Darwin and the iceberg theory
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 20475922 |
|---|---|
| Authors | William C Mills (Aston University, corresponding author), William Mills (The Library, University of Aston, Birmingham) |
| Editors | Reginald Victor Jones (The Library, University of Aston, Birmingham), William Drummond MacDonald Paton (The Library, University of Aston, Birmingham) |
| Year | 1983 |
| Volume | 38 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 109-127 |
| Publication date | 1983-08-31 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Notes and Records the Royal Society Journal of the History of Science (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0035-9149 • E-ISSN: 1743-0178 |
| Publisher | Royal Society (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1098/rsnr.1983.0004 |
| OpenAlex | W2015146999 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
On 26 April 1858, Charles Darwin wrote to J. D. Hooker: I have just had the innermost cockles of my heart rejoiced by a letter from Lyell. I said to him (or he to me) that I believed from the character of the flora of the Azores, that icebergs must have been stranded there; and that I expected erratic boulders would be detected embedded between the upheaved lava-beds; and I got Lyell to write to Hartung to ask, and now H. [artung] says my question explains what had astounded him, viz. large boulders (and some polished) of mica-schist, quartz, sandstone, &c., some embedded, and some 40 and 50 feet above the level of the sea, so that he had inferred that they had not been brought as ballast. Is this not beautiful? (1). D arw in’s delight is understandable. N ot only, on the basis of his knowledge of the flora of the Azores, had he been able to predict H artung’s discovery — a prediction which provided yet further support for his theory of the origin of species — but the discovery seemed also to offer a conclusive test case in favour of another of his pet theories; that which forms the subject of this paper (2)
Archaeology · Art history · Character (mathematics) · Darwin (ADL) · Flora (microbiology) · Subject (documents) · Computer Science · Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies · Genetic diversity and population structure · Geology · History · Mathematics · Paleontology · Philosophy · Plant and animal studies
| Citations per year | 0.33 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2023 - 2023 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |