scholarly journals The Problem of Heredity, with Special Reference to the Pre-Embryonic Life

1905 ◽  
Vol 51 (212) ◽  
pp. 1-51
Author(s):  
W. Lloyd Andriezen
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Complete Understanding ◽  
The Past ◽  
Hen’S Egg ◽  
Uterine Growth ◽  
Embryonic Life ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject

Science, whose high aim it is to investigate Nature, to under stand her secret workings, and thus to win for man the mastery of Nature, must set out with the conviction that Nature is intelligible, comprehensible, and conquerable. In the domain of biological science the problem of heredity occupies a position of great importance, one full of interest to every student of life. For the serious thinker who has not only looked backwards and studied the past of the human race but is inspired by ideals and desires for its future good, the subject of heredity provides an inspiring theme for contemplation and study. The development of our knowledge and the history of human endeavours to reach a complete understanding of the phenomena and conditions of heredity form one of the most interesting chapters in human evolution. Theories of heredity, like theories regarding other phenomena of life, have been expressed in three sets of terms: theological, metaphysical, and scientific. It required no skilled observation of early man to see that in the act of fecundation the male furnished the seminal substance, whereas the female seemed to furnish nothing except the receptacle or “mould,” in the form of the womb, within which the fótus was formed. Thus, what was more natural than to suppose that heredity was solely paternal, that the male element was the germ or seed, and the female organs the soil, in which, by some mysterious process, growth and development of the germ took place. This view of heredity has been expounded in the Manava Dharma-Sastra, one of the ancient sacred books of the Hindus (Delage, L'hérédité, 1903, p. 380). The same view, more or less modified according to the prevailing state of knowledge, was current among the ancient Greeks (Eristratos, Diogenes, and others). Galen and the school of philosophers of Alexandria also upheld the doctrine of the paternal factor of heredity, and thus constituted themselves the school of the Spermatists. Spermatist views prevailed for many centuries, and when towards the close of the seventeenth century Leeuwenhoeck discovered the presence of spermatozoa by the aid of the microscope, the spermatists had a season of rejoicing. Hartsoeker (1694) supposed that within the spermatozoon there was a little being, a human being, in miniature, with all its parts and organs complete, and figured a spermatozoon (highly magnified, of course) in which the little “homunculus” is to be seen seated within the “head” of the former with its arms and legs folded together in small compass, somewhat like a fcetus in utero. The theory of the spermatists was not destined to remain in undisputed possession of the field. The rival school of Harvey in the sixteenth century taught that the semen or sperm did not fertilise the ovum nor even enter the womb, but that it fertilised the entire constitution of the mother by a sort of contagion which rendered her capable of acting as the stimulus of development for the ova in the uterus, and Descartes, in the early part of the seventeenth century, entertained the same views. The ovists now claimed that all the organs of the future being already existed, preformed in miniature, in the ovum, as opposed to the spermatists, who claimed the same preformed structure for the spermatozoon. To the ovists, therefore, the act of fecundation was only an impulse or stimulus to development communicated by the male element to the ovum; the male contributed nothing material in forming the parts and organs of the fótus which existed, preformed in the ovum, so that the child was the product of the mother alone. Among the upholders of the ovist theory, in the eighteenth century were Malpighi, Haller, Bonnet, and Spallanzani. Difficulties, however, arose over both these theories of exclusive inheritance, for the ovists could not explain how the offspring sometimes resembled the father rather than the mother, and the spermatists could not account for cases of close resemblance between the mother and offspring, while neither could, again, account for cases of the mixed or blended resemblance of the offspring to both parents. The theory of preformation gradually lost its interest and its vitality, and received its death-blow at the hands of Wolff (1759), who, not only by theoretical arguments but by indisputable facts as to the nature and process of development of the hen's egg, demonstrated the baselessness of the fancies of the pre-formationists, whether of the spermatic or ovarian school. Finally, there gradually grew up in the nineteenth century the modem view that the male and female (germ and sperm) cells of the respective parents contributed in equal, or nearly equal, proportions to the constitution of the embryo, and that the environment and nourishment of the fertilised ovum during its growth and evolution in the womb was a third factor of importance, especially in the case of those animals which went through a long period of intra-uterine growth and evolution, as in the case of man and the higher mammals.

Oral Sources and Social Differentiation in the Jaara Kingdom from the Sixteenth Century: A Methodological Approach

1995 ◽  
Vol 22 ◽  
pp. 123-139
Author(s):  
Mamadou Diawara
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Social Classes ◽  
Social Differentiation ◽  
Oral Literature ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject

The dawn of the history of the kingdom of Jaara, during the era of the Jawara dynasty (from the fifteenth to the mid-nineteenth century) is shaped by the story of Daaman Gille and his companions, the most important of whom is Jonpisugo. The lives of these two characters—linked up until their death at Banbagede, where their tombs are only a few hundred meters apart—were the subject of a rich oral literature, all the more noteworthy given the rarity of written documents.In my earlier work (Diawara 1985, 1989, 1990) I discussed the typology of narratives and the specific role of women servants as historians of their social group. The oral sources include family traditions from all social classes, except for recently acquired slaves; the recitals of professional narrators who were by heredity in the service of protector families whose history they proclaimed to the public; the narratives of servants, including the tanbasire, a collection of women's songs from among the royal servants, or the accounts of people who, with their ancestors, had long been slaves (cf. Diawara 1990).Historical chance brings together Daama and Jonpisugo, but their respective social standing differentiates them; just as “friendship” brings together the master and the servant, so the struggle for power leads to the birth of differences in the conception of “the things of the past” among their descendants. How is the past constructed and lived differently by their respective progeny or supposed descendants? What poetic license accrues to the offspring of he who was only a servant, even if he was a royal servant? The response to this question explains the dynamic of a particular servants' oral documentation.

A New Look at the History of Pate

1969 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 375-391 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neville Chittick
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Early History ◽  
Critical Examination ◽  
Historical Evidence ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
First Dynasty ◽  
City States ◽  
The Town

This article, based on a critical examination of the Pate Chronicle in the light of archaeological and external historical evidence bearing on the subject, presents a case for a revision of the early history of the town. It maintains that Pate was the latest of the settlements to rise to importance in the region, being of little importance before the sixteenth century, and preceded by other city-statés, the earliest of which was Manda. The origins of Pate do not go back before the fourteenth century; the first dynasty there, the Batawi, was ruling up to around the seventeenth century, after which the Nabahani took over the sultanate.

scholarly journals Uwagi etymologiczne w dawnych tekstach użytkowych (na przykładzie Kroniki, to jest historyi świata Marcina Bielskiego, Informacyi matematycznej Wojciecha Bystrzonowskiego i Nowych Aten Benedykta Chmielowskiego)

2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 87-105
Author(s):  
Dorota Kozaryn ◽  
Agnieszka Szczaus
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
The Past ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Entire World ◽  
The One ◽  
The Relationship

The subject of the analysis in the article are the etymological explanations presented in the old non-literary texts (i.e. the texts that function primarily outside literature, serving various practical purposes), i.e. in the sixteenth-century Kronika, to jest historyja świata (Chronicle, that is the history of the entire world) by Marcin Bielski and in two eighteenth-century encyclopaedic texts: Informacyja matematyczna (Mathematical information) by Wojciech Bystrzonowski and Nowe Ateny (New Athens) by Benedykt Chmielowski. The review of the etymological comments allows us to take notice of their considerable substantive and formal diversity. These comments apply to both native and foreign vocabulary. On the one hand, they provide information on the origin of proper names (toponyms and anthroponyms), and on the other hand, a whole range of these etymological comments concern common names. A depth of etymological comments presented in non-literary texts is significantly diversified and independent of the nature of the vocabulary to which these comments apply – they can be merely tips on sources of borrowings of foreign words, but they can also constitute a deeper analysis of the meaning and structure of individual words, both native and foreign. These comments are usually implementations of folk etymology. The role of etymological considerations in former non-literary texts is significant. First of all, these texts have a ludic function, typical of popularised texts – they are supposed to surprise, intrigue and entertain readers. Secondly, they serve a cognitive function typical of non-literary texts – they are supposed to expand the readers’ knowledge about the world and language. Thirdly, they have a persuasive function, which is a distinctive feature of both popularised and non-literary texts – they are supposed to provoke the readers’ thoughts on the relationship between non-linguistic reality and the linguistic way of its interpretation, they also stimulate linguistic interests, which was particularly important in the past when the reflection on the native language was poor.

Hymnody and Liturgy

2019 ◽  
pp. 491-506
Author(s):  
Jonathan Hehn
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
North American ◽  
John Calvin ◽  
Church Of Scotland ◽  
Metrical Psalmody ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Church

This chapter outlines the history of Presbyterian worship practice from the sixteenth century to the present, with a focus on North American Presbyterians. Tracing both their hymnody and their liturgy ultimately to John Calvin, Presbyterian communions have a distinct heritage of worship inherited from the Church of Scotland via seventeenth-century Puritans. Long marked by metrical psalmody and guided by the Westminster Directory, Presbyterian worship underwent substantial changes in the nineteenth century. Evangelical and liturgical movements led Presbyterians away from a Puritan visual aesthetic, into the use of nonscriptural hymnody, and toward a recovery of liturgical books. Mainline North American and Scottish Presbyterians solidified these trends in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries; however, conservative North American denominations and some other denominations globally continue to rely heavily on the use of a worship directory and metrical psalmody.

scholarly journals Scarred souls, weary warriors, and military intervention: the emergence of the subject in the just war writings of Jean Bethke Elshtain

2012 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 859-880 ◽  
Author(s):  
PETER LEE
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Just War ◽  
Military Intervention ◽  
Military Force ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Just War Tradition ◽  
A Site

AbstractOver the past three decades Jean Bethke Elshtain has used her critique and application of just war as a means of engaging with multiple overlapping aspects of identity. Though Elshtain ostensibly writes about war and the justice, or lack of justice, therein, she also uses just war a site of analysis within which different strands of subjectivity are investigated and articulated as part of her broader political theory. This article explores the proposition that Elshtain's most important contribution to the just war tradition is not be found in her provision of codes or her analysis of ad bellum or in bello criteria, conformity to which adjudges war or military intervention to be just or otherwise. Rather, that she enriches just war debate because of the unique and sometimes provocative perspective she brings as political theorist and International Relations scholar who adopts, adapts, and deploys familiar but, for some, uncomfortable discursive artefacts from the history of the Christian West: suffused with her own Christian faith and theology. In so doing she continually reminds us that human lives, with all their attendant political, social, and religious complexities, should be the focus when military force is used, or even proposed, for political ends.

scholarly journals The History of the Walled (Formal) Garden at Benmore Botanic Garden

2019 ◽  
pp. 201-236
Author(s):  
David Gray
Keyword(s):  
Retrospective Study ◽  
Historical Development ◽  
Botanic Garden ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject

The 2.02 ha site containing the Category B listed Walled Garden at Benmore is currently the subject of a major redesign proposal and active fundraising programme. The purpose of this article is to raise the profile of the project by investigating and highlighting the historical development of the site. This retrospective study is also intended as a support to contemporary redevelopment plans and as a demonstration of how the past underpins and informs the future.I am frankly and absolutely for a formal garden … It is a small piece of ground enclosed by walls … There is not the least attempt to imitate natural scenery (Phillpotts, 1906, p. 54).

scholarly journals Is history of economic thought a "serious" subject?

2008 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Cristina Marcuzzo
Keyword(s):  
Research Methods ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Economic Thought ◽  
Historical Narrative ◽  
Contextual Analysis ◽  
History Of Economic Thought ◽  
Textual Exegesis ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the nature of research methods in the history of economic thought. In reviewing the "techniques" which are involved in the discipline, four broader categories are identified: a) textual exegesis; b) "rational reconstructions"; c) "contextual analysis"; and d) "historical narrative". After examining these different styles of doing history of economic thought, the paper addresses the question of its appraisal, namely what is good history of economic thought. Moreover, it is argued that there is a distinction to be made between doing economics and doing history of economic thought. The latter requires the greatest possible respect for contexts and texts, both published and unpublished; the former entails constructing a theoretical framework that is in some respects freer, not bound by derivation, from the authors. Finally, the paper draws upon Econlit records to assess what has been done in the subject in the last two decades in order to frame some considerations on how the past may impinge on the future.

scholarly journals History and Historiography in Early Christian Ireland

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (33) ◽  
pp. 197-227
Author(s):  
Dominique Santos
Keyword(s):  
Early Christian ◽  
The Past ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Theory Of History ◽  
Bilingual Literacy

Despite modern writers noticing the importance of Premodern historiographical phenomena for a deeper comprehension of both Theory of History and History of Historiography, the Irish contribution to the subject is often left aside. Topics such as the Seanchas Tradition and Medieval Irish Classicism are not well integrated into such historiographical narrative. The Seanchaidh, the Irish Artifex of the Past, for example, is broadly mentioned as not a historian, but a chronicler, antiquary, genealogist, hagiographer or pedigree systematizer. This article addresses these issues and, more specifically, we focus on two Irish narratives produced in 7th century by Muirchú and Tírechán. Since they belong to the world of orality and bilingual literacy of Early Christian Ireland, perhaps their works could be understood as bounded by the Seanchas Tradition and Medieval Irish Classicism, hence, both could be considered as great examples of the producers of History and Historiography at the time.

scholarly journals Making the States’ Translation (1637): Orthodox Calvinist Biblical Criticism in the Dutch Republic

2017 ◽  
Vol 110 (3) ◽  
pp. 440-463
Author(s):  
Dirk van Miert
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Thomas Hobbes ◽  
Dutch Republic ◽  
Biblical Text ◽  
Biblical Criticism ◽  
New Science ◽  
The Past ◽  
Biblical Scholarship ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
History Of

In the study of the history of biblical scholarship, there has been a tendency among historians to emphasize biblical philology as a force which, together with the new philosophy and the new science of the seventeenth century, caused the erosion of universal scriptural authority from the mid-seventeenth century onwards. A case in point is Jonathan Israel's impressive account of how biblical criticism in the hands of Spinoza paved the way for the Enlightenment. Others who have argued for a post-Spinozist rise of biblical criticism include Frank Manuel, Adam Sutcliffe, and Travis Frampton. These scholars have built upon longer standing interpretations such as those of Hugh Trevor-Roper and Paul Hazard. However, scholars in the past two decades such as Anthony Grafton, Scott Mandelbrote and Jean-Louis Quantin have altered the picture of an exegetical revolution inaugurated by Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679), Spinoza (1632–1677), and Richard Simon (1638–1712). These heterodox philosophers in fact relied on philological research that had been largely developed in the first half of the seventeenth century. Moreover, such research was carried out by scholars who had no subversive agenda. This is to say that the importance attached to a historical and philological approach to the biblical text had a cross-confessional appeal, not just a radical-political one.

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