Book by the Scottish D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson 1917
On Growth and Form
Title page of first edition
Author
D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson
Illustrator
Thompson
Country
United Kingdom
Subject
Mathematical biology
Genre
Descriptive science
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Publication date
1917
Pages
793 1942 edition, 1116
Awards
Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal
On Growth and Form is a book by the Scottish mathematical biologist D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson (1860–1948). The book is long – 793 pages in the first edition of 1917, 1116 pages in the second edition of 1942.
The book covers many topics including the effects of scale on the shape of animals and plants, large ones necessarily being relatively thick in shape; the effects of surface tension in shaping soap films and similar structures such as cells; the logarithmic spiral as seen in mollusc shells and ruminant horns; the arrangement of leaves and other plant parts (phyllotaxis); and Thompson's own method of transformations, showing the changes in shape of animal skulls and other structures on a Cartesian grid.
The work is widely admired by biologists, anthropologists and architects among others, but is often not read by people who cite it.[1] Peter Medawar explains this as being because it clearly pioneered the use of mathematics in biology, and helped to defeat mystical ideas of vitalism; but that the book is weakened by Thompson's failure to understand the role of evolution and evolutionary history in shaping living structures. Philip Ball and Michael Ruse, on the other hand, suspect that while Thompson argued for physical mechanisms, his rejection of natural selection bordered on vitalism.
^Cite error: The named reference Ball was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
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