The Legacy of the ‘Edinburgh Lamarckians’

2019 ◽  
pp. 156-195
Author(s):  
Bill Jenkins
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Medical Student ◽  
Natural History ◽  
Evolutionary Theory ◽  
Charles Darwin ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
History Of ◽  
The City

The penultimate chapter looks at the longer-term impact of the efflorescence of evolutionary speculation in early-nineteenth-century Edinburgh on later generations of natural historians. First it examines the evangelical reaction against progressive models of the history of life and its role in the eclipse of the ‘Edinburgh Lamarckians.’ Next it examines to the evolutionary theory proposed by Robert Chambers in his anonymously published Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation (1844) to assess its possible debt to the Edinburgh transformists of the 1820s and 1830s. Finally it turns to the important question of the possible influence of the ‘Edinburgh Lamarckians’ on Charles Darwin during his time as a medical student in Edinburgh in the years 1825 to 1827, during which period he rubbed shoulders with many of the key proponents of evolutionary ideas in the city.

Introduction

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Bill Jenkins
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Great Britain ◽  
Natural History ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Evolutionary Theories ◽  
Evolutionary Thought ◽  
History Of

The introduction sets the scene by exploring the role of Edinburgh as a centre for the development and propagation of pre-Darwinian evolutionary theories. It gives essential background on natural history in the Scottish capital in early nineteenth century and the history of evolutionary thought and outlines the aims and objectives of the book. In addition, it explores some of the historiographical issues raised by earlier historians of science who have discussed the role of Edinburgh in the development of evolutionary thought in Great Britain.

The History of Starved Rock

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Walczynski
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Native Americans ◽  
Natural History ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
American Frontier ◽  
American Midwest ◽  
History Of ◽  
Frontier Settlers

This book provides an overview of the famous site in Utica, Illinois, from when European explorers first viewed the bluff in 1673 through to 1911, when Starved Rock became the centerpiece of Illinois' second state park. The land that today comprises Starved Rock State Park and the adjacent countryside was nearly continuously occupied by Native Americans until the early nineteenth century. By the early nineteenth century, American frontier settlers would arrive and change the entire dynamic of the Starved Rock area. The book pulls together stories and insights from the language, geology, geography, anthropology, archaeology, biology, and agriculture of the park to provide readers with an understanding of both the human and natural history of Starved Rock, and to put it into context with the larger history of the American Midwest.

scholarly journals NAPOLEON AND THE ‘CITY OF SMUGGLERS’, 1810–1814

2007 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 333-352 ◽  
Author(s):  
GAVIN DALY
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Prisoners Of War ◽  
Maritime History ◽  
Napoleonic Wars ◽  
Historical Source ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The City

In the final years of the Napoleonic Wars, Napoleon allowed English smugglers entry into the French ports of Dunkirk and Gravelines, encouraging them to run contraband back and forth across the Channel. Gravelines catered for up to 300 English smugglers, housed in a specially constructed compound known as the ‘city of smugglers’. Napoleon used the smugglers in the war against Britain. The smugglers arrived on the French coast with escaped French prisoners of war, gold guineas, and English newspapers; and returned to England laden with French textiles, brandy, and gin. Smuggling remains a neglected historical subject, and this episode in particular – the relationship between English smugglers and the Napoleonic state between 1810 and 1814 – has attracted little scholarly interest. Yet it provides a rich historical source, illuminating not only the history of Anglo-French Channel smuggling during the early nineteenth century, but offering insights into the economic, social, and maritime history of the Napoleonic Wars.

scholarly journals Science, Fashion, Knowledge and Imagination: Shopfront Natural History in 19th-Century Sydney

2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Coote
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Natural History ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
Ongoing Process ◽  
The People ◽  
History Of ◽  
The City

Natural history dealers' shops offered colour, interest and occasional sensation to the people of mid-nineteenth century Sydney. This essay examines the nature of shop-front natural history enterprise in this period, and its significance in the history of the city and the wider colony. It begins by discussing dealers and their businesses, going on to argue for the role both played in the ongoing process of colonisation. In particular, it highlights the contribution made to those aspects of territorial appropriation which were taking place in the imaginations of Sydney's inhabitants.

Natural History in Edinburgh, 1779–1832

2019 ◽  
pp. 37-74
Author(s):  
Bill Jenkins
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Natural History ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Late Eighteenth ◽  
The University ◽  
John Walker ◽  
The City

This chapter focuses in on Edinburgh’s natural history circles in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. First it examines the chair of natural history at the University and the work of its two incumbents during this period, John Walker and Robert Jameson, before turning to natural history in the extra-mural anatomy schools. These were the site of some of the boldest thinkers on evolutionary themes in early nineteenth-century Britain. Edinburgh was also the home of a number of important natural history societies in this period, for example, the Plinian and Wernerian Natural History Societies. These served as lively forums for the discussion of the latest developments and theories. This chapter will explore the nature and role of these societies, before finally turning the spotlight on the scientific and natural history journals published in the city, such as the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal and the Edinburgh Journal of Science.

John Fleming and the geological deluge

2007 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-225 ◽  
Author(s):  
JAMES BURNS
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Natural History ◽  
Historical Perspective ◽  
Animal Kingdom ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Earth History ◽  
Scientific World ◽  
History Of ◽  
A Minor

John Fleming (1785–1857), later professor in Aberdeen and Edinburgh, made his combative contribution to natural history between 1812 and 1832. As an Edinburgh student he had followed Robert Jameson's ‘Wernerian’ lead. His earliest publications, from 1813, expressed what was to be a lifelong hostility to the work of James Hutton. Yet his own thinking moved increasingly towards a ‘uniformitarian’ as opposed to a ‘catastrophist’ view of earth history. His Philosophy of Zoology (1822) embodied criticism of Cuvier. More dramatically, he became embroiled in controversy with Buckland and later with Conybeare. By then the ‘uniformitarian’ hypothesis had been adopted by Lyell, with whom Fleming was in close touch from the mid-1820s. Fleming may have had some grounds for feeling that his priority in advocating uniformitarianism was later overlooked. His History of British Animals (1828) included a preface in which he elaborated his earlier hypothesis as to ‘revolutions … in the animal kingdom’ correlated with six geological epochs. Tension had then developed in Fleming's relationship with Jameson, and the early 1830s found him in a mood of increasing frustration. Reconciliation with Buckland and approval by Sedgwick still left ‘the Zoological Ishmael’ feeling that his advancement in the scientific world was blocked, perhaps permanently. In historical perspective Fleming may be seen as a minor but not insubstantial figure in the scientific landscape of the early nineteenth century.

Evolution Before Darwin

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bill Jenkins
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Charles Darwin ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Origin And Evolution ◽  
Evolutionary Theories ◽  
Evolutionary Thought ◽  
Evolution Of Life ◽  
History Of ◽  
New Ideas ◽  
The City

It was long believed that evolutionary theories received an almost universally cold reception in British natural history circles in the first half of the nineteenth century. But recently serious doubt has been cast on this assumption. This book will be the first major study of what was the most important centre or pre-Darwinian evolutionary thought in the British Isles. It shows that Edinburgh in the late 1820s and early 1830s was witness to a veritable ferment of radical new ideas on the natural world, including speculation on the origin and evolution of life, at just the time when Charles Darwin was studying medicine in the city. Those who were students in Edinburgh at the time could have hardly avoided coming into contact with these new ideas, espoused as they were by many of professors, fellow students and acquaintances in Edinburgh. This book sheds new light on the genesis and development of one of the most important scientific theories in the history of western thought.

scholarly journals Corresponding interests: artisans and gentlemen in nineteenth-century natural history

1994 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 383-408 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Secord
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Natural History ◽  
Scientific Practice ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
History Of ◽  
History Books ◽  
The Way

Early nineteenth-century natural history books reveal that British naturalists depended heavily on correspondence as a means for gathering information and specimens. Edward Newman commented in his History of British Ferns: ‘Were I to make out a list of all the correspondents who have assisted me it would be wearisome from its length.’ Works such as William Withering's Botanical Arrangement show that artisans numbered among his correspondents. However, the literary products of scientific practice reveal little of the workings or such correspondences and how or why they were sustained. An exchange or letters is maintained if the interests of both recipient and writer are satisfied. Withering's book tells us only that his interests were served by his correspondents; it allows us to say nothing with certainty about the interests of those who wrote to him. Published texts effectively hide the means by which the author determined the veracity of distant correspondents and also the way these informants demonstrated their credibility.

A history of some fruit models in wax and other materials: scientific teaching aids and courtly table decorations

2003 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 299-316 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hans-JüRgen Lechtreck
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Fruit Trees ◽  
Visual Aids ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Teaching Aids ◽  
Scientific Teaching ◽  
Glass Marble ◽  
History Of ◽  
By Products ◽  
Wax Models

Two early nineteenth century texts treating the production and use of wax models of fruit reveal the history of these objects in the context of courtly decoration. Both sources emphasise the models' decorative qualities and their suitability for display, properties which were not simply by-products of the realism that the use of wax allowed. Thus, such models were not regarded merely as visual aids for educational purposes. The artists who created them sought to entice collectors of art and natural history objects, as well as teachers and scientists. Wax models of fruits are known to have been collected and displayed as early as the seventeenth century, although only one such collection is extant. Before the early nineteenth century models of fruits made from wax or other materials (glass, marble, faience) were considered worthy of display because contemporaries attached great importance to mastery of the cultivation and grafting of fruit trees. This skill could only be demonstrated by actually showing the fruits themselves. Therefore, wax models made before the early nineteenth century may also be regarded as attempts to preserve natural products beyond the point of decay.

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