Wynn (English, Carnegie Mellon U.) examines how the concepts of variation, evolution, and heredity, introduced by Charles Darwin and Gregor Mendel, transformed argument in the biological sciences by encouraging the growth of mathematical argumentation. He covers mathematics, experience, and argument in 19th-century science; mathematical arguments in The Origin of Species; Mendel, mathematics, and the case for uniform particulate inheritance; rhetorical strategies and Francis Galton's arguments for a mathematical model of inheritance; Karl Pearson and the push for theoretical mathematical biology; and the ethos of biometry. Annotation 2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
