The Evolutionary Biology Papers of Elie Metchnikoff (Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science, 212)

Elie Metchnikoff (1845-1916), winner of the Nobel Prize in 1907 for his contributions to immunology, was first a comparative zoologist, who, working in the wake of Darwin's __On the Origin of____Species__, made seminal contributions to evolutionary biology. His work in comparative embryology is best known in regard to the debates with Ernst Haeckel concerning animal genealogical relationships and the theoretical origins of metazoans. But independent of those polemics, Metchnikoff developed his `phagocytosis theory' of immunity as a result of his early comparative embryology research, and only in examining the full breadth of his work do we appreciate his signal originality. Metchnikoff's scientific papers have remained largely untranslated into English. Assembled here, annotated and edited, are the key evolutionary biology papers dating from Metchnikoff's earliest writings (1865) to the texts of his mature period of the 1890s, which will serve as an invaluable resource for those interested in the historical development of evolutionary biology. Elie Metchnikoff (1845-1916), winner of the Nobel Prize in 1907 for his contributions to immunology, was first a comparative zoologist, who, working in the wake of Darwin's On the Origin of Species , made seminal contributions to evolutionary biology. His work in comparative embryology is best known in regard to the debates with Ernst Haeckel concerning animal genealogical relationships and the theoretical origins of metazoans. But independent of those polemics, Metchnikoff developed his `phagocytosis theory' of immunity as a result of his early comparative embryology research, and only in examining the full breadth of his work do we appreciate his signal originality. Metchnikoff's scientific papers have remained largely untranslated into English. Assembled here, annotated and edited, are the key evolutionary biology papers dating from Metchnikoff's earliest writings (1865) to the texts of his mature period of the 1890s, which will serve as an invaluable resource for those interested in the historical development of evolutionary biology. Front Matter....Pages i-x Introduction....Pages 1-21 On the Developmental Life-History of Myzostomum (1866)....Pages 22-27 On the Embryonic Development of Lower Crustacea (1866)....Pages 28-35 Anthropology and Darwinism (1875)....Pages 36-59 Essay on Questions about the Origin of Species (1876)....Pages 60-91 Comparative Embryological Studies (1881–1885)....Pages 92-143 Embryological Studies on Medusae: On the Evolutionary Origins of the Primary Tissues (1886)....Pages 144-206 The Struggle for Existence between Parts of the Animal Organism (1892)....Pages 207-216 Back Matter....Pages 217-230