Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes by Stephen Jay Gould
**Overview of "Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes" by Stephen Jay Gould**
"Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes" is a collection of essays by Stephen Jay Gould that explores various aspects of evolution, science, and the natural world, presented in an accessible and engaging style. The book features thirty essays organized into seven thematic sections, each examining different oddities and curiosities of nature, from the peculiarities of animal reproduction to historical scientific frauds, such as the Piltdown Man hoax. Gould's writing is characterized by a blend of technical insights and humorous anecdotes, making complex scientific concepts comprehensible to a broad audience.
Key topics include the physical traits of species, the implications of evolution, and critiques of creationism, emphasizing the significance of Darwin's theories. The essays stand alone, allowing readers to delve into them independently while still offering an overarching narrative about the interplay between science, society, and historical context. Accompanied by illustrations and minimal footnotes, the book serves as an engaging resource for both casual readers and students. Gould’s ability to illuminate intricate scientific discussions with wit and clarity ensures the enduring appeal of his work.
Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes by Stephen Jay Gould
First published: 1983; illustrated
Subjects: Animals, nature, and science
Type of work: Science
Recommended Ages: 15-18
Form and Content
In Hen’s Teeth and Horse’s Toes, Stephen Jay Gould, a well-known scientist and a writer of rare skill, makes complex scientific theories understandable to a lay audience by interspersing everyday prose with technical and scientific language. His interjection of humble, humorous asides draws the reader into his sphere of the complex theories and odd creatures about which he writes.
This book is a celebratory volume to commemorate the one hundredth anniversary of the death of Charles Darwin (1809-1882). Thirty essays are grouped into seven sections, headed by titles such as “Sensible Oddities” and “A Zebra Trilogy.” Each section contains three or more essays. Several have subheadings and contain five or six essays. A prologue gives an overview of the material covered in the book.
The catchy titles of the essays pique the reader’s interest: “Big Fish, Little Fish,” “Quick Lives and Quirky Changes,” “Worm for a Century, and All Seasons” are but a few. The comparison of physical size between male and female of different species is included in an essay disclosing the reproductive process of the anglerfish. Also included is a chapter on the decrease in the size of the Hershey chocolate bar over a twenty-year period. Physical oddities of mammals (human and otherwise), myths and realities of the animal world, and nineteenth century scientific findings are all described. A constant in this smorgasbord of information on natural phenomena is the defense of Darwin’s theory of evolution against the theory of creationism.
Gould does not carry over ideas from one essay to the next, although occasionally there is a reference to a previous essay. This form of writing allows the reader to read a chapter as an autonomous unit and still make sense of it. The exceptions in Hen’s Teeth and Horse’s Toes are the essays about the role played by the Jesuit priest-paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin in the Piltdown conspiracy, a major twentieth century scientific fraud. What had been presumed to be a skull of an early primitive man, found in 1908 by Charles Dawson, turned out to be part man and part animal. The hoax was uncovered forty-five years later.
Science, politics, and extinction are all subjects of Gould’s penetrating investigations. On scientific puzzles, he gives not only his own viewpoint but the revelations of others in his field as well, even though these viewpoints may disagree with his own. Gould presents complicated scientific information, but his language should be comprehensible to educated laypeople. His style of writing will appeal to a wide audience.
Line drawings and occasional photographs help to clarify some of the complicated facts that might be difficult to understand with text alone. For example, in the chapter “Helpful Monsters” an electron microscope photograph of a fly illustrates a point. Only a few footnotes are provided in this book. For the more curious, a bibliography of eight pages and a comprehensive index follow the text.
Critical Context
Hen’s Teeth and Horse’s Toes is the third volume in a series of essays originally published in Stephen Jay Gould’s monthly column “This View of Life” appearing in Natural History magazine. The earlier books, Ever Since Darwin (1973) and The Panda’s Thumb (1980), were also compilations of column essays. Ever Since Darwin more directly addressed Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, outlining the theory, its application, and related issues. Gould wrote about the impact that social and political views have on science. In The Panda’s Thumb, the essay “Women’s Brains” stands out and contains several excerpts from studies concluding that women’s intelligence is inferior to that of men. Gould accepts the data but takes issue with the conclusions. His defense of Darwin’s theory against that of the creationists runs through both volumes.
Gould’s books bring to mind those by anthropologist Loren Eiseley, who also wrote for a popular audience. In Darwin’s Century (1958), Eiseley gives much credit to the scientists of the nineteenth century, as did Gould in Hen’s Teeth and Horse’s Toes.
Gould was a highly respected scientist who taught geology, biology, and the history of science at Harvard University. Hen’s Teeth and Horse’s Toes is not a textbook, per se, but it may be assigned as additional reading in high school or college courses. Gould’s humorous prose and reminiscences about his youth lighten the task of learning complex scientific concepts. His books will be read for generations to come.
Hen’s Teeth and Horse’s Toes sheds new light on subjects discussed in his earlier volumes. One may read the essays individually or the book as a whole. The writing is so thoroughly enjoyable and the information so interesting that any reader will be inspired to seek out more works by Stephen Jay Gould.
Sources for Further Study
America. CXL, August 6, 1983, p. 76.
Choice. XX, July, 1983, p. 1615.
Esquire. C, September, 1983, p. 272.
Library Journal. CVIII, April 15, 1983, p. 832.
Nature. CCCII, April 28, 1983, p. 777.
The New York Times Book Review. LXXXVIII, May 8, 1983, p. 3.
The New Yorker. LIX, May 9, 1983, p. 135.
Newsweek. CII, August 1, 1983, p. 67.
Publishers Weekly. CCXXIII, March 4, 1983, p. 93.
Time. CXXI, May 30, 1983, p. 41.