Book ID: 101091
Romanes, George John
Darwin, and after Darwin. 3 vols. 1893. (Reprint 2011). (Cambridge Library Collection, Life Sciences). tabs. illus. 1042 p. gr8vo. Paper bd.
George John Romanes (1848-94), evolutionary biologist, was one of themost zealous supporters of Darwin's theory of evolution by naturalselection in the nineteenth century. He met Darwin in 1874 and becamea firm friend and follower, applying Darwinian theory to his work onanimal intelligence and mental evolution. Romanes was elected to the Royal Society in 1879 at the age of 31, having produced his owninfluential research on the evolution of the nervous system. Thisthree-volume study of Darwin's work and its implications was firstdeveloped as a series of lectures given in Edingburgh and London between1886 and 1890. Controversially, Romanes deviates from Darwin's assertionof the significance of geographical isolation, contending that physiological differences among the same species were central toevolutionary change. Published between 1893 and 1897, the work isimportant as a study of the influence of, and debate on, Darwin's theory.