Thomas Jefferson’s Biological Thoughts And Practice

Thomas Jefferson was an eminent American politician,thinker,and educator.Additionally,he is also a biologist who had contributed significantly to the development of agriculture of the United States.Jefferson combined personal ideals with national interests of his country,resulting in his unique biological thinking.His biological ideas were closely related to political,agricultural,religious,and educational ideas.In order to eliminate the negative impact of Buffon’s "American degradation theory" on the reputation of the American continent,Jefferson tried to refute this theory through biological research and practice.After leaving office as governor of Virginia,Jefferson began writing the Notes on the State of Virginia,a book whose analysis of the American mastodon strongly refuted Buffon’s theory.He personally sponsored several expeditions to the western United States in search of large animals,and even authorized Congress to fund the expedition of Lewis and Clark to the west after he was elected president,in search of the "mammoth" he had longed for.While serving as minister to France,Jefferson also sent seeds of fine plants from Europe back to the United States for planting,which enriched the American plant species.He also combined biological research with American agriculture,contributing to the study of the effects of different crops on soil fertility,the improvement of American domesticated animal breeds,the control and management of pests and diseases,and the promotion of the smallpox vaccine.In addition to combining biological research with national interests,Jefferson also made great achievements in his personal biological research.His analysis of the American mastodon in the Notes on the State of Virginia and his published papers on Megalonyx made him a pioneer in American paleontology.Among other things,the naming of the giant-clawed ground sloth made him the first American to accurately name an extinct species.However,his biological ideas were to some extent characteristic of his time.Most of Jefferson’s contemporaries,politicians and scientists,believed in deism,and Jefferson was no exception.He firmly believed that nature was created by God and that there was no species extinction in the natural world.This thinking influenced his judgment on species extinction and fossils.In addition,Jefferson incorporated biology into college education and recommended that college students study agronomy and biology.He established a professorship in natural history at the University of Virginia,and scholars who held the position were required to have knowledge of botany,zoology,and agronomy at the same time.In short,Jefferson was one of the few professionals of his time to have developed a more systematic thinking and practice of biology,and his thinking and practice of biology contributed to the development of biology and agricultural science in the United States.