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OverviewIf not for the work of his half cousin Francis Galton, Charles Darwin's evolutionary theory might have met a somewhat different fate. In particular, with no direct evidence of natural selection and no convincing theory of heredity to explain it, Darwin needed a mathematical explanation of variability and heredity. Galton's work in biometry - the application of statistical methods to the biological sciences - laid the foundations for precisely that. This book offers readers a portrait of Galton as the ""father of biometry"", tracing the development of his ideas and his accomplishments, and placing them in their scientific context. Though Michael Bulmer introduces readers to the curious facts of Galton's life - as an explorer, as a polymath and member of the Victorian intellectual aristocracy, and as a proponent of eugenics - his chief concern is with Galton's pioneering studies of heredity, in the course of which he invented the statistical tools of regression and correlation. Bulmer describes Galton's early ambitions and experiments - his investigations of problems of evolutionary importance (such as the evolution of gregariousness and the function of sex), and his movement from the development of a physiological theory to a purely statistical theory of heredity, based on the properties of the normal distribution. This work, culminating in the law of ancestral heredity, also put Galton at the heart of the bitter conflict between the ""ancestrians"" and the ""Mendelians"" after the rediscovery of Mendelism in 1900. Bulmer also details the eventual triumph of biometrical methods in the history of quantitative genetics based on Mendelian principles, which underpins our understanding of evolution today. Full Product DetailsAuthor: Michael BulmerPublisher: Johns Hopkins University Press Imprint: Johns Hopkins University Press Dimensions: Width: 15.20cm , Height: 3.10cm , Length: 22.90cm Weight: 0.658kg ISBN: 9780801874031ISBN 10: 0801874033 Pages: 376 Publication Date: 18 February 2004 Recommended Age: From 17 Audience: Professional and scholarly , Professional and scholarly , Professional & Vocational , Professional & Vocational Format: Hardback Publisher's Status: Active Availability: To order  Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us. Table of Contents"Acknowledgments Chronology Introduction 1. A Victorian Life Family Background and Education Travels Eastern Europe, 1840 The Near East, 1845–46 South West Africa, 1850–52 Vacation Tours Scientific Career The Royal Geographical Society Exploration in Central Africa The British Association Inventions Meteorology Heredity and Evolution Psychology Photography Fingerprints Characterization 2. Hereditary Ability ""Hereditary Talent and Character"" (1865) Hereditary Genius (1869) English Judges Comparison of Results for All Professions Transmission through Male and Female Lines The Reception of Hereditary Genius Nature and Nurture English Men of Science: Their Nature and Nurture (1874) ""The History of Twins"" (1875) Galton's Hereditarianism Epilogue Appendix: Number of Kinsfolk 3. Eugenics Galtonian Eugenics Later History of Eugenics Britain America Germany The Rationale of Eugenics 4. The Mechanism of Heredity Galton's Knowledge of Heredity in 1865 Biparental Inheritance The Non-Inheritance of Acquired Characters The Law of Reversion Darwin's Provisional Hypothesis of Pangenesis Reversion The Inheritance of Acquired Characters Xenia and Telegony Galton's Reaction to Pangenesis Galton's Political Metaphor of Pangenesis An Experimental Test of Pangenesis Galton's Theory of Heredity in the 1870s Similarities Between Relatives Galton's Ideas on Heredity in 1889 Discussion Weismann and the Continuity of the Germ-Plasm De Vries's Theory of Intracellular Pangenesis Segregation Blending Inheritance Fleeming Jenkin and the Problem of Swamping 5. Four Evolutionary Problems The Domestication of Animals The Evolution of Gregariousness The Fertility of Heiresses The Extinction of Surnames The Evolution of Sex ""A Theory of Heredity"" (1875) Three Unpublished Essays 6. The Charms of Statistics Quetelet and the Average Man Galton and the Normal Distribution Hereditary Genius (1869) Natural Inheritance (1889) The Importance of the Normal Distribution to Galton Galton's Quincunx Regression and the Bivariate Normal Distribution Correlation Two Concepts of Probability The Development of Statistics Appendix: Regression Theory 7. Statistical Theory of Heredity A Theory Based on Pangenesis ""Typical Laws of Heredity"" (1877) An Experiment with Sweet Peas Solution of the Problem Johannsen's Experiments with Beans The Inheritance of Human Height The Advantages of Height The Regression of Offspring on Mid-Parent Kinship Fraternal Regression Variability in Fraternities and Co-Fraternities 8. The Law of Ancestral Heredity Galton's Formulation of the Ancestral Law Galton's Derivation of the Law in 1885 Derivation of the Law in 1897 Galton's Law as It Should Have Been Karl Pearson's Interpretation of the Ancestral Law The Ancestral Law and Mendelism Weldon and Mendelism Pearson and Mendelism Yule's Reconciliation of the Law with Mendelism Appendix: The Regression on Mid-Ancestral Values 9. Discontinuity in Evolution Galton's Theory of Discontinuous Evolution Stability of Type Perpetual Regression Selection Experiments The Fallacy of Perpetual Regression ""Discontinuity in Evolution"" (1894) Speciation and Saltation De Vries and The Mutation Theory Punctuated Equilibria 10. Biometry The Demonstration of Natural Selection The Career of W. F. R. Weldon The Common Shrimp The Shore Crab Stabilizing Selection in Snails Bumpus's Sparrows Multivariate Selection Quantitative Genetics The Multiple Factor Hypothesis The Hardy-Weinberg Law Mendelian Theory of Quantitative Genetics The Response to Selection Coda Appendix: Multivariate Selection Theory Selection Differentials and Selection Gradients The Response to Selection References Index"Reviews<p>Michael Bulmer's book is only partially about Galton the man. It begins with a biographical chapter but most of the book describes and evaluates Galton's quantitative work... Bulmer guides us skillfully through a great deal of the beginnings of our science. We are where we are because of the labors of people like Francis Galton. Science is not the same thing as progress but Galton's story is relevant to understanding something about the way in which science is related to progress. --R.J. Berry Human Genetics (01/01/0001) <p>Michael Bulmer's book is only partially about Galton the man. It begins with a biographical chapter but most of the book describes and evaluates Galton's quantitative work... Bulmer guides us skillfully through a great deal of the beginnings of our science. We are where we are because of the labors of people like Francis Galton. Science is not the same thing as progress but Galton's story is relevant to understanding something about the way in which science is related to progress. --R.J. Berry Human Genetics (01/01/2004) <p> Michael Bulmer's book is only partially about Galton the man. It begins with a biographical chapter but most of the book describes and evaluates Galton's quantitative work... Bulmer guides us skillfully through a great deal of the beginnings of our science. We are where we are because of the labors of people like Francis Galton. Science is not the same thing as progress but Galton's story is relevant to understanding something about the way in which science is related to progress. -- R.J. Berry, Human Genetics Author InformationMichael Bulmer is Emeritus Fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford University. Tab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |
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