author
Alvin Davison
1868–1915
A biology professor turned popular health writer, he helped bring science into classrooms and everyday life at the start of the twentieth century. His work ranged from zoology and anatomy textbooks to a widely noticed warning about the dangers of shared drinking cups.
1 Audiobook
Health Lessons, Book 1
by Alvin Davison
About the author
Born in 1868 and dying in 1915, Alvin Davison was an American biologist and educator best known for teaching at Lafayette College. Contemporary and library records for his books describe him as a professor of biology there, and one of his early textbooks also identifies him as an ex-fellow of Princeton University.
Davison wrote practical science and health books for students and general readers, including Practical Zoölogy, Mammalian Anatomy, Health Lessons, and The Human Body and Health. His writing aimed to make anatomy, physiology, hygiene, and animal study understandable and useful, which helped place him among the more accessible science authors of his era.
He is also remembered for his 1908 article Death in School Drinking Cups, a public-health piece based on research in Easton, Pennsylvania, that warned about disease spreading through shared cups. That work was influential enough to be noted later in histories of the paper cup and school hygiene, showing how his teaching and writing reached beyond the classroom.