On Growth and Form by D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson (PDF)

Description

This book of mine has little need of preface, for indeed it is “all preface” from beginning to end. I have written it as an easy introduction to the study of organic Form, by methods which are the common-places of physical science, which are by no means novel in their application to natural history, but which nevertheless naturalists are little accustomed to employ.It is not the biologist with an inkling of mathematics, but the skilled and learned mathematician who must ultimately deal with such problems as are merely sketched and adumbrated here. I pretend to no math­e­mat­i­cal skill, but I have made what use I could of what tools I had; I have dealt with simple cases, and the math­e­mat­i­cal methods which I have introduced are of the easiest and simplest kind. Elementary as they are, my book has not been written without the help—the indispensable help—of many friends. Like Mr Pope translating Homer, when I felt myself deficient I sought assistance! And the experience which Johnson attributed to Pope has been mine also, that men of learning did not refuse to help me.My debts are many, and I will not try to proclaim them all: but I beg to record my particular obligations to Professor Claxton Fidler, Sir George Greenhill, Sir Joseph Larmor, and Professor A. McKenzie; to a much younger but very helpful friend, Mr John Marshall, Scholar of Trinity; lastly, and (if I may say so) most of all, to my colleague Professor William Peddie, whose advice has made many useful additions to my book and whose criticism has spared me many a fault and blunder.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐Medium grey print on a light grey background does not offer enough contrast to the human eye for ready recognition. The actual letters of the words appear to have uneven edges to them. Thus this does not qualify as a book, but only as a “book-like object”. Alas, it is too small for a doorstep and too large to even up a wobbly set of table legs. Its only useful function in our house is as fireplace kindling…but very expensive kindling at that.On the last page is an imprint that indicates that this “book” was manufactured after I ordered it. Clearly this is a reconstruction from stored photographic or digital images. I am not against new technology per se, but it should produce a result at least as good as the technology it replaces. This does not.Another person to offer comments as far back as July, 2011, (Sarah) pointed out this defective presentation of grey on grey, and yet you have been incapable or unwilling to respond to her critique in the two years since it was posted. Do you even read these comments? I ordered a book; instead you sent me an experience of frustration and dismay. I ordered a book; you sent me an optical illusion of a book.

⭐I’ve had this book out from the library so many times that when I saw that it was so affordable on amazon I bought it quickly. However, this edition is some kind of amateur scan (it even has the strange vertical banding of cheap scanners), making it basically unreadable. After 5 minutes of trying to read the faded text on the 50% grey background I just gave up… It seems like it would have been easy to make a reader friendly reproduction of a fantastic classic. Somebody seriously cheaped out.

⭐This is a seminal, inspiring and extraordinary sourcebook. Life has been discovering, inventing myriad design solutions for 3.5 billion years here, each exquisitely adapted to every biological niche imaginable. Thompson thoughtfully takes you through the logic, geometry, economy, elegance and beauty of those solutions. A key source book, it inspired Thomas Edison and Buckminster Fuller. It remains essential today, as we begin to understand how crucial to our future is the design of sustainable buildings, habitats, cities and ecosystems. As Janine Benyus says, We are part of nature; we have much to learn from her. D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson gives us a good foundation with which to begin.

⭐This wonderful book contains in its original form more than a thousand clearly written pages, and over five hundred illustrations. The poor excuse of a book, facsimile copy I got for ~12$ contains less than three hundred pages, and in its black and white printed form (opposed the full color online view) is barely readable. Check the number of pages in the book version offered before you buy !Amazon should do a better job at separating this inadequate version from the original.Having paid only <12$, it would be more expensive to return the book than keep it, so I just ordered a different version. I hope this time it would be the appropriate one. ⭐A pesar de haberse escrito hace ya algún tiempo, la validez de sus postulados fundamentales se mantiene ⭐ ⭐This is an essential book for designers. It has value and significance in relation to almost every aspect of creative evolution. This man was a great genius.It inspired the field of morphology. Check that one out. ⭐This is the abridged version, which may be a better introduction than reading the 1000+ page original volume. ⭐Incredible little book arrived in very good condition ⭐Very disappointing. This is an abruptly and arbitrarily truncated small portion of photocopied pages from an early edition of the book - less than 25% of the complete work, or 18% depending on whether it was taken from the 1917 or 1942 edition (we are not even told which). In addition, the copying was implemented in a generally careless fashion, as follows:1) Only the first 200 pages are included, thus missing the major part of the original.2) No Index or table of contents.3) No preface or foreword, or explanation of any reason for the abridgement, or even any summary of the missing content.4) Very poor quality printing - grimy low-contrast photo-reproduction.5) The didn't even get the pagination correct; it is printed with odd pages on the left, even on the right.6) Over 100 pages of the 200 are taken up with Chapter 3, which was deleted from the 1961 Cambridge edition as being obsolete in the light of subsequent research.Anyone wanting this excellent and important book would be much better advised to seek a secondhand copy of the Cambridge 1961 / 1966 abridged edition. At 345 pages, this has been intelligently edited to preserve the essence of the original while removing repetitive or outdated material (with a full explanation of the decisions taken). ⭐I wish I had read the previous customer reviews. Not only is it an abridged edition, the quality of the printing is so poor (black lettering on a grey stippled background) that it is almost impossible to read for people with less than perfect eyesight.This is the first time ever I feel ripped off by Amazon (and the unnamed publisher of this poor edition) and unfortunately I am too late to exercise my right to return the book.I am truly disappointed, the more so since I learned there are free, good quality unabridged versions available on the web. ⭐Husband has been after this for ages..really pleased with it! ⭐Virtually unreadable. Unbelievably badly printed on a sort of grey paper. Probably the worst book I have ever had. The cover is the only part printed well. ⭐THIS IS NOT THE STANDARD EDITION OF THE BOOK, and is far too abridged and contains almost no diagrams!Anyone who has read a proper edition will tell you this is an amazing work full of beautiful biological illustrations... This is NOT that edition!This warning only applies to the Createspace edition, and not the Canto one (which is great, but more expensive)

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