernacular Texts on Genesis
Old English:
The major OE poems on Genesis are: Genesis A: A New Edition, ed. A. N.
Doane (Madison, WI, 1978). The Saxon Genesis [Genesis B and the Old Saxon
Genesis], ed. A. N. Doane (Madison, WI, 1991). For lists of passages from OE
poems dealing with the Fall of Satan and Fall of Adam, see C. Abbetmeyer, Old
English Poetical Motives derived from the Doctrine of Sin (New York, 1903).
For prose texts, see S. Greenfield and F. C. Robinson, A Bibliography of
Publications on Old English Literature to 1972 (Toronto, 1980).
Middle English:
Two major biblical paraphrases include: The Story of Genesis and Exodus,
ed. R. Morris, EETS os 7 (London, 1865); and Cursor Mundi, vol. 1 ed. R.
Morris, EETS os 57 (London, 1874). For others, see J. Burke Severs, A
Manual of Writings in Middle English 1050-1500, vol. 2 (Hamden, CT, 1970):
L. Muir, "Translations and Paraphrases of the Bible, and Commentaries"; C.
D'Evelyn and F. A. Foster, "Saints' Legends" (for Adam and Eve). See also
J. Dean, "The World Grown Old and Genesis in Middle English Historical
Writings," Speculum 57 (1982), 548-68.
Old and Middle Irish:
R. A. S. Macalister, Lebor Gabala Erenn, vol. 1, Irish Texts Society 34
(Dublin, 1938).
D. Greene and F. Kelly, The Old Irish Adam and Eve Story from Saltair na
Rann, vol. 1: Text and Translation; vol. 2: Commentary, by Brian Murdoch
(Dublin, 1976). See also Murdoch, "From the Flood to the Tower of Babel:
Some Notes on Saltair na Rann XIII-XXIV," Eriu 40 (1989), 69-82.
W. Stokes, "The Evernew Tongue," Eriu 2 (1905), 96-162.
M. Carney, "The Works of the Sixth Day," Eriu 21 (1969), 148-66.
D. Wasserstein, "The Creation of Adam and Apocrypha in Early Ireland,"
Proc. of the Royal Irish Academy 88C (1988), 1-17.
For others, see M. McNamara, The Apocrypha in the Irish Church (Dublin, 1975).
Cornish:
The major works are the Cornish Ordinalia and "The Creacion of the World.
On these see now B. Murdoch, Cornish Literature (Cambridge, 1993).
Old and Middle High German:
The major paraphrases are the Wien-Milstatter Genesis and Die Vorauer
Bucher Moses. For these and other medieval German texts on Genesis, see
the works by Murdoch listed above under "Adam and Eve"; see also Murdoch's
"Genesis and Pseudo-Genesis in Late Mediaeval German Poetry," Medium Aevum
45 (1976), 70-78.
Old Norse:
See Ian Kirby, Biblical Quotation in Old Icelandic-Norwegian Religious
Literature, 2 vols. (Reykavik, 1980) and Bible Translation in Old Norse
(Geneve, 1986).
Old French:
Le Mystere d'Adam, ed. P. Aebischer (Geneve-Paris, 1964).
E. C. Quinn, The Penitence of Adam: A Study of the Andrius Manuscript
(University, Miss., 1980).
R. Grimm, Schopfung und Sundenfall in der altfranzosischen Genesisdichtung
des Evrat (Frankfurt a.M., 1976).
--End forwarded message-----------------
_______________________________________________________________________________
<6:33>From coon@CVAX.IPFW.INDIANA.EDU Tue Feb 8 07:28:25 1994
Date: Tue, 08 Feb 1994 08:28:21 EST
From: coon@CVAX.IPFW.INDIANA.EDU
To: Darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: more magic numbers
It seems H. sapiens may have multiple magic numbers. We have
the 7+-2, Sale proposed about 7000 in Human Scale and I recall having
read an article suggesting another in the 125-175 range. Is anyone
aware of other proposals for optimal size ranges for human groups?
************************************************
Roger (Brad) Coon "Better to have one
COON@IPFWCVAX.BITNET freedom too many,
COON@CVAX.IPFW.INDIANA.EDU than to have one
too few."
Politically incorrect and proud of it.
Niquimictitoc inana Bambi.
************************************************
_______________________________________________________________________________
<6:34>From mpinschm@s850.mwc.edu Tue Feb 8 07:59:02 1994
From: mary pinschmidt <mpinschm@s850.mwc.edu>
Subject: Re: Query re evolution in elementary schools
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Date: Tue, 8 Feb 94 9:01:29 EST
I have a book Charles Darwin and the Origin of Species by Walter Karp -
publication of the Horizon Magazine. Don't know whether it's still in
print...but my kids loved it
Mary Pinschmidt
_______________________________________________________________________________
<6:35>From J_LIMBER@UNHH.UNH.EDU Tue Feb 8 10:22:42 1994
Date: Tue, 8 Feb 1994 11:21:21 -0500 (EST)
From: J_LIMBER@UNHH.UNH.EDU (JOHN LIMBER)
Subject: RE: more magic numbers
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
A quantitative assessment relating group size to neocortex size is presented
in:
Dunbar, R. I. M. (1992). Neocortex size as a constraint on group size in
primates. Journal of Human Evolution, 20, 469-493.
John Limber, Psychology, University of New Hampshire
_______________________________________________________________________________
<6:36>From LANGDON@GANDLF.UINDY.EDU Tue Feb 8 10:52:12 1994
Date: Tue, 8 Feb 1994 10:52:12 -0600
From: "JOHN LANGDON" <LANGDON@GANDLF.UINDY.EDU>
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: Re: more magic numbers
In message <00979BE4.ED36D32C.14395@CVAX.IPFW.INDIANA.EDU> writes:
> It seems H. sapiens may have multiple magic numbers. We have
> the 7+-2, Sale proposed about 7000 in Human Scale and I recall having
> read an article suggesting another in the 125-175 range. Is anyone
> aware of other proposals for optimal size ranges for human groups?
I believe the magic numbers 25 and 500 for hunter-gatherer band and language
tribe sizes came from Birdsell (1968) in the Man the Hunter Symposium. See RB
Lee and I DeVore eds., Man the Hunter, Aldine Press, esp. pp. 229-240
(Birdsell's article) and pp. 245-248 (panel discussion of magic numbers).
If anyone else comes up with additional sources, please share them on the list
or send me a copy. Thanks.
JOHN H. LANGDON email LANGDON@GANDLF.UINDY.EDU
DEPARTMENT OF BIOLOGY FAX (317) 788-3569
UNIVERSITY OF INDIANAPOLIS PHONE (317) 788-3447
INDIANAPOLIS, IN 46227
_______________________________________________________________________________
<6:37>From mnyman@viita3.Helsinki.FI Tue Feb 8 11:11:01 1994
Date: Tue, 8 Feb 94 19:07:32 +0100
From: mnyman@viita3.Helsinki.FI (Martti Nyman)
To: Darwin-L@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: Invisible hand explanation
Let me first introduce myself. I have my Ph.D. in linguistics
(Univ. of Helsinki, Finland), but I have also engaged myself
in Indo-European studies, with a specialization in Greek and
Latin. I'm particularly interested in (a.) the epistemology of
proto-language reconstruction, i.e. in what sense can we say
of reconstructed languages, say Proto-Indo-European or Proto-
Romance, that they are languages; and (b.) the implications of
various linguistic ontologies (e.g. 'language as a mental
organ', 'language as a fait social', 'language as an abstract
Platonic object', 'language as a Popperian World 3 entity',
etc.) for the explanation of language change.
I'd like to offer a few remarks on Adam Smith's "invisible hand".
The locus classicus is Smith's _Inquiry into the Nature and Causes
of the Wealth of Nations_ (1776:iv.ii:para.9 = Cannan's ed.1904:
vol.I:p.477). I'll send a full quotation of this passage upon request.
It's perhaps not quite accurate to say that Smith's invisible
hand explanation needs no divine, designing, intervening force
or mind. An earlier attestation of the metaphor occurs in
Smith's _Theory of Moral Sentiments_ (1759), which was quoted
by Donald Phillipson a couple of days ago:
> Oxford Book of Quotations cites Adam Smith, Theory of Model Sentiments
> IV, i, 10: thus: "The rich only select from the heap what is most
> precious and agreeable. They consume little more than the poor, and in
> spite of their natural selfishness and rapacity... they divide with
> the poor the produce of all their improvements. They are led by an
> invisible hand to make nearly the same distribution of the necessaries
> of life which would have been made, had the earth been divided into
> equal portions among all its inhabitants."
The passage goes on as follows:
"(equal portions among all its inhabitants,) without intending
it, without knowing it, advance the interest of the society,
and afford means to the multiplication of the species. When
Providence divided the earth among a few lordly masters, it
neither forgot nor abandoned those who seemed to have been
left out in the partition. These last, too, enjoy the share of
all it produces."
It is by no means evident that more or less homogeneous rational
actions performed by self-interested individuals bring about beneficial
collective consequences. It is for this reason that Smith needed the
additional assumption of a divine or supra-human power, which was supposed
to have shaped the world in the best way. The Smithian invisible hand is,
in the last analysis, that of Providence.
Incidentally, the earliest version of the metaphor is probably
the "invisible hand of Jupiter", which occurs in Smith's _History of
Astronomy_ (after 1951, before 1758), iii para.2. Divine power again!
See Alec Macfie, "The invisible hand of Jupiter". _Journal of the History
of Ideas_ 32, 1971, pp. 595-599; those who read Italian might benefit from
the excellent paper by Alfonso Iacono, "Adam Smith e la metafora della
'mano invisibile'". _Teoria_ 5, 1985, 77-94.
Ideengeschichtlich, Smith's invisible hand can't be separated from
the fable told by Bernard Mandeville in his scandalous _Fable of the Bees:
or, Private Vices, Publick Benefits_ (1732). The type of phenomena -- i.e.,
unintended cumulative collective consequences of individual intentional
actions -- identified by Mandeville occupied not only the mind of Smith
but also other Scottish moral philosophers of the 18th c. like Adam
Ferguson and Dugald Stewart. But Smith's formulation became the classic
one in political economy.
Whether or not Smith's "law" was true in 1776 (or in 1994) is pretty
much an ideological question. But it would certainly be dogmatic to hold
that invisible hand phenomena are exclusively beneficial. Inflation is
generated by the same mechanism, and so the class of invisible hand
phenomena includes perverse consequences as well.
In its modern "profane" formulation, the invisible hand functions as
a process, which takes an aggregate of homogeneous individual actions
as the input, and outputs a collective causal consequence. An invisible
hand explanation thus consists of two parts, viz. micro-level intentional
actions, and macro-level causal consequences intended by no one. A shortcut
path across the lawn, for example, is designed by nobody; it simply comes
into existence as a consequence of many individuals' decision to take a
shortcut (despite the prohibitory sign). In the issue, then, the invisible
hand is a deterministically causal explanation; and because it is causal,
it is only contingently beneficial.
Interestingly, it has been proposed by Rudi Keller (_Sprachwandel:
Von der unsichtbaren Hand in der Sprache_. Francke 1990) that language
change is an invisible-hand phenomenon. I tend to agree, but the
implications of this proposal for linguistic functionalism must be
clarified more thoroughly. (BTW, I've written a review article on
Keller's book, and submitted the ms to _Diachronica_.)
Sorry for the length of this message! (I hadn't the time to be short :-) )
Martti Nyman manyman@cc.helsinki.fi
Dept of General Linguistics, Univ. of Helsinki
_______________________________________________________________________________
<6:38>From DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu Tue Feb 8 16:41:41 1994
Date: Tue, 08 Feb 1994 17:44:45 -0400 (EDT)
From: DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu
Subject: February 8 -- Today in the Historical Sciences
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Organization: University of NC at Greensboro
FEBRUARY 8 -- TODAY IN THE HISTORICAL SCIENCES
1727: JEAN ANDRE DELUC born at Geneva, Switzerland. Deluc will begin
his career as a businessman and will travel widely throughout Europe, but a
commercial failure in 1773 will induce him to emigrate to England and devote
himself to science, his long-time avocation. He will soon become one of the
leading scriptural geologists of his day, declaring that in geological strata
"it is as easy to read the history of the Sea, as it is to read the history of
Man in the archives of any nation," and he will attempt to demonstrate through
his many publications "the conformity of geological monuments with the sublime
account of that series of the operations which took place during the Six days,
or periods of time, recorded by the inspired penman."
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.
For more information about Darwin-L send the two-word message INFO DARWIN-L to
listserv@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu, or gopher to rjohara.uncg.edu (152.13.44.19).
_______________________________________________________________________________
<6:39>From Robert.Richardson@UC.Edu Tue Feb 8 17:13:12 1994
Date: Tue, 08 Feb 1994 18:10:45 -0500 (EST)
From: "Bob Richardson, University of Cincinnati" <Robert.Richardson@UC.Edu>
Subject: quinarianism
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Regarding Peter Stevens' earlier posting in which he said:
>The title of G. A. Miller's article in Psychol. Rev. 63: 81-
>97. 1956 says it all: "The magical number seven, plus or
>minus two: some limits on our capacity for processing
>information."
The title may not quite say it all. Miller's proposal was important and
interesting; however, it is limited in crucial ways and unclear in others, and
both should make us cautious about applying it quickly.
First, Miller's limitation to (roughly) seven chunks is intended to apply only
to short term memory. At the time, that would mean that it applies to a system
in which the information decays in roughly 15 seconds. Long term memory would
not have been subject to similar limitations. (The model of memory on which it
is based is also problematic.) We all routinely hold more than seven digits in
long term memory.
Secondly, the critical notion of what counts as a "chunk" is not cleanly
characterized. For example, a digit such as "5" is a chunk, but so is a letter
such as "A" or a word such as "George". The consequence of this variability is
that what can be stored over the short term is variable itself, depending
critically on how it is represented. Miller found one subject that could
remember up to 40 binary digits using clever schemes of recoding. The familiar
mnemonics for Geological eras are an example which is familiar to many readers
of this list.
There is not likely to be any simple and straightforward application of
Miller's rule to biological problems.
Robert C. Richardson
Richards@UCBEH.san.uc.edu
Richards@UCBEH.bitnet
_______________________________________________________________________________
<6:40>From ad201@freenet.carleton.ca Wed Feb 9 07:08:08 1994
Date: Wed, 9 Feb 1994 08:08:02 -0500
From: ad201@freenet.carleton.ca (Donald Phillipson)
To: HTECH-L%SIVM.BITNET@VTBIT.CC.VT.EDU
Subject: Spreadsheet formulae: Garrett Hardin
Does anyone know off-hand a computer spreadsheet formula to draw a bell
curve (normal distribution)?
This is to prepare a slide for students illustrating Garrett Hardin's
Tragedy of the Commons, itself not a Gaussian distribution (if you work
it out... I think.) I'd be equally grateful for reference to any graphic
presentation of GH's point.
--
| Donald Phillipson, 4050 Hall's Road, Carlsbad |
| Springs, Ont., Canada K0A 1K0; tel: (613) 822-0734 |
| "What I've always liked about science is its independence from |
| authority"--Ontario Science Centre (name on file) 10 July 1981 |
_______________________________________________________________________________
<6:41>From rbrandon@acpub.duke.edu Wed Feb 9 14:45:51 1994
Date: Wed, 9 Feb 1994 15:45:35 -0500
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
From: rbrandon@acpub.duke.edu (Robert Brandon)
Subject: extragenetic inheritance
KELLY SMITH asks about examples of non-nucleic acid based
inheritance. There are plenty of examples from cultural
evolution, e.g., the inheritance of wealth. (Such examples
are where 'inheritance' originally appled--biologists adopted
this cultural concept to apply to biology.) But, presumably
that is not the sort of example Smith wants. Let me suggest
a very plausible, fairly well documented, example and invite
others to comment. A number of plant studies have shown
that larger seeds, regardless of genotype, produce plants that
tend to produce more and larger seeds. Thus seed size is
shown to be a component of fitness, and heritable, and
independent of genotype. Is this the sort of example you
want?
_______________________________________________________________________________
<6:42>From ahouse@hydra.rose.brandeis.edu Wed Feb 9 15:21:34 1994
Date: Wed, 9 Feb 1994 16:23:36 -0500
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
From: ahouse@hydra.rose.brandeis.edu (Jeremy Creighton Ahouse)
Subject: Re: extragenetic inheritance
>KELLY SMITH asks about examples of non-nucleic acid based
>inheritance. There are plenty of examples from cultural
>evolution, e.g., the inheritance of wealth. (Such examples
>are where 'inheritance' originally appled--biologists adopted
>this cultural concept to apply to biology.) But, presumably
>that is not the sort of example Smith wants. Let me suggest
>a very plausible, fairly well documented, example and invite
>others to comment. A number of plant studies have shown
>that larger seeds, regardless of genotype, produce plants that
>tend to produce more and larger seeds. Thus seed size is
>shown to be a component of fitness, and heritable, and
>independent of genotype. Is this the sort of example you
>want?
This reminds me of a "story" I heard that I have been trying to track
since. It was about a plant species that has a large stature and small
stature morphotype. The short is seen at the tops of hills the tall in the
valleys. When a plant is transplanted from hilltop to the valley it takes
> 1 generation for the other morphotype to obtain. This would suggest that
something "extra" genetic is going on.
I do wish that I had a real reference for this...
- Jeremy
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Jeremy Creighton Ahouse (ahouse@hydra.rose.brandeis.edu)
Biology Dept.
Brandeis University
Waltham, MA 02254-9110
(617) 736-4954
_______________________________________________________________________________
<6:43>From DRestrep@javercol.bitnet Wed Feb 9 21:01:07 1994
Date: Wed, 09 Feb 94 12:50:23 COL
From: David X Restrepo <DRestrep%javercol.bitnet@KU9000.CC.UKANS.EDU>
Subject: Conodonts
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Organization: PONTIFICIA UNIVERSIDAD JAVERIANA - BOGOTA, COLOMBIA
Dear friends of the list:
I am just begin to research in a project about Conodonts. We want to research
in the conodont animals that lived in Colombia during the Upper Paleozoic.
One of my dreams is to study the biomechanics of the conodont elements,
(Maybe the insertions and strength of their muscles).
It would be very important to me, to know your opinion and if you know any
reliable method and can help me to find it, I will appreciate your help.
David X Restrepo
Biologist
Pontificia Universidad Javeriana
_______________________________________________________________________________
<6:44>From mahaffy@dordt.edu Wed Feb 9 22:52:33 1994
Subject: Re: Conodonts
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Date: Wed, 9 Feb 1994 22:55:45 -0600 (CST)
From: James Mahaffy <mahaffy@dordt.edu>
David Restrepo writes:
> I am just begin to research in a project about Conodonts. We want to
> research in the conodont animals that lived in Colombia during the Upper
> Paleozoic.
>
> One of my dreams is to study the biomechanics of the conodont elements,
> (Maybe the insertions and strength of their muscles).
> It would be very important to me, to know your opinion and if you know any
> reliable method and can help me to find it, I will appreciate your help.
I think the problem is bigger than you think. If I remember right and I
do consider conodonts every other year when I teach paleontology,
conodonts are not creatures that we know a lot about as biological
enities. The fossils and assembladges are common and well studied, but
whom they belonged to and exactly what part of the critter they were is
an open question. I think there are a couple good possibilities of
conodont animal, but what you see as fossils is very little of the
creature (?part around its mouth - one idea). It is most likely that
they were soft bodied creatures and the conodont elements just a little
part of the chaps. I don't think you will even find good muscle
attachments on them but now you are getting into technical details that
are out of my area.
--
James F. Mahaffy e-mail: mahaffy@dordt.edu
Biology Department phone: 712 722-6279
Dordt College FAX 712 722-1198
Sioux Center, Iowa 51250
_______________________________________________________________________________
<6:45>From DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu Wed Feb 9 23:18:32 1994
Date: Thu, 10 Feb 1994 00:21:29 -0400 (EDT)
From: DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu
Subject: "Natural history" and "botany"
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Organization: University of NC at Greensboro
Peter Stevens sent me these thoughts on the scope of "natural history" and
"botany" in the 1800s and invited me to pass them on to the list, which
I here do.
Bob O'Hara (darwin@iris.uncg.edu)
----------------------------------------
There is a development already evident by the very early 1800s in that writers
for semi-popular audiences on animal matters may sometimes entitle their books
like "The philosophy of natural history", or "Natural History of the world".
However, I have found -no- botanical titles like this (there are a few titles
like "the natural history of tea and coffee", but these are a) uncommon and b)
for more specialist audiences). Botanical authors use the word "botany" in
their titles if they are talking about plants alone. Interestingly, the
botany "described" is often (Linnaean) classification, and this results in the
books being heavily freighted with terms and their explanations (note that
there are also "botany" books that include physiology, etc.). This botany is
like the botany "proprement dite" of Candolle and others -- classificatory.
This distinction between botany and zoological natural history can be seen in
the cover of the "Penny Magazine" (there is a nice illustration in Barber's
"The heyday of natural history").
Natural history -- animals -- was at times for boys (there is a nice comment
by H. G. Wells in the introduction to one book that "no young -gentleman-"
could afford to be without the book...).
I wonder if "botany" = classification became somewhat trivialised by being
associated with classification-type studies in the semi-popular and popular
secondary literature -- and these studies were either explicitly for women, or
written by women for the education of children. I also wonder what zoological
systematists called themselves is the nineteenth century. Darwin and Huxley
sometimes equate "natural history" and collecting/classificatory studies, but
I have not yet camped in the library of the Museum of Comparative Zoology to
try and work out the relevant zoological nomenclature.
I find this kind of thing potentially interesting because it may help to
explain how words come to have particular associations in the popular mind
which may or may not be the same as the associations made by the
"professional".
Comments?
Peter Stevens
p_stevens@nocmsmgw.harvard.edu
_______________________________________________________________________________
<6:46>From J_LIMBER@UNHH.UNH.EDU Thu Feb 10 06:19:50 1994
Date: Thu, 10 Feb 1994 7:19:07 -0500 (EST)
From: J_LIMBER@UNHH.UNH.EDU (JOHN LIMBER)
Subject: Re: extragenetic inheritance
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
This is beginning to sound like a case for Comrade Trofim Denisovich Lysenko!
_______________________________________________________________________________
<6:47>From phlkcs@gsusgi2.gsu.edu Thu Feb 10 07:52:22 1994
Date: Thu, 10 Feb 1994 08:52:51 -0500 (EST)
From: "Kelly C. Smith" <phlkcs@gsusgi2.gsu.edu>
Subject: Re: extragenetic inheritance
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
On Wed, 9 Feb 1994, Robert Brandon wrote:
> KELLY SMITH asks about examples of non-nucleic acid based
> inheritance. There are plenty of examples from cultural
> evolution, e.g., the inheritance of wealth. (Such examples
> are where 'inheritance' originally appled--biologists adopted
> this cultural concept to apply to biology.) But, presumably
> that is not the sort of example Smith wants. Let me suggest
> a very plausible, fairly well documented, example and invite
> others to comment. A number of plant studies have shown
> that larger seeds, regardless of genotype, produce plants that
> tend to produce more and larger seeds. Thus seed size is
> shown to be a component of fitness, and heritable, and
> independent of genotype. Is this the sort of example you
> want?
Cultural evolution has lots of examples that fit the criteria I set out,
but for pedagogical reasons I wanted something more "biological". The
example of seed size seems to be a good candidate...Kelly
_______________________________________________________________________________
<6:48>From p_stevens@nocmsmgw.harvard.edu Thu Feb 10 07:57:16 1994
Date: 10 Feb 1994 08:56:50 U
From: "p stevens" <p_stevens@nocmsmgw.harvard.edu>
Subject: Groups, grouping and numeralogy.
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
To say that "the magic number seven" says it all is indeed an overstatement, as
Bob Richardson rightly points out. But it is impressive to see how 'classical"
systematists like Antoine Laurent de Jussieu and George Bentham are explicitly
breaking the botanical universe up into pieces of "convenient" size.
Interestingly, the two had rather different ideas as to what they thought these
groups represented. Similarly, the size distribution of taxa in Adanson's and
Jussieu's classifications are almost identical, although the two deal with
different numbers of genera. Also, while we are thinking about numbers, folk
classifications of plants and animals generally include 500 or so members (see
Brent Berlin, for example), or so the mythology goes, and this would agree with
the upper limits of places in the folk landscape...
I don't think that any of this necessarily bears on the "reality" of the groups
recognised by systematists. Thus if a late 18th-early 19th C. systematist
(like Bentham) believes that nature consists of discrete groups of various
sizes, a large genus is simply a genus with a large number of species, and the
divisions bounding the small genera into which somebody else divides that genus
represent the limits of the "natural" subgroupings found within that genus. On
the other hand, if I believe that nature is continuous (rather like Jussieu),
then any taxon will have limits that are not found in nature - but a large
genus is no more or less "unnatural" than the smaller genera into which it is
subdivided. But such considerations do, as I mentioned, bear very directly on
the interpretations of comparisons betwen members of the same hierarchical
level. As far as I can see, it is not an interesting biologically to examine
the size distributions of genera across flowering plants, or mollusca, or to
compare such distributions between floras.
Jeremy Ahouse's comments on protein folding are very interesting. Systematics
is -full- of examples where continuity has been arbitrarily subdivided - and
then these subdivisions taken as being examples or dfiscrete bounded groupings.
Jussieu's families and genera are but one example; botanical terms are another
(pray tell, is an acute tip of a leaf different in other than degree from an
acuminate tip? there are literally hundreds of examples here), and also
character states used in a number of botanical cladistic analyses, especially,
but by no means only, those dealing with relationships between species. (No, I
do not understand why systematists carry out such studies if the variation they
are subdividing is continuous and they provide no justification for subdivision
at point x - rather than somewhere else.)
Again, subdivision of a continuum may have its uses. Is the classification of
stars in sequences, and as red giants, white dwarfs[/dwarves], etc, perhaps an
example of an arbitrarily subdivided continuum that has its uses? Red
dwarfs/dwarves will indeed have similar properties - temperature, size, etc -
just like the members of Jussieu's families, and so they refer to an
identifiable part of the sequence. However, I do not really know what is going
on here - are they perhaps members of a discrete group, i.e. bounded by
discontinuiities in these properties from other stars?
Peter Stevens
pstevens@harvard.edu
_______________________________________________________________________________
<6:49>From ronald@uhunix.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu Thu Feb 10 12:46:45 1994
Date: Thu, 10 Feb 94 8:42:51 HST
From: Ron Amundson <ronald@uhunix.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu>
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: Re: extragenetic inheritance
Quoth John Limber:
> This is beginning to sound like a case for Comrade Trofim Denisovich Lysenko!
Ohmigawd, we're caught! OK, I confess, I'm a commie pinko red bicycle
seat sniffer. But Kelley made me do it!
But, by the way, in what way does extragenetic inheritance imply
inheritance of acquired characteristics?
(OOOOOPS! maybe we're not caught after all.)
Hey, guys, I was just kidding about being a commie and all that.
Hahahahahahahahah.
Ron (the All American Boy) Amundson
_______________________________________________________________________________
<6:50>From FBIO2024@ALTAIR.SELU.EDU Thu Feb 10 15:08:32 1994
Date: Thu, 10 Feb 1994 15:08:19 -0500 (CDT)
From: FBIO2024@ALTAIR.SELU.EDU
Subject: Re: extragenetic inheritance
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Organization: Southeastern Louisiana University
On the track of Lysenko, Lamark, and extragenetic inheritance. I would say that
any heritable trait whose origin is extranucleic or perhaps even epinucleic
would fit the bill of extragenetic inheritance. Such things do exist and no,
I'm not sending from Russia but from Louisiana. But I am assuming that
extragenetic is equivalent to extragenomic.
Happy Mardi Gras! Brian I. Crother Oh, and by way of introduction, I dabble
in phylogenetics and all of its spinoffs.
_______________________________________________________________________________
<6:51>From princeh@husc.harvard.edu Thu Feb 10 15:16:35 1994
Date: Thu, 10 Feb 1994 15:54:09 -0500 (EST)
From: Patricia Princehouse <princeh@husc.harvard.edu>
Subject: Re: extragenetic inheritance
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
I may have missed a few exchanges but I haven't seen anyone mention last
spring's big splash in _Nature_ about the congenital inheritance of "male
mimicking" genitalia in female hyenas. It seems like the classic case to
me.
There's also the case of handedness which I've heard may be related to the
site of implantation in the uterus. This is a bit more distant from the
original question as it is the proportion in the population which remains
constant, rather than generation to generation consistency in inheritance.
Sort of the opposite of the apple seed example in that no matter how much
right or left handedness would be selected against, the ratios might be
impervious to selection (so, presumably if right handedness were to cause
death within the first year, the species would probably go extinct within
a few generations as only 10%-25% of each generation would even
potentially survive to reproduce).
Patricia Princehouse
Princeh@harvard.edu
_______________________________________________________________________________
<6:52>From Robert.Richardson@UC.Edu Thu Feb 10 15:27:50 1994
Date: Thu, 10 Feb 1994 16:20:50 -0500 (EST)
From: "Bob Richardson, University of Cincinnati" <Robert.Richardson@UC.Edu>
Subject: extragenetic inheritance
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Ron (the All American Amundson) asks:
>But, by the way, in what way does extragenetic inheritance imply
>inheritance of acquired characteristics?
The association is historical: Weissman's defense of the integrity of the germ
plasm was an attack on the inheritance of acquired characteristics. The
emphasis on nuclear inheritance characteristic of Morgan et. al. was taken, by
some at least, as an endorsement of Weissmanism. Correspondingly, cytoplasmic
factors were emphasized by neoLamarckians in Germany and (yes, you all American
fans) in the USSR. Guilt by association it may be, but association it is
nonetheless.
A good source for at least some of this is Bernhard Rensch's "Historical
Development of the Present Synthetic Neo-Darwinism in Germany," in Mayr and
Provine's *The Evolutionary Synthesis*.
Robert C. Richardson
Richards@ucbeh.bitnet
Richards@ucbeh.san.uc.edu
_______________________________________________________________________________
<6:53>From DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu Thu Feb 10 23:26:08 1994
Date: Fri, 11 Feb 1994 00:29:08 -0400 (EDT)
From: DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu
Subject: Rafinesque
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Organization: University of NC at Greensboro
Just catching up on some old messages that I didn't have a chance to reply to
when they first appeared. A few days ago Earle Spamer mentioned Constantine
Rafinesque, a genuinely odd and polymathic character who is quite fascinating.
I wanted to mention two other things about him just for amusement: In addition
to his many works on natural history he also wrote a very bad epic poem of
5400 lines called _The World, or Instability_ (Philadelphia, 1836). This is
a true specimen of one of the great periods of the historical sciences, and is
full of musings on how everything in the world has changed and nothing stays
the same. It is also a true specimen of Rafinesque's extraordinary sense of
personal grandiosity -- he considered himself the true successor to Linnaeus
and Newton -- and its sections are titled: The Universe, The Earth and Moon,
The Former Earth, Life and Motion, Love and Sympathy, Sublimity and the Deity,
Religion, Freewill, Angels and Devils, Mankind and Society, Peace and War,
Toleration and Selfishness, Passions and Pleasures, Wisdom and Knowledge, Arts
and Sciences, Women and Children, and (finally) Conclusion. The introduction
to the work, which is presumed to have been written by Rafinesque himself,
declares that "Beauties abound in this poem, they are scattered like gems from
beginning to end. They consist in vivid pictures, truths well expressed, the
best moral precepts, a deep religious impression, sublime addresses to the
deity and truth, a love of wisdom, virtue and universal peace, a benevolent
tolerance and charity; sublime sketches of the Sun, Light, Fire, War, the
Passions, Women, ∧c."
The other amusing item concerning Rafinesque relates to his own final
disposition. Though born in Europe, he emigrated to America and served for
several years as Professor of Botany and Natural History at Transylvania
University in Lexington, Kentucky, which is today a fine liberal arts college
that I had the pleasure of teaching at a couple years ago as a visiting
professor. Rafinesque left Transylvania sometime around 1826 because he was
refused funding to establish a botanical garden modeled on Linnaeus's garden
at Uppsala, and he eventually died in (I believe) Philadelphia. Some years
after his death the Transylvania authorities decided that it would be
appropriate to honor him as distinguished former member of the university,
and money was raised to have his remains disinterred from his gravesite in
Philadelphia and deposited in a memorial tomb on the Transylvania campus.
This was done, and the tomb remains there in Lexington to this day. The only
problem is that subsequent historical research suggests that the wrong body
was dug up, and that the person in the tomb in Lexington isn't Rafinesque, who
apparently rests today under a Philadelphia playground. Another historical
scientist of an earlier period, old Sir Thomas Browne, would have understood:
"Who knows the fate of his bones, or how often he is to be buried? Who hath
the Oracle of his ashes, or whither they are to be scattered?"
Bob O'Hara, Darwin-L list owner
Robert J. O'Hara (darwin@iris.uncg.edu)
Center for Critical Inquiry and Department of Biology
100 Foust Building, University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Greensboro, North Carolina 27412 U.S.A.
_______________________________________________________________________________
<6:54>From DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu Thu Feb 10 23:42:13 1994
Date: Fri, 11 Feb 1994 00:45:14 -0400 (EDT)
From: DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu
Subject: January message log available
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Organization: University of NC at Greensboro
The log of Darwin-L postings for the month of January is now available from
both the ukanaix list archive and the Darwin-L gopher. To retrieve the log
from ukanaix send the message:
GET DARWIN-L 9401
to listserv@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu. Earlier log files can be retrieved
by replacing 9401 with the appropriate month: 9312, 9311, 9310, or 9309.
If you have access to Internet gopher software just point to rjohara.uncg.edu
and you will be able to retrieve all the past logs even more easily than
you can from ukanaix. If you haven't yet paid a vist to the Darwin-L gopher
you are most welcome to do so. In addition to the discussion logs, we also
have available several bibliographies relating to the historical sciences,
and also gopher links to other network resources of interest to historical
scientists.
Bob O'Hara, Darwin-L list owner
Robert J. O'Hara (darwin@iris.uncg.edu)
Center for Critical Inquiry and Department of Biology
100 Foust Building, University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Greensboro, North Carolina 27412 U.S.A.
_______________________________________________________________________________
<6:55>From phlkcs@gsusgi2.gsu.edu Fri Feb 11 08:20:51 1994
Date: Fri, 11 Feb 1994 09:13:22 -0500 (EST)
From: "Kelly C. Smith" <phlkcs@gsusgi2.gsu.edu>
Subject: Re: extragenetic inheritance
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
On Thu, 10 Feb 1994, Ron (the all American boy) Amundson wrote:
> Quoth John Limber:
>
> > This is beginning to sound like a case for Comrade Trofim
> > Denisovich Lysenko!
>
> Ohmigawd, we're caught! OK, I confess, I'm a commie pinko red bicycle
> seat sniffer. But Kelley made me do it!
I have personally witnessed the aforementioned bicycle seat sniffing
(though the bike in question was chartreuse), but take no responsibility
for Ron's actions. Ron was committed to his twisted ways long before
I met him.
> But, by the way, in what way does extragenetic inheritance imply
> inheritance of acquired characteristics?
On the off chance that this is a serious question, I'd like to offer a
brief comment. People often assume that inheritance of acquired
characteristics implies some non-genetic basis. While this may often be
the case, it need not be since the sequestration of the germ plasm is not
as strict (even in sexual organisms) as Weismannians would have us
believe. Similarly, the discovery of extragenetic inheritance need not
imply the transmission of acquired characters (though, again, it often will).
That is all,
Comrade Kelly
phlkcs@gsusgi2.gsu.edu
_______________________________________________________________________________
<6:56>From phlkcs@gsusgi2.gsu.edu Fri Feb 11 08:27:44 1994
Date: Fri, 11 Feb 1994 09:23:51 -0500 (EST)
From: "Kelly C. Smith" <phlkcs@gsusgi2.gsu.edu>
Subject: Re: extragenetic inheritance
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
On Thu, 10 Feb 1994 FBIO2024@ALTAIR.SELU.EDU wrote:
> On the track of Lysenko, Lamark, and extragenetic inheritance. I would say
> that any heritable trait whose origin is extranucleic or perhaps even
> epinucleic would fit the bill of extragenetic inheritance.
OK, but precisely what constitutes an "extragenetic origin"??
> I am assuming that extragenetic is equivalent to extragenomic.
Well, there is one sense in which that is true - people typically mean
_genomic_ when they say genetic and the transmission of cytoplasmic genes
is importantly different from that of nuclear genes. Still, if we are
interested in freeing developmental biology from the grip of
gene-centrism, it doesn't seem to help much to point out that there are
genes all over the cell that are important....
Biologists of the world unite, you have nothing to lose but your genes!
Comrade Kelly
phlkcs@gsusgi2.gsu.edu
_______________________________________________________________________________
<6:57>From ad201@freenet.carleton.ca Fri Feb 11 09:52:59 1994
Date: Fri, 11 Feb 1994 10:52:49 -0500
From: ad201@freenet.carleton.ca (Donald Phillipson)
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: Re: whale speech
The science feature 10 Feb. 1994 in the Toronto Globe and Mail described
fascinating research of Whitehead and Weilgart, whale biologists of
Dalhousie Univ. (Halifax, NS), who appear to have inventoried 23 distinct
phonemes used by sperm whales.
Any chance of a summary in Darwin-L?
--
| Donald Phillipson, 4050 Hall's Road, Carlsbad |
| Springs, Ont., Canada K0A 1K0; tel: (613) 822-0734 |
| "What I've always liked about science is its independence from |
| authority"--Ontario Science Centre (name on file) 10 July 1981 |
_______________________________________________________________________________
<6:58>From fwg1@cornell.edu Fri Feb 11 10:23:12 1994
Date: Fri, 11 Feb 1994 11:23:02 -0500
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
From: fwg1@cornell.edu (Frederic W. Gleach)
Subject: Re: Rafinesque
Another side note on Rafinesque. Recent research by David Schmidt (I hope
I remember the name correctly), presented at this past fall's Algonquian
Conference and Ethnohistory meetings, makes pretty certain what many
scholars have long believed: that Rafinesque himself composed the Walum
Olam. For those not familiar with this marvelous document, it purports to
be a traditional pictographic record of the Delaware (Lenni Lenape)
Indians, written on bark, and given to Rafinesque by a Lenape. According
to the story, he then translated the text, which is a narrative of the
origin and migration of the Lenape. Schmidt's research (yet to be
published) documents a vast series of consistent misuses of the Lenape
language that are also found in other examples of Rafinesque's writing,
including a number of literal translations of idiomatic usages. The
classic published version of the text is from the Indiana Historical
Society in the late 1950s, with linguistic analysis by Voegelin, and with
careful treading around the issue of origin by all associated scholars--it
seems Eli Lilly was determined that it be accepted as authentic, and would
tolerate no other opinions!
This becomes something more than an interesting academic debate,
however. The Walum Olam has been accepted as authentic by many people,
including many living Lenape, and in fact there is a recent paperback
publication (called _The Red Road_ as I recall) that presents this as
traditional knowledge. The question of possible inspirations of Rafinesque
remains to be examined; at this point the camps seem to split out pretty
well into those who happily cite another case of "invented tradition" and
those who point to academics as once again misunderstanding and denying
traditional systems of knowledge. The political implications are obvious.
Yet another legacy of our friend Constantine Rafinesque. . . .
Fred
*****************************************************************************
Frederic W. Gleach (fwg1@cornell.edu)
Anthropology Department, Cornell University
(607) 255-6779
I long ago decided that anything that could be finished in my lifetime was
necessarily too small an affair to engross my full interest. --Ernest
Dewitt Burton
*****************************************************************************
_______________________________________________________________________________
<6:59>From sally@pogo.isp.pitt.edu Fri Feb 11 14:34:29 1994
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: Re: Rafinesque
Date: Fri, 11 Feb 94 15:34:28 -0500
From: Sally Thomason <sally@pogo.isp.pitt.edu>
Rafinesque played a/the major role in one of the most
interesting linguistic mysteries of his century, too: my
memory is a bit rusty, but from what I recall of my
readings some years ago, he was the discoverer of the famous
Walam Olum, the "Red Score", purported to be a history of the
Lenape (Delaware) people, recorded on wampum (?) via mnemonics
like a man sitting on a turtle (the "Turtle Island", part of
a creation myth). Rafinesque presented the document -- I
forget what the exact material was -- and had a story about
how he had gotten it; the story was considered fishy by some
people, and a controversy arose that lasted for more than a
century and may be still going on, for all I know (I'm not
an Algonquianist). The story includes a long-distance migration,
and one interpretation was/is that it was about the Algonquians'
eastward migration from the Great Plains or thereabouts (where
there are still Algonquian tribes). Rafinesque really was a
polymath; but he was so colorful that a lot of people tended to
require independent confirmation before believing all his
stories. When I was reading about Rafinesque, I got some
background from my Univ. of Pittsburgh colleague Bill Stanton,
a historian who specializes in 19th-century science and who knows a
lot about the man and his milieu.
Here are a couple of standard references:
Eli Lilly (ed.?), Walam Olum; or Red Score; The migration legend
of the Lenni Lenape or Delaware Indians. 1954.
Daniel G. Brinton. The Lenape and their legends; with the complete
text and symbols of the WALAM OLUM, a new translation, and an inquiry
into its authenticity. 1969 (1884). New York: AMS Press.
Sally Thomason
sally@pogo.isp.pitt.edu
_______________________________________________________________________________
<6:60>From JEFFERYD@fhs.byu.edu Fri Feb 11 16:55:20 1994
Date: 11 Feb 94 15:42:01 MST7MDT
From: "DUANE E. JEFFERY" <JEFFERYD@fhs.byu.edu>
Subject: Re: extragenetic inheritance
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Patricia -- I've not heard of the handedness/implantation story;
have you a reference or data? Nothing along those lines are listed
in the last (1990) edition of McKusick's big catalog of human traits
(handedness is entry 139900), though I've not checked the computer
version.
Duane Jeffery
jefferyd@fhs.byu.edu
_______________________________________________________________________________
<6:61>From DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu Fri Feb 11 20:04:18 1994
Date: Fri, 11 Feb 1994 21:07:28 -0400 (EDT)
From: DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu
Subject: Rafinesque on the World
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Organization: University of NC at Greensboro
Many thanks to Fred Gleach and Sally Thomason for the fascinating information
about Rafinesque's possible involvement in the forgery of the Lenape origin
story. I can certainly imagine origin/creation myths to be appealing to him,
since his aforementioned epic _The World_ is very nearly one itself. Even if
he didn't forge the story himself it is possible that he was fooled into
accepting its authenticity by some other party; he was apparently rather
gullible, and published descriptions of several new species that Audubon had
fabricated as a joke.
I can't resist appending now a couple of extracts from _The World_, first
a general one on the history of the earth and universe, and second an account
of the history of language and society. Despite its lack of poetic grace,
it is a fascinating statement of the unity of the historical sciences.
From _The World, or Instability_ by C. S. Rafinesque (Philadelphia, 1836):
But while surveying thus the actual earth,
Her changeful scenes; the times recal to mind
Of other ancient changes, ruinous traces,
With memories of cataclysms: events
Of yore by us recorded or surmised,
Which thro' the maze of time we search and find.
When lofty minds delight to raise awhile [1000]
The gloomy veil of time and ages past,
Beyond Memory's hold, and Clio's reach
They search unwritten pages, words unspoken,
Medals engraved by Nature's potent hand.
They soar throughout the skies, and ask the suns
When born? how made? and scattered thro' space,
To light and warm the planets, comets, moons.
How rolling worlds were thrown to wheel around?
In splendid homes prepar'd, adorned for men
And beings numberless, since born therein. [1010]
They sink beneath the soil to seek below
Within the deepest graves records of life;
Their epitaphs of time, reveal, explain.
Of nations sunk to dust almost unknown,
Through various languages no longer spoken,
Through crumbling monuments and relics faint,
They trace the steps and deeds, their arts unfold.
Within the earthly bowels in rocky tombs
They find the bones and shells of buried bodies,
Or woody fragments, formerly partaking, [1020]
Enjoying life. Their existence revealed,
A useful lesson teaches; the law of change
Fully conforms, without exceptions ruling
The flying Orbs, and moving living beings.
Meantime in these, and ev'ry where, we may
The mighty hand of GOD, perceive, adore.
........................................
Languages are now split into so many,
As baffle comprehension; yet each is
Splitting anew in dialects, uncouth,
By the new words we daily coin or borrow.
No language ever was, nor ever can
Become quite fixt and permanent: in spite
Of vain conceit, or nations learned pride. [2880]
To sing the laws that rule the changing speech,
To find and scan the terms or words of each,
Would be a hopeless task, which I renounce:
But I'll venture to sketch its rise and fall.
In days of yore the speech of men was one;
Few were their wants and few the needed words;
They must have been quite short and with few sounds,
Such as the gift of God, with leave to speak,
Gave to their minds, the ease to coin and use.
When far they went to dwell in lands remote [2890]
Their speech as well as skin, both underwent
A change, a new complexion took. Whereby
Have sprung the oldest languages, now quite
Unknown again, to others giving way
By them produc'd, within ten ages born
Or even less. Until they came at last
To form the actual spoken tongues, that were
Just born within few ages, recollected.
By the way, the student coffee shop at Transylvania University
where Rafinesque taught is today called the Rafskeller. :-)
Bob O'Hara, Darwin-L list owner
Robert J. O'Hara (darwin@iris.uncg.edu)
Center for Critical Inquiry and Department of Biology
100 Foust Building, University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Greensboro, North Carolina 27412 U.S.A.
_______________________________________________________________________________
<6:62>From GOLLAV@axe.humboldt.edu Sat Feb 12 04:20:32 1994
Date: Sat, 12 Feb 1994 02:24 PST
From: GOLLAV@axe.humboldt.edu
Subject: Re: Rafinesque's Walam Olum
To: Darwin-L@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
A footnote on Rafinesque and the Walam Olum:
As Fred Gleach and Sally Thomason point out, it was the pharmaceutical
magnate and patriotic Hoosier, Eli Lilly, who sponsored the scholarly
study of Rafinesque's "document" that was published in 1954 by the
Indiana Historical Society. (Full title: _Walam Olum, or Red Score,
the Migration Legend of the Lenni Lenape or Delaware Indians. A new
translation, interpreted by linguistic, historical, archaeological,
ethnological, and physical anthropological studies_. Indianapolis:
Indiana Historical Society, 1954.) Lilly was convinced that the Walam
Olum was authentic.
But there is more to the story. The principal scholar behind the 1954
study was Carl Voegelin, who had the first full-time appointment in
anthropology at Indiana University. This position (1944), and subsequently
the establishment of an anthropology department at Bloomington, was under-
written by Lilly, who had been sponsoring Voegelin's research on Delaware
and other Algonquian languages since the late 1930s. Lilly's patronage was
contingent on Voegelin's dedicating a considerable chunk of his time to the
Walam Olum (and evaluating it as positively as he could). Thus, one of the
country's leading anthropology departments--and the career of one of the
foremost anthropological linguists of the 20th century--had their origins
in the fixation of a wealthy old man on a bizarre 19th century hoax.
Perhaps more than other historical sciences, anthropology has been the
beneficiary of wealthy patrons with pet projects, skillfully moulded to
institution-building purposes by academic entrepreneurs like Voegelin.
Anthropology in California is another instance. Phoebe Apperson Hearst's
original subsidy was for an "Egyptian museum" (she was especially fond of
mummies), but F. W. Putnam and A. L. Kroeber were able to use the money
to create an institution largely devoted to field research on California
Indians. Nevertheless, the Lowie (now Hearst) Museum still has a sizable
collection of Egyptian artifacts, nearly all of them acquired during Mrs.
Hearst's time, although so far as I know no Egyptologist has ever been on
the museum staff.
The all-time record in accommodating a patron, though, belongs to the
astronomers (also at Berkeley). The San Francisco grandee James Lick,
like Mrs. Hearst, had an Egyptological penchant, and as he lay dying he
made plans for his body to be entombed in a pyramid on a high peak over-
looking the bay. Hearing of this, the President of the University of
California paid Lick a visit and deftly argued that one of the functions
of the Great Pyramid having been astronomical observation, endowing a
university observatory would be the modern equivalent, and more appropriate
to a secular age. Lick capitulated, but not until he extracted one
important concession from the President. And that is why, should you
visit Lick Observatory on Mt. Hamilton, you will discover the following
inscription on the pier of the original telescope: "Here Lies the Body of
James Lick."
--Victor Golla
Humboldt State University
Arcata, California 95521
gollav @ axe.humboldt.edu
_______________________________________________________________________________
<6:63>From ad201@freenet.carleton.ca Sat Feb 12 10:09:23 1994
Date: Sat, 12 Feb 1994 11:09:19 -0500
From: ad201@freenet.carleton.ca (Donald Phillipson)
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: Popular science and 19th century women
>Peter Stevens (p_stevens@nocmsmgw.harvard.edu) wrote Wed, 9 Feb 1994
>I wonder if "botany" = classification became somewhat trivialised by
>being associated with classification-type studies in the semi-popular
>and popular secondary literature -- and these studies were either
>explicitly for women, or written by women for the education of
>children. I also wonder what zoological systematists called
>themselves is the nineteenth century. Darwin and Huxley sometimes
Before investing time in original research, you may find it prudent to
review what had already been published under the rubrics of women's
history (bluestockings 1775-1840, that woman fossil hunter at Lyme
Regis c. 1800 and so on), Victorian non-fiction (Philip Gosse), the
self-education movement (cf. J.A.H. Murray, later the dictionary
writer), migration to the colonies of European science (Susannah
Moodie, Canada, etc.)
You will then need to organize all this, and will probably find Peter
Bowler's Fontana/Norton History of the Environmental Sciences the best
place to start.
--
| Donald Phillipson, 4050 Hall's Road, Carlsbad |
| Springs, Ont., Canada K0A 1K0; tel: (613) 822-0734 |
| "What I've always liked about science is its independence from |
| authority"--Ontario Science Centre (name on file) 10 July 1981 |
_______________________________________________________________________________
<6:64>From DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu Sat Feb 12 12:44:53 1994
Date: Sat, 12 Feb 1994 13:48:02 -0400 (EDT)
From: DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu
Subject: February 12 -- Today in the Historical Sciences
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Organization: University of NC at Greensboro
FEBRUARY 12 -- TODAY IN THE HISTORICAL SCIENCES
1804: IMMANUEL KANT dies at Konigsberg, Germany. Before he turned to
philosophy, for which he will be best remembered, Kant had been a student
of cosmology, and he had published in 1755 _Allgemeine Naturgeschichte und
Theorie des Himmels, oder Versuch von der Verfassung und dem mechanischen
Ursprunge des ganzen Weltgebaudes nach Newtonischen Grundsatzen abgehandelt_
(_Universal Natural History and Theory of the Heavens: An Essay on the
Constitution and Mechanical Origin of the Whole Universe Treated According
to Newtonian Principles_). In this work, which was little known even in its
own day, Kant stretched the traditional cosmic chronology of the early modern
period into a temporal expanse of enormous proportion: "There has mayhap flown
past a series of millions of years and centuries, before the sphere of the
formed nature in which we find ourselves, attained to the perfection which is
now embodied in it; and perhaps as long a period will pass before Nature will
take another step as far in chaos. But the sphere of developed nature is
incessantly engaged in extending itself. Creation is not the work of a
moment. When it has once made a beginning with the production of an infinity
of substances and matter, it continues in operation through the whole
succession of eternity with ever increasing degrees of fruitfulness. Millions
and whole myriads of millions of centuries will flow on, during which always
new worlds and systems of worlds will be formed after each other in the
distant regions away from the center of nature, and will attain to
perfection."
1809: CHARLES DARWIN is born in Shrewsbury. Educated in medicine and divinity
at the Universities of Edinburgh and Cambridge, Darwin will become one of the
greatest theorists in the history of the historical sciences. In the _Origin
of Species_ (London, 1859) he will describe the consequences that will result
when his evolutionary view of nature becomes widely adopted: "The terms used
by naturalists of affinity, relationship, community of type, paternity,
morphology, adaptive characters, rudimentary and aborted organs, ∧c., will
cease to be metaphorical, and will have plain signification. When we no
longer look at an organic being as a savage looks at a ship, as at something
wholly beyond his comprehension; when we regard every production of nature as
one which has had a history; when we contemplate every complex structure and
instinct as the summing up of many contrivances, each useful to the possessor,
nearly in the same way as when we look at any great mechanical invention as
the summing up of the labour, the experience, the reason, and even the
blunders of numerous workmen; when we thus view each organic being, how far
more interesting, I speak from experience, will the study of natural history
become!"
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.
For more information about Darwin-L send the two-word message INFO DARWIN-L to
listserv@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu, or gopher to rjohara.uncg.edu (152.13.44.19).
_______________________________________________________________________________
<6:65>From bsinger@eniac.seas.upenn.edu Sat Feb 12 16:04:47 1994
From: bsinger@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Bayla Singer)
Subject: Re: Popular science and 19th century women
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Date: Sat, 12 Feb 94 17:04:17 EST
There have been several worthwhile studies of ninteenth-century British
uppre and upper-middle-class households, in which mothers served as the
introduction for their children to 'natural science.' Sometimes wives
'helped' their husbands in the latter's scientific work, as well. I'd
really have to go digging to find the citations/references, but if you ask
this question over on htech-l@sivm.si.edu, you're liable to hit some
historians of science as well.
Pressing flowers, of course, is girls' work, while snagging birds' eggs is
boys' work. :-)
--bayla bsinger@eniac.seas.upenn.edu
_______________________________________________________________________________
<6:66>From jrc@anbg.gov.au Sat Feb 12 16:23:26 1994
From: jrc@anbg.gov.au (Jim Croft)
Subject: Re: February 12 -- Today in the Historical Sciences
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Date: Sun, 13 Feb 1994 09:22:47 +1100 (EST)
And now for all you north and south Americans, a message from the
future...
> FEBRUARY 12 -- TODAY IN THE HISTORICAL SCIENCES
Aaaaarrgghh... (I should have known about this one, but...)
This important message just arrived but because of the idiosyncracy of
the international dateline, it (like all the other TITHSs I have been
religiously filing away) arrived a day late. Celebrating an aniversary
the day after the event does not have the same clout somehow, and using
something that happened yesterday as an excuse for a party today is a bit
thin - it is difficult to really excite anyone about 'YESTERDAY In The
Historical Sciences'...
Is there a gopher or web (or ftp) archive of these gems? I could not
find a directory of them on the DARWIN-L archive last time I looked.
Perhaps you could rename the postings 'TOMORROW In The Historical
Sciences' - that way we would get it on time and our New World
colleagues would have a day to prepare :-)
The discussion on Rafinesque has been fascinating - he was obviously one
of life's 'interesting' characters. So far, no one seems to have
mentioned his remarkable ability to invent interesting sounding and
euphonious (and often quite arbitrary) generic names, many of which
were not taken up for a variety of reasons (I always though he got a raw
deal in this regard - they were such nice names). With the possible
exception of _Romnalda_ (hi Peter!), the generic names from modern
botanists seem to lack the whimsical grace present in so many Rafinesque
names. There was a largish book published quite some time ago on
Rafinesque botanical names and their fate but I am at home at the moment
and can not remember the publication details nor the author - but I
think it had a blue cloth cover, if that is any help ;-)
cheers
jim
ps - by way of introduction, I have been lurking on this list for quite
a while, quite content to bask in the erudite company. For a
bureacrat/network-junkie/lapsed-botanist, DARWIN-L provides a source of
information that seems to have been omitted from my formal education...
___________________________________________________________________________
Jim Croft [Herbarium CBG] internet: jrc@anbg.gov.au
Australian National Botanic Gardens voice: +61-6-2509 490
GPO Box 1777, Canberra, ACT 2601, AUSTRALIA fax: +61-6-2509 599
URL=http://155.187.10.12:80/people/croft.jim.html
______Biodiversity Directorate, Australian Nature Conservation Agency______
_______________________________________________________________________________
<6:67>From jrc@anbg.gov.au Sat Feb 12 17:30:10 1994
From: jrc@anbg.gov.au (Jim Croft)
Subject: Re: Popular science and 19th century women
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Date: Sun, 13 Feb 1994 10:29:39 +1100 (EST)
Bayla Singer Wrote:
> Pressing flowers, of course, is girls' work, while snagging birds' eggs is
> boys' work. :-)
OI! You had better not let our team of our team of team of botanical
taxonomists, technicians and preparators, a large number of whom are
afflicted with the dreaded Y chromosome syndrome, hear you say that!
But there may be an element of truth in there somewhere. I have long
felt that the testosterone levels (of both sexes) was on average higher
in zoology departments than botany departments, based on subjective
assessment of profesional assertiveness, aggression, bellicosity and
overall stroppiness.
Have there been any objective sociological (or biological?) studies of
this topic? I suspect that the situation today would not be markedly
different (although the words describing it might be) to Peter Stevens
observations of attitudes of botanicial and zoological approaches to
natural history of a couple of centuries ago. Seems like an immutable
fact of nature to me...
Wrestling with this problem of increased testosterne levels in zoology
departments, it occurred that this might merely relflect the higher
proportion of males in these organizations, compared with botany
departments. But the situation is more complex. How do we account for
the higher than expected levels of pugnacity in female zoologists when
compared with female botanists? Are we talking nature or nurture, some
sort of pheromonal guilt by association or an as yet to be discovered non
sex-linked zoology locus on the human genome?
These outrageous assertions can be made without fear of flame from
female zoologists (or even male ones), as for them to attack me will
simply confirm the thesis ;-) But those botanists that should have been
born zoologists are a bit of a worry...
jim
___________________________________________________________________________
Jim Croft [Herbarium CBG] internet: jrc@anbg.gov.au
Australian National Botanic Gardens voice: +61-6-2509 490
GPO Box 1777, Canberra, ACT 2601, AUSTRALIA fax: +61-6-2509 599
URL=http://155.187.10.12:80/people/croft.jim.html
______Biodiversity Directorate, Australian Nature Conservation Agency______
_______________________________________________________________________________
<6:68>From DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu Sat Feb 12 20:26:40 1994
Date: Sat, 12 Feb 1994 21:29:49 -0400 (EDT)
From: DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu
Subject: Natural history, botany, and boys and girls
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Organization: University of NC at Greensboro
With regard to Peter Stevens's musings on botany, natural history, and
boys and girls, one useful reference might be:
Sewall, Richard B. 1992. Science and the poet: Emily Dickinson's
herbarium and "the clue divine". _Harvard Library Bulletin_, 3:11-26.
At age fourteen (1844), ED writes to a friend: "Have you made an herbarium
yet? I hope you will if you have not, it would be such a treasure to you;
'most all the girls are making one." (This paper might also be of interest
to Peter personally because he will find that the collection it describes is
mistakenly housed at the wrong end of Divinity Avenue; perhaps he should go
retrieve it?) ;-)
Dickinson's education in natural history (including botany and geology) was
rather extraordinary, and as far as I've seen it was quite typical of school
children of her time and situation. It allowed her later to include quite
a few precise scientific allusions in her poetry:
The Lilac is an ancient shrub
But ancienter than that
The Firmamental Lilac
Upon the Hill tonight --
The Sun subsiding on his Course
Bequeathes this final Plant
To Contemplation -- not to Touch --
The Flower of the Occident.
Of one Corolla is the West --
The Calyx is the Earth --
The Capsules burnished Seeds the Stars --
The Scientist of Faith
His research has but just begun --
Above his synthesis
The Flora unimpeachable
To Time's Analysis --
"Eye hath not seen" may possibly
Be current with the Blind
But let not Revelation
By theses be detained --
Later in the nineteenth century I've always had the feeling that Louis
Agassiz's educational shadow was quite long (at least in the United States),
and since he was strongly anti-evolutionary I wonder if all the school
teachers he taught natural history to didn't in fact contribute somewhat to
the decline of natural history as a "scientific" subject, and the rise of the
twentieth century sense of "natural history" as a popular subject with vaguely
natural-theology overtones (such as can be seen today in most nature shows on
TV). This is just speculation, of course; I know there was lots of popular
natural history well before Louis; I wonder though if he didn't help to
entrench it.
Bob O'Hara, Darwin-L list owner
Robert J. O'Hara (darwin@iris.uncg.edu)
Center for Critical Inquiry and Department of Biology
100 Foust Building, University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Greensboro, North Carolina 27412 U.S.A.
_______________________________________________________________________________
<6:69>From DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu Sat Feb 12 22:04:21 1994
Date: Sat, 12 Feb 1994 23:07:32 -0400 (EDT)
From: DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu
Subject: Today in the Historical Sciences
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Organization: University of NC at Greensboro
Jim Croft raises a problem that I have long thought about, but don't really
have a solution to at the moment, namely that the "Today in the Historical
Sciences" messages don't necessarily arrive in everyone's mailbox on the
right day. Ideally, the software that runs the list could take note of the
time zone of each subscriber, and could then send out time-dated material
of this sort on a staggered basis, so that each subscriber would receive the
messages at the appropriate time. Unfortunately I doubt that any such feature
will be appear as long as listserv is in the hands of the mainframe people.
I'm hoping that someday we will be able to run all such services from our
desktop machines (that's now possible with gopher), and that when this happens
there will be more pressure to introduce clever features of this kind. As
soon as someone comes up with a Mac-based listserv I'll put in a suggestion
for just this capability.
Jim also asks if there is a complete set of "Today in the Historical Sciences"
available via gopher or some other means. Alas there isn't yet, because I
actually compile them as I go along, usually on the day itself or just a day
or two in advance, primarily from the _Dictionary of Scientific Biography_.
(This source accounts for the relative paucity of historical linguists, who
tend not to be included in the DSB. I hope to rectify this imbalance
eventually; can anyone suggest a good source for biographical information on
linguists and/or historians?) It certainly would be possible to extract the
the entries that have been posted since Darwin-L opened (last September) and
to occasionally update that list as new messages appear. That would give us
a partial set, and once we've been here a year it could be consulted for party
planning, etc. (a use of which I highly approve). ;-) Would that be helpful?
Bob O'Hara, Darwin-L list owner
Robert J. O'Hara (darwin@iris.uncg.edu)
Center for Critical Inquiry and Department of Biology
100 Foust Building, University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Greensboro, North Carolina 27412 U.S.A.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Darwin-L Message Log 6: 31-69 -- February 1994 End
