Profitable wonders : some problems of plant and animal life / illustrated by C. F. Tunnicliffe.

E. L. Grant Watson

RA Collection: Book

Record number

17/282

Author

Edition

1st ed.

Imprint

London: Country Life Limited, 1949

Contents

Introduction -- Some simple behaviour-reactions -- Protection in colour and form -- Colour and form in the sea -- Other worlds than human -- The cuckoo and the bombex -- Waves of life -- The little and the great -- The ever-varying garments -- Of migrations by air -- Of migrations by water -- Migrating men -- Galls and Galls-flies -- Adaptations and devices -- Some human adaptations -- Dust

Summary Note

“Purpose or chance? Are our lives governed by a concrete, creative idea, the planning of an all-wise Creator, or are we controlled, as Darwin believed, by a purely mechanical process in which accidents can occur.

Mr Grant Watson, who is a naturalist by training and a philosopher by conviction, does not attempt a direct answer. Instead, he present us with a number of life histories, small in compass but immensely suggestive, and having assembled his evidence puts the question, “Now can you possibly believe in chance?”

These are the ‘Wonders’ in the title of this stimulating book. Its publishers believe that even the most casual reader will find it ‘profitable’ to speculate on them.” [dust-jacket].

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