Sketch for a World-Picture - a study of evolution

1972. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Michael Joseph, 1972, 1st edn; in mint condition, with dust jacket, turquoise cloth; 196+4pp index; 6 plates, 2 maps, several in-text diagrams; Sketch For A World-Picture will be welcomed by the many non-scientists who are deeply interested in their origins and environment, but so often find these subjects presented in a manner incomprehensible to even the intelligent layman. John Vyvyan's sketch begins with the universe and its infinitely tiny constituent the atom. With the help of diagrams he demonstrates how the free atoms began to join together and to form chains, resulting in time in the highly complex protein chain which is the basis of life. He tells how the simpler living things affected and modified by the condition of their lives evolved into more complex structures; change itself bringing more change, as each living organism adapted to survive. For example, as animals left the sea the land egg was developed to give the young the protection that had once been afforded by water; intense cold brought the mammalian development whereby the young were carried within the parent's body, so that they would not be inadequately protected by an eggshell in the inclement Ice Age; mammals themselves divided according to their different habitats - the ground-living mammals needing to run fast evolved strong legs and a good sense of smell, while with the tree-living mammals (including our ancestors) the accent was on the ability to grasp branches and the co-ordination between hand and eye. But such developments were not sudden. To put it in John Vyvyan's words, 'Every phase of evolution flows into the next, maintaining identity in difference; there is no enduring form and no frontier is absolute; it is necessary, however, to have a sense of period; because each has its character.? And it is John Vyvyan's sense of period that keeps his account so easy to follow. The growing pattern of life emerges, distinct and comprehensible, from the free atoms in the vastness of the universe to man himself - the mammal with the most developed forebrain. But John Vyvyan does not rest complacently here with man as the culmination of the evolutionary process. With the growth of the brain and the tendency of human behaviour to become less instinctive he poses the question, 'Will this relative freedom produce more madmen than sages ?' His study in evolution is not just a brilliantly lucid account of the miracle evolution is, but a comment, too, on the rationality of natural relationships, a rationality devoted to healthy survival, a rationality he fears man has left behind. 8¾x5¾". . . . . Books ship from the US and Ireland.…