John Graham Kerr

Sir John Graham Kerr FRS, FRSE, FLS, FZS (published as J. Graham Kerr; 18 September 1869 – 21 April 1957) was a British embryologist, Regius Professor of Zoology at the University of Glasgow, and Unionist Member of Parliament (MP).

Quotes

  • The majority of fishes produce eggs in enormous numbers, amounting in some cases to several millions, and correlated with this the size of the individual egg has become much reduced. The average diameter of a Teleostean egg may be taken as about 1 mm. In an egg of this size segmentation of so markedly meroblastic a character would be puzzling except on the hypothesis that the meroblastic condition had arisen in ancestral forms in which the eggs were much larger.
  • The general lecture course in Glasgow is accompanied by laboratory work extending over a hundred hours. In great part this follows the usual lines such as are laid down in Marshall and Hurst’s Text-book, but a special feature is made of the study of a valuable series of demonstration specimens. This includes the study, under high-power immersion objectives, of such organisms as Trypanosomes, Malarial Parasites, Leishmanias, and Spirochaetes. Experience has shown that students fully appreciate the privilege of being able to examine such preparations for themselves, and that they take the greatest care not to do damage. Opportunities are also given for seeing Trypanosomes, Miracidia, Cercariae and so on, in the living condition. This demonstration part of the course is regarded as being of special value in arousing and gripping the interest of the student.
  • Imperfect as is the geological record, how infinitely more imperfect must necessarily be our knowledge of that record! The largest mines, quarries, and other excavations made by man, are in themselves relatively insignificant scratches on the surface of the vast mass of fossil-bearing rocks, but yet how small a fraction of the material obtained in such excavations ever passes under the detailed scrutiny of the palaeontologist.
    • Evolution. London: Macmillan & Company. 1926. p. 27. 

Quotes about John Graham Kerr

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