d'arcy wentworth thompson's most famous work, "on growth and form" was written in dundee, mostly in 1915, but publication was put off until 1917 because of the delays of wartime and thompson's many late alterations to the text. the central theme of the book is that biologists of its author's day overemphasized evolution as the fundamental determinant of the form and structure of living organisms, and underemphasized the roles of physical laws and mechanics. at a time when vitalism was still being considered as a biological theory, he advocated structuralism as an alternative to natural selection in governing the form of species, with the smallest hint of vitalism as the unseen driving force.