Ozersky is a critic, essayist and American cultural historian. In this essay, Ozersky looks at what makes Thompson a true naturalist, and why his gifts and training were so necessary when his book was written.

On Growth and Form, D'arcy Wentworth Thompson's classic 1000 and plus page "essay" is not the final word on natural history. It is not a definitive statement of Darwinism, or even anti-Darwinism. It is not required reading for students of evolution. Thompson did not leave a school of inquiry behind him or found a point of view that other zoologists and naturalists could follow and expand upon. And yet, it continues to be read, both by scientists and non-scientists, all over the world.

But what he did do, and the reason why On Growth and Form continues to be read, is to understand nature in a unique way; a way, moreover, which was...