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Sir William Lawrence (1783-1867): a Study of Pre-Darwinian Ideas on Heredity and Variation Author(S): Kentwood D

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Sir William Lawrence (1783-1867): a Study of Pre-Darwinian Ideas on Heredity and Variation Author(S): Kentwood D Sir William Lawrence (1783-1867): A Study of Pre-Darwinian Ideas on Heredity and Variation Author(s): Kentwood D. Wells Source: Journal of the History of Biology, Vol. 4, No. 2 (Autumn, 1971), pp. 319-361 Published by: Springer Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4330564 . Accessed: 29/05/2013 14:11 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Springer is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of the History of Biology. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 150.135.115.31 on Wed, 29 May 2013 14:11:36 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Sir William Lawrence (1783-1867) A Study of Pre-DarwinianIdeas on Heredity and Variation KENTWOOD D. WELLS Section of Ecology and Systematics Cornell University Ithaca, New York INTRODUCTION Of the many British biologists of the early nineteenth century who have been neglected by historians of science, one of the most interesting is Sir William Lawrence. Despite the fact that Lawrence was evidently the first man to introduce the term "biology" into English usage, a standard reference on the history of biology such as Nordenskiold's detailed treatment makes no mention of him.' In other works, if he is mentioned at all, it is often in a brief paragraph or footnote. There is no full biography of Lawrence, and only a few brief biographical sketches are available. Unfortunately, much of what has been written about him is inaccurate and misleading. In the last ten years there has been a slight revival of interest in Lawrence, begun largely by C. D. Darlington's claim that Lawrence was a full-fledged forerunner of Darwin.2 Darlington's brief treatment has been used as the basis for even briefer discussions by a number of other authors.3 Darlington is not 1. Erik Nordenskiold, The History of Biology (New York: Tudor Publish. ing Co., 1935). On Lawrence's use of the term "biology," see: William Lawrence, Lectures on Physiology, Zoology, and the Natural History of Man (Salem, Mass.: Foote & Brown, 1828), p. 65; June Goodfield-Toulmin, "Blasphemy and Biology," Rockefeller University Review, 4 (1966), 14; Charles Singer, A History of Biology, rev. ed. (New York: Henry Schuman, 1950), p. 294n. 2. C. D. Darlington, Darwin's Place in History (New York: Macmillan, 1961), pp. 16-24; "The Origin of Darwinism," Scientific American, 200 (May 1959), 60-66. 3. Sir Alister Hardy, The Living Stream (London: Collins, 1966), p. 58; Desmond King-Hele, Erasmus Darwin (New York: Scribner's, 1963), p. 78; Gordon Rattray Taylor, The Science of Life (London: Thames & Hudson, 1963), p. 143. Journal of the History of Biology, vol. 4, no. 2 (Fall 1971), pp. 319-361. 319 This content downloaded from 150.135.115.31 on Wed, 29 May 2013 14:11:36 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions KENTWOOD D. WELLS the first to suggest that Lawrence anticipated Darwinian evo- lution. As early as the 1890's, during a period of great interest in forerunners of Darwin, Lawrence was cited as having an- ticipated certain aspects of Darwin's theory, and several writers since then have repeated the suggestion.4 In addition, a number of recent authors have focused their attention on other aspects of Lawrence's work, especially his physiological theories of life and the function of the brain.5 This paper will deal principally with Lawrence's views on heredity and race formation in man and with his position in the development of the theory of evolution. These are the aspects of his work which have been most often confused. William Lawrence was born in 1783 and died in 1867. He advanced rapidly in his medical education and at sixteen was made an apprentice to the well-known surgeon, John Abernethy, at St. Bartholomew's Hospital. He was appointed a demonstrator in anatomy in 1801. In 1804 he became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons, in 1813 a Fellow of the Royal Society, and in 1814 an assistant surgeon at St. Bartholomew's. Meanwhile he had begun publishing at an early age. While still an ap- prentice to Abernethy, he was asked to write a series of articles on anatomical and physiological subjects for Abraham Rees's Cyclopedia, and he continued to contribute articles until the work was finished in 1820. He also published translations of Murray's Arteries of the Human Body from the Latin, and Blumenbach's Comparative Anatomy from the German, in 1801 and 1807 respectively. In 1816 he published a series of lectures entitled An Introduction to Comparative Anatomy and Physiol- ogy, a book which inaugurated a fierce controversy with 4. Jonathan Hutchinson, "In Memory of William Lawrence," Nature, 56 (1897), 200-201; D. J. Cunningham, "Anthropology in the 18th Century," J. Royal Anthro. Inst., 38 (1908), 30-34; A.C. Haddon, History of Anthro- pology (London: Watts & Co., 1910), p. 55; Burton Chance, "Sir William Lawrence in Relation to Medical Education," Annals of Medical History, 8 (1926), 273; T. K. Penniman, A Hundred Years of Anthropology (London: Macmillan, 1935), p. 64; Conway Zirkle, "Natural Selection Before the 'Origin of Species'," Proc. Amer. Phil. Soc., 84 (1941), 109-110; E. W. Count, "The Evolution of the Race Idea in Modem Western Culture During the Period of the Pre-Darwinian Nineteenth Century," Trans. N. Y. Acad. Sci., ser. II, vol. 7 (1945), 154-159; M. J. Sirks and Conway Zirkle, The Evolution of Biology (New York: Ronald, 1964), p. 315. 5. Goodfield-Toulmin, "Blasphemy and Biology"; June Goodfield- Toulmin, "Some Aspects of English Physiology; 1780-1840," Journal of the History of Biology, 2 (1969), 283-320; Thomas S. Hall, Ideas of Life and Matter (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1969), II, 228-230; Philip C. Ritterbush, Overtures to Biology (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1964), pp. 189-191; Owsei Temkin, "Basic Science, Medicine, and the Romantic Era," Bull. Hist. Med., 37 (1963), 97-129. 320 This content downloaded from 150.135.115.31 on Wed, 29 May 2013 14:11:36 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Sir William Lawrence Abernethy and others on the nature of life. In 1819, he published his Lectures on Physiology, Zoology, and the Natural History of Man, the book which is the subject of this paper.6 Lawrence's two sets of published lectures, particularly the second volume (1819), caused a great furor because of his views on the nature of life and on the function of the brain, which brought charges of materialism upon him. The details of this controversy have been fully discussed in papers by June Goodfield- Toulmin and Owsei Temkin, and they need not be repeated here.7 Suffice it to say that Lawrence withdrew his lectures from circulation to save his medical career. Although they were re- printed many times by various publishers after Lawrence was denied copyright, he never wrote anything more on these sub- jects, but confined his writings to purely medical treatises. The decision to suppress his lectures was evidently a wise one, for Lawrence went on to a brilliant career as a teacher and surgeon, eventually becoming Sergeant-Surgeon to Queen Victoria.8 Lawrence was an impressive lecturer who had a profound effect on his listeners. The style of his writing is unusually clear and precise for his period and conveys an impression of a vast amount of knowledge. We can get some idea of the impact which the young Lawrence had on his audience from Sir James Paget's description of lectures he attended in the mid-1830's. Those of Lawrence, were, I think, the best then given in London: admirable in their well collected knowledge, and even more admirable in their order, their perfect clearness of language, and the quiet attractive manner in which they were delivered . He used to come to the Hospital in the omnibus, and, after a few minutes in the Museum, would as the clock struck, enter the theater, then always full. He came with a strange vague outlook as if with uncertain sight; the expres- sion of his eyes was always inferior to that of his other features. These were impressive, beautiful, and grand- significant of vast mental power well trained and well sustained. He came in quietly, and after sitting for about half a minute, as if gathering his thoughts, began, in a clear, rather high note, speaking quite deliberately in faultless words 6. Benignus Winslow Forbes, Physic and Physicians (London: Longman, Orme, Brown & Co., 1839), IV, 360-378; Norman Moore, "William Law- rence," DNB., XI, 727-728. 7. Goodfield-Toulmin, "Blasphemy and Biology" and "Some Aspects of English Physiology" (n. 5 above); Temkin, "Basic Science" (n. 5 above). 8. Chance, "Sir William Lawrence . ." (n. 4 above), pp. 270-279; Moore, "William Lawrence" (n. 6 above), p. 728. 321 This content downloaded from 150.135.115.31 on Wed, 29 May 2013 14:11:36 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions KENTWOOD D. WELLS as if telling judiciously that which he was just now thinking. There was no hurry, no delay, no repitition, no revision: every word had been learned by heart, and yet there was not the least sign that one word was being remembered.
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