The Secular Ark: Studies in the History of Biogeography

by Janet Browne

276 pages, Hardcover

First published September 10, 1983

About the author

Elizabeth Janet Browne (née Bell, born 30 March 1950) is a British historian of science, known especially for her work on the history of 19th century biology. She taught at the Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine, University College, London, before returning to Harvard. She is currently Aramont Professor of the History of Science at Harvard University

Reviews

[Jared · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this a thrilling read. Browne deftly traces the transition in scientific thought from early modern understandings of the geographical distribution of plants and animals that relied on biblical notions of Noah’s ark (all species spread from a post-diluvian Ararat) to Darwin’s conceptions that integrated earlier work in geological time and species variation to develop his new theories of adaption At every point, Browne makes the scientific stakes of the research, the questions, clear, rendering the rather specialized debates readily apparent. As I grow interested in biogeography, this has been the most helpful historical primer yet.

[Hannah]

I will read anything with "biogeography" in the title. The Da Vinci Biogeography, Sisterhood of the Traveling Biogeography, Biogeography by Stephenie Meyer.

[Francesc Mesquita-Joanes · Rating 4 out of 5]

A detailed account of the origins of biogeography thinking, since the initial religious ideas of Linnaeus and others in relation to Noah's Ark and the Deluge (notwithstanding clever explanations of altitudinal distributions and climatic matching of species in mont Ararat), to the evolutionary view of Darwin and Wallace. Especially interesting to see how Darwin's ideas were developing and mutating after the influence of Lyell's land masses movements (uplift, subsidence) changing distribution patterns, later modified by his experimental results on dispersal through salt water and then considering divergence and selection. A rich prose, although not very catchy. Very well documented, but a bit verbose sometimes. Anyway, a good read for anyone intersted in the history of natural sciences.