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On Growth and Form — D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson

On Growth and Form

D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson

  • Essays
  • Book language: English
  • 718 pages

"On Growth and Form" by D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson is a collection of essays on biological form. It explores how mathematics and physics shape the growth of living organisms, offering a thoughtful perspective on nature's patterns.

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Cover of the original edition (Project Gutenberg, public domain).

Text source: gutenberg.org · The work is in the public domain.

Opening of the book

GROWTH AND FORM
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
C. F. CLAY,
MANAGER
London: FETTER LANE, E.C.
Edinburgh: 100 PRINCES STREET
New York: G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS
Bombay, Calcutta and Madras: MACMILLAN AND Co.,
LTD.
Toronto: J. M. DENT AND SONS,
LTD.
Tokyo: THE MARUZEN-KABUSHIKI-KAISHA
All rights reserved

ON
GROWTH AND FORM
BY
D’ARCY WENTWORTH THOMPSON
Cambridge:
at the University Press
1917
“The reasonings about the wonderful and intricate
operations of nature are so full of uncertainty, that,
as the Wise-man truly observes, hardly do we guess
aright at the things that are upon earth, and with labour
do we find the things that are before us.” Stephen
Hales, Vegetable Staticks (1727), p. 318, 1738.

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Contents

  1. GROWTH AND FORM
  2. Prefatory Note.
  3. Contents.
  4. List of Illustrations.
  5. I. Introductory.
  6. II. On Magnitude.
  7. III. The Rate of Growth.
  8. IV. On the Internal Form and Structure of the Cell.
  9. V. The Forms of Cells
  10. VI. A Note on Adsorption.
  11. VII. The Forms of Tissues Or Cell-aggregates.
  12. VIII. The Forms of Tissues or Cell-aggregates (continued)
  13. IX. On Concretions, Spicules, and Spicular Skeletons.
  14. X. A Parenthetic Note on Geodetics.
  15. XI. The Logarithmic Spiral.
  16. XII. The Spiral Shells of the Foraminifera.
  17. XIII. The Shapes of Horns, and of Teeth Or Tusks: With a Note on Torsion.
  18. XIV. On Leaf-arrangement, Or Phyllotaxis.
  19. XV. On the Shapes of Eggs, and of Certain Other Hollow Structures.
  20. XVI. On Form and Mechanical Efficiency.
  21. XVII. On the Theory of Transformations, Or the Comparison of Related Forms.
  22. Epilogue.
  23. NOTES:
  24. Index.
  25. Selection from the General Catalogue of Books Published by the Cambridge University Press.
  26. THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG™ LICENSE

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