Aristotle to Zoos: A Philosophical Dictionary of Biology

317 Pages·1985·37.3 MB·English

by  Peter Medawar

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A Philosophical
Dictionary of
Biology
P. B. MEDAWAR
&
J. S. MEDAWAR
HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS CAMBRIDGE, MASSACIll.'SEvITS 1983
PREFACE
Harvard University Press, with I’etcr Gay's polished l%2 trans¬
lation of Voltaire’s Philosophical Dictionary as bait, invited us to
embark upon a “philosophical dictionary of biology”; but where
Voltaire had taken the whole world for his canvas, wc were to
—
confineourselves to biological topics retaining Voltaire’sformat
and if possiblesomeof hisespiii, Wc hopeour Aristotle la Zoos title
does not promise, by its A to L format, a completeness of treat¬
ment to which we did not aspire.
This work is philosophical only in the cozy domestic sense of
being leisurely', relaxed, and reflective, There is no philosophy in
it ofa kind that could be thought toexemplify theNalurphilosophit
—
so popular in Germany in the nineteenth century a form of sci¬
entific belles (cures with a truly dismal track record for making
sense of the puzzles in which biology abounds.
It was to Naturphihsophie that we owed the supposed existence
of the very simplest and most remotely primeval of all orga¬
— —
nisms the Moneta consistingonly, as the prevailing nature-phi¬
losophy required,of naked protoplasm, it was to nature-philoso¬
phy,too, that weowed theconception that theskullof vertebraics
is Ibrincd essentially by ihc fusion and adaptive remodelingof the
anteriormnst vertebrae, What a shame that Thomas Henry Hux¬
ley, whose expert hatchet job on this theory of the skull was the
subject of a famous Croonian Lecture at the Royal Society in
1858,should have been so far taken in by Ernst Haeckel’s Alonera
as to Have discovered a specimen of the group in a deep Atlantic
dredging.
The spirit of Naturphitosophie, moreover, shines out of the mis¬
conception that cancercellsarcessentially embryoniccells which,
having escaped the discipline of differentiation, persist anoma¬
lously intoadult life, later taking wing,so tospeak, as malignant
growths. All experienced biologists will share our anxiety lest the
I’KEKACli
“philosophical"element in our dictionary should beconstrued in
thisdeeply erroneous sense,
On the other hand, this is not a reference book and not a dic¬
tionary ofexplanationsand definitions. There is no need for such
a work so long as the Pmguiti Dktiomty of Biology, a little master¬
piece of expert knowledge and skillful writing, is still in print.
And it has reached its tenth edition in 1983.Weincludea number
of definitions, it is true, if only to make an evolutionary connec¬
tion with adictionary ofa soil moreordinary than Voltaire’s, but
these definitionsare grouped under thesubjects upon which they
bear. Personal taste turns us from the major innovation of the En¬
cyclopaedia. ftritannica of 1771: the inclusion of very lengthy general
articles dealing with wholesciences, to which seekers after partic¬
ular information are repeatedly referred. We feel that anyone
who, curious or fearful, looks up spina bifida wants to be told
what it isand does not wish to be referred to a treatiseon embry-
ology,
Perhaps the most famous passage in Voltaire's dictionary
comes in the chapter “Tout est hicn,1 which contains the black
theodicy beginning “Father God wishes to expunge the evil from
this world and cannot;or lie can and does not wish to;or he nei¬
ther wishes to nor can.1' The entire passage was quoied by Vol¬
taire from a treatise concerning the wrath ol God by the fourth-
century church father Laetaniitis, who professed to have had it
from Epicurus. Voltaire's contemptuous dismissal of Lactantius’
attempt to controvert the implications of this passage makes us
think that Voltaire would have had little patience with the kind
of theological humbug brought to the attention of the world by
the Reverend Lord Ibidgewater, whose persuasions weshall con¬
sider in our text.
If the present book is not for reference and not for looking up
things, what and whom is it for? ft is for browsing. For the
best results the reader must abstain resolutely from learning any-
thing he or she does not want to know and must exercise at all
—
times the reader's liberating privilege skipping.
Among theeducated audience we envisage might be biologists,
sociologists, psychologists, and other members of that increasing
population of relleetive people whosec in biology thescience most
relevant to(he understandingand melioration oTthe human con¬
dition.
vi
PRKPACK
Wc net grateful (o the followingforpcrtnfksitifi io reproduce ihi-t-
figures and photographs that appear in the (CM: to the Science
M London, for (he figures, illustrating rfic three-dimen¬
risenin,
sional geometric realizationof:i number of algebraicfunctions;to
Clarendon Pressfor the illLJSImrion oftlieGonipertz iauction and
its principal derivatives; to the Royal Society of Londpn for the
i[lostration of how curves ofgrowth may beconfounded bv curves
ofdistribution;and to Cambridge University Piess for the figures
Imiu Sir D’Arcy Werttfoirth Thompson’s On Grtxvth and Fdffrt.
It isa pleasure alsotoAccord ourspecial indebtedness to our lit¬
erary assistant, Mrs. Joy Heys, for her assistance in preparing
die manuscript and to Vivian Wheeler,senior editor at Harvard
University Press, for her scrupulous editing and ordering of our
enatruscript,
P.B M.
.|,S M.
vii

CONTENTS
Adapt
ation 1 Art 26
Adrenal gland Atayjjm
Age distribution
Bacteriophages
32
Aggressive instinct 4
Barnacles 33
Aging 5
Behaviorism (1
Albinism a
Bllhar/iasis 'if,
Allergy 6
Bioengineering 46
Allomctnr growth
Biogenesis lils
Akruisitt L L
Biology in medical
Annno acids 12 education 39
AniphioxuS L3 Blood and itscirculation 12
Anabiosis 14
Cl
aikcc hi
Anetiocphaly L l
Carotid artery 50
Animali and human
obligations L.ri Cell theory 56
Antibiotics 20 Centrifuge 5!
ApHcholineslerases 11 Ehan.ee and fandomness 52
Anilgens and antibodies 2 i Chicken and egg 55
Apes 21 Chimera 54
Aquaculture 35 (Ihordata 55
Archaeopteryx 36 Chromosomes 56
Aristotle 26 Clones 59
CONTENTS
Comparative anatomy ep Forte ol mortality Hit
Goipcl inhibition 61 t’oirii and mathematics 102
Sp>ronary artery fil Frauds 107
Creationism fij
Genet
Curare 63 idsell 109
Genetic and embryolugk
Cybernetics 61
terms I to
Definition of life and Genius and insanity 129
Other terms 66
Germ layer theory 129
Demography 67
Goodwarmland 131
Design, argument from 70
Great chain of being tin
Dmvn's syndrome 71
{Iroupselection 134
Ecology
73 Growth, ijtws of
biological 136
Electrophoresis 73
Embryonic axis 7} Hierarchy m
hoboednc gland 76 Ifisloneism 113
Enzymes 7(1
Holism !It
Epithelium 79
Homology i n
Errors ol nature 79
Huntitrs;toil's chorea It')
Ethology ti2
Hypothalamus 1IfJ
Eugenics fiG
Hypothesis-and theory HS
Eutarybies 95
Illness
Euphonies 92 132
Evidence of evolution 93 IniEiumity 13,1
Exogcuetie herediiy 91 ImmunologicSiirydllÿfce 136
Individuality 137
Fertility
93
Infertility and its
Figuresof speech 99 remedies 158
Fitness Mill Instinct 160
CONTENTS
Interferon 162 Natural selection m
Invertcbÿaia IK1 Mature ami HUMiÿrje 191
164 Neo-Darwinism 196
King Nco(L-ny 199
crab ]67
Nerve gases 2<>n
Lamarrkism J66 Nerve impulses am
Language !7(1 Nuclei acids 201
Lcnunitigs 171
Ordci in biology 204
Life table 171
Ordersof magnitude 2Qfy
Lungfish 172
Origin of life 20!!
Lymphatics and lyni[>!i
nodes m Ornithology 2119
Lymphocytes 174 Ein
licnogcnesis 21l
Lyscnkoism 176
Phenylketonuria 211
Malaria 179 FiItdown skull 214
Man s place m nature 180 Pineal body 2V5
Meiosis IH2 Poiesis 21.7
Mcmt 182 Population growth and
control 216
Metabolism m-i
Primates 218
Mimicry 184
Proteins
21!l
Missing links 187
protoplasm 220
Mitoehnndria 1ftj
ProtOfcoa 2‘2\i
Mitosis 186
PtemdiicIyl$ 221
Molecular biology 186
Mollusca 189 RecapituUn um 227
Monotremes 196 Rcdnÿiioniam 227
Mules 191 Reflex 232
Myaatbenia gravis 191 Rhesus factor 233
QOHTENTS
Sense organs 235 Termijfokigy 2i)7
Sessile animals -j:i7 [betmoregulation 25a
Sexual cycles 237 TissSjfe culture and
storage 260
Sexuality' 238
Toxins 263
Sickle-cell anemia 2W
Transformations 264
.Sociobiology 240
Transplantation 370
Soma 242
Sptx:ilicity 24I Vaccination 273
Spina bilida 244 Viruses 375
Spontaneous generalion 243 Vitalism 27.3
Spores 246 Vitamins 277
Sweating 246
Water
270
Symbiosisÿ 247
Woodger’s paradox 2Bl
Sympathetic nervous
system 246 Worm 282
ftypHitis 250
Zoos
2W-I
Taxon
262
Teleology 235 1ndex 287
Teratology 256