Materials for the Study of Variation Treated with Especial Regard to Discontinuity in the Origin of Species

About this book

A reprint of a classical work in the Cambridge Library Collection.

Building on the work of Darwin and Mendel, the biologist William Bateson (1861–1926) was the first scientist to combine the study of variation, heredity and evolution, and to use the term 'genetics'. This book was first published in 1894 after many years of experimental and theoretical work – particularly in the embryology of the acorn worm genus Balanoglossus – which had been guided by the principle that embryonic developmental stages replay the evolutionary transitions of adult forms of an organism's ancestors. Bateson was the first to challenge this theory, which made him unpopular among the scientific establishment of the time, but he was proved right. Organising his material by anatomical sections, Bateson explores speciation, phylogeny and discontinuous and continuous variation among a wide range of species, including vertebrates, invertebrates and plants. This pioneering work offers great insight into how the study of genetics and inheritance itself evolved.

Contents

Preface
Introduction

Part I. Meristic Variation
1. Arrangement of evidence
2. Segments of arthropoda
3. Vertebrae and ribs
4. Spinal nerves
5. Variation in arthropoda
6. Chaetopoda, hirundinea and cestoda
7. Branchial openings of chordata and structures in connexion with them
8. Mammae
9. Teeth
10. Teeth (recapitulation)
11. Miscellaneous examples
12. Colour-markings
13. Minor symmetries: digits
14. Digits (recapitulation)
15. Minor symmetries: segments in appendages
16. Radial series
17. Radial series: echinodermata
18. Bilateral series
19. Further illustrations of the relationship between right and left sides
20. Supernumary appendages in secondary symmetry
21. Appendages in secondary symmetry
22. Duplicity of appendages in arthropoda
23. Secondary symmetry in vertebrates
24. Double monsters
25. Concluding reflexions

Index of subjects
Index of persons

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