Open Research Online The Open University’s repository of research publications and other research outputs Scientific naturalists and the government of the Royal Society 1850-1900 Thesis How to cite: Harrison, Andrew John (1989). Scientific naturalists and the government of the Royal Society 1850-1900. PhD thesis The Open University. For guidance on citations see FAQs. c 1988 The Author Version: Version of Record Copyright and Moral Rights for the articles on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. For more information on Open Research Online’s data policy on reuse of materials please consult the policies page. oro.open.ac.uk 31 0003181 6 111111 III I H Ill 111111111111 IIll LLNRE.ft Scientific Naturalists and. the government of the Royal Society 1850-1900 by Andrew John Harrison Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of History of Science and Technology, Open University (1988) aoc3 nucer M12t5 Io},e. c4' subm\ss\oci . 2C LO oç ccd: 2L - 1] - TABLE OF CONTENTS Page no. Table of Contents 11 Acknowledgements 13.1 Abstract iv List of Abbreviations of Names of Sources V Section I Procedures of the Royal Society Introduction 1 CHAPTER ONE Publication 3 CHAPTER TWO The Government Grant 26 CHAPTER THREE "Rich Engineers, Chemical Traders and Experts" 49 CHAPTER FOUR Referees and Papers 82 Case Study 1 127 Case Study 2 135 CHAPTER FIVE The Royal Society's Foreign Relations 150 Section II Scientific Naturalists and the Royal Society CHAPTER SIX The X Club 167 CHAPTER SEVEN Thomas Huxley and the Place of Scientific 214 Naturalism in the Royal Society CHAPTER EIGHT Running the Royal Society 1870-1885 258 CHAPTER NINE 1885-1900: The Breakdown of Huxleyite Control 313 of the Royal Society CHAPTER TEN Aspects of the Conflict Between the Scientific 378 Naturalists and their Opponents CHAPTER ELEVEN The Rearguard Struggle for "Pure" Darwinian '421 Theory in the Twilight of Huxleyite Power Bibliography 435 - lii - Acknowledgements During the time that I spent at the Royal Society in 1984, I received much willing help from the library staff there, for which I offer my thanks. I was later helped by the efficient staff of the Cambridge University Library Manuscript Room, and by the Archives Department of Imperial College. My thanks are due to Professor Cohn Russell for supervising my work and assisting me through some of its more difficult phases. I am grateful to Mr. and Mrs. Raven Frankland for 'their special permission to study the microfilm of the Raven Frankland Collection of the letters and papers of Sir Edward Frankland. I received much willing help from the secretarial staff of the History of Science Department of the Open University especially Mrs. Pat Dixon. Whilst living in London my accommodation problems were solved by the kind help of Mr. Euan Vaccari. By no means least of those whom I welcome the opportunity to thank is my wife, Denise, whose support and tolerance have been crucial to the efforts I have been able to devote to this project. [he Open Univers2 Higher Degrees Office HI DEZRZS OFFI 2 6 S E P 1988 Ack.. LIEPARY N OPISATION FC1 Pass to... PJsai_ A r;ov1. OF IS: Icc wJ -& 1 ç. 1- if e ,-' cC) confirm that I em ilhir that trrj thesis be ab1e to readers and ttaybe Dtocopied, SUbject to the discretil f the Librarian. slED: ,/ (JL(LA2>1CV\ - iv - Abstract The everyday life of the Royal Society in the second half of the nineteenth century is a largely unworked field within the history of Victorian science. As the principal forum for English science, the Royal Society was a crucial context for' the working out of the major changes in science over the period. The Society made its own singular responses to the developing needs of science for funds to support increasingly expensive researches, and for a more efficient means of publication for the growing number of active workers. These aspects are dealt with at length in the first section. The image of science which was held to by some of its leading practitioners and organisers is very significant in tracing the devel- oping tensions within Victorian science. This led to a widespread sensitivity to any commercial or political involvements on the part of prominent men of science, which might have seemed to compromise their disinterestedness. An area which is very revealing of many character- istic modes of thought entertained by Victorian men of' science, is the evaluation of' scientific performance. Enshrined in the refereeing procedures of the Royal Society, this process provides many insights into the contemporary meaning of the issues of the day. For a long period following 1870 the government of the Royal Society was in the hand of the group of scientific naturalists who surrounded Thomas Huxley. Their personal ambitions and energetic sup- port of the cause of' scientific naturalism contributed to an extremely vigourous phase of the Royal Society's history. A detailed coverage is provided of the spectacular rise and surprisingly rapid decline of the power and influence of this group in this focal point of Victorian science. -v - List of Abbreviations of Names of Sources ASN Marie Boas Hall, All Scientists Now, Cambridge University Press, 1984. LL JDH Leonard Huxley (ed.), Life and Letters of Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker, John Murray, London, 1918. LL THH Leonard Huxley (ed.) Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley, Macmillan, London, 1908. TRS Henry Lyons, The Royal Society 1660-1940, Cambridge, 1944. Phil. Trans. (P.T.) Philosophical. Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Proc. R.S. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. RFC The Raven Frankland Collection of the papers of Sir Edward Frankland. Huxley Papers (ICL) Collection housed at Imperial College London. Catalogue by Warren Dawson. Kelvin Papers (CUL) Cambridge University Library, Add. MS 7342. Stokes Papers (CUL) Cambridge University library, Add. MS 7656. -1- INTRODUCTION The main objective of the research which forms the basis of this work has been to provide a detailed consideration of the way in which certain leading Fellows of the Royal Society took a central part in its organisation and conduct during the second half of the nineteenth century. Publicists of the Royal Society have commonly assumed that basic divisions of interest, and the personal and institutional ten- sions to which these inevitably gave rise, were effectively removed by the reform of the Statutes in 1847. Much primary evidence suggests that this was far from being the case. Recent consideration of the social relations of Victorian science has dwealt largely on the oper- ation of informal networks of influence. The present work represents an attempt to investigate the nature and extent of these networks in the context of the central forum of British science. A major diffi- culty placed in the way of this investigation proved to be similar to that facing many studies of institutional behaviour: the understandable concern for its public image enacted by the institution in question. Frequently the august nature of the Royal Society's perceived position within British scientific life led many of its leading Fellows to realise their interests in its affairs clandestinely whilst maintain- ing an outward appearance of the severest rectitude. During the second half of the nineteenth century, the interest groups whose conflicts had so profound an influence on the conduct of science in this country were united in their concern to maintain the magisterial dignity of its public image. This meant that the tensions referred to above were not usually resolved in the relatively exposed arena formed by the Society's apartments at Burlington House. As a result of this it is necessary to trace out the actions and intentions of several central figures in other scientific contexts than the Royal Society itself. -2- The place of Thomas Huxley in Victorian science has often been described elsewhere. The present work attempts to ascertain more about the place of Huxley and his more active supporters within the Royal Society - recently termed the "Upper House" of British science. Running alongside the involvement of Huxley was that of George Stokes. Contemporarily a less newsworthy focus of affairs than Huxley, in the popular sense, Stokes nevertheless wielded great scientific influence. He occupied the office of Secretary of the Royal Society for 31 years. Of the part played by Stokes, much remains to be established. There is evidence to suggest that the rapid rise and subsequent failure of the enterprise undertaken by the "Huxleyites" involved some individuals and events not hitherto recognised by historians of the period. In recent years a good deal has been written about scientific naturalism, the world picture that Huxley and his followers did so much to promote. The manner which this promotion took place within the Royal Society is examined in detail in the second part of this work. The first part consists of several detailed studies of the institu- tional setting of the Royal Society. These consider the development of routine procedures bound up in the everday institutional life of the Society at Burlington House. -3- CHAPTER ONE PUBLICATION The relative isolation of British science following the climax of Newton's dispute with Leibnitz in 1715, which divided British and Continental mathematicians into mutually hostile camps, produced a legacy of unquestioned insularity that dogged the outlook of British instruments of scientific communication far into the next century.1 An efficient and reliable method of maintaining scientific communica- tion between the European countries began to develop as the newly forming scientific societies of the send half of the seventeenth century began to set up journals to replace personal correspondence.2 In spite of the aura of heroic pioneering which is commonly lent to these early stirrings, it seems that the most impelling motive of work was an increasingly urgent desire to codify a uniform means of securing personal and national priority for particular scientific performances.