ABSTRACT
Frederic Wood Jones (1879–1954) was one of the greatest anatomists of his generation. Some said the greatest. His talent for research was recognized early when, as a medical student, he published original scientific observations. On graduation, he seemed destined for a prestigious academic role, but instead, chose to become a medical officer in the Cocos Islands. His friend, Le Gros Clark, said of Wood Jones that he was essentially ‘a wanderer and a seeker after adventure’. 1 He took away from his year-long stay in the Cocos Islands a wife and the basis of a ‘remarkable book’ 2 entitled ‘Corals and Atolls’. It was a forerunner to the epigenetic revolution in evolutionary thinking that began a decade or so ago and which is implicit in the main theme of this book. Wood Jones studied corals as living animals and demonstrated that genetic expression is influenced by environmental circumstances.
