Waddington, G. & Monica Taylor | Principles of Biology

The rare first edition of this well-regarded introductory biology textbook co-authored by entomologist Monica Taylor (1877-?).

“Monica Taylor joined the Order of Notre Dame as a nun when she was twenty-three. She went on to study science at the University of London and the University of Glasgow and taught for almost forty years in the School of Education in Glasgow with occasional stints as a visiting lecturer in Belgium and the United States. She published a popular biology textbook with the distinguished biologist C. H. Waddington in the 1930s. In her later life she was recognized with a medal from the Royal Society of Edinburgh and served as vice-president of the Royal Society of Glasgow. the UNiversity of Glasgow awarded her an honorary degree in 1973. Taylor’s scientific research included an analysis of the development of the insect Symbrachus, a study of the chromosome complex of Culex pipens. She also studied amoeba and polypoidy and the connection to evolution, On the technical side, she developed laboratory growth materials for protozoa.” (Ogilvie, Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science, p. 1272.)

Though Ogilvie states that C. H. Wadington was the co-author of this volume, the title page gives the name as “G. Waddington”. G. was not one of the well-known Waddington’s initials, and he was never a professor at either Heythrop or Stonyhurst College as described of the author on the title page. The identity of G. Waddington remains unclear.