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cmarie1665's review against another edition
4.0
Fascinating unraveling of this debate and drama I had no idea existed. I really enjoyed all of the primary sources!
ederwin's review
4.0
A fascinating and well-told story from the world of early 20th century biological science.
The conventional story is that Paul Kammerer fakes some experiments to prove that Lamarkian evolution was right and Darwinian evolution was wrong, and that he committed suicide when the fakery was exposed. Koestler, here, shows that the true story may be more complicated, though a lot remains murky.
The Lamarkian version of evolution is that animals can pass on traits to their offspring which they had developed during their own lifetimes as a result of struggle against some environmental condition. The alternative version is that an organism can only pass on traits they were already born with, plus some random mutations. We tend to call the second version Darwinian, though Darwin was actually often sympathetic to Lamarkian ideas. Kammerer, in turn, was not so far away from the standard interpretation. He believed only that occasionally some aquired traits might be passed on.
The bad image of Kammerer today is largely due to the negative opinions of Willam Bateson, who coined the term "genetics" and was a strong early popularizer of the work of Mendel. Bateson disbelieved some of Kammerer's work with frogs, which is fine, but he didn't really play fair. He never attempted to replicate the experiments (which to be fair are difficult and long). He argued against conclusions that Kammerer had never made. He complained that Kammerer wouldn't send him a sample for him to examine. Yet when Kammerer brought a sample to England and showed it to many prominent biolgists, Bateson twice refused to look at it, and then continued to claim Kammerer wouldn't make it available.
Very late in the saga, it was found that some black spots on a preserved frogs paw were due to an injection of ink. This looks very bad for Kammerer. However, the ink had been injected badly, and was very obviously fake. Many prominent biologists had already examined the sample for years before that and had not noticed. So it is quite possible, as Koestler argues, the fakery was done much later, long after the original controversy.
Kammerer's suicide doesn't necessarily indicate guilt. It could be combined effects of losing all his experimental work due to the war, losing all of his money due to massive post-war inflation, and losing his reputation. Replicating the experiments would have required at least 10 years, plus money and equipment he didn't have.
I don't know what the truth was. Kammerer's work involving other species remains accepted. I suspect he was honest about the frog experiments, too, even if his interpretations may have been wrong.
On the other hand, Kammerer and Koestler, both promoted some ideas that I consider wild and crazy. Kammerer created a theory of coincidences which Jung later presented as "Synchronicity". Koestler promoted theories of ESP and other paranormal phenomena. He himself committed suicide (due to Parkinson's disease and lukemia) along with his wife. Some think he pressured her into it.
In any case, this 1971 book remains a very engaging story, reading almost like a thriller, and involving many key ideas and people from the history of the theory of evolution in the 20th century.
The conventional story is that Paul Kammerer fakes some experiments to prove that Lamarkian evolution was right and Darwinian evolution was wrong, and that he committed suicide when the fakery was exposed. Koestler, here, shows that the true story may be more complicated, though a lot remains murky.
The Lamarkian version of evolution is that animals can pass on traits to their offspring which they had developed during their own lifetimes as a result of struggle against some environmental condition. The alternative version is that an organism can only pass on traits they were already born with, plus some random mutations. We tend to call the second version Darwinian, though Darwin was actually often sympathetic to Lamarkian ideas. Kammerer, in turn, was not so far away from the standard interpretation. He believed only that occasionally some aquired traits might be passed on.
The bad image of Kammerer today is largely due to the negative opinions of Willam Bateson, who coined the term "genetics" and was a strong early popularizer of the work of Mendel. Bateson disbelieved some of Kammerer's work with frogs, which is fine, but he didn't really play fair. He never attempted to replicate the experiments (which to be fair are difficult and long). He argued against conclusions that Kammerer had never made. He complained that Kammerer wouldn't send him a sample for him to examine. Yet when Kammerer brought a sample to England and showed it to many prominent biolgists, Bateson twice refused to look at it, and then continued to claim Kammerer wouldn't make it available.
Very late in the saga, it was found that some black spots on a preserved frogs paw were due to an injection of ink. This looks very bad for Kammerer. However, the ink had been injected badly, and was very obviously fake. Many prominent biologists had already examined the sample for years before that and had not noticed. So it is quite possible, as Koestler argues, the fakery was done much later, long after the original controversy.
Kammerer's suicide doesn't necessarily indicate guilt. It could be combined effects of losing all his experimental work due to the war, losing all of his money due to massive post-war inflation, and losing his reputation. Replicating the experiments would have required at least 10 years, plus money and equipment he didn't have.
I don't know what the truth was. Kammerer's work involving other species remains accepted. I suspect he was honest about the frog experiments, too, even if his interpretations may have been wrong.
On the other hand, Kammerer and Koestler, both promoted some ideas that I consider wild and crazy. Kammerer created a theory of coincidences which Jung later presented as "Synchronicity". Koestler promoted theories of ESP and other paranormal phenomena. He himself committed suicide (due to Parkinson's disease and lukemia) along with his wife. Some think he pressured her into it.
In any case, this 1971 book remains a very engaging story, reading almost like a thriller, and involving many key ideas and people from the history of the theory of evolution in the 20th century.
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