Jennings, Herbert Spencer

Jennings, Herbert Spencer, 1868–1947, American zoologist, b. Tonica, Ill., B.S. Univ. of Michigan, 1893, Ph.D. Harvard, 1896. He was professor of zoology at Johns Hopkins (1906–10) and did research on genetics (especially heredity and variation in microorganisms) and on animal behavior there from 1910 to 1938 and from 1939 at the Univ. of California. His demonstration that physical and chemical stimuli produce responses in lower animals disproved the current belief that their behavior was controlled by will and intelligence. His works include Behavior of the Lower Organisms (1906), The Biological Basis of Human Nature (1930), and Genetics (1935).