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Men, Microscopes, and Living Things
Katherine Shippen collaborated with Anthony Ravielli, the illustrator to give a history of the study of biology for students in the middle school grades. She beautiful tells the story of the progression of scientific discoveries that built upon one another to give us our present day understanding of the created world. First published in 1955, Shippen republished it in 1968 under the title of So Many Marvels.
Katherine B. Shippen was born on April 1, 1892, and spent her life as a history teacher, museum curator and children's author. She died on February 20, 1980. During her career as an author, Shippen published 21 books won the Newbery Honor Award twice, one of which was for Men, Microscopes, and Living Things.
Katherine B. Shippen was born on April 1, 1892, and spent her life as a history teacher, museum curator and children's author. She died on February 20, 1980. During her career as an author, Shippen published 21 books won the Newbery Honor Award twice, one of which was for Men, Microscopes, and Living Things.
191 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1955
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Katherine Binney Shippen
23 books1 followerhistory teacher, museum curator, and children's writer.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
April 3, 2021
This has good parts and some very interesting information, though the later chapters became increasingly evolutionary and mocked/scorned/discredited the Bible.
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September 5, 2018Dated in bits, but still wonderful, (western male) history of biological science for the MG reader. I might have enjoyed it when I was young, though I didn't much care for non-fiction. Now it's fun for me to read because I can see the state of thought that was actually extant when my parents were teens.
Man as an animal, part of the chain of being, is given as fact, so that's good. Otoh, man is assumed to be the only critter who modifies his environment, and that is certainly not true... never mind crows' tools, but what about beehives?
Ends with chromosomes, not DNA, (see this article for information that is much better than Shippen's: https://www.yourgenome.org/stories/th...) and an indirect plea for young readers to become biologists.
The illustrations are lovely pen & ink. The text is graceful & lucid. I'd consider more by author or artist.
And I'm learning a lot, despite having to take care of interpretations & theories.
Never would have picked it up except for Children's Books group discussion of Newbery books, but am glad I did.
Man as an animal, part of the chain of being, is given as fact, so that's good. Otoh, man is assumed to be the only critter who modifies his environment, and that is certainly not true... never mind crows' tools, but what about beehives?
Ends with chromosomes, not DNA, (see this article for information that is much better than Shippen's: https://www.yourgenome.org/stories/th...) and an indirect plea for young readers to become biologists.
The illustrations are lovely pen & ink. The text is graceful & lucid. I'd consider more by author or artist.
And I'm learning a lot, despite having to take care of interpretations & theories.
Never would have picked it up except for Children's Books group discussion of Newbery books, but am glad I did.
July 15, 2019
A short history of the study of biology, via chapter-by-chapter mini-biographies of the people who invented it and added discoveries to it.
Not a bad kid's book on the subject, to be honest, and not all that dated for a 1955 Newbery Honor Book. At least, I know I learned a couple of things I didn't know before, and my mind didn't wander too much.
Not a bad kid's book on the subject, to be honest, and not all that dated for a 1955 Newbery Honor Book. At least, I know I learned a couple of things I didn't know before, and my mind didn't wander too much.
May 6, 2025
Men, Microscopes, and Living Things was written by Katherine B. Shippen, a teacher, headmistress, and curator of a Natural History Museum. It was published in 1955. I first read it as a youth. Recently, I reread it after retiring from a career as an academic and practicing physician. I continue to be inspired by the book. Shippen takes her readers through a brief survey of many discoveries that contributed to mankind’s growing understanding of the biology of life.
Aristotle, in Greece, and Pliny the Elder in Rome, are reviewed quickly, reflecting the relatively modest initial growth of understanding of human biology.
The careers of Andreas Vesalius and William Harvey in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries mark the beginnings of detailed observation combined with critical reasoning. Shippen’s review is limited and superficial but encouraging.
I wish to supplement her coverage of William Harvey, one of the most important professional heroes of my career as a cardiologist. Harvey’s classic, Anatomical Exercises on the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals is considered the beginning of experimental medicine (William Osler’s Harveian lecture is not cited in Shippen’s book). William Harvey performed dissections on many animal species and human cadavers. He dissected and experimented on living animal models. He demonstrated that the heart is a muscle and its function is to pump blood around the body.
William Harvey reasoned from the presence of one-way valves in peripheral veins, and within the heart to demonstrate unidirectional flow. He showed that in comparison with animals who did not have lungs and breathe air and have only one ventricle (and receiving chamber or atrium), air-breathing animals including humans have two-sided hearts – the right side pumps blood through the lungs, and the left side pumps blood around the remainder of the body. Using observations on living animals, and experiments, Harvey demonstrated pulmonary and systemic blood flow.
Harvey used the conservation of matter as part of his reasoning for the circulation of the blood from the heart through arteries, somehow to veins, and back to the heart. Shippen cites some of Harvey’s calculations (based on numbers of heartbeats per minute and a conservative estimate of stroke volume, a theoretic heart might pump > 3x the weight of a man in one hour, if it were pumping new blood with each beat!), in support of his iconoclastic idea that the heart was pumping a fixed volume of blood around the body in a circle (circulation) - repetitively.
The development of lenses to use in telescopes (Galileo) and microscopes (Dutch spectacle-maker, Janssen, and Marcello Malpighi at Pisa, Italy) opened new worlds for examination. Jacob Swammerdam and Anton van Leeuwenhoek used microscopes to identify microorganisms. Van Leeuwenhoek investigated a range of microorganisms, some of which he referred to as ‘little beasties’ and animalcules. Carolus Linnaeus, Swedish, and Konrad Gesner, Swiss, naturalists began the classification of botanical knowledge or species nosology.
Baron Cuvier began his biological studies with smaller lifeforms, publishing The Animal Kingdom Arranged According to its Organization - he is considered one of the founders of paleontology, the study of past life through fossil remains. Jean Baptiste Pierre Lamarck used microscopes and dissecting instruments to identify a progression from one species to the next which he dubbed the ladder of life. Charles Darwin’s botanical cruise around South America, on HMS Beagle, during which he noted distinct species of plants and animals on different islands (species were not immutable) led him to formulate his theory of evolution laid out in Origin of Species.
William Harvey had written in 1651, “All things come from the egg.” Even though he had never seen the egg of a mammal. In 1679, van Leeuwenhoek had seen spermatozoa with his microscope. Karl Ernst von Baer was a German, born in Estonia who went on to become a Professor at the University of Saint Petersburg in Russia. Von Baer studied embryos and worked out the theory of blastula – after fertilization, the egg goes through successive divisions and forms a hollow sphere or blastula whose walls approach each other, flatten, and the germ layers fold on one another to form tubes which are used to create the different parts of the body.
Preformation was the concept of an adult form in miniature. Epigenesis is the more elegant biological idea that simpler forms became progressively more complex with growth. Von Baer had collected large numbers of embryos in different stages. He noted that the early stages of many different species were similar, leading to the notion that ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny – individual embryos pass through stages that appear to retrace the history of the development of the species.
Theodor Schwann at the Anatomical Institute of Berlin, showed how certain organisms could produce fermentation and putrefaction, ultimately contributing to the germ theory of Louis Pasteur. Schwann and his colleague, Matthias Schleiden are considered the fathers of cell theory namely that the elementary parts of all tissues were cells in ~1859.
In 1861, Max Schultze defined a cell as a mass of protoplasm with a nucleus. Named for Protoplastus, which was another Biblical name for Adam, protoplasm is the physical stuff of life. Schultze described infinitesimal amounts of jelly-like protoplasm with continuous or Brownian movement; when the cells died, the movement ceased. The discipline of biochemistry developed from the realization that every kind of protoplasm has nine essential elements: oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus, sulfur, magnesium, and iron. Some kinds of protoplasm have additional elements such as calcium, sodium, chloride, and copper.
Shippen finishes her whirlwind tour with several important contributions to our understanding of heredity, beginning with Austrian monk Gregor Mendl who cross-fertilized pea and bean plants and identified Dominant and Recessive genetic characteristics. Hugo de Vries working in the Botanic Gardens of Amsterdam observed species changes in fields of primroses, which he thought came in spurts (Mendl had called these spurts mutations). After examining thousands of plants in eight generations, de Vries noted eight completely new types or species from which he deduced mutation theory.
The author summarizes much iconoclastic work over the centuries with a wonderful quote from Francis Bacon: “The understanding must be stretched and enlarged to take the image of the universe as it is discovered.”
Shippen finishes her review, by pointing to a few of the many biologic questions which remained unanswered at the time of her writing, such as:
• How are the nine essential elements united to form protoplasm?
• Can protoplasm be artificially created?
• Is there a biochemical basis for human consciousness, memory, and thinking?
Teacher and museum curator, Shippen concluded that the biology of Life should be studied with the humility that acknowledges how much we have left to learn. Men, Microscopes, and Living Things has much to offer those curious about biology, at any age. As the William Harvey chapter was for me, Katherine Shippen’s review of biological history may serve as a stimulus to delve more deeply into specific areas of interest.
Aristotle, in Greece, and Pliny the Elder in Rome, are reviewed quickly, reflecting the relatively modest initial growth of understanding of human biology.
The careers of Andreas Vesalius and William Harvey in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries mark the beginnings of detailed observation combined with critical reasoning. Shippen’s review is limited and superficial but encouraging.
I wish to supplement her coverage of William Harvey, one of the most important professional heroes of my career as a cardiologist. Harvey’s classic, Anatomical Exercises on the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals is considered the beginning of experimental medicine (William Osler’s Harveian lecture is not cited in Shippen’s book). William Harvey performed dissections on many animal species and human cadavers. He dissected and experimented on living animal models. He demonstrated that the heart is a muscle and its function is to pump blood around the body.
William Harvey reasoned from the presence of one-way valves in peripheral veins, and within the heart to demonstrate unidirectional flow. He showed that in comparison with animals who did not have lungs and breathe air and have only one ventricle (and receiving chamber or atrium), air-breathing animals including humans have two-sided hearts – the right side pumps blood through the lungs, and the left side pumps blood around the remainder of the body. Using observations on living animals, and experiments, Harvey demonstrated pulmonary and systemic blood flow.
Harvey used the conservation of matter as part of his reasoning for the circulation of the blood from the heart through arteries, somehow to veins, and back to the heart. Shippen cites some of Harvey’s calculations (based on numbers of heartbeats per minute and a conservative estimate of stroke volume, a theoretic heart might pump > 3x the weight of a man in one hour, if it were pumping new blood with each beat!), in support of his iconoclastic idea that the heart was pumping a fixed volume of blood around the body in a circle (circulation) - repetitively.
The development of lenses to use in telescopes (Galileo) and microscopes (Dutch spectacle-maker, Janssen, and Marcello Malpighi at Pisa, Italy) opened new worlds for examination. Jacob Swammerdam and Anton van Leeuwenhoek used microscopes to identify microorganisms. Van Leeuwenhoek investigated a range of microorganisms, some of which he referred to as ‘little beasties’ and animalcules. Carolus Linnaeus, Swedish, and Konrad Gesner, Swiss, naturalists began the classification of botanical knowledge or species nosology.
Baron Cuvier began his biological studies with smaller lifeforms, publishing The Animal Kingdom Arranged According to its Organization - he is considered one of the founders of paleontology, the study of past life through fossil remains. Jean Baptiste Pierre Lamarck used microscopes and dissecting instruments to identify a progression from one species to the next which he dubbed the ladder of life. Charles Darwin’s botanical cruise around South America, on HMS Beagle, during which he noted distinct species of plants and animals on different islands (species were not immutable) led him to formulate his theory of evolution laid out in Origin of Species.
William Harvey had written in 1651, “All things come from the egg.” Even though he had never seen the egg of a mammal. In 1679, van Leeuwenhoek had seen spermatozoa with his microscope. Karl Ernst von Baer was a German, born in Estonia who went on to become a Professor at the University of Saint Petersburg in Russia. Von Baer studied embryos and worked out the theory of blastula – after fertilization, the egg goes through successive divisions and forms a hollow sphere or blastula whose walls approach each other, flatten, and the germ layers fold on one another to form tubes which are used to create the different parts of the body.
Preformation was the concept of an adult form in miniature. Epigenesis is the more elegant biological idea that simpler forms became progressively more complex with growth. Von Baer had collected large numbers of embryos in different stages. He noted that the early stages of many different species were similar, leading to the notion that ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny – individual embryos pass through stages that appear to retrace the history of the development of the species.
Theodor Schwann at the Anatomical Institute of Berlin, showed how certain organisms could produce fermentation and putrefaction, ultimately contributing to the germ theory of Louis Pasteur. Schwann and his colleague, Matthias Schleiden are considered the fathers of cell theory namely that the elementary parts of all tissues were cells in ~1859.
In 1861, Max Schultze defined a cell as a mass of protoplasm with a nucleus. Named for Protoplastus, which was another Biblical name for Adam, protoplasm is the physical stuff of life. Schultze described infinitesimal amounts of jelly-like protoplasm with continuous or Brownian movement; when the cells died, the movement ceased. The discipline of biochemistry developed from the realization that every kind of protoplasm has nine essential elements: oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus, sulfur, magnesium, and iron. Some kinds of protoplasm have additional elements such as calcium, sodium, chloride, and copper.
Shippen finishes her whirlwind tour with several important contributions to our understanding of heredity, beginning with Austrian monk Gregor Mendl who cross-fertilized pea and bean plants and identified Dominant and Recessive genetic characteristics. Hugo de Vries working in the Botanic Gardens of Amsterdam observed species changes in fields of primroses, which he thought came in spurts (Mendl had called these spurts mutations). After examining thousands of plants in eight generations, de Vries noted eight completely new types or species from which he deduced mutation theory.
The author summarizes much iconoclastic work over the centuries with a wonderful quote from Francis Bacon: “The understanding must be stretched and enlarged to take the image of the universe as it is discovered.”
Shippen finishes her review, by pointing to a few of the many biologic questions which remained unanswered at the time of her writing, such as:
• How are the nine essential elements united to form protoplasm?
• Can protoplasm be artificially created?
• Is there a biochemical basis for human consciousness, memory, and thinking?
Teacher and museum curator, Shippen concluded that the biology of Life should be studied with the humility that acknowledges how much we have left to learn. Men, Microscopes, and Living Things has much to offer those curious about biology, at any age. As the William Harvey chapter was for me, Katherine Shippen’s review of biological history may serve as a stimulus to delve more deeply into specific areas of interest.
December 12, 2019
Newbery Challenge 186/415. This history of science, more specifically biology, was written in 1955 and highlights one scientist per chapter. It was a little dry and, obviously, outdated. I recently read A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson, which is a history of science written for adults. I was pleased to recognized nearly all of the scientists and discoveries in this book from Bryson’s book. I would say if you are interested in learning about the history of biology, get the children’s edition (they made one for kids) of Bryson’s book instead. It is much more enjoyable.
October 4, 2024
3.5 really, or maybe even 4…. It’s just an overview of the history of science really and that’s all it’s meant to be. Sabbath Mood Science uses it as their spine text for Intro to Biology. It’s a very simple and easy to read book. First published in 1955.
May 19, 2020
Jacob read for Sabbathmood science Y7 AO. He learned from it but would like to try a different science curriculum for next year...krb 5/18/20
July 3, 2022
A good, living book about the history of biology. Focus on each individual’s contribution to scientific advancement. The theory of evolution is regarded as factual.
December 28, 2022
This was engagingly written and understandable. I enjoyed this look at the development of the study of biology and the advancements made once microscopes were invented.
November 29, 2023
A history of various scientists throughout the century and their various studies and ideas. I don't understand how anyone can look at the brilliance and intricacies of life and think it all just randomly happened. It seems sad to me to take away credit from God who created everything and instead believe in random chance. The other think I kept thinking of is how science is always changing, and scientists are always proving previous ideas wrong. But God never changes. He is constant. I find so much comfort in that.
I think I would have liked Linnaeus, though. I can imagine him, enthusiastic teacher out in the garden with all his students, teaching them with his parrot on his shoulder.
I think I would have liked Linnaeus, though. I can imagine him, enthusiastic teacher out in the garden with all his students, teaching them with his parrot on his shoulder.
August 18, 2020
3 stars. If this book is considered as a work of the 1950s then it is a more than decent overview of the biological sciences to date. It tracks progress from the natural philosophers of ancient Greece (Aristotle et al.), to the natural historians of ancient Rome (Pliny) into the monastic herbals of the Middle Ages, and the slow blossoming of Science (!) during the Renaissance up to today (1950s). It hits all the high points of organization and classification, evolution, and heredity and genetics. As one might suspect from the time period it's eurocentric (although Moors/Muslims were the great physicians of the 15th-17th centuries) and completely male focused - there is no mention of midwifery and female herbalists even as an aside re: the monastic herbals of the Middle Ages. One can argue that those women and non-Christians were nameless and thus had no contributions..... I'm actually glad it stopped before Crick and Watson's accredited discoveries of DNA and RNA - which were based on Rosalind Franklin's unrecognized work in crystallography. I read this for my 2020 Reading Challenge (52 Wks "by author you previously disliked" - this one was more readable and less boring) and my Newbery Challenge (Honor 1956). Read via Internet Archive/Open Library since it was OOP and not available via ILL due to Covid 19.
January 13, 2015
This book could also be called 'A Brief History of European Biology through the 19th century.'
Since the book was published in the 1950s, there are some things in the book which are false which the books says 'Now in modern days we know this to be true.' Things like Amoebas and Protozoans being animals, for example.
Also, there are huge under-exaggerations of the time and efforts and understandings of many of the scientists here. The author clearly did not understand a lot of the chemistry and biochemistry and all that. I am not sure, but the author seems to be a biologist.
ALSO, it seems that to him, and maybe this is how it was 60 years ago, biology is mostly looking at things under more and more powerful microscopes and guessing how things work. He mentioned that one guy used math (and rather basic math I might add - just adding and multiplying fractions where the denominator is a power of 2) and no one thought that biology and math should mix. But he never went on to explain that math is used in biology. Maybe this guy was a Naturalist? Going around collecting plants and giving them scientific names? It seems that this was the big accomplishment this guy thinks Biologists should be most proud of.
And lastly, he REALLY gleamed over the stuff done between the mid-eighteen hundreds and the mid-nineteen hundreds. Oh, well.
The first part of the book was actually quite interesting. It was laughable at the way Europeans viewed the world and learning during the Dark Ages. Yikes!
Anyway, good easy read - but not precise enough for me. Not a surprise there though. :-)
Since the book was published in the 1950s, there are some things in the book which are false which the books says 'Now in modern days we know this to be true.' Things like Amoebas and Protozoans being animals, for example.
Also, there are huge under-exaggerations of the time and efforts and understandings of many of the scientists here. The author clearly did not understand a lot of the chemistry and biochemistry and all that. I am not sure, but the author seems to be a biologist.
ALSO, it seems that to him, and maybe this is how it was 60 years ago, biology is mostly looking at things under more and more powerful microscopes and guessing how things work. He mentioned that one guy used math (and rather basic math I might add - just adding and multiplying fractions where the denominator is a power of 2) and no one thought that biology and math should mix. But he never went on to explain that math is used in biology. Maybe this guy was a Naturalist? Going around collecting plants and giving them scientific names? It seems that this was the big accomplishment this guy thinks Biologists should be most proud of.
And lastly, he REALLY gleamed over the stuff done between the mid-eighteen hundreds and the mid-nineteen hundreds. Oh, well.
The first part of the book was actually quite interesting. It was laughable at the way Europeans viewed the world and learning during the Dark Ages. Yikes!
Anyway, good easy read - but not precise enough for me. Not a surprise there though. :-)
September 6, 2011
Loved these books when I was a kid. Wanted to be a doctor, so the history and stories of physicians interested me.
April 16, 2015
Dated now; style is traditional view of 1950s when it was written. Covers western science.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews