The genealogy of dwarfs: reproduction and romantic mythology in Goethe's New Melusine.

Goethe's studies of natural form have occupied generations of scholars and the discussion on the relationship between Goethe's thought and evolutionary theory has never ceased since Haeckel's claims in the late nineteenth century. In scholarship which has aimed to address the question of change in Goethe's concept of nature, the focus has been primarily on his scientific writings. Aiming for a comprehensive understanding of Goethe's thought on reproduction, this article sets out to contribute to the ongoing debate by focusing on his literary text The New Melusine, a story centred on a dwarf figure. Examining texts by naturalists such as Buffon, Humboldt, and Darwin, the article demonstrates how Goethe, in the speculative framework of a literary text, explores patterns of transformation by means of sexual reproduction which did not make it into his better known scientific writings on plant morphology and comparative anatomy. I argue that the Melusine story becomes for Goethe a space to consider a new understanding of reproduction, its transformative power, and biopolitical possibilities, while at the same time providing an opportunity to reflect critically on its consequences for the individual.

The emergence of modern muscle names: the contribution to the foundation of systematic terminology of Vesalius, Sylvius, and Bauhin.

Although its history is complicated, today's anatomical nomenclature, including muscle terminology, has acquired a system of naming using epithets. The objective of this literary research paper was to ascertain the founder of modern muscle terminology. The texts of four anatomists, Galen, Andreas Vesalius, Jacobus Sylvius, and Gaspard Bauhin, who have all been identified as being influential in the establishment of early modern anatomy and its nomenclature, were analyzed. Particular emphasis was given to the naming method, and to the consistency of that method. The analysis shows that each of these four anatomists had a different conception of muscle naming, and that three early modern anatomists, Vesalius, Sylvius, and Bauhin, contributed to the development of modern muscle terminology. This investigation revealed the types of contributions they made: Vesalius was an originator of rule-governed muscle terminology with a univocal naming method, Sylvius was an inventor of epithet naming, and Bauhin applied Sylvius's epithet naming method to Vesalius's concept of rule-governed terminology with a univocal naming method.

On Growth and Form in context - an interview with Matthew Jarron.

D'Arcy Thompson was born in 1860, trained in Edinburgh and Cambridge, and held positions in Dundee and St Andrews, where he worked until his death in 1948. On Growth and Form, his classic work on the mathematical patterns and physical rules underlying biological forms, was first published in 1917. To learn more about the book's context, we met Matthew Jarron, Curator of Museum Services at the University of Dundee, in the University's D'Arcy Thompson Zoology Museum. Surrounded by specimens, many of which were collected by Thompson himself, we discussed the legacy of On Growth and Form and the life of the man behind it.

William Burroughs: Sailor of the Soul.

In 1953, William Seward Burroughs made several important and largely unrecognized discoveries relating to the composition and clinical pharmacological effects of the hallucinogenic plant potion known as yagé or ayahuasca. Illustrations of Burroughs' voucher sample of Psychotria viridis and his letter to the father of modern ethnobotany, Richard Evans Schultes, are published here for the very first time.