Volume 26, Number 8 · May 17, 1979
Exultation and Explanation
By Stephen Jay Gould
The Kindly Fruits of the Earth: Recollections of an Embryo Ecologist
by G. Evelyn Hutchinson
Yale University Press, 264 pp., $18.50
An Introduction to Population Ecology
by G. Evelyn Hutchinson
Yale University Press, 260 pp., $17.50
G. Evelyn Hutchinson, Sterling Professor of Zoology Emeritus at Yale, is unquestionably the world's greatest living ecologist. In his most famous article—entitled 'Homage to Santa Rosalia, or why are there so many kinds of animals?'—Hutchinson emphasizes the fundamental theme of ecology by citing an anecdote of J.B.S. Haldane. The great British biologist 'found himself in the company of a group of theologians. On being asked what one could conclude as to the nature of the Creator from a study of his creation, Haldane is said to have answered, 'An inordinate fondness for beetles.''[1]
Review, 2844 words
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