Zoonomia; or, the Laws of Organic Life, Vol. I

Erasmus Robert DarwinProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 4.0
Word count
1.1M words
Chapters
114

Tags

English Originals Natural Sciences Medical TheoryNatural HistoryLife SciencePhysiologyHistory of ScienceScience EnlightenmentIntellectual EnlightenmentEvolutionary ThoughtAcademic MonographEighteenth Century

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Zoonomia; Or, the Laws of Organic Life, Vol. I by Erasmus DarwinAuthor: Darwin, Erasmus, 1731-1802,Language: English, Class: QP: Science: Physiology, Release Date: Apr 25, 2005

Editor's review

Zoonomia is a work of natural history and physiology by Erasmus Darwin; its first volume addresses the laws of organic life. In the history of science it belongs to the natural-philosophy tradition of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, attempting to explain living phenomena by unified principles and dealing with concepts such as sensation, motion, stimulus and response. Its value today lies not in physiological conclusions that have since been superseded, but in understanding how thinkers constructed a unified picture of life before modern biology took shape. Its classifications are elaborate and its terminology archaic, so the reading threshold is high; precisely for this reason it serves as a primary text in the history of science and ideas, letting readers observe the state of knowledge before the life sciences became professionalized. Suited to patient readers willing to work alongside notes and background materials, who treat it as a historical document rather than contemporary popular science; approached thus, the rewards are more substantial.

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Reading tips

  1. Begin with the introduction or preface to grasp the author's guiding questions and the book's overall framework before entering the main text.
  2. Keep a reference work on the history of science or relevant reference entries at hand to check archaic terms and concepts.
  3. There is no need to read every section closely; select chapters on sensation, motion and the laws of life by theme.
  4. Record the author's core hypotheses as you read, to compare them with later physiological views.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

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FAQ

What is the relationship between this book and Charles Darwin? The author, Erasmus Darwin, was Charles Darwin's grandfather and himself a physician and natural philosopher. Zoonomia is his work on the laws of life, belonging to the late-eighteenth-century natural-philosophy tradition. It is not a classic of evolutionary theory, but as background to the Darwin family's thought it is valuable for understanding the conceptions of life in that era.
Are the physiological contents of the book still accurate today? Many of its specific conclusions have been superseded by modern physiology and biology and should not be studied as current scientific knowledge. Its value lies chiefly at the level of the history of science and ideas: it shows how scholars, before the professionalization of the life sciences, explained sensation, motion and living phenomena by unified principles. It should be read as a historical document.
Is the English difficult to read? Yes, relatively. The text was written in the late eighteenth century, with long sentences, archaic terminology and elaborate classification and discussion, markedly different from modern English popular science. A basic command of English and a willingness to consult notes, introductions or works on the history of science are advisable; if you only want a general sense, begin with relevant scholarly overviews, then read selected key chapters.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Erasmus Robert Darwin Author · British · 1731–1802

Erasmus Darwin (1731–1802) was an English physician, natural philosopher and poet, and a central figure of the Midlands Enlightenment. Born in Nottinghamshire, he studied at the University of Cambridge and later at the University of Edinburgh Medical School, and died in Derbyshire in 1802. His works span medicine, natural history and poetry, with representative titles including the two-volume Zoonomia; or, the Laws of Organic Life, and the long poems The Botanic Garden and The Temple of Nature; or, the Origin of Society. In these works he set out early evolutionary ideas, combining scientific observation with poetic imagination in a style both speculative and literary. He was the grandfather of Charles Darwin, and his ideas had some influence on later evolutionary thought. Five of his works are held in this collection.