Hi Wendee, Apparently, Haldane had a "special fondness" for the quip but did not publish it.
I looked into this a while back and found a nice summary by Gould (Gould, S. J. 1993. A special fondness for beetles. Natural History 102(1): 4-9) which may be of some use to you. It seems that a good portion of the confusion surrounding Haldane's famous phrase stems from the fact that he never actually wrote it down. None of Haldane's published work contains the statement. In fact, the only written record of the statement comes from an address to the British Interplanetary Society in which, according to the society's secretary, Haldane said, "...the fact there are 400,000 species of beetles on this planet, but only 8000 species of mammals" suggests that "the Creator, if He exists, has a special preference for beetles." Gould (1993) mentions, humorously, that Haldane did have an inordinate fondness for wittier version of the statement and repeated it often. Hope this helps. Best regards, Tyler Tyler Cobb, PhD Curator, Invertebrate Zoology Royal Alberta Museum Edmonton, AB, CANADA Quoting WENDEE HOLTCAMP <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > Theres a famous quote Ive heard umpteen times by JBS Haldane who said that > (paraphrasing) God had an inordinate fondness for beetles. I was trying to > find the actual quote and found various versions. Im trying to find out the > veracity of them what is the ACTUAL quote and the source? Really I want to > know if he said just beetles, or stars AND beetles. > > Wikipedia lists 3 versions: > > The Creator, if He exists, has "an inordinate fondness for beetles". > > "If one could conclude as to the nature of the Creator from a study of > creation, it would appear that God has an inordinate fondness for stars and > beetles." (1951) > > "the Creator, if He exists, has a special preference for beetles, and so we > might be more likely to meet them than any other type of animal on a planet > that would support life" (1951). > > > What is the right version?? What is the 1951 source? Ive read he was in the > presence of theologians and was asked what he could infer about life from > studying creation and that was his reply. It also says that 25% of all > species are beetles. Is that accurate? One thing on Wikiquote says that the > quote was from a space flight conference in 1951 and was reproduced in > "Journal of the British Interplanetary Society vol. 10, p. 156" - anyone > have access to that journal and could look it up?? (I don't have easy access > to a uni library right now... sorry!) > > Another source says it's mentioned in Hutchinson's Homage to Santa Rosalia > or Why Are There So Many Animals" Am Nat 93 (870): 145-159. I have that > article some place in one of my ungodly collection of 2,000+ articles... > but.... well... anyone have this handy?? > > I'll summarize the responses -- I know we all want to know the facts about > this famous ecologist quote don't we?! :) > > Thanks!! > Wendee > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > Wendee Holtcamp, M.S. Wildlife Ecology > Freelance Writer * Photographer * Bohemian > http://www.wendeeholtcamp.com > http://bohemianadventures.blogspot.com > * 6-wk Online Writing Course Starts Nov 24! * > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > >
