Goethe believed that in 1784 he demonstrated the presence of the intermaxillary (premaxillary) bone in man, proving an anatomical connection between man and the lower animals, and certifying to Goethe that there is no fundamental difference between man and apes. He was one of the pioneers of evolution and the first to use the term “morphology”. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link. See George A. Wells, "Goethe and the intermaxillary bone," British Journal for the History of Science, 3 (1967) 348-61. (Available from JSTOR at this link.)

In his day Morton was the most eminent craniologist in the United States. He had a collection of nearly 1,000 skulls. In this work, which described both modern and fossil skulls, Morton described fractures and anthropogenic deformations. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Retzius introduced the method of classifying races according to the cranial or cephalic index. A German translation of his paper is available in the Arch. Anat. Physiol. wiss. Med., 1845, 84-129.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Digital facsimile from the Bayerische StaatsBibliothek at this link.

Török made an exhaustive study of craniometry as applied to an unusually wide range of fields in medicine, and art, and proposed 5,000 different measurements of a single skull. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Digital facsimile from JSTOR at this link.

Esper was the first to record the finding, in Gailenreuth Cave, of human bones alongside the remains of unknown and probably extinct animals. The implications of this dramatic observation published in a color plate book about unusual fossil animal bones seem to have been unnoticed by the scientific establishment. Also French translation, Nuremberg, Knorrs, 1774. 

Esper's book also included the first published description of disease in ancient bones, a possible bone tumor affecting a fossil cave bear. 

A physician from Delft, Schmerling found extensive human remains and artifacts associated with the remains of extinct animals in the caverns around Liège. These human remains were distinctively different anatomically from Homo sapiens. Schmerling concluded that these findings were evidence for human antiquity, and suggested that they might be a different species. Although Schmerling’s findings were widely acknowledged, it was only when the Neanderthal 1 remains were published by Fulrott and Schaafhausen that scientists recognized the anatomical differences. 

Customs inspector at Abbéville and a prolific writer on diverse subjects, Boucher de Perthes found extensive deposits of flint implements in association with the bones of mammoths and other fossil animals. His work presented the first convincing proof that man had been a contemporary of the mammoth. Boucher de Perthes issued a portion of the first volume of this work in Paris, 1846, as De l’industrie primitive ou des arts à leur origine. Partly because he was an amateur not formally trained in science, Boucher de Perthes' discoveries did not generally begin to be accepted by the scientific establishment until 1859-1860. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

The first comprehensive description of the Neanderthal skull, following Schaaffhausen’s and Fuhlrott’s preliminary announcements of the discovery in the Verhandlungen des naturhistorischen Vereines der preussischen Rheinlande und Westphalens. The Neanderthal I skull discovered in 1856 was the first human fossil skull morphologically distinct from the skulls of modern Homo sapiens, to be discovered. English translation, with comments, by G. Busk entitled “On the crania of the most ancient races of man” in Nat. Hist. Rev., 1861, 1, 155-76. Huxley (No. 165) made much of this discovery; however, because the skull was not unearthed from demonstrably ancient strata, its age was disputed until Julian Fraipont and Max Lohest reported more rigorously unearthed find of Neanderthals at Spy in Belgium in 1886.

Lyell’s summary discussion of the evidence for human antiquity “introduced a wide readership to the new view and to the facts that supported it, thus laying the synthetic foundation for future work” (Grayson). This work also contained Lyell’s first published statements about Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Privately issued first report on Homo erectus. In 1891 Dubois discovered remains of what he described as "a species in between humans and apes" at Trinil, Java. He called his finds Pithecanthropus erectus ("ape-human that stands upright") or Java Man. Today, they are classified as Homo erectus ("human that stands upright"). These were the first specimens of early hominid remains found outside of Africa or Europe. Digital facsimile of the 1915 New York facsimile reprint from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

Order of authorship in the original publication: Dawson, Woodward. The first "scientific" report on “Piltdown man” (Eoanthropus dawsoni,) one of the longest-lasting and most influential hoaxes ever perpetrated in science. Woodward wrote the report but gave primary authorship to Dawson who had “discovered” the fossil. It was not completely debunked until 1953. In 2020 the preponderance of the evidence suggested that Dawson, who was involved with several other hoaxes, was the perpetrator of this forgery.

First report on Dart's discovery in 1924 of the first member of the genus Australopithecus, the first hominin found in Africa.

In their 150th anniversary issue published on November 4, 2019 the editors of Nature included Dart's paper among the ten most significant papers Nature had published in its first 150 years. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-02839-3

Description of the skull found at Broken Hill, Rhodesia, in 1921.

Elliot Smith visited Peking to view the skull of Sinanthropus pekinensis, discovered by W. C. Pei on December 2, 1929. A preliminary description by Pei is to be found in Bull. geol. Soc. China, 1929, 8, 3.

Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

With this comprehensive report Broom presented his case to the scientific establishment that Australopithecus probably represented the stock from which mankind had evolved. 

Introduction of the potassium-argon dating method to paleoanthropology, showing that lava at the base of the site of Olduvai Gorge was about 1.8 million years old, and proving that fossils, Australopithecus (Zinjanthropus) boisei, found in Olduvai Bed 1 dated from this time. With J.F. Evernden and G.H. Curtis.

Report on the Afar fossils (formally classified and named Australopithiecus afaranesis in 1998) representing a minimum of 35 and a maximum of 65 individuals, all about 3,000,000 years old. The most famous of these, AL 288-1, is called “Lucy”. Another large collection of bones (AL 333) is sometimes called the "First Family”.

An entertaining and superbly illustrated, but carefully documented account of the major fossil finds from Neanderthal to Ardipithecus ramidus.

The most complete historical treatment of the pre-1900 literature.

In response to Isaac de la Peyrere‘s theory of polygenesis, Hale, Chief Justice of the King’s Bench, advanced his own theory that the earth was not eternal, but rather had a spontaneous “beginning,” and defended “the Mosaic account of the single origin of all peoples.“ Hale also seems to have been the first to use the expression ‘Geometrical Proportion’ for the growth of a population from a single family” (Hutchinson). In this he anticipated Malthus (No. 215.4). He believed that in animals, especially insects, various natural calamities reduce the numbers to low levels intermittently, so maintaining a balance of nature. Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.

Stimulated by the much talked about appearance of an albino negro in Paris, Maupertuis expressed theories of biparental heredity and epigenesis which substantially anticipated those of Darwin, Mendel, and De Vries nearly a century and a half later.

English translation, The earthly Venus, was published in New York, 1966. Includes a reprint of No. 215.1.

Herder’s history has long been regarded as a very strong statement of Darwinian evolution before Darwin: many single passages come close to the evolution theory. Among the passages most often regarded as anticipating Darwin are those on the temporal sequence of forms from simpler to more highly organized, and on the overabundance of nature with the ensuing struggle for existence between species and individuals.

Malthus laid down the principle that populations increase in geometrical ratio, but that subsistence increases only in arithmetical ratio. He argued that a stage is reached where increase of populations must be limited by sheer want, and he advocated checks on population increase in order to reduce misery and want. His work was an important influence on both Darwin and Wallace in their formulation of the concept of natural selection. It also had a profound influence on the decrease in size of families down to the present time. The book was at first published anonymously, but Malthus attached his name to the greatly expanded second edition of 1803. Malthus continued to revise the work through the sixth edition, 2 vols., 1826. All editions but the fourth contain significant new material.

The “Discours d’ouverture” contains Lamarck’s first published statement of the theory of the inheritance of acquired characteristics. See No. 316.

Lamarck was one of the greatest of the comparative anatomists. This work is considered the greatest exposition of his argument that evolution occurred by the inheritance of characteristics acquired by animals as a result of the use or disuse of organs in response to external stimuli. English translation by H. Elliot, 1914. Digital facsimile of the 1809 edition from Google Books at this link.

Adams was a pioneer in medical genetics. He distinguished between familial and hereditary diseases, saw that an increase in hereditary disease frequency in isolated areas could be caused by inbreeding, and suggested the establishment of hereditary disease registers. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

First statement of the theory of natural selection. Wells’s paper on a white woman with patchy brown discoloration of the skin contains an almost complete anticipation of Darwin’s theory of natural selection, although it was completely ignored until it was resurrected by a correspondent of Darwin in the 1860s. The volume also contains Wells’s autobiography. See no. 1604.

The “first clear and complete” anticipation of the Darwinian theory of evolution by natural selection. The appendix to Matthew’s work actually uses the expression, “natural process of selection”. See W.J. Dempster, Patrick Matthew and natural selection: A nineteenth century gentleman-farmer, naturalist and writer, Edinburgh, Paul Harris, 1983.

Steenstrup is responsible for the theory of the “alternation of generations”. He showed that certain animals produce offspring which never resemble them but which, on the other hand, bring forth progeny which return in form and nature to their grandparents or more distant ancestors. An edition in German was also published in 1842. An English translation of the book was published by the Ray Society of London in 1845.

This outspoken statement of a belief in evolution, published anonymously to protect Chambers’s reputation as a publisher, anticipated Darwin’s Origin by 16 years and generally prepared the public for Darwin’s theories. For a scientific book in the Victorian era, it became a sensational best seller. Authorship was not revealed until the 12th edition (1884) 13 years after Chambers’s death. Facsimile reprint, Leicester, Univ. Press, 1969. See M. Millhauser, Just before Darwin: Robert Chambers and ‘Vestiges’, Middletown, Wesleyan University Press, [1959].

The first printed exposition of the “Darwinian” theory of evolution by natural selection. Had not Wallace independently discovered the theory of natural selection, it is possible that the extremely cautious Darwin might never have published his evolutionary theories during his lifetime. However, Wallace conceived the theory during an attack of malarial fever in Ternate in the Mollucas (February, 1858) and sent a manuscript summary to Darwin, who feared that his discovery would be pre-empted. In the interest of justice Joseph Dalton Hooker and Charles Lyell suggested joint publication of Wallace’s paper, On the tendency of varieties to depart indefinitely from the original type, prefaced by a section of a manuscript of a work on species written by Darwin in 1844, when it was read by Hooker, plus an abstract of a letter by Darwin to Asa Gray, dated 1857, to show that Darwin’s views on the subject had not changed between 1844 and 1857.

The Darwin-Wallace paper was issued in five different forms, all from the same setting of type. Four of these resulted from the publishing customs of the Linnean Society of London, which issued the journal in three different printed wrappers, depending on whether members subscribed to the zoological or botanical parts alone or both parts together. The fourth form was publication in the annual volume of the Journal, "made up from reserved stock of the parts with new title pages, dated in the year of completion of the volume, and indexes. This again was available complete or as Zoology or Botany alone" (Freeman). The fifth form was the authors' offprint. That form is of the greatest rarity.

Prepared under the advice of Lyell and Hooker, and brought to press soon after publication of the joint paper by Darwin and Wallace (No. 219), this was Darwin’s greatest work and one of the most important books ever published. The whole edition of 1250 copies was sold on the day of publication.

The theory of evolution can be traced to the ancient Greek belief in the “great chain of being.” Darwin’s greatest achievement was to make this centuries-old “underground” concept acceptable to the scientific community by cogently arguing for the existence of a viable mechanism – natural selection – by which new species evolve over vast periods of time. Darwin’s influence on biology was fundamental, and continues to be felt today. He remains, with Albert Einstein, one of the best-known scientists of all time.

Facsimile reproduction, with introduction by E. Mayr, Cambridge, Mass., 1964. See R.B. Freeman, The works of Charles Darwin: an annotated bibliographical handlist. 2nd ed. Folkestone, Kent, Dawson: 1977. See the Online Variorum of Darwin's Origin of Species, edited by Barbara Bordalejo. This is a variorum edition of the six British editions of Darwin's Origin of Species, published between 1859 and 1872. It identifies and presents every change between the six editions. See the editor's Introduction. Digital facsimile of the 1859 edition from Darwin Online at this link.

Bates spent eleven years in the Amazon and there collected 8,000 species of insects new to science. In the above paper he clearly stated and solved the problem of “mimicry”, known today as “Batesian mimicry”. The superficial resemblance of a palatable species (mimic) to an unpalatable species (model) is a form of protective coloration that has evolved by natural selection. (See also No. 228.1)

This series of six lectures delivered to “working men” in November and December, 1862 includes Huxley’s first book-form exposition of Darwin’s theories, of which he was probably the greatest popular exponent. A prolific essayist as well as author of hundreds of scientific papers, Huxley was one of the most eloquent of all English writers on the natural sciences. 

Müller, the first German to support Darwin, studied the development of the Crustacea in Brazil and published some of his results in the above little book, which contains much original information. He realized the bearing of individual development on the theory of evolution. English translation as Facts and arguments for Darwin, London, 1869. Repr., 1968.

Discovery of the Mendelian ratios, the most significant single achievement in the history of genetics. The story of how Mendel published his paper in this relatively obscure journal only to have his discovery ignored during his lifetime has been frequently retold. In 1900 Correns and de Vries (Nos. 239.01 and 239.1) rediscovered the Mendelian ratios almost simultaneously. William Bateson first translated the above work into English in J. Roy. Hort. Soc., 1901, 26, 1-32. The following year he published his first monograph on Mendel (No. 241).

Haeckel accepted the general principles of Darwinism, disagreeing on some points. He was the first to promote Darwin’s theories in Germany. This work contains the first statement of his theory that “ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny”. See No. 224.

Haeckel constructed the first of the now commonplace ancestral trees, depicting the evolution of life from the simplest organisms through 21 stages of development to modern man – the 22nd and final stage. Within this general scheme he created the concept of the Phylum (i.e. stem) to accommodate all organisms descended from a common form, and created the word Phylogeny to describe their evolutionary development from common form to distinct species. He suggested that within each species the term Ontogeny should describe the development of the individual from conception to maturity. From this he proposed his famous biogenetic law, “Ontogeny recapitulated Phylogeny”. English translation, 2 vols., London, 1876. Darwin wrote in The Descent of man (No. 227) “if [the English translation of] this work had appeared before my essay [Descent…] had been written, I should probably never have completed it. Almost all the conclusions at which I have arrived I find confirmed by this naturalist, whose knowledge on many points is much fuller than mine”. 

Haeckel differed from Darwin in advocating a polygenist theory of human evolution. He traced human lineage back to a hypothetical ancestral form, intermediate between humans and apes, that he named Pithecanthropus. “It was from the ‘Pithecanthropoi,’ Haeckel contended, that primeval humanity (which he termed Homo primigenius) was derived.... The various human races were considered to have been derived from Homo primigenius by natural selection, resulting in the formation of two quite divergent forms of humanity: (i) ‘the wooly-haired men’ (Ulotrichi); and (ii) ‘the straight-haired men’ (Lisotrichi). The Ulotrichi, Haeckel said, initially spread south from their primeval homeland, and then east and west. The remnants of the eastern branch being the peoples of New Guinea and Melanesia, while the negroes of Africa were considered representatives of the western branch. The remainder of modern humanity, the Lisotrichi, consisted of several divergent branches of what he called the ‘primeval Malays, or Promalays.’ The ‘Indo-Germanic race’ was a branch of the Lisotrichi, which he considered to have deviated furthest from the common ancestry. The chief representatives of this group were the Germans and English, who he said ‘are in the present age laying the foundation for a new period of higher mental development’” (Spencer, Ecce Homo [1986] 156.)

Darwin carried out numerous investigations with pigeons and various plants. He recognized continuous and discontinuous variation; he concluded that crossing tends to keep populations uniform.

Galton investigated the families of great men and suggested that genius was hereditary, and thus founded the science of Eugenics, although he did not coin the word until 1883 (see No. 230). Karl Pearson’s, The life, letters and labours of Francis Galton, 3 vols. in 4, Cambridge, 1914-30, is one of the most remarkable biographies ever published on a scientist.

This is really two works. The first demolished the theory that the universe was created for humans while in the second Darwin presented a mass of evidence in support of his earlier hypothesis regarding sexual selection. With respect to human origins, Darwin predicted that the ancestors of humanity would eventually be found in Africa, based on the extensive primate populations there. However, during the 19th and early 20th centuries paleoanthropologists focused their researches in Europe and Asia rather than Africa. This focus only very gradually changed after Raymond Dart discovered Australopithecus africanus in 1924.

Reprints, with important revisions and additions, nine important papers concerning natural selection, which had previously appeared in journals, and publishes for the first time a major paper on The limits of natural selection as applied to man. Unlike Darwin, Wallace believed that at some point during man’s history man had partially escaped natural selection, and that a “higher intelligence” had a part in the development of the human race.

Bates’s theory of mimicry did not account for the superficial resemblances between two or more unpalatable species. Müller explained such mimicry, known today as “Müllerian mimicry”. A predator must learn which potential prey are palatable. The coloration of an unpalatable species serves as warning colouration to predators. When warning colouration is shared by two or more unpalatable species, the warning colours are recognized more quickly by the predator and the number of individuals destroyed in each species is reduced while the predator learns. Müller's account contained one of the earliest uses of a mathematical argument in evolutionary ecology to show how powerful the effect of natural selection would be:

"Instead of a general deduction, which is by the way extremely simple, I give an example. There may in a certain area live two unpalatable species; 10,000 individuals of the first species, and 2000 of the second. The predators living in the same area may eat per year 1200 individuals of each [distinct] unpalatable species per year until they avoid it as such. Each species would lose this many if they appeared different; but if they are very similar so that experience with one species benefits the other, then the first species will lose 1000 and the second 200 individuals. The first species therefore will gain because of its similarity 200 individuals, or 2 % of the total number, the second will however gain 1000 individuals, which is 50% of the total number - from this consideration it follows further that probably in some cases (for example Thyridia and Ituna) the question which one of both species is the original and which one is the copy is an irrelevant question; each had an advantage from becoming similar to the other; they could have converged on each other" (http://www.ucl.ac.uk/taxome/jim/Mim/muller1878.html, accessed 03-2018).

Roux investigated why the nucleus undergoes the precise division of mitosis while the rest of the cell undergoes a rather crude division when one cell splits into two. He argued that mitosis ensures a precise halving of the nucleus, suggesting that the nucleus contains the material basis of heredity.

Like Roux, Strasburger hypothesized that the cell nucleus contained the material basis of heredity, and developed the idea with evidence from microscopical observations.

Galton, cousin of Charles Darwin, founded the science of Eugenics. In his important Inquiries he showed mathematically “the results of his experiments on the relations between the powers of visual imagery and of abstract thought, of the associations between the elements of different sense departments, of the correlation of mental traits, the associations of words, and the times taken in making the associations” (T. K. Penniman). The word “eugenics” first appears in the above book.

Along with Roux, Kölliker stated that hereditary characters were transmitted by the cell nucleus.

Boveri gave decisive proof of the maintenance of chromosomal individuality.

By the employment of statistical methods Galton propounded a “law of filial regression”. This book represents the first statistical study of biological variation and inheritance.

By “amphimixis” Weismann meant the union of the two parent germs, which he considered the principal source of heritable variation in evolution by natural selection. English translation in Weismann’s Essays upon Heredity, Vol. 2, Oxford, 1892.

Weismann produced experimental evidence that acquired characters are not transmitted.

Weismann elaborated the theory of the continuity of the germ plasm. English edition, 1893.

Bateson was convinced that discontinuity was the more important type of variation among animals and plants “in some unknown way a part of their nature and not directly dependent upon natural selection at all”. He showed that Darwin’s concept of variation needed modification.

Wilson emphasized the function of cytology in the study of embryology, heredity, evolution and general physiology. The above work has been called the single most influential treatise on cytology of the 20th century. The third edition was extensively revised and enlarged as The cell in development and heredity, 1925. 

Galton’s “law of ancestral heredity”.

De Vries and Correns independently rediscovered and confirmed Mendel’s laws. This is De Vries’s most important paper on the subject. De Vries’s first published paper on the topic is “Sur la loi de disjonction des hybrides”, C.R. Acad. Sci. (Paris), 1900, 130, 845-47. Reading of this paper led Correns to write his own paper (No. 239.1), although Correns claimed he had previously and independently arrrived at the same conclusions. English translation in No. 258.4.

Correns had come to the same conclusions as Mendel before seeing the latter’s 1865 paper. Of the three “rediscoverers” of Mendel’s laws, Correns showed the greatest understanding of them. English translation in No. 258.4.

With Correns and de Vries, Tschermak brought Mendel’s work into prominence and confirmed it, although Tschermak may not have fully understood the Mendelian laws before he had read Mendel’s work. See also Tschermak’s first paper on the subject: “Über künstliche Kreuzung bei Pisum Sativum”, Ber. dtsch. bot. Ges., 1900, 18, 232-39.

The theory of mutation was first advanced by de Vries. English translation, 2 vols., Chicago, 1909-10.

The first book on Mendelism in English, and the first English textbook of genetics. It contains a reprint of the first English translation of Mendel’s “Versuch über Pflanzen-Hybriden” from the J. Roy. Horticult. Soc., which Bateson had published the previous year together with the first edition in English of Mendel’s second paper on Hieracium (1869). Bateson named the science, “genetics” in 1905-6. He published a much expanded second edition as Mendel’s principles of Heredity, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1909.

Boveri’s experiments, involving multipolar mitoses in sea urchin eggs fertilized by two sperm, demonstrated that different chromosomes perform different functions in development. English translation in No. 534.3.

More support for the Mendelian law of inheritance was provided by Johannsen, a Danish botanist, who showed that in certain self-fertilizing plants a pure line of descendants can be maintained indefinitely, in which case natural selection is not effective, selection depending upon genetic variability. He introduced the term “gene” in 1909.

Sutton advanced the theory that Mendel’s factors were hereditary particles borne by the chromosomes and that Mendel’s laws for his factors were the direct result of the behaviour of chromosomes in meiosis. Boveri independently proposed a similar view (No. 242.2), which became known as the “Sutton–Boveri hypothesis”.

See No. 242.1.

W. Bateson, E. R. Saunders and R. C. Punnett noted the phenomena of linkage of genes.

Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium.

Weinberg, a general practitioner and obstetrician in Stuttgart, was also a founder of population genetics. He co-discovered the Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium.

Garrod established chemical individuality as a paradigm of Mendelian variation. His study, which he began around the turn of the 20th century, coincided with the rediscovery of Mendel's laws of inheritance in 1900. He realized that alkaptonuria (black urine disease) behaves like one of Mendel's recessive genetic traits, and guessed that people with alkaptonuria have a defective gene that produces a faulty enzyme that interrupts an important metabolic pathway. This was the first recognition of the possibility that genes direct the assembly of enzymes, and more specifically, that each gene codes for one enzyme. Over the next few years, Garrod discovered three more metabolic diseases that behave like recessive traits, including albinism. He showed that constitutional variation in function, as well as in structure, can give rise to what he termed “chemical malformations” – alkaptonuria, cystinuria, pentosuria, etc. The book was based on his Croonian Lectures, published in Lancet, 1908, 2, 1-7, 142-8, 173-9, 214-20. A second edition appeared in 1923. It was reprinted with supplement by H. Harris, London, 1963. Garrod’s first paper on the subject dealt with alkaptonuria (Lancet, 1901, 2, 1484-6).

The “multiple factor” theory advanced by Nilsson-Ehle brought under the Mendelian law cases which, by their extreme variability of inheritance, might be considered exceptions to it.

East published simultaneously and independently a theory essentially identical to Nilsson-Ehle (No. 245).

Morgan demonstrated sex-limited inheritance.

In 1933 Morgan was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physology or Medicine "for discoveries elucidating the role that the chromosome plays in heredity." See also Nos. 245.3, 246, 13915.

Morgan proposed that what he called Mendelian factors (genes) are arranged in a linear series on chromosomes and that the degree of linkage between two genes on the same chromosome depends upon the distance between them. This fundamental idea enabled his student Sturtevant to map genes on chromosomes. (See No. 245.2).

Proof that the genes are arranged in a linear sequence along the chromosome. Sturtevant determined the relative positions of six genetic factors on a fly’s chromosome by creating a process called gene mapping. The work paved the way for the construction of chromosome maps for other species besides Drosophila.

Bridges discovered non-disjunction, failure of chromosome pairs to segregate regularly during meiosis.

Summarizes the major early findings of Morgan’s Drosophila research group, which based its research on the rapidly reproducing small vinegar fly, Drosophila melanogaster, often called the fruit fly. This epoch-making book presented evidence that genes were arranged linearly on chromosomes, and that the Mendelian laws could be shown to be based on observable events occurring in cells. The group also showed that heredity could be studied rigorously and quantitatively. Morgan was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1933.

Order of authorship in the original publication: Morgan, Sturtevant, Muller, Bridges.
Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

"Fisher put forward a genetics conceptual model that shows that continuous variation amongst phenotypic traits could be the result of Mendelian inheritance. The paper also contains the first use of the statistical term variance" ( Wikipedia article on The Correlation between Relatives on the Supposition of Mendelian Inheritance, accessed 03-2017).

Fisher reconciled Mendelian genetics with the biometric observations of Karl Pearson and Francis Galton. Reprinted, with extended commentary in Eugen. Lab. Mem., Univ. Coll. Lond., 1966, 41.

Muller showed that radiation causes mutations that are passed on from one generation to the next. This was the first suggestion that inherited traits might be altered or controlled, and it created a sensation: “Man’s most precious substance, the hereditary material which he could pass on to his offspring, was now potentially in his control. X rays could speed up evolution,’ if not in practice at least in the headlines. Like the discoveries of Einstein and Rutherford, Muller’s tampering with a fundamental aspect of nature provoked the public awe.“(Carlson). See also Muller's follow-up paper, "The production of mutations in x-rays," Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. 14 (1928) 714-26. 

In 1946 Muller was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for the discovery of the production of mutations by means of X-ray irradiation."

Griffith’s experiments on transforming type II pneumococci into type III were repeated by Avery who was able sixteen years later (No. 255.3) to demonstrate that DNA was the transforming material.

The first coherent general algebraic analysis of Mendelian population behavior. The work contains Fisher’s rigorous development of his “fundamental theorem of natural selection”–”the rate of increase in fitness of any organism at any time is equal to its genetic variance in fitness at that time.”

"Fisher's principle is an evolutionary model that explains why the sex ratio of most species that produce offspring through sexual reproduction is approximately 1:1 between males and females. It was famously outlined by Ronald Fisher in his 1930 book The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection^[1] (but incorrectly attributed to Fisher as original^[2]). Nevertheless, A. W. F. Edwards has remarked that it is "probably the most celebrated argument in evolutionary biology".^[2] Specifically, Fisher couched his argument in terms of parental expenditure, and predicted that parental expenditure on both sexes should be equal. Sex ratios that are 1:1 are hence known as "Fisherian", and those that are not 1:1 are "non-Fisherian" or "extraordinary" and occur because they break the assumptions made in Fisher's model.^[3] Many eusocial wasps, such as the Polistes fuscatus and the Polistes exclamans seem to exhibit such a ratio at times." (Wikipedia article on Fisher's principle, accessed 03-2017).

Along with Wright (No. 253.1) and Haldane (No. 254), Fisher established mathematical population genetics.

First detailed presentation of Wright’s quantitative theory of the effects of mutation, migration, selection, and population size on changes in gene frequencies in populations. Digital facsimile from Genetics.org at this link.

Garrod argued that chemical individuality could result in individuals having a predisposition to certain diseases. This view has become particularly significant in light of the establishment of recombinant DNA methods to identify inherited genetic defects. Reprint with epilogue by C.R. Scriver and B. Childs, and bibliography of Garrod’s writings, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1989.

Haldane’s summary of his mathematical theory of natural selection. The detailed mathematical theory appeared as Mathematical theory of natural and artificial selection, first published (Pt. I) in Trans. Camb. philos. Soc.,1924, 23, 19-41, and (Pts. II-IX) in Proc. Camb. philos. Soc., vol. 1, 23, 26, 27, 28. Pt. X appeared in Genetics, 1934, 19, 412-29.

This paper is divided into four sections. The first, by Timofeev-Ressovskij, describes the mutagenic effects of x-rays and gamma rays on Drosophila melanogaster; the second part, by Zimmer, analyzes Timofeev-Ressovskij's results theoretically. The third and most remarkable section, by Delbrück, puts forth a model of genetic mutation based on atomic physics. It represents Delbrück's debut in biology. This has been called the “green paper”, referring to the color of the paper cover of the Nachrichten, and also the Dreimännerarbeit of genetics, for the three authors involved. This paper provided much of the material for Erwin Schrodinger's What is life? (1944), a work that takes a "naive physicist's" approach to the problems of heredity and variation; Shrodinger's book is often cited as having inspired Watson, Crick, Wilkins and others to focus their careers on the problems of molecular biology.

Digital facsimile of the 1935 paper from Universität Zurich at this link. English translation of the complete paper with commentary and six essays in Creating a Physical Biology.  The Three-Man Paper and Early Molecular Biology, edited by Phillip R. Sloan and Brandon Fogel (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011).

Dobzhansky, an emigrant from the Soviet Union to the United States, and a postdoctoral worker in Thomas Hunt Morgan's fruit fly lab, was one of the first to apply genetics to natural populations. He worked mostly with Drosophila pseudoobscura. Genetics and the Origin of Species "was a key step in bridging the gap between population geneticists and field naturalists. It presented the conclusions reached by Fisher, Haldane, and especially Wright in their highly mathematical papers in a form that was easily accessible to others. It also emphasized that real world populations had far more genetic variability than the early population geneticists had assumed in their models, and that genetically distinct sub-populations were important. Dobzhansky argued that natural selection worked to maintain genetic diversity as well as driving change^{" ( Wikipedia article on Modern Synthesis, accessed 03-2017).}

Beadle and Tatum proposed the "one gene, one enzyme" hypothesis in 1941. This was a restatement of ideas originally proposed by Archibald Garrod (No. 244.1) in 1908.

1958 Beadle and Tatum shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Joshua Lederberg (No. 255.4) "for their discovery that genes act by regulating definite chemical events."

The work which defined the modern synthesis of evolutionary biology of the early 20th century.

One of the canonical publications of the modern evolutionary synthesis. Mayr discussed the different ways different investigators identify species, and he characterized these different approaches as different species concepts. He also argued strongly for what came to be called a Biological Species Concept (BSC)—that a species consists of populations of organisms that can reproduce with one another, and that are reproductively isolated from other such populations.

 Simpson's seminal contribution to the modern evolutionary synthesis integrated the facts of paleontology with those of genetics and natural selection.

"Simpson argued that the microevolution of population genetics was sufficient in itself to explain the patterns of macroevolution observed by paleontology. Simpson also highlighted the distinction between tempo and mode. "Tempo" encompasses "evolutionary rates . . . their acceleration and deceleration, the conditions of exceptionally slow or rapid evolutions, and phenomena suggestive of inertia and momentum", while "mode" embraces "the study of the way, manner, or pattern of evolution, a study in which tempo is a basic factor, but which embraces considerably more than tempo."

Simpson's Tempo and Mode attempted to draw out several distinct generalizations:

• Evolution's tempo can impart information about its mode.
• Multiple tempos can be found in the fossil record (bradytelic, tachytelic, horotelic).
• The facts of paleontology are consistent with the genetical theory of natural selection. Moreover, theories such as orthogenesis, Lamarckism, mutation pressures, and macromutations either are false or play little to no role.
• Most evolution—"nine-tenths"—occurs by the steady phyletic transformation of whole lineages (anagenesis). This contrasts with Ernst Mayr's interpretation of speciation by splitting, particularly allopatric and peripatric speciation.
• The lack of evidence for evolutionary transitions in the fossil record is best accounted for, first, by the poorness of the geological record, and, second, as a consequence of quantum evolution (which is responsible for "the origin of taxonomic units of relatively high rank, such as families, orders, and classes"). Quantum evolution built upon Sewall Wright's theory of random genetic drift." (Wikipedia article on Tempo and Mode in Evolution, accessed 03-2017).

Demonstration that deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is the basic material responsible for genetic transformation. Digital facsimile from PubMedCentral at this link.

Followed by: McCarty & Avery, "Studies on the chemical nature of the substance inducing transformation of pneumococcal types. II. Effect of deoxyribonuclease on the biological activity of the transforming substance. III. An improved method for the isolation of the transforming substance and its application to pneumococcus types II, III, and VI, " J. exp. Med. , 83 (1946) 89-104.

Discovery of sexual processes in the reproduction of bacteria.

In 1958 Lederberg shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Tatum and Beadle (No. 254.3) "for his discoveries concerning genetic recombination and the organization of the genetic material of bacteria."

The Barr body, " the inactive X chromosome in a female somatic cell,^[2]  rendered inactive in a process called lyonization, in those species in which sex is determined by the presence of the Y (including humans) or W chromosome rather than the diploidy of the X. The Lyon hypothesis states that in cells with multiple X chromosomes, all but one are inactivated during mammalian embryogenesis.^[3] This happens early in embryonic development at random in mammals,^[4] except in marsupials and in some extra-embryonic tissues of some placental mammals, in which the father's X chromosome is always deactivated.^{[5] (Wikipedia article on Murray Barr, accessed 3-2020).} See also Anat. Rec., 1952, 112, 709-12, and Surg. Gynec. Obstet., 1953, 96, 641-8.

"Chargaff's rules." Between 1946 and 1950 Chargaff carried out chemical studies that revolutionized attitudes towards DNA.

The first truly comprehensive work on the scientific study of twins. (1381pp., 547 illustrations, 161 tables). English translation of the first half of the work, with some revisions: Twins in history and science, Springfield, Charles C Thomas, [1961].

DNA shown to be the carrier of genetic information in virus reproduction.

In 1969 Hershey shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with S. E. Luria and M. Delbrück for "for their discoveries concerning the replication mechanism and the genetic structure of viruses."

Description of a new mechanism (“transduction”) for the transfer of genetic characters from one bacterial strain to another.

Demonstration of the existence of “messenger” RNA. The following paper (pp. 581-85) by F. Gros et al. is also relevant.

With Matthaei, Nirenberg demonstrated that messenger RNA is required for protein synthesis, and that synthetic messenger RNA preparations can be used to decipher various aspects of the genetic code.

Nirenberg first reported the discovery at the Fifth International Congress of Biochemistry, Moscow, 10-16 August 1961. The paper he presented at that meeting, "The dependence of cell-free protein synthesis in E. coli upon naturally occurring or synthetic template RNA," was not published until 1963. It was published in the first volume (pp. 184-189) of the Proceedings of the fifth International Congress of Biochemistry, Moscow, 10-16 August 1961, Oxford: Macmillan Company persuant to a special arrangement with the Pergamon Press, 1963.

In 1968 Nirenberg shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with H. G. Khorana and R. W. Holley "for their interpretation of the genetic code and its function in protein synthesis."

(Thanks to Juan Weiss for the reference to Nirenberg's paper first announcing the discovery, Moscow, 1961.)

Demonstration that somatic and germinal nuclei are genetically equivalent. Using somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT),  Gurdon (Nobel Prize 2012) transplanted cell nuclei from mature intestinal tadpole cells into enucleated eggs, which developed into normal tadpoles. This contradicted the textbook dogma that adult cells are irrevocably assigned to their specific functions and cannot assume new ones. The egg was able to reprogram the introduced nucleus and direct its genes to switch from the duties of an intestinal cell to those appropriate to a developing egg.

Sex chromatin demonstrated in humans. 

Watson and Crick shared the Nobel Prize with M. H. F. Wilkins (No. 256.4) "for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material." Later they proposed how DNA might explain the chemical mechanism by which cells passed on their character accurately. See No. 7138.

The journal Nature later published an "early draft" of the Watson & Crick paper with differing text and extensive explanatory annotations. It is available from exploratorium.edu at this link.

In 1962 Wilkins shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Crick and Watson "for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material."

Proof that the normal chromosome number in man is 46.

The so-called Meselson-Stahl experiment, the first proof of semi-conservative replication of DNA. Semi-conservative replication describes the mechanism of DNA replication in all known cells. It derives its name from the production of two copies of the original DNA molecule, each of which contains one original strand, and one newly-synthesized strand. Digital facsimile from pnas.org at this link.

Theory of differential inactivation of the X-chromosome. See also Amer. J. hum. Genet., 1962, 14, 135-48.

The codons in DNA specifying amino acids in proteins. 

In 1965 Jacob, Monod, and André Lwoff shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for their discoveries concerning genetic control of enzyme and virus synthesis."

Order of authorship in the original publication: Nishimura, Jacob, Khorana. Digital facsimile from PubMedCentral at this link.

Hamilton’s mathematical theory of kin selection as an explanation for the evolution of social behavior (including supposedly altruistic behavior), is the foundation of sociobiology.

The complete sequence of an alanine transfer RNA determined – the first nucleic acid structure to be determined. With seven co-authors. 

In 1968 Holley shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Har Gobind Khorana and Marshall W. Nirenberg "for their interpretation of the genetic code and its function in protein synthesis."

First recombinant DNA molecules generated. Digital facsimile from PubMedCentral at this link.

In 1980 Berg was awarded half of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his fundamental studies of the biochemistry of nucleic acids, with particular regard to recombinant-DNA." The other half was awarded  to Walter Gilbert and Frederick Sanger "for their contributions concerning the determination of base sequences in nucleic acids."

"The idea of recombinant DNA was first proposed by Peter Lobban, a graduate student of Prof. Dale Kaiser in the Biochemistry Department at Stanford University Medical School" (Wikipedia article recombinant DNA, accessed 3-2020).

Cohen, Boyer and associates developed the first practical method for cloning genes, by the formation of recombinant plasmids which can be used to infect plasmid-free bacteria. The authors demonstrated that if DNA is fragmented with restriction endonucleases and combined with similarly restricted plasmid DNA, the resulting recombinant DNA molecules are biologically active and can replicate in host bacterial cells. Plasmids can thus act as vectors for the propagation of foreign cloned genes. This paper is available from the PNAS at this link.

The method that Cohen and Boyer invented eventually resulted in U.S. patent No. 4,237,224 granted to Cohen and Boyer on December 2, 1980. This patent, "Process for producing biologically functional molecular chimeras," was the foundation of the biotechnology industry. 

Cohen published a semi-popular account of this research as "The manipulation of genes," Scientific American, 233 (1975) 24-33.

Integration of biological and evolutionary theory with the study of social behavior and social organization of animal populations.

A study of the earliest “scientific” theories of heredity and genetics.

An interpretive history of what Mayr calls “ultimate” explanations in biology, reflecting Mayr’s expertise in systematics, evolution, and genetics.

Fourth edition, revised and enlarged, 2009.

Revised and enlarged English translation, Cambridge, Mass., Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press,1972.

A well-documented history of molecular biology.

The first book to contain illustrations of natural objects as seen through the microscope— specifically an engraving of the exterior surface of bees. The work includes the Latin text of the Satyrae VI of Aulus Persius Flaccus together with an Italian translation and notes by Stelluti. Digital facsimile from Linda Hall Library at this link.

The first microscopical section in biology is discussed and illustrated in Odierna’s study of the fly’s eye, which is also the first description of the faceted eye of an arthropod.

The first work to apply microscopy to medicine. Borel described 200 observations and applications; he probably saw the blood corpuscles and Sarcoptes scabiei.

Borel collected evidence to show that Zacharias (sometimes called Zacharias Janssen) invented the compound microscope about 1590. Zacharias was a spectacle-maker of Middelburg, Holland.

Hooke, at one time research assistant to Robert Boyle, was one of the greatest inventive geniuses of all time. This was the first book devoted entirely to microscopical observations, and also the first book to pair its microscopic descriptions with profuse and detailed illustrations. The 38 copperplate engravings in the book were mostly after drawings by Hooke; some were probably after drawings by the architect and occasional scientist, Sir Christopher Wren. This graphic portrayal of the hitherto unknown microcosm had an impact rivalling that of Galileo's Sidereus nuncius (1610), which was the first book to include images of the macrocosm shown through the telescope. It was also the second book published under the auspices of the Royal Society of London.

Hooke constructed one of the most famous of the early compound microscopes, and began his observations with studies of non-living materials, such as woven cloth and frozen urine crystals, then proceeded to investigations of plant and animal life. He published the first studies of insect anatomy, giving a lucid account of the compound eye of the fly, and illustrating the microscopic details of such structures as apian wings, flies' legs and feet, and the sting of the bee. His famous and dramatic portraits of the flea and louse, a frightening eighteen inches long, are hardly less startling today than they must have been to Hooke's contemporaries. His botanical observations include the first description of the plant-like form of molds, and of the honeycomb-like structure of cork, which last he described as being composed of "cellulae"— thereby coining the modern biological usage of the work "cell" to describe the basic microscopic units of tissue. Digital facsimile from the National Library of Medicine at this link.

Includes the first complete history of early microscopes.

Illustrates several early microscopes, including the famous microscopes of the Bolognese Joseph Campani. Contradicting Redi, Bonanni tried to show that spontaneous generation was possible in animals "without blood and a heart." Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

Leeuwenhoek, one of the first and also one of the greatest of the microbiologists, communicated many of his discoveries to the Royal Society in London. This set is a collection in Dutch of many contributions that van Leeuwenhoek sent to the Royal Society, which were first published in English translation in Philosophical Transactions. Leeuwenhoek was first to describe spermatozoa, and the red blood corpuscles; he discovered the crystalline lens, and was the first to see protozoa under the microscope. He introduced staining in histology in 1719 (saffron for muscle fibers). He also discovered protozoa and bacteria. He is said to have had 250 microscopes and 419 lenses, many of them ground by himself. (See also Nos. 98, 265, 860.) An English translation of his works, omitting all references to spermatozoa, appeared in 2 vols, in 1798-1807. Clifford Dobell’s study, Antony van Leeuwenhoek and his ‘little animals“ (London, 1932), revealed many new facts about the man, and included a bibliography. 

Digital facsimile from loc.gov at this link.

Van Deijl introduced an achromatic objective.

Amici constructed the first microscope with achromatic lenses and suggested water-immersion for improved achromatic lenses of the compound microscope. The 1820 publication of his paper indicates that it was "Approvata dal Sig. President Ruffini Avuta li 5. Marzo 1818."

A translation in French of the above appears in Ann. Chim. Phys. (Paris), 1820, 13, 384-410. Digital facsimile of the first journal publication in Italian (1820) from the Internet Archive at this link.

Goring was an Edinburgh medical practitioner. He commissioned Tulley and others to make various modifications to the microscope. The above paper reports the first effective achromatic object-glass.

The principle of the modern microscope was worked out by Joseph Jackson Lister, father of Lord Joseph Lister. His important improvements in achromatic lenses make him one of the most prominent figures in the history of modern microscopy.

Donne's and Foucault's work was the first biomedical textbook to be illustrated with images made from photomicrographs, in this case daguerreotypes of blood cells. Among its noteworthy images are the first microphotographs of human blood cells and platelets, and the first photographic illustration of Trichomonas vaginalis, the protozoon responsible for vaginal infections, which Donné had discovered in 1836. The text volume of the Cours contains the first description of the microscopic appearance of leukemia, which Donné had observed in blood taken from both an autopsy and a living patient. His observations mark the first time that leukemia was linked with abnormal blood pathology. Foucault, who later achieved fame as a physicist, initally studied medicine, which he abandoned for physics due to an extreme fear of blood. Foucault initially directed his attention to the improvement of Louis Daguerre's photographic processes. For three years he was experimental assistant to Donné in his course of lectures on microscopy.

His was, more than any other person, responsible for the introduction of the microtome, although Ranvier and other French people had earlier employed microtomes of simpler types.

Stephenson suggested the oil immersion lens system to Abbe, who developed it.

Fundamental improvements in the microscope were made by Abbe, who was a mathematician. In 1878 he introduced the oil immersion lens; in 1886 he made an apochromatic objective corrected for three colors in which the secondary spectrum was not noticeable, while he is also remembered for the sub-stage condenser which bears his name. A translation of the above article is in J. roy. micr. Soc., 1887, 20-34.

The ultraviolet light microscope was conceived and designed by Köhler.

Fluorescence microscopy

Electron microscope. See also their later paper in Z. Physik. 1932, 78, 318.

Modern methods of fluorescence microscopy were developed by Haitinger.

Zernicke invented phase contrast microscopy. 

In 1953 Zernike was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics "for his demonstration of the phase contrast method, especially for his invention of the phase contrast microscope."

X-ray microscopy.

Exhaustive history of the microscope. The work was translated into German, appearing (second edition) in 1866; this last was reprinted Amsterdam, 3 vols., 1970. Digital facsimile of the first edition in Dutch from wellcomecollection.org at this link.

A classic history of microscopes up to 1800. 

A biographical history.

Includes Aristotle's De historia animalium, De partibus animalium, and De generatione animalium. Aristotle was the first scientist to gather empirical evidence about the biological world through observation. By his careful observations and excellent accounts of the natural history of those living creatures which he was able to investigate in De historia animalium Aristotle may be considered the first scientific naturalist. English translation in his Works...edited by J. A. Smith and W. D. Ross, Oxford, 1910, vol. 4.

Aristotle's De partibus animalium is the first animal physiology. English translation in his Works edited by Smith and Ross, vol. 5. That edition excluded annotations by the translator,  William Ogle, that were published in the edition of London, 1882.

Aristotle's De generatione animalium is the first textbook on embryology. "The depth of Aristotle's insight into the generation of animals has not been surpassed" (Needham). English translation in his Works, edited Smith & Ross, vol. 5. Later translations are also available.

ISTC: ia00973000

Digital facsimile from Bayerische StaatsBibliothek at this link

Includes Aristotle's De historia animalium, De partibus animalium, and De generatione animalium. Aristotle was the first scientist to gather empirical evidence about the biological world through observation. By his careful observations and excellent accounts of the natural history of those living creatures which he was able to investigate in De historia animalium Aristotle may be considered the first scientific naturalist. English translation in his Works...edited by J. A. Smith and W. D. Ross, Oxford, 1910, vol. 4.

Aristotle's De partibus animalium is the first animal physiology. English translation in his Works edited by Smith and Ross, vol. 5. That edition excluded annotations by the translator,  William Ogle, that were published in the edition of London, 1882.

Aristotle's De generatione animalium is the first textbook on embryology. "The depth of Aristotle's insight into the generation of animals has not been surpassed" (Needham). English translation in his Works, edited Smith & Ross, vol. 5. Later translations are also available.

ISTC: ia00973000

Digital facsimile from Bayerische StaatsBibliothek at this link

Albertus was a Dominican monk and the most eminent naturalist of the 13th century; his work on animals contained a good deal of personal observation. He was the first to comment on virtually all of the writings of Aristotle, thus making them accessible to wider academic debate. The study of Aristotle also brought him to study and comment on the teachings of Muslim academics, notably Avicenna and Averroes. It has been said that most modern knowledge of Aristotle was preserved and presented by Albertus. The influence of his writings, many of which were theological, is attested by the fact that there were 300 printed editions of different works by him published in the 15th century. The edition of 1478 is the earliest cited by the ISTC (No. ia00223000). 

The first printed book to contain illustrations of animals, and the first notable scientific book in German. It discusses animals, birds, fish, anatomy, physiology, plagues, the medicinal value of plants and stones, etc. ISTC no. ic00842000. Digital facsimile from the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek at this link.

The first book on birds with clear descriptions of the appearance of individual birds based on the author’s own experiences and observations. Turner attempted to determine those birds named by Aristotle and Pliny; he added notes from his own observations on birds, identifying numerous northern European and English species for the first time. Digital facsimile of the 1544 edition from Google Books at this link. 

This, Belon’s first biological work, is regarded as the earliest modern scientific work in the field of comparative anatomy. Finely illustrated with woodcuts. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Considerably expanded from Belon's work of 1551. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Gesner's Historia animalium is considered one of the starting points of modern zoology; it contains 4,500 pages and nearly 1,000 woodcuts, some by Albrecht Dürer. The illustrations are the first original zoological illustrations, and the first naturalistic representations of animals to be published in print. His encyclopedic work includes the names of the known animals in ancient and modern languages, together with a mass of information regarding them. Vol. 1 on four-footed mammals was published in 1551; Vol. 2 on egg-laying quadrupeds (reptiles and amphibia) was issued in 1554; Vol. 3. on birds in 1555; Vol. 4 on fish and aquatic animals in 1558. Vol. 5 on snakes and scorpions was issued posthumously in 1587.

In this work Gesner attempted to build a connection between ancient knowledge of the animal world, and what was known at his time. He compiled it from ancient and medieval texts, including ancient naturalists like Aristotle, Pliny the Elder, and Aelian, and even the medieval Physiologus. To this information he added his own observations, and those of his correspondents, in an attempt to formulate a comprehensive description of the natural history of animals, with detailed descriptions of their daily habits and movements, and their uses in medicine and nutrition.

The work was translated into German and published by Froschauer between 1557 and 1563. Portions were translated into English by Edward Topsell as The historie of four-footed beasts. London, 1607, and The historie of serpents (1608). These English translations were combined as The history of four-footed beasts and serpents (1658).

Basing his work on Aristotle, Wotton rejected the fantastic additions which had accrued to the writings of the latter during the Middle Ages. His book was beautifully printed but not illustrated. Digital facsimile from the Biodiversity Library, Internet Archive, at this link.

Rondelet wrote this book with the idea of verifying Aristotle, but in it he described many forms of fishes for the first time. The book is an accurate account of his investigation of Mediterranean fishes and marine animals, and Singer says that Fig. 51, illustrating the structure of a sea urchin, is the earliest figure we have of a dissected vertebrate. Rondelet also observed the relationship between embryo and mother in the placental dogfish. Digital facsimile from the Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

Belon’s book on birds is well illustrated, including plates of the skeletons of man and bird side by side and in the same posture, to compare them bone for bone. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Coiter, a pupil of Fallopius and Eustachius, became town physician of Nuremberg. His book on comparative osteology, contained in his edition of the lectures of Fallopius, extended his studies begun in his work of 1572-73, (No. 1539). Coiter’s study of the skeleton of the fetus and of a child six months old was the first study of developmental osteology and showed where ossification begins. The copperplate engravings are after drawings by Coiter. Biography and English translation by B. T. W. Nuyens and A. Schierbeck, Haarlem, 1956.

In 1598 Conte Ottavio Ruini edited and had published in Bologna, with a dedication to Cardinal Pietro Aldobrandini, Dell'anotomia [sic], et dell'infirmita del cavallo [Book ii: Dell'infirmita del cavallo] by il marchese Carlo Ruini, a Bolognese aristocrat, senator, and high-ranking lawyer. Ruini's work was the first book devoted exclusively to the structure of an animal other than man. Following the example of Vesalius, Ruini stressed the importance of "artful instruction" about all parts of the horse's body, the diseases that afflict them, and their cures. The first part of his work gives an exhaustive treatment of equine anatomy, with especially good accounts of the sense organs; it is illustrated with sixty-four full-page woodcuts, of which the last three, showing a stripped horse in a landscape setting, were clearly inspired by the Vesalian "musclemen" plates.

The second part of the work deals with equine diseases and their cures from a traditional Hippocratic-Galenic standpoint. Some scholars, basing their arguments on Ruini's description of the horse's heart and blood vessels, believe that Ruini was active in the discovery of the greater and lesser circulatory systems. This is unlikely, but it is probable that he was one of many at that time who had a notion of the circulation of the blood.

Ruini's work appeared shortly after his death. The unusual rarity of the first edition might be partially explained by fact that a portion of the sheets of the first edition were reissued the following year by printer Gaspare Bindoni in Venice. Copies of this second issue, which is also rare, contain a cancel title and a different dedication leaf changing the dedication to César, Duke of Vendôme, natural son of Henry IV.

Cole, History of Comparative anatomy, 83-97. Hook & Norman, The Haskell F. Norman Library of Science and Medicine (1991) no. 1858.

(This annotation was written for HistoryofInformation.com and entered into HistoryofMedicine.com in April 2015.)

Casseri, originally a servant to Fabrizio, was personally trained by his employer and eventually succeeded to Fabrizio’s chair of anatomy. Like Fabrizio, who studied the development of the chick for clues to human embryology, Casseri endeavored to explain the human larynx and ear by reference to the lower animals. He investigated the structure of the auditory and vocal organs in most of the domestic animals. The book includes a description of the larynx more accurate than that of any previous author, and is also notable for its fine copperplate engravings, masterpieces of anatomical art. The elaborate engraved title page is particularly spectacular. Translation of chap. I-VIII , The larynx, organ of voice by Malcolm H. Hast and Erling B. Holtsmark with preface and anatomical notes in Acta otol. (Stockh.),1969, Suppl. 261.

A unillustrated pocket guide, issued in duodecimo format on "admiranda" or wonders of nature organized in ten categories (heaven, earth, and topics relating to meteors, fossils or minerals, plants, birds, quadrupeds, insects and bloodless animals, fish, and humans). The work draws heavily from classical sources such as Aristotle, Pliny, and Seneca, but also from the more recent work of Aldrovandi, and the section on plants includes descriptions of the flora and fauna of the New World, as well as tobacco. Each section is headed by an index to its contents. Jonston, born in Scotland, was raised and educated in Poland, and spent most of his life on the Continent of Europe. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Edited for publication, and with an introduction by Théodore de Mayerne. Moffet, or Muffet, travelled extensively in Europe and kept copious notes of his observations on insects. He "first studied silkworms while working in Italy, beginning his continued fascination with arthropods in general, particularly spiders.^[4] He is most well known for editing and expanding the work Insectorum sive Minimorum Animalium Theatrum (Theatre of Insects), an illustrated guide to the classification and lives of insects.^[1] Although he is popularly believed to have authored it, he merely inherited and furthered its progress toward publication, which would not occur until thirty years after his death. The book contained significant contributions by other scientists, notably the Swiss scientist Conrad Gesner (1516–65).^[1] The prime reason it was published posthumously was that the English market for books on natural science was weak at the time. It appears that it was ready for the press in 1589 or 1590. The original title page (unused) is dated 1589. His negotiations with printers in The Hague failed in 1590. The original illustrations were given up as too expensive and replaced with the wood cuts that appear in the 1634 edition." (Wikipedia article on Thomas Muffet, accessed 04-2017). To date, this was the best work of its kind and it set a new standard of accuracy in the study of the invertebrates. An English translation, Theater of Insects, appeared in 1658. Digital facsimile of the 1634 edition from the Internet Archive at this link.

One of the most important of the early works on comparative anatomy. It includes the Anatomia porci, attributed to Copho of Salerno. Severinus dissected many animals and was convinced that the microscope would throw light on comparative anatomy. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Aldrovandi, first director of the botanical garden at Bologna, was a prolific writer. Some of his writings made their first appearance in print after his death. He designed them as a whole to form an enormous illustrated encyclopedia of natural history and biology.

Engraved frontispieces in Latin; text in Dutch. None of the volumes is dated. An edition in Latin, also undated, was issued by the same publisher in 3 vols. during the same years with the following title: Metamorphosis et historia naturalis insectorum. Cum commentariiis D. Joannis de Mey.

Goedaert, a Dutch landscape and flower painter who lived in Middelburg, was one of the earliest authors on entomology, and first to write on the insects of the Netherlands based on firsthand observations and experiments between 1635 and 1658. "[His work] shows meticulous observation of all the growth phases of the insects depicted, including metamorphosis. There is no internal anatomy, only external. Goedhart makes an interesting error, indicating moth caterpillars can produce flies. Presumably he meant Ichneumonidae" (Wikipedia article on Jan Goedart, accessed 02-2017). The plates in some copies were hand-colored; digital facsimile of an uncolored copy of the edition in Dutch from the Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link. Digital facsimile of a colored copy of the edition in Latin from the Internet Archive at this link. English translation, London, 1682; French translation, 1700.

Gives a list of the English, Latin, and Greek names of all the then known animals. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

The only publications of one of the earliest scientific societies, active from 1664 to 1672. Founded by Gerard Blaes, and numbering Jan Swammerdam among its members, the college devoted itself to comparative anatomical and physiological investigations of the lower vertebrates, concentrating primarily on fishes and mammals. The above works contain the first publication of Swammerdam’s early experiments with neuro-muscular physiology. Other portions of the works were probably written by Blaes. Facsimile edition edited by F.J. Cole, Berkshire: University of Reading,1938. Digital facsimile of the 1938 edition from the Internet Archive at this link.

Malpighi’s work on the silkworm represents the first monograph on an invertebrate and records one of the most striking pieces of research work on his part. He dissected the silkworm under the microscope with great skill and observed its intricate structure; before the appearance of this work the silkworm was believed to have no internal organs.

Swammerdam, one of the greatest of the early microscopists, spent much time on the study of insects, and mapped out a natural classification of them.

Includes the first scientific study of an electric fish. While the torpedo’s peculiar properties had provoked scientific speculation since at least the time of Aristotle, Redi was the first to perform an actual dissection of the fish for scientific purposes. He was the first to locate and examine the torpedo’s electric organs.

Perrault was the leader of a team of comparative anatomists that included Guichard Joseph Duverney, Jean Pecquet, Moyse Charas and Philippe de la Hire; they were often called the “Parisians” in contemporary literature because of their membership in the Académie Royale des Sciences. Their investigations began with a thresher shark and lion from the royal menagerie and went on to encompass forty-nine vertebrate species. “Although some of the discoveries on which the Parisians most prided themselves—including the nictitating membrane that Perrault first observed in a cassowary, the external lobation of the kidneys in the bear, and the castoreal glands of the beaver—had been observed earlier, no such detailed and exact descriptions and illustrations had been published before” (Dictionary of Scientific Biography). In the spirit of rationalism, Perrault and his team investigated and debunked many popular myths attached to certain species, such as the legend that salamanders live in fire or that chameleons subsist on air. They also recorded their methods of work along with their results, providing the only contemporary disclosure of how such anatomical research was conducted in the seventeenth century. The Mémoires were originally issued in two parts in 1671 and 1676; they were later reissued in 1676 (with slight changes) as one volume with a new title-leaf. The two volumes of the Mémoires contain descriptions of twenty-nine species, including the lion, the chameleon, the shark, the lynx, the porcupine, the eagle, the cormorant and the ostrich.

“The first comprehensive manual of comparative anatomy based on the original and literary researches of a working anatomist” (Cole). Blaes anticipated Cowper in finding the Cowper’s glands, which he illustrated in his plate of the genitalia and os penis of the rat. The 85 pages devoted to the anatomy of the dog was the first comprehensive and original treatise on a vertebrate since Ruini (No. 285).

Blasius first published much of the material in this work, including the treatise on the anatomy of the dog, in his ‎Miscellanea anatomica, hominis, brutorumque variorum, fabricam diversam magna parte exhibentia‎ (Amsterdam: Caspar Commelin, 1673.). In that work the Anatome canis appeared on pp. 168-252. Other material previously appeared in Blasius's Observata anatomica in homine, simia, equo, virtulo, ovo....(Leiden, 1674). Digital facsimile of the Anatome animalium from Google Books at this link; of the Miscellanea anatomica from Google Books at this link.

Grew, secretary to the Royal Society, compiled this illustrated catalogue of its museum, then housed at Gresham College. Published with the catalogue is Grew’s study of the stomach organs, which is the first zoological book to have the term “comparative anatomy” on the title page, and also the first attempt to deal with one system of organs only by the comparative method. Digital facsimile from the Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

First book in English on equine anatomy, largely a translation of Ruini (No. 285).

This work contains the first really systematic classification of animals. Much of its general arrangement of animals survives in modern systems of classification.