Abstract
Throughout the 1930s, Joseph Needham (1900—) was the foremost champion of chemical embryology. During the period 1931–1942 he authored three large books, Chemical Embryology, A History of Embryology, and Biochemistry and Morphogenesis (1); a series of collaborative papers on “Physico-chemical experiments on the amphibian organizer” (2); and many annual reviews of this field for the Annual Review of Biochemistry.
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Notes and References
Needham, J., 1931, Chemical Embryology, 3 volumes, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Needham, J., 1934, A History of Embryology, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Needham, J., 1942, Biochemistry and Morphogenesis, Yale University Press, New Haven, CT.
The first paper was Waddington, C., Needham, J., and Moyle, D., 1934, Physico-chemical experiments on the amphibian organizer, Proc. Roy. Soc. B 114:393–422. For broader context and references to other collaborative papers throughout the 1930s
Abir-Am, P. G., 1988, The assessment of interdisciplinary research in the 1930s: The Rockefeller Foundation and physicochemical morphology, Minerva 26: 153–176.
Joseph Needham to Joseph Henri Woodger, June 16,1932, Joseph Needham’s Archive, Cambridge University Library, The Manuscript Room, Box 2.
See Abir-Am, 1988, especially pp. 170–172.
For an overview of Woodger’s career see Floyd, W. E, and Harris, F. T. C., 1964, Joseph Henri Woodger, curriculum vitae, in: Form and Strategy in Science, Essays in Honor of Joseph Henri Woodger on the Occasion of His Seventieth Birthday ( J. R. Gregg and F. T C. Harris, eds.), Reidel, Dordrecht, Holland, pp. 1–6.
For an overview of Needham’s career see Holorenshaw, H. [Needham’s pseudonym], 1973, The making of an honorary Taoist, in: R. Young and M. Teich (eds.) Changing Perspectives in the History of Science, Essays in honor of Joseph Needham, Heinemann, London, pp. 1–20. For Needham’s approach in comparison to other developmental biologists see Haraway, D. J., 1976, Crystals, Fabrics and Fields, Metaphors of Organicism in 20th Century Developmental Biology, Yale University Press, New Haven, CT; for Needham’s efforts to unify biochemistry and embryology see Abir-Am, P. G., The Biotheoretical Gathering in England, 1932–1938 and the origins of molecular biology, Ph.D. dissertation, University of Montreal, 1983/1984, parts of Chapters 3, 4, and 6.
See Abir-Am, P. G., 1987, The Biotheoretical Gathering, transdisciplinary authority and the incipient legitimation of molecular biology in the 1930s: New perspective on the historical sociology of science, Hist. Sci. 26: 1–70.
See Floyd and Harris, 1964.
For Przibram’s views on the relationships between physics and biology see his, 1929, Quanta in Biology, Proc. Roy. Soc. Edin. 49:224–231; 1922, Form und Formel im Tierreiche, Deuticke, Vienna.
Woodger’s survey of phenomenalism included, in addition to key exponent the physicist Ernst Mach, mostly biologist philosophers such as K. Pearson, M. Verworn, E Enriques, F. H. A. Marshall, E. W. Hobson, and J. von Uexkull.
Whitehead (together with Bertrand Russell) was the most frequent reference in Woodger’s 1929 Biological Principles (Harcourt, New York). Woodger referred especially to Whitehead’s Principles of Natural Knowledge (1925), Concept of Nature (1926), and Principle of Relativity (1922), all from Cambridge University Press, as among the most important, modern (i.e., post—World War I) philosophical works “read by men of science. ” See Biological Principles, p. 489.
For Whitehead’s expositions of the theory of relativity see note 11. See also Russell, B., 1927, The ABC of Relativity, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London; Eddington, A. S., 1929, The Nature of the Physical World, Hodder & Stoughton, London; 1922–1923, Discussion: the idealistic interpretation of Einstein’s theory, Proc. Aristotelian Soc. 22:124–138.
For Hopkins’ role in establishing biochemistry as a discipline in Britain see Needham, J., and Green, D. (eds.), 1938, Perspectives in Biochemistry, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge; Needham, J., and Baldwin, J. (eds.), 1949, Hopkins and Biochemistry, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Needham, J., 1981, Science in Traditional China, A Comparative Perspective, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, p. 1.
On the establishment of the first Chair of Biochemistry at Cambridge University see Kohler, R. E., 1978, Walter Fletcher, F. G. Hopkins and the Dunn Institute of Biochemistry, ISIS 69: 331–355.
Needham, J., 1925, The philosophical basis of biochemistry, Monist 35:27–48, including the recollections of lectures to medical students at Cambridge in 1922 during which Hopkins stated: “No longer must we draw the line between living and non-living substance; but between mind and body simply. Herein lies the achievement and aim of modern biochemistry. Upon this secure basis can begin an uncomplicated discussion of the physico-chemical problem.”
See Annual Review of Biochemistry, 1932— (Annual Reviews, Palo Alto, CA), especially the historical chapters since the 1950s
Bearman, D., and Edsall, J. T. (eds.), 1980, Archival Sources for the History of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, American Philosophical Society Library, Philadelphia
Kohler, R. E., 1982, From Medical Chemistry to Biochemistry, the Making of a Biomedical Discipline, Cambridge University Press, New York.
Thompson, D’A. W., 1917, On Growth and Form, (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge; abridged edition published in 1966). On the influence of D’Arcy Thompson on Needham and other members of the Biotheoretical Gathering see Whyte, L. (ed.), 1951, Aspects of Form in Art and Science, (Lund Humphries, London), Abir-Am, 1983/1984, Chapter 4, Section 4.1.g.
Needham, J., 1928, Recent developments in the philosophy of biology, Q. Rev. Biol. 3: 77–91.
Whitehead, 1925, 1926, 1929. See also Needham, J., 1941, A biologist’s view of Whitehead’s philosophy“ in the volume dedicated to Whitehead by the Library of Living Philosophers, (P. A. Schilpp, ed.), 1941, Northwestern University Press, Evanston, IL, reprinted in Needham, J., 1943, Time, the Refreshing River, Essays and Addresses, 1932–1942, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 178–206.
On Needham’s philosophy of biology in the 1930s see also Haraway, 1976, and Werskey, 1978.
Woodger to Needham, May 28,1928, unposted letter appended to Woodger’s letter to Needham of Oct. 8, 1928, Needham’s Archive, Box 2.
Needham to Woodger, Feb. 26, 1929, Needham’s Archive, Box 2. See also Needham’s correspondence on philosophical and theoretical embryology in the late 1920s with A. Meyer of Hamburg University and L. von Bertalanffy of Vienna University. See also Bertalanffy, L. von, 1933, Critical Theories of Development Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, translated into English by Woodger.
On Otto Warburg’s contributions to biochemistry see Krebs, H., and Schmid, R., 1981, Otto Warburg, Cell Physiologist, Biochemist, Eccentric, 1883–1970, Oxford University Press, New York
Benesch, R., 1978, From the murky past: Three episodes about Otto Warburg, Trends Biochem. Sci. 3:N-62; Warburg, 0., 1963, Experiments in biochemistry, Ann. Rev. Biochem. 33: 1–15.
See Enzymes, viruses and other proteins (essays in honor of J. H. Northrop), 1962, J. Gen. Physiol. 45 (Suppl): 1–265
Northrop, J. H., 1961, Biochemists, biologists and William of Occam, Annu. Rev. Biochem. 30: 1–10
Fruton, J. S., 1977, Fifty years ago: Willstatter’s lectures on enzymes, Trends Biochem. Sci. 2: 210–211
Nachmansohn, D., 1979, German-Jewish Pioneers in Science, Highlights in Atomic Physics, Chemistry and Biochemistry, 1900–1933, Verlag, New York.
Needham to Woodger, Feb. 26, 1929; the reference is to Vies and Gex’s paper, 1928, in C. R. Soc. Biol. 98: 853.
Woodger to Needham, Oct. 8, 1929, Needham’s Archive, Box 2.
See biographical documents in Needham’s Archive; also in Werskey, 1978, Chapter 2. 4.
See Needham, 1928, 1929.
Woodger, J. H., 1929, Some problems of biological methodology, Proc. Aristotelian Soc. 29: 331–358.
Needham to Woodger, Oct. 12, 1929, Needham’s Archive, Box 2
L. von Bertalanffy to J. Needham, Oct. 7, 1929, in Needham’s Archive, Box 2. For a retrospect on von Bertalanffy’s (19011972) various contributions to systems theory and theoretical biology see Gray, W., and Rizzo, N. D. (eds.), 1973, Unity through Diversity, A Festschrift for Ludwig von Bertalanffy, Gordon and Breach Science Publishers, New York, especially Kamaryt, J., From science to metascience and philosophy, pp. 75–100. The influence of von Bertalanffy’s Theoretical Biology (1932) on Woodger and Needham remains to be assessed.
Needham became the Dunn Reader in Biochemistry in January 1933, when the previous holder, J. B. S. Haldane (1890–1964) resigned on becoming Professor of Genetics at University College, London. However, after 1926, when he became Director of the John Iimes Horticulture Institute, Haldane’s interests had shifted increasingly toward genetics. Needham’s excitement at finally becoming the official “son” of his beloved professor, F. G. Hopkins, was conveyed in a letter to Woodger on Jan. 10, 1933, Needham’s Archive, Box 2.
Woodger to Needham, Jan. 25, 1930 (11 pp. letter), Needham’s Archive.
Woodger, J. H., 1931, The concept of “organism” and the relation between embryology and genetics, Q. Rev. Biol. 5:1–22, 483–463; ibid., 1932, 6: 178–207.
Peters, R. A., 1930, “Proteins and Cell Organization,” Trans. Faraday Soc. 26: 797.
Woodger to Needham, April 12, 1930, Needham’s Archive, Box 3.
Woodger to Needham, June 2, 1930, Needham’s Archive, Box 3: “I was disappointed in your review of my book in Mind, because you seem to have misunderstood my intentions to a greater extent that I should have expected. How appallingly difficult it is for human beings to communicate with one another.” Needham’s review was published in Mind, 1930, 39: 221–226
Woodger’s letter to the editor of Mind, G. E. Moore, complaining about Needham’s review appeared in Mind 1930, 39: 403–405.
Woodger’s review of Needham’s The Sceptical Biologist appeared in Mind, 1930 39:244–246.
Woodger’s letter to the editor of Mind. The reference was to Lewis, C. I., 1929, Mind and the World Order, Scribner’s, New York.
Woodger to Needham, Aug. 1, 1930, Needham’s Archive, Box 3.
Woodger to Needham, Oct. 2, 1932, Needham’s Archive, Box 3.
For further details see Abir-Am, 1987. For a retrospective view of the discovery of the organizer and its impact see Needham, J., 1968, Organizer phenomena after four decades: A retrospect, in: 1968, Haldane and Modern Biology ( K. Dronamraju, ed.), Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, pp. 227–267.
See also Medawar, P. B., 1965, A biological retrospect, Nature 207:1327–1331. or a contemporary view of approaching biological organization with physicochemical methods
Watson, D. L., 1931, Biological organization, Q. Rev. Biol. 5: 145–166.
Jeffreys, H., 1931, Scientific Inference, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Woodger to Needham, July 7, 1931, Needham’s Archive, Box 3.
Woodger to Needham, Jan. 8, 1932, Needham’s Archive, Box 3. The first meeting of the Bio-theoretical Gathering took place on Aug. 13–17, 1932; the negotiations over its organization started in April 1932; see details in Abir-Am, 1987.
See Abir-Am, P. G., 1985, Recasting the disciplinary order in science: A deconstruction of rhetoric on “biology and physics” at two International Congresses in 1931, Humanity and Society 9: 388–427.
Needham’s preprint, no date [ 1931 ], 4 pp. single spaced, Needham’s Archive, Box 3.
Ibid. On Whitehead’s philosophy of science see Plamondon, A. L., 1979, Whitehead’s Organic Philosophy of Science, SUNY Press, Albany; Leclerc, I., 1975, Whitehead’s Metaphysics, Indiana University Press, Bloomington
Lowe, V., 1962, Understanding Whitehead, Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore. See also Needham, J., 1941. Of the five books by Whitehead that Needham discussed as being influential on himself, only Science and the Modern World and Process and Reality had been published by 1931.
Needham, J., 1962, Frederick Gowland Hopkins, Perspect. Biol. Med. 6:2–46; based on a lecture at the Hopkins Centennary at Cambridge University in 1961.
Needham, 1925. Some of the views that Needham recalled as part of Hopkins’ lectures to medical students in 1922 were originally outlined in Hopkins’ Presidential Address to the physiological section of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1913
Hopkins, F. G., 1913, The dynamic side of biochemistry, Nature 92: 213–223.
See Driesch, H., 1929, The Science and Philosophy of the Organism, London.
Ibid. Needham’s rhetoric typically combined socialist and religious metaphors. His colorful passages include the following: “If, arriving in front of the heavily fortified living cell, we simply accept the fact of its high organization as a primary datum, we do no more than sit down before it, and dig ourselves in, but if, advancing boldly to the walls, we blow loud blasts upon the trumpets of mathematical physics,—I will not prophesy that what happened at Jericho will happen again, but the odds are heavily in favor of it.”
See “The assessment of interdisciplinary research in the 1930s: The Rockefeller Foundation on Physico-Chemical Morphology, 1988, Minerva 26:153–176
Abir-Am, P., 1982, The discourse on physical power and biological knowledge in the 1930s: A reappraisal of the Rockefeller Foundation’s policy in molecular biology, Soc. Stud. Sci. 12: 341–382
Abir-Am, P., 1984, Beyond deterministic sociology and apologetic history: Reassessing the impact of research policy upon new scientific disciplines, Soc. Stud. Sci. 14: 252–263.
See “The assessment of interdisciplinary research in the 1930s: The Rockefeller Foundation on Physico-Chemical Morphology”, 1988, Minerva 26:153–176.
See Abir-Am, 1987; Abir-Am, P. G., 1985, Themes, genres and orders of legitimation in the consolidation of new scientific disciplines: Deconstructing the historiography of ‘molecular biology, Hist. Sci. 23: 73–117.
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Abir-Am, P.G. (1991). The Philosophical Background of Joseph Needham’s Work in Chemical Embryology. In: Gilbert, S.F. (eds) A Conceptual History of Modern Embryology. Developmental Biology, vol 7. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-6823-0_8
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