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Also known as Zoonomia. Or the Laws of Organic Life

Zoonomia; or the Laws of Organic Life (1794–96) is a two-volume medical work by Erasmus Darwin dealing with pathology, anatomy, psychology, and the functioning of the body. Its primary framework is one of associationist psychophysiology. The book is now best remembered for its early ideas relating to the theory of evolution, specifically forms of developmentalism similar to Lamarckism. However, despite Erasmus Darwin's familial connection as grandfather to Charles Darwin, the proto-evolutionary ideas in Zoonomia did not have a lasting influence.

Key facts

Book.author
Erasmus Darwin
Book.pub_date
1794
Book.caption
title page of the 1803 edition
Book.image
Zoonomia title.PNG

via Wikipedia infobox

~6 min read

Encyclopedic overview

9 sections
Contents
  • Summary
  • Relevance to evolution
  • Key quotes
  • Inheritance of acquired characteristics
  • Influence
  • Genomic Sequence Alignment Project
  • References
  • Further reading
  • External links

Zoonomia; or the Laws of Organic Life (1794–96) is a two-volume medical work by Erasmus Darwin dealing with pathology, anatomy, psychology, and the functioning of the body. Its primary framework is one of associationist psychophysiology. The book is now best remembered for its early ideas relating to the theory of evolution, specifically forms of developmentalism similar to Lamarckism. However, despite Erasmus Darwin's familial connection as grandfather to Charles Darwin, the proto-evolutionary ideas in Zoonomia did not have a lasting influence.

==Summary==

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Zoonomia” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

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