Yasha Gall, Julian Sorell Huxley, 1887-1975
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Julian Sorell Huxley, 1887-1975 Yasha Gall Published by Nauka, St. Petersburg, Russia, 2004 Reproduced as an e-book with kind permission of Nauka Science editor: Academician AL Takhtajan Preface by the Science Editor The 20th century was the epoch of discovery in evolutionary biology, marked by many fundamental investigations. Of special significance were the works of AN Severtsov, SS Chetverikov, S Wright, JBS Haldane, G De Beer JS Huxley and R Goldschmidt. Among the general works on evolutionary theory, the one of greatest breadth was Julian Huxley’s book Evolution: The Modern Synthesis (1942). Huxley was one of the first to analyze the mechanisms of macro-evolutionary processes and discuss the evolutionary role of neoteny in terms of developmental genetics (the speed of gene action). Neoteny—the most important mechanism of heritable variation of ontogenesis—has great macro-evolutionary consequences. A Russian translation of Huxley’s book on evolution was prepared for publication by Professor VV Alpatov. The manuscript of the translation had already been sent to production when the August session of the VASKNIL in 1948 burst forth—a destructive moment in the history of biology in our country. The publication was halted, and the manuscript disappeared. I remember well a meeting with Huxley in 1945 in Moscow and Leningrad during the celebratory jubilee at the Academy of Sciences. He was deeply disturbed by the “blossoming” of Lysenkoist obscurantism in biology. It is also important to note that in the 1950s Huxley developed original concepts for controlling the birth rate of the Earth’s population. He openly declared the necessity of forming an international institute at the United Nations, since the global ecosystem already could not sustain the pressure of human “activity” and, together with humanity, might itself die. In this aspect, Huxley worked on programs involving eugenics. Eugenics was for him, as it was for our great biologist and evolutionist HK Kol’tsov, a noble science directed at improving the individual and humanity by means of deliverance from harmful or lethal mutations (“our genetic load,” to use G Müller’s term), which had accumulated in great quantities. Huxley’s Galton Lecture in 1962, “Eugenics from an Evolutionary Perspective,” ran into many editions. Comparing the ideas of this great scientist with contemporary programs in human genetics, one notes how far he surpassed his own time. Even my short discussion leads to the obvious conclusion - Yasha Gall has written an interesting and important book. I am glad to have spurred the author to select the Huxley’s creativity as the theme of his investigation. It has been interesting for me during the writing of this book to discuss with the author the historical, scientific, and theoretical problems of evolutionary biology. Academician AL Takhtajan 1 Introduction Julian Sorell Huxley – a scientist and geo-politician - has earned several titles. Some call him the Great Huxley, some the founder or one of the founders of the synthetic theory of evolution. Ethologists and ornithologists suggest that his works lay at the basis of modern ethology. Historians of embryology maintain that Huxley brought about synthesis in embryology, or even wider – in developmental biology. In Russia, Huxley was admired for his embryological synthesis, although this was at a time when he was sharply restricted in America where the founding of this synthesis was seen as being on a “feeble” basis. His experiments, conducted on the Mexican tiger salamander (Ambystoma tigrinum), were a genuine scientific curiosity. Everyone suggested that Huxley had made a fundamental discovery in the field of the life sciences, called gerontology. But then it seemed that he had been far from the first. However, for the occasional invalid, Huxley, the event did not provoke depression. The salamander taught him an unexpected lesson: repeating any experiment can help to formulate an original investigatory program, even in more than one field. Several historians of science still believe that within his scientific experience Huxley had made no genetic investigation, and that he and R Goldschmidt were heretics, or even committed a crime, since they had deviated from a pure Morganistic “transmission genetics” stance. While it is known that Huxley and Goldschmidt were standing at the source of modern developmental genetics, the works of these “heretics” opened up new possibilities and principles in the development of genetics itself, linking it to the classic problems of individual development and evolutionary theory. Huxley’s investigations on the problem of growth were as significant as the investigations of another well-known scientist, D’Arcy Thompson. Huxley joined the circle of founders of contemporary eugenics, and only he related its problems with those of evolutionary theory, which stood out as the foundation for this old and controversial science. Moreover, Huxley saw in eugenics not only a science for improving human beings, but also for preserving humanity’s unity with the biosphere. It is entirely legitimate to call him the Malthus of the twentieth century. The topics of population growth and continuous overpopulation were at the center of Huxley’s focus, and here he also achieved a gigantic synthesis. Participating in that synthesis were such sciences as genetics, eugenics, demography, and the study of natural resources. Even if demographers had formally stated population growth in terms of exponents and discovered the field of increased growth, it was Huxley who had contributed the sharpest and most original methods to solve the problems. He suggested forming institutes for controlling the birthrate using sterilization. Huxley was strongly and sharply criticized, but he was also actively supported; he was thinking of the fate of humanity as a whole. It was Huxley himself who formed the concepts of evolutionary ethics and evolutionary humanism, in order to gain a better understanding of human nature in the relationships between people, personalities, and the state. These concepts had a philosophical character, but in approach and even analytical style, the problem was principally different from academic philosophy. In this aspect, Huxley can be compared with Herbert Spencer. Huxley’s ideas consistently shifted between materialism and idealism, and he suggested that even in that important field of philosophy there were no static relationships. The evolutionary approach permeated even the understanding of the foundation of philosophy. Within his circle of close friends, Huxley called himself a vitalist. From his grandfather he learned the idea of popularizing science and accepted it as his right. Huxley 2 showed the necessity of popularizing science, but in no way was he a founder of popular science. A series of his works, which were labeled lectures for the general public, had a deep scientific character. For example, one can boldly call Huxley’s small book Evolution in Action (1953), like the lecture course delivered at Indiana University, a scientific masterpiece, since in it he predicts many future paths for the development of evolutionary theory. Such an intellectual result is possible only with the simultaneous combination of scientific and literary gifts. Julian Huxley’s brother, Aldous Huxley, was a great writer, and his half-brother, Andrew Huxley, was a great physiologist and Nobel Prize laureate. Julian also wrote poems, essays, and was even awarded a prize in literature. Beginning with Thomas Henry Huxley (in Russia he was better known as Гексли), the Huxley family was a most active participant in the intellectual progress of human kind. In 1968, Ronald Clark, the family biographer, wrote a book in which he extensively discusses all the Huxleys. As historians like to note, Charles Darwin lived at Down in Kent in isolated or semi- isolated conditions. Julian Huxley never lived in such conditions. His creative scientific work for his entire life coincided with the equally creative and original organizational work in the areas of science and culture. Beginning in 1913, he was constantly in a state of stormy activity. In fact, he organized the Department of Biology at Rice University (Houston), headed the Union of Scientific Workers in Great Britain, was elected secretary of the London Zoological Society, and became head of the Department of Zoology at Oxford University and later at University College, London. He was secretary and then president of the London Eugenics Society, one of the organizers of the Society for the Study of Animal Behavior and the British Ecological Society, and the Society of Evolutionary Study. Finally, he served on the preparatory committee for forming UNESCO and wrote the Manifesto for the then highly prestigious organization. He became the first Director General of UNESCO. But he was elected as a leader who had proposed the Manifesto of the Organization, not as an administrator. In that regard, he is like the member of the French government, René Shmuel Kassen, who prepared the text of the World Declaration on Human Rights, which became the main document for the activities of the UNO. Kassen was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1968 in recognition of the 20-year acceptance of the declaration, but Huxley was never offered such a high honor, although his Manifesto was written and accepted earlier. After leaving the post of Director General of UNESCO, Huxley continued to work for the Organization, heading the commission for preserving wild nature and for human population, and also serving as an expert for many educational programs. With the publication of his biography by his wife, Juliette, it became apparent just how sick a person Huxley had been through his entire life, and paradoxically how very strong he must have been to live such a richly creative life. Here stands at the highest level the issue of personality, society, and state. Also connected with this is Huxley’s persistent attraction to the problems of morality and humanism. Huxley was a teacher in capital letters.