James Cossar Ewart

James Cossar Ewart (* November 26, 1851 in Penicuik, Scotland, † December 31, 1933 ) was a Scottish zoologist and a pioneer of hybrid breeding in livestock farming.

Studies and PhD

Ewart graduated from 1871-1874 to study medicine at the University of Edinburgh. After graduation, he initially worked as a prosector in the workgroup William Turner, before he was appointed curator of the zoological collection of the University College London. As an employee of the chair holder of Zoology Ray Lankester he made there for the introduction of internships in the education of students. Between 1874 and 1878, Ewart published several scientific publications on the structure and organization of the retina and to studies of the anthrax pathogen Bacillus anthracis. The latter were at the same time his dissertation for a doctorate in Medicinae Doctor ( MD), for which he was awarded a gold medal.

Research and teaching

In the late summer of 1878 Ewart returned as a lecturer back to the Medical Faculty of the University of Edinburgh and was appointed shortly afterwards as a professor of natural history at the University of Aberdeen. In the same year he founded in Aberdeen, the first research station of Marine Biology in the UK. In 1882 he became professor of natural history at the University of Edinburgh and retained this position until his retirement in 1927. In university teaching, he drove the creation of teaching posts of Embryology (1885), for the zoology of invertebrates (1901 ) as well as genetics and Genetics ( 1910) forward.

1882 Ewart was a scientific member of the newly formed Scottish Fisheries Authority and published in the next seven years numerous reports and publications on investigations to fish. Between 1888 and 1895 he devoted himself to the study of the electric organ at stingrays. In addition, he pursued anatomical studies on frogs and horses. In 1893 he was admitted as a Fellow of the Royal Society.

Ewart began approximately in 1895 with research in the field of animal breeding, especially in issues of maternal inheritance and mutations in hybrids and inbred on the example of Burchell's zebra (Equus quagga burchelli ). The results of this work, he published the book The Penycuik experiment of 1899; In addition, he presented in 1900 his sensational zebra -horse hybrids at an exhibition of the Royal Agricultural Society in New York. His hybridization experiments disproved the previously postulated in animal breeding telegony in the inheritance of phenotypic traits.

Some years later, Ewart devoted to the history of development and the structure of the plumage of penguins. In this context, he came by chance on the Natural History Museum at three angebrütete eggs of Emperor penguins, which Edward Wilson, Henry Bowers and Apsley Cherry - Garrard on in their winter march 1911 as part of the Terra Nova Expedition led by Robert Falcon Scott at Cape Crozier the Ross Island had collected. Ewart was able to verify his microscopic examinations of the embryos in the eggs contained no homology in the embryonic development of the plumage of birds and reptiles shed carapace, so the hoped-for evidence of a common ancestor not forthcoming in the evolution of both classes of animals. It was only in 1934 published the working at the University of Glasgow zoologist Charles Wynford Parsons the results of the work Ewart in a scientific publication with the comment that brought by Cherry - Garrard Emperor penguin eggs "not very much to the understanding of the embryology of penguins have contributed. "

James Cossar Ewart lived in a farm not far from his birthplace, Penicuik, on which he an experimental sheep breeding to improve wool operational income in later years and to this end in 1923 a research trip to Australia undertook. In 1928, the University of Edinburgh awarded him for his many years of service an honorary doctorate. When he died 82 years old on New Year's Eve 1933 after a short illness, he left behind his wife and a daughter and a son.

Aftermath

In 1909, Ewart was appointed Vice - President of the newly founded Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, who through his work up to the present time into it has a close connection with the University of Edinburgh, and thereby recruiting many members of their bodies from the staff of the University.

Works

• James Cossar Ewart: On the life history of Bacillus anthracis. In: Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science, 1878, s2 -18, pp. 161-170.
• James Cossar Ewart, James Duncan Matthews: The dissection of the skate. James Thin, Edinburgh 1885.
• James Cossar Ewart: The dissection of the frog. James Thin, Edinburgh 1887 doi: 10.5962/bhl.title.55016
• James Cossar Ewart: A critical period in the development of the horse. A. and C. Black, London 1897 doi: 10.5962/bhl.title.46851
• James Cossar Ewart: The Penycuik experiment. Adam and Charles Black, London, 1899 archive.org doi:. 10.5962/bhl.title.25674 doi: 10.5962/bhl.title.57340