Background: William
Bateson begins this book with a set of questions that are
as important today as they were in 1894. "To solve
the problem of the forms of living things is the aim with
which the naturalist of to-day comes to his work. How have
living things become what they are, and what are the laws
which govern their forms?" (p. 1)
Bateson
describes continuous and discontinuous variation, and focuses
for much of the book on meristic variation. While the majority
of his observations are from animals, he incorporates a
few plant examples. The book is notable for the introduction
of the term homoeosis, which he proposes as a substitute
for Goethe's term "Metamorphy." Homoeosis is "the
assumption by one member of a Meristic series, of the form
or characters proper to other members of the series. In
the case of plants such Variation is very common and is
one of the most familiar forms of abnormality." He
notes further "The case of the modification of the
antenna of an insect into a foot, of the eye of a Crustacean
into an antenna, or a petal into a stamen, and the like,
are examples of the same kind." (p. 84)
The
book is rich in descriptions of animals of all sorts, and
presents numerous examples of normal and teratological
structures. His goal is to catalog natural variation, and
thereby to understand the process of evolution. "In
Variation we look to see Evolution rolling out before our
eyes." (p. 17)
submitted
by: Elizabeth
A. (Toby) Kellogg
