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The Farm of Birds' Eggs

Abstract

IN NATURE of June 4 (pp. 111–3), in a paper by Prof. D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson read before the Zoological Society, April 28, the way in which form in birds' eggs is to be accounted for is discussed. Referring to the accepted causes of variation in form of eggs, Prof. Thompson says:—“Whatever truth there be in these apparent adaptations to existing circumstances, it is only by a very hasty logic that we can accept them as a vera causa or adequate explanation of the facts; and it is obvious to my mind that in attempting to deal with the forms assumed by matter, whether in the organic or the inorganic world, we ought first to attempt to deal on simple physical lines with the forces to which it has been subjected, that is to say, the intrinsic forces of growth acting from within, and the forces of tension and pressure that may have acted from without”.

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HORWOOD, A. The Farm of Birds' Eggs. Nature 78, 246 (1908). https://doi.org/10.1038/078246a0

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