3. Goodhill, Olivia, “A civil servant missing most of his brain challenges our most basic theories of consciousness,” Quartz, July 2, 2016, http://qz.com/722614/a-civil-servant-missing-most-of-his-brain-challenges-our-most-basic-theories-of-consciousness/
This situation is similar to but not identical with that experienced by some children born with hydrocephalus as reported in “My baby’s head keeps growing,” on The Learning Channel on July 25, 2016, and for infants born with Zika.
4. “A history of the heart,” http://web.stanford.edu/class/history13/earlysciencelab/body/heartpages/heart.html
5. “Wake Forest Physician Reports First Human Recipients of Laboratory-Grown Organs,” Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, http://www.wakehealth.edu/News-Releases/2006/Wake_Forest_Physician_Reports_First_Human_Recipients_of_Laboratory-Grown_Organs.htm
6. “Nine Swedish Women Undergo Uterine Transplants,” CBSNews.com, http://www.cbsnews.com/news/nine-swedish-women-undergo-uterus-transplants/
7. From the Greek and Latin spleen meaning the milt, the part of the fish’s testes holding sperm. For those adhering to the Hippocratic theory of the four humors [Chapter 1, “Hide and Seek”], the spleen was “[r]egarded in medieval physiology as the seat of morose feelings and bad temper. Hence figurative sense of ‘violent ill-temper’ (1580s, implied in spleenful); and thence spleenless ‘free from anger, ill-humor, malice, or spite’ (1610s).” OnlineEtymologyDictionary.com, http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=spleen
8. The number varies, sometimes even in two different entries on the same site such as “Digestive Disorders Health Center,” WebMD, http://www.webmd.com/digestive-disorders/picture-of-the-spleen
9. “Splenectomy,” WebMD.com, http://www.webmd.com/digestive-disorders/splenectomy
10. Darwin, op. cit.
11. The female platypus doesn’t have nipples, either. She secretes milk through openings in her skin.
12. “Jack Newman, MD, IBCLC,” BreastFeedingonline, http://www.breastfeedingonline.com/newman.shtml#sthash.2Fi3SaLt.dpbs
13. Swaminathan, Nikhil, “Strange but true: males can lactate,” ScientificAmerican, September 6, 2007, http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/strange-but-true-males-can-lactate/
14. Ghose, Tia, “Does Circumcision Hurt Sexual Pleasure? Study Draws Fire,” Livescience.com, http://www.livescience.com/27769-does-circumcision-reduce-sexual-pleasure.html
15. “Anticircumcision lobby groups,” circinfo.net, http://www.circinfo.net/anti_circumcision_lobby_groups.html
16. “Newborn Male Circumcision,” American Academy of Pediatrics, Circumcision.aspx?nfstatus=401&nftoken=00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000&nfstatusdescription=ERROR:+No+local+token
17. Darwin, Charles, The Descent of Man, http://infidels.org/library/historical/charles_darwin/descent_of_man/chapter_01.html
18. Ibid.
19. “The vesicula prostatica [sometimes known as the vagina masculina], which has been observed in many male mammals, is now universally acknowledged to be the homologue of the female uterus, together with the connected passage. It is impossible to read Leuckart’s [German zoologist Rudolf Leuckart (1822-1898), who created the modern science of parasitology] able description of this organ, and his reasoning, without admitting the justness of his conclusion. This is especially clear in the case of those mammals in which the true female uterus bifurcates, for in the males of these the vesicula likewise bifurcates.” Darwin, op. cit.
20. In regard to this tissue, Darwin cites both Leuckart in Todd’s Cyclopaedia of Anatomy, 1849-1852 (“In man this organ is only from three to six lines in length, but, like so many other rudimentary parts, it is variable in development as well as in other characters”) and Anatomy of Vertebrates, the work of Richard Owen, the man who claimed to have preceded Darwin with the idea of natural selection (see Chapter 5, Blink! ) Darwin, op. cit.
21. Sekimoto, Hiroyuki, “Plant Sex Pheromones,” ScienceDirect, http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0083672905720136 & “Pheromones,” oilsandplants.com, http://www.oilsandplants.com/pheromones.htm
22. Rinzler, Carol Ann, Leonardo’s Foot, New York: Bellevue Literary Press, 2013
23. Meredith, Michael, “Human Vomeronasal Organ Function: A Critical Review of Best and Worst Cases,” Chemical Senses (2001) 26 (4): 433-445. http://chemse.oxfordjournals.org/content/26/4/433.full
8. Future Man
1. “Russian famine of 1601–03,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_famine_of_1601
2. Huaynaputina was the “site of a single catastrophic eruption of VEI 6 in 1600, which was remarkable not only for its size and as the only major explosive eruption in historic times in the Central Andes, but also for its impact on global climate. The eruption lasted from February 19 to March 6, and consisted of a plinian eruption, dome building, and collapse. The eruption completely destroyed the pre-1600 edifice which was described as ‘a low ridge in the centre of a sierra’. Ash from the eruption is widespread and still mantles much of the surrounding countryside as far as Arequipa, 80 km away. On a global scale, the following summers were some of the coldest in the last 500 years. Sulfur aerosols erupted from Huaynaputina are thought to have entered the Earth’s atmosphere and reflected sunlight, resulting in this global temperature drop. In the Greenland ice core acidity profile, the eruption produced an acid spike larger in magnitude than the Krakatau [sic]1883 eruption … and remarkable optical effects were reported from the northern hemisphere in 1601…. From the ice cores it is estimated that 32 MT [metric tons] of sulfur were erupted, while petrologic estimates indicate that most of this sulfur did not exist in the Huaynaputina magma (only 2-4 Mt), but may have come from a coexisting vapor phase or a hydrothermal system.” “Huaynaputina,” http://volcano.oregonstate.edu/oldroot/CVZ/huaynaputina/index.html
3. Derbyshire, David, “Evolution stops here: Future Man will look the same, says scientist,” The Daily Mail, October 7, 2008, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1070671/Evolution-stops-Future-Man-look-says-scientist.html#ixzz43rK2nIou
4. Owen, James, “Future Humans: Four Ways We May, or May Not, Evolve,” National Geographic News, November 24, 2009, http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/11/091124-origin-of-species-150-darwin-human-evolution.html
5. Wade, Nicholas, “How Did People Migrate to the Americas? Bison DNA Helps Chart the Way,” the New York Times, August 10, 2016, http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/11/science/how-did-people-migrate-to-the-americas-bison-dna-helps-chart-the-way.html?hpw&rref=science&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well
6. Owen, op. cit.
7. Derbyshire, op. cit.
8. Schilthuizen, Menno, “Evolution Is Happening Faster Than We Thought,” the New York Times, July 23, 2016, http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/24/opinion/sunday/evolution-is-happening-faster-than-we-thought.html
9. Jabrh, Ferris, “Urban Ecologists Are Studying How Wildlife Have Evolved to Fit Their City Environment, Block by Block,” New York Magazine, http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/01/uptown-mice-are-different-from-downtown-mice.html
10. Ibid.
11. Ibid.
12. Bilger, Burkhard, “The Height Gap, Why Europeans are getting taller and taller and Americans aren’t,” the New Yorker, April 5, 2004, http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2004/04/05/the-height-gap
13. Ibid.
14. “Achievements in Public Health, 1900-1999: Healthier Mothers and Babies,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm4838a2.htm
15. Mathews,T.J., MacDorman, Marian F., “Infant Mortality Statistics from the 2010 Period Linked Birth/Infant Death Data Set,” National Vital Statistics Report, Volume 62, Number 8, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, December 18, 2013, http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr62/nvsr62_08.pdf
16. Murphy, S.L., Xu, J.Q., Kochanek, K.D., “Deaths: Final data for 2010,” National Vital Statistics Reports, 61 (4), Hyattsville, MD: NCHS; 2012, http://www.cdc.g
ov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr61/nvsr61_04.pdf.
17. Owen, op. cit.
18. “Beyond our Lizard Brain,” The American Museum of Natural History, http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/brain-the-inside-story/your-emotional-brain/beyond-our-lizard-brain
19. “ Brain size,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain_size
20. Zimmer, Carl, “Updated Brain Map Identifies Nearly 100 New Regions,” the New York Times, July 20, 2016, http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/21/science/human-connectome-brain-map.html?login=email&hpw&rref=science&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0&mtrref=www.nytimes.com
21. Stiles, Anne, “Literature in Mind: H. G. Wells and the Evolution of the Mad Scientist,” Project Muse, http://muse.jhu.edu/article/261981/pdf
22. Lamm, Nickolay, “What Would Barbie Look Like As an Average Woman?” December 22, 2013, http://nickolaylamm.com/art-for-clients/what-would-Barbie-look-like-as-an-average-woman/
23. Olson, Parmy, “What human faces might look like in 100,000 years,” the Guardian, September 18, 2013, https://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/sep/18/human-faces-in-the-future
24. “The English bulldog is one of the most popular breeds in the world because of its child-like appearance and demeanor. The alterations in body type and behavior needed to create the breed have required physical changes well beyond its village dog ancestors. These changes have occurred over hundreds of years but have become particularly rapid over the last decades. Unfortunately, popularity does not equate to health and there have been increasing pressures on breeders to moderate the extreme physical changes that now affect the breed and its health … [with the l]oss of genetic diversity is also pronounced in the region of the genome that contains many of the genes that regulate normal immune responses. The loss of genetic diversity and extreme changes in various regions of the genome will make it very difficult to improve breed health from within the existing gene pool…. Furthermore, other issues in English bulldogs need to be addressed, including many serious health problems that are not associated with brachycephaly [shortened head], but are intrinsic to inbreeding.” Pedersen, Neils, P., Pooch, Ashley H., Liu, Hongwei, “A genetic assessment of the English bulldog,” Canine Genetics and Epidemiology, July 26, 2016, https://cgejournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40575-016-0036-y
25. Shapiro, H.L., Man—500,000 Years From Now, A Scientific Attempt to Forecast What May Occur in the Future Evolution of Man, Natural History, http://www.naturalhistorymag.com/picks-from-the-past/151691/man-500000-years-from-now?page=2
26. American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition, 2011, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, http://www.thefreedictionary.com/transhumanisthttp://www.thefreedictionary.com/transhumanist
27. Owen, op. cit.
28. Darwin’s statement of the possible power of mind antedated Sigmund Freud’s writings, but Freud himself was captivated by Darwin’s research, which he regarded as one of the three most important influences on man’s self-esteem and view of himself as the center of the universe. As he wrote in the 18th lecture in the series that became A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis (1915-1917): “Humanity has in the course of time had to endure from the hands of science two great outrages upon its naive self-love. The first was when it realized that our earth was not the center of the universe, but only a tiny speck in a world-system of a magnitude hardly conceivable; this is associated in our minds with the name of Copernicus, although Alexandrian doctrines taught something very similar. The second was when biological research robbed man of his peculiar privilege of having been specially created, and relegated him to a descent from the animal world, implying an ineradicable animal nature in him: this transvaluation has been accomplished in our own time upon the instigation of Charles Darwin, [Alfred Russel] Wallace [(1823 – 1913), the British naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist, and biologist, who published a paper on natural selection with some of Charles Darwin’s writings in 1858] and their predecessors, and not without the most violent opposition from their contemporaries. But man’s craving for grandiosity is now suffering the third and most bitter blow from present-day psychological research which is endeavoring to prove to the ‘ego’ of each one of us that he is not even master in his own house, but that he must remain content with the veriest scraps of information about what is going on unconsciously in his own mind. We psychoanalysts were neither the first nor the only ones to propose to mankind that they should look inward; but it appears to be our lot to advocate it most insistently and to support it by empirical evidence which touches every man closely.” Sigmund Freud, “An Introduction to Psychoanalysis,” Project Gutenberg, http://www.gutenberg.org/files/38219/38219-h/38219-h.htm
Read more about it
Few of us have the intelligence or good fortune to coin a phrase that remains part of the language forever and ever. Journalist Alvin Toffler (1928–2016) was one such inventive fellow. In his 1972 best seller, Future Shock, Toffler wrote that to survive we humans will require not so much an evolving body or brain as an evolving attitude that enables us to “become infinitely more adaptable and capable than ever before. We must search out totally new ways to anchor ourselves, for all the old roots—religion, nation, community, family, or profession—are now shaking under the hurricane impact of the accelerative thrust. It is no longer resources that limit decisions, it is the decision that makes the resources.” Arguing that modern society faces a transformative revolution of social and technological change, Toffler blamed the stress in the 1970s on information overload. More than forty years later, as we juggle cell phones and remotes and tablets and computers, his phrase, the condition, and its social sequelae remain, requiring, as Toffler prophesized, our continuing adaptation to a constantly changing 24/7 world.
9. Postscript
1. Francis Darwin was Charles’s third son and seventh child. A botanist, he collaborated with his father on experiments that led to their joint authorship of The Power of Movement in Plants (1880), in which they reported the phenomenon of grass seedlings’ leaning toward and growing toward light, i.e., phototropism. Francis was a fellow of the Linnean Society and the Royal Society and the editor of The Autobiography of Charles Darwin (1887), The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin (1887), and More Letters of Charles Darwin (1905), as well as Thomas Huxley’s On the Reception of the Origin of Species (1887).
2. “The Eugenics Society was founded in 1907 as the Eugenics Education Society…. [The geneticist Francis] Galton, who had coined the term ‘eugenics’ to refer to human selective breeding, was elected its first president. Its declared aims were to ‘bring all matters pertaining to human parenthood under the domination of eugenic ideals’ and to ‘effect improvement of the race’ through knowledge of the laws of heredity.” “Codebreakers: Makers of Modern Genetics, The Eugenics Society Archive,” The Wellcome Library, http://wellcomelibrary.org/collections/digital-collections/makers-of-modern-genetics/digitised-archives/eugenics-society/
3. “ Zoonomia,” Wikipedia.com, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoonomia
4. A reproduction copy of Zoonomia is currently available on Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/Zoonomia-Erasmus-Darwin/dp/1248111-737. The book is also one of the 52,238 Ebooks, including five by Erasmus Darwin, offered free at Project Gutenberg, where you can choose to read it online or download it with or without images to your desktop or Kindle device. As of June 12, 2016, it had been downloaded 73 times within the last 30 days. (http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/15707?msg=welcome_stranger)
5. “Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802),” http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/Edarwin.html
6. Ibid.
7. Scoville, Heather, Darwin, Erasmus, About Education.com http://evolution.about.com/od/scientists/p/Erasmus-Darwin.htm
8. Darwin, Charles, The Life of Erasmus Darwin, http://www.amazon.com/Charles-Darwins-Life-Erasmus-Darwin/dp/0521298741
9. van Wyhe, John, editor. 2002-. The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online. (
http://darwin-online.org.uk/) Darwin, George H. 1872. Development in dress. Macmillan Magazine 26: 410-416.http://darwin-online.org.uk/converted/Ancillary/1872_dress_A570.html
10. A lawyer as well as a scientist, George Darwin served as Professor of Astronomy and Experimental Philosophy at Cambridge. He was also a Fellow and eventually president of the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS), which founded a prize lectureship in 1984 and named it in his honor.
Index
A
ablepharia, 131
Adam’s apple, 173–174
Alder, Adam C., 39
Alexandria, 19
Alhabib, Mey, 155–156
American Academy of General Dentistry, 148
American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), 173
American Association of Oral Maxillofacial Surgeons, 153
American College of Veterinary Ophthalmologists (ACVO), 119
The American Journal of Science, 23
American Museum of Natural History, New York, 183
American Veterinary Medical Association, 82–83
Amyand, Claudius, 25, 28, 42
Anatomia Carpi (1535) (Carpi), 20
On the Anatomy of Vertebrates (1866) (Owen), 116
androgenic hair, 51
Animal Farm, 5, 75
apoptosis, 86
Appendicite et perityphlite (1892) (Talamon), 26–27
appendix, 4–5
and diet, 33–37
and Egyptian mummies, 15–19
false diagnoses and folk remedies, 21–23
famous physicians and patients, 13–15
form follows function, 31–33
and germ theory, 37–40
Spare Parts Page 22
