Unique Author's Archive: 127 Works By Georg Baur On Vertebrate Paleontology, Evolution And Acquired Characteristics, Including Researches In The Galapagos Islands [Three Bound Volumes Of Original Manuscripts, Notes, Offprints, Etc.]

About this Item

Three Volumes, Dark Brown Pebbled Cloth Over Brown Patterned Boards. (Bindings Worn And Frayed, Material Should Be Professionally Rebound With Archival Materials.) The Author's Personal Copies (No Duplicates) Of His Nineteenth Century Works On Paleontology And Related Areas Of Biology, 127 Of His Published Writings, Including Original Offprints, Extracts, Title Pages, Manuscripts And Notes, In German Or English, With A Few Clippings And Photographs Laid In Loosely. [His Obituary In The American Naturalist, Sept 1898, Pp 717-718, Refers To A Total Output Of 143 Papers Being Reported By His Brother, Which Possibly Includes Reprints And Translations, As He Wrote In Both German And English And This Collection Appears Complete.] Baur Was Last A Professor At The University Of Chicago 1892 -1898. Baur Wrote Extensively On Various Paleontological Topics. He Also Built On The Late Nineteenth Century Theory Of Evolution, And Wrote Extensively On His Idea That Changes In Morphology Might Be Brought Out By A Change In Environment (Including Nutrition, Etc.), Such That These Changed Characteristics Would Persist In Successive Generations So Long As The Changed Conditions Persisted (For Which There Is Now Some Evidence For At Least Three Generations). He Cited Extensively To Personal Observations And Reports From Others. His Work Differs From Weizmann, Etc. In That He Maintained That Changes In Environment Could Bring Out Changes In Morphology Without Changes In The Genetic Material, Such Changes Persisting In Successive Generations When The Environmental Changes Also Persisted. In One Such 1891 Paper He Concludes With A Citation To Darwin's Letter To Wagner: "In My Opinion, The Greatest Error Which I Have Committed Has Been Not Allowing Sufficient Weight To The Direct Action Of The Environment - I.E. Food, Climate, Etc., -Independently Of Natural Selection." Although Now Dismissed Some Because Of His Neo-Lamarckian Ideas, His Departures From Rigorous Scientific Evidence In Genetics Is Perhaps Less Serious Than The Acceptance And Promotion Of The Ideas Of "Phlogiston" By Important Earlier Chemists And Of "Ether" By His Contemporaries Among Important Physicists; And The Emphasis Of The Neo-Lamarckians On Environmental, Nutritional And Physiological Factors Is More In Keeping With Modern Understanding Of Individual Development Than The Emphasis Upon Purely Genetic Evolution Which Treats Only Classes Of Individuals By Arbitrary Groupings Into Classes Of Individuals . Complete Collections Of Original Manuscripts And Scientific Offprints From This Period Are Increasingly Uncommon In The Market. All Material In Excellent Condition, Bound Into Three Volumes, Bindings Very Worn. Seller Inventory # 015998

Contact seller

Report this item

Bibliographic Details