Journal of Morphology

Embryology - 10 Dec 2023 Expand to Translate
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About the Journal

Journal of Morphology by Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology

Professor Charles Otis Whitman was the founder and editor of the Journal.

Professor Whitman died in 1910 before the first number was issued and the volume becomes a memorial to one who had a wide influence in the elevation of biological science. (from VOLUME 22 1911).

1987 Introduction to the Journal

The zoological literature of this country is found in the various publications of the Smithsonian Institution, in voluminous reports of government commissions, in the memoirs and proceedings of societies and academies, in the bulletins and memoirs of a few universities, and in numerous periodicals devoted to the natural sciences.

With such varied ways and means of publication what more can be required? The answer must be brief: diversity in these respects is not an evidence of efficiency, but of weakness. Concentration is our need. How shall we effect it? Can any one or more of our present media of publication be converted into a strong central organ, devoted exclusively to the presentation of original research in animal morphology? Unfortunately no one of them appears to be capable of undergoing such a radical metamorphosis. Every attempt in this direction has failed, and for reasons too obvious to require notice here; and every combination scheme has found an effectual barrier in the rivalries of different institutions.

Our scientific publications are miscellanies, and such they are destined to remain. No one of them can make any pretension to fulfilling the functions of a morphological journal. Nowhere in this entire country is there a single efficient serial publication offering to extend its privileges to zoologists in general, without regard to local restrictions. The result is that valuable papers have been shelved for years ; some have been published with illustrations of an inferior quality ; and not a few have been brought to the light through the aid of foreign journals.

Much, then, as we owe to our scientific societies for what they have done and are still doing for the biological sciences, and earnestly as we may desire to sustain and strengthen their resources, we recognize needs which such organizations have never undertaken to supply.

Our system of publication, even if it were not limited in means and burdened with local restrictions, would still sufifer from defects of method that admit of no remedy. The inaccessibility of our literature — scattered as it is among the publications of so many societies and institutions, and mixed up with a mass of heterogeneous matter that has no value for a zoologist — is notorious. The mixed character and scattered sources of our publications are twin evils that have become intolerable both at home and abroad. The establishment of the Journal of Morphology may not be the deathblow to these evils ; but there is hope that it will, at least, relieve the more embarrassing difficulties of the present situation.

It is unnecessary to expatiate on the advantages offered by such a medium of publication. They have long been acknowledged, appreciated, and enjoyed by those who have occupied themselves with the biological sciences in other countries. Germany, France, England, Austria, Holland, Belgium, Italy, Sweden, Norway, and Switzerland have their morphological journals ; and the number supported in each country may be taken as an index of its productivity in morphological research.

We have not hitherto followed the example of other nations in this particular ; but we venture to say that the time has come when at least one morphological journal should and can be creditably maintained. Our confidence is based on the fact that we now have several flourishing morphological laboratories established in this country; on the hearty assurances of support given by those who represent the principal centres of research in the United States and Canada ; and on the character and number of the contributions offered for the first volume.

As previously announced, the JOURNAL OF MORPHOLOGY will be devoted principally to embryological, anatomical, and histological subjects. Although limited in a general way to animal morphology, it has not been thought necessary to make this fact prominent in the title.

The Journal will be issued in numbers, each containing from one hundred and fifty to two hundred or more pages, and from eight to ten lithographic plates. The second number, completing the first volume, will appear in November.

It is hardly practicable, and perhaps it is not desirable, to have stated times of publication. It is more important to provide for the early appearance of papers than for regularity in issue ; and accordingly the plan has been adopted of publishing numbers as often as the requisite material is furnished.

A partial compensation for the unavoidable delays that have attended the vssue of the first number will be found in the fact that it has been made much larger, and more expensive in illustration, than was promised in the original announcement.

C. O. WHITMAN.

J Morphol. : 1 - 1887 | 2 - 1888-89 | 3 - 1889 | 4 - 1890 | 5 - 1891 | 6 - 1892 | 7 - 1892 | 8 - 1893 | 9 - 1894 | 10 - 1895 | 11 - 1895 | 12 - 1896 | 13 - 1897 | 14 - 1897-98 | 15 - 1898 | 16 - 1899-1900 | 17 - 1901 | 18 - 1903 | 19 - 1908 | 20 - 1909 | 21 - 1910 | 22 - 1911 | 23 - 1912 | 24 - 1913 | 25 - 1914 | 26 - 1915 | 27 - 1916 | 28 - 1916-17 | 29 - 1917 | 30 - 1917-18 | 31 - 1918 | 32 - 1918 | 33 - 1919-20 | 34 - 1920 | 35 - 1921 | 36 - 1921-22 | 40 - 1928 | 47 - 1929 | 51 - 1931 | 52 - 1931 |

Links: Historic Journals | Historic Embryology Papers

Links: Historic Embryology Papers | Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology | Association of American Anatomists

Suspended Aug. 1901-Mar. 1903 and from May 1903-June 1908

Has occasional supplements

Vols. for 1908-1924 issued by: Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology

Vols. 1 (1887)-25 (1914) in v. 25

Continued in Sept. 1924 by: Journal of morphology and physiology

Other Historic Journals: Amer. J Anat. | Anat. Rec. | J Morphol.

Journal of Morphology

About the Journal

1987 Introduction to the Journal

Volume 1 - 1887

Volume 2 - 1889

Volume 3 - 1889

Volume 4 - 1890

Volume 5 - 1891

Volume 6 - 1892

Volume 7 - 1892

Volume 8 - 1893

Volume 9 - 1894

Volume 10 - 1895

Volume 11 - 1895

Volume 12 - 1896

Volume 13 - 1897

Volume 14 - 1898

Volume 15 - 1898

Volume 16 - 1899-1900

Volume 17 - 1901

Volume 18 - 1903

Volume 19 - 1908

Volume 20 - 1909

Volume 21 - 1910

Volume 22 - 1911

Volume 23 - 1912

Volume 24 - 1913

Volume 25 - 1914

Volume 26 - 1915

Volume 27 - 1916

Volume 28 - 1916-17

Volume 29 - 1917

Volume 30 - 1917-18

Volume 31 - 1918

Volume 32 - 1918

Volume 33 - 1919-20

Volume 34 - 1920

Volume 35 - 1921

Volume 36 - 1921-22

Volume 40 - 1928

Volume 47 - 1929

Volume 51 - 1931

Volume 52 - 1931

Catalogue of The Wistar Anatomical Museum - 1850