The Case of the Midwife Toad

by Arthur Koestler

Book Overview

During his 30-plus years of writing, Arthur Koestler has covered a wide range of modern problems from brainwashing in totalitarian societies to the conflict between science & religion & , most... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0394480376
• ISBN13: 9780394480374
• Release Date: January 1971
• Publisher: Not Avail
• Length: 187 Pages
• Weight: 1.03 lbs.

Customer Reviews

synchronicity

The other reviewers commented on the main subject of this book - the question of inheritance. However, the Appendix has a fascinating account of Kammerer's work on serial coincidence, of "like and like" happening together. Kammerer spent long walks observing people and things, and determined that similar events happen together. For example, in one of his files he notes, two soldiers, both 19 years old, both born in Silesia, both volunteers in the transport corps, both admitted to the same hospital in 1915, both victims of pneumonia, and both named Franz Richter. He found lots of these coincidences, and claimed that this is the way the world is structured. In fact, these are not coincidences, but evidence of "The Law of the Series." Sounds weird, but he took this seriously. The Appendix in The Case of the Mid Wife Toad gives an account of this bizarre research project of Paul Kammerer.

A work on the politics of evolutionary theory.

Arthur Koestler has distinguished himself with this fine work, which recounts the scientific research of Paul Kammerer on evolution and its impact on the scientific community of the time. Kammerer's laboratory experiments appeared to reinforce the discredited Lamarckian theory which preceded Darwin's. This book provides fascinating insights into the politics of science, and the consequences of challenging scientific orthodoxy. Koestler paints a poignant yet uncommitted picture of the consequences Kammerer's experiments had on his professional and personal life.

An excellent book about how science gets done.

This little gem by well-known novelist Arthur Koestler is a biography of a biologist who claims to have produced evidence that acquired characteristics can be inherited. The story is well written, and leaves the reader enough leeway to form their own opinion on the validity of the science involved. The claims of inheritance are as heretical to biologists as the claims of Robert Gentry in his book _Creation's Tiny Mystery_ are to geologists. I would strongly recommend both books to anyone interested in the way scientists interact with each other, and with the political forces which influence their funding and publication.