James Cossar Ewart

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James Cossar Ewart (1911)

James Cossar Ewart (born November 26, 1851 in Penicuik , Scotland , † December 31, 1933 ) was a Scottish zoologist and a pioneer of hybrid breeding in livestock .

Studies and PhD

Ewart completed a medical degree at the University of Edinburgh between 1871 and 1874 . After completing his studies, he worked as a prosector in William Turner's group before he was appointed curator of the zoological collection at University College London . As an employee of the chair holder of zoology Ray Lankester , he took care of the introduction of internships in the training of students. Between 1874 and 1878 Ewart published several scientific publications on the structure and composition of the retina and on studies on the anthrax pathogen Bacillus anthracis . The latter were also his dissertation for the doctorate to Medicinae Doctor (MD) , for which he was awarded a gold medal.

Research and teaching

In the late summer of 1878 returned Ewart as a lecturer at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Edinburgh and became shortly thereafter as Regius Professor of Natural History ( Natural History ) to the University of Aberdeen called. In the same year he founded the first marine biology research station in Great Britain in Aberdeen . In 1882 he took over the Regius Chair of Natural History at the University of Edinburgh and held this position until his retirement in 1927. In teaching at the university, he drove the creation of teaching positions for embryology (1885), for the zoology of invertebrates (1901) and for Heredity and Genetics (1910) advance.

In 1882 Ewart became a scientific member of the newly formed Scottish Fisheries Authority and in the following seven years published numerous reports and publications on research into fishing. Between 1888 and 1895 he devoted himself to researching the electrical organ in rays . In addition, he conducted anatomical studies on frogs and horses . In 1879 he was accepted as a fellow in the Royal Society of Edinburgh and in 1893 in the Royal Society of London .

Around 1895 Ewart began research work in the field of animal breeding, especially in questions of maternal inheritance and mutations in crossbreeding and inbreeding using the example of the plains zebra ( Equus quagga burchelli ). He published the results of this work in the book The Penycuik Experiments of 1899; in 1900 he also presented his sensational zebra-horse hybrids at an exhibition of the Royal Agricultural Society in New York . His hybridization experiments refuted the telegonia in the inheritance of phenotypic traits, which had been postulated in animal breeding up to that point .

A few years later, Ewart devoted himself to the history of development and the structure of the plumage of penguins . In this context, he came by chance on the Natural History Museum on three fit for human eggs of Emperor penguins that Edward Wilson , Henry Bowers and Apsley Cherry-Garrard in their winter march 1911 as part of the Terra Nova Expedition under Robert Falcon Scott at Cape Crozier on from Ross Island . In his microscopic examinations of the embryos contained in the eggs, Ewart was unable to determine any homology in the embryonic development of the plumage of birds and the scale armor in reptiles, which meant that the hoped-for proof of a common ancestor in the evolution of both animal classes failed to materialize. It was not until 1934 that the University of Glasgow zoologist Charles Wynford Parsons published the results of Ewart's work in a scientific publication with the comment that the emperor penguin eggs brought by Cherry-Garrard “do not provide a great deal of understanding about the embryology of penguins have contributed. "

James Cossar Ewart lived in a farm not far from his birthplace Penicuik, on which he ran experimental sheep breeding in later years to improve the wool yield and undertook a research trip to Australia in 1923 . In 1928 the University of Edinburgh awarded him an honorary doctorate for his many years of service . When he died at the age of 82 on New Year's Eve 1933 after a brief illness, he left behind his wife, a daughter and a son.

aftermath

In 1909 Ewart was appointed Vice-President of the newly founded Royal Zoological Society of Scotland , which through its work has maintained close ties with the University of Edinburgh to this day and thus recruits numerous members of its committees from the university's staff.

Works

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Fellows Directory. Biographical Index: Former RSE Fellows 1783–2002. Royal Society of Edinburgh, accessed December 4, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Apsley Cherry-Garrard: The Worst Journey in the World Vol. I , Constable & Co., London 1922, Appendix (English, accessed from the Internet Archive on February 21, 2013).
  3. ^ CW Parsons: Penguin Embryos, British Antarctic (Terra Nova) Expedition, 1910, Natural History Report . In: Zoology , 1934, 4 (7), p. 253: "not greatly add to our understanding of penguin embryology."
personal data
SURNAME Ewart, James Cossar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION scottish zoologist
DATE OF BIRTH November 26, 1851
PLACE OF BIRTH Penicuik , Scotland
DATE OF DEATH December 31, 1933
Place of death Penicuik , Scotland