Evolution

Abstract

FOR close on half a century, Prof. E. S. Goodrich has been engaged in zoological research and teaching in the University of Oxford. On the recent occasion of his seventieth birthday a congratulatory volume prepared by a number of his colleagues and pupils was presented to him. Instead of following the usual method of such Festschriften and allowing the contributors to write on any subject they might choose, the editor, Dr. G. R. de Beer, decided to prepare a planned volume on the more important aspects of modern knowledge concerning evolution. He secured the collaboration of twenty authors, each of whom has dealt with the particular branch of the subject to which he has given special attention. The result is a work which has value as a summary of existing knowledge and current opinion, quite apart from the circumstances that led to its publication. At the same time, the very completeness of the survey bears witness to the vitality and catholicity of the Oxford school of zoology, while the fact that so many of the authors find occasion to quote from the writings of Prof. Goodrich himself is evidence of the many-sided inspiration which that school has received from him.

Evolution: Essays on Aspects of Evolutionary Biology

presented to Prof. E. S. Goodrich. on his Seventieth Birthday. Edited by G. R. de Beer. Pp. viii + 352. (Oxford: Clarendon Press; London: Oxford University Press, 1938.) 15s. net.