Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword by Stephen Jay Gould
- Introduction by JOHN TYLER BONNER
- Addendum
- TYPOGRAPHICAL NOTE
- I Introductory
- II On Magnitude
- III The Forms of Cells
- IV The Forms of Tissues, or Cell-aggregates
- V On Spicules and Spicular Skeletons
- VI The Equiangular Spiral
- VII The Shapes of Horns and of Teeth or Tusks
- VIII On Form and Mechanical Efficiency
- IX On the Theory of Transformations, or the Comparison of Related Forms
- X Epilogue
- Index
- Seven Clues to the Origin of Life
X - Epilogue
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2014
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword by Stephen Jay Gould
- Introduction by JOHN TYLER BONNER
- Addendum
- TYPOGRAPHICAL NOTE
- I Introductory
- II On Magnitude
- III The Forms of Cells
- IV The Forms of Tissues, or Cell-aggregates
- V On Spicules and Spicular Skeletons
- VI The Equiangular Spiral
- VII The Shapes of Horns and of Teeth or Tusks
- VIII On Form and Mechanical Efficiency
- IX On the Theory of Transformations, or the Comparison of Related Forms
- X Epilogue
- Index
- Seven Clues to the Origin of Life
Summary
The fact that I set little store by certain postulates (often deemed to be fundamental) of our present-day biology the reader will have discovered and I have not endeavoured to conceal. But it is not for the sake of polemical argument that I have written, and the doctrines which I do not subscribe to I have only spoken of by the way. My task is finished if I have been able to show that a certain mathematical aspect of morphology, to which as yet the morphologist gives little heed, is interwoven with his problems, complementary to his descriptive task, and helpful, nay essential, to his proper study and comprehension of Growth and Form. Hic artem remumque repono.
And while I have sought to show the naturalist how a few mathematical concepts and dynamical principles may help and guide him, I have tried to show the mathematician a field for his labour—a field which few have entered and no man has explored. Here may be found homely problems, such as often tax the highest skill of the mathematician, and reward his ingenuity all the more for their trivial associations and outward semblance of simplicity. Haec utinam excolant, utinam exhauriant, utinam aperiant nobis Viri mathematice docti.
That I am no skilled mathematician I have had little need to confess.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- On Growth and Form , pp. 326 - 328Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1992