Introducing Darwinism to Toronto’s Post-1887 Reconstituted Medical School JOHN P. M. COURT “The boys sang their best songs and cheered with renewed vigour.” —The Mail (Toronto), 1890 Abstract. Charles Darwin’s scientific paradigm was largely welcomed in Cana- dian academic biology and medicine, while reaction among other faculty and laypeople ranged from interest to outrage. In 1874, Ramsay Wright, a Darwin- ian-era biologist from Edinburgh, was appointed to the University of Toronto’s Chair of Natural History. Over his 38-year career Wright integrated the evolu- tionary perspective into medical and biology teaching without accentuating its controversial source. He also applied the emerging German experimental research model and laboratory technology. This study identifies five categories of scientific and personal influences upon Wright through archival research on biographical sources and his writings. Keywords. natural history, biology, Darwinian evolution, medical education Résumé. Les théories de Charles Darwin ont été largement acceptées au Canada en médecine et en biologie, alors que les réactions au sein d’autres dis- ciplines et parmi la population allaient de l’intérêt à l’indignation. En 1874, Ramsay Wright, un biologiste d’Édinbourg, devint titulaire de la chaire d’his- toire naturelle à l’Université de Toronto. Pendant 38 ans de carrière, Wright a intégré la perspective évolutionniste dans son enseignement en médecine et en biologie, mais sans faire part de sa source controversée. Il a aussi utilisé la tech- nologie de laboratoire et le modèle de recherche expérimentale allemands, alors en émergence. Cette étude identifie cinq catégories d’influences personnelles et scientifiques perceptibles chez Wright, partant de ses écrits et de documents d’archives à caractère biographique. Mots-clés. histoire naturelle, biologie, théorie de l’évolution de Darwin, édu- cation médicale John P. M. Court, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto. CBMH/BCHM / Volume 28:1 2011 / p. 191-212 192 JOHN P. M. COURT Professor Robert Ramsay Wright (1852-1933) was recruited from his native Scotland as Chair of Natural History for the University of Toronto (U of T) in 1874. Having just ascended the initial rung of his faculty career, he was altogether unfamiliar with Canada and was manifestly less qualified than the Canadian and foreign scientists of varied distinc- tion who had also applied for the position. Nor is there any indication of support for Wright from a Canadian champion, as enjoyed by other notable candidates.1 Speaking much later for those involved in advo- cating Wright’s selection by Premier Oliver Mowat, in whose hands the decision lay, President James Loudon recalled their undeclared tripartite agenda for this obscure candidate; viz., to introduce Darwinian evolution through the University’s science curricula, along with the German exper- imental research model, and the adoption of modern laboratory tech- niques.2 Wright ultimately obliged them, playing a vital, often vivid role over his career of 38 years. Yet he did not acknowledge, trace, nor leave a consistent legacy for revealing his sources of intellectual and personal influence. That is our present purpose, approached through unearthing and evaluating a scattered range of sources. Figure 1 Professor Ramsay Wright, portrait by Arnesby Brown, 1919, commissioned by the University of Toronto. Photo by the author. Introducing Darwinism to Toronto’s Medical School 193 James Loudon initially led a loose, covert caucus of Toronto faculty and alumni who remained circumspect in championing the academically and socially volatile Darwinian philosophy. A year after Wright’s arrival, Loudon publicly declared in his 1875 lecture for inaugurating his pro- motion to U of T’s Chair of Natural Philosophy an intention to give evo- lution a wide berth. “Upon these controversies I have no intention to enter. I neither possess sufficient learning for such a purpose, nor am I likely to embark on such a stormy sea.” Loudon did, however, encourage everyone to exercise patience and tolerance for navigating those stormy seas. “Truth, whether religious or scientific, will most assuredly persist unto the end, and we who believe most firmly in the truths of Chris- tianity ought to be the last to fear the progress of research … The needs of the [present] time are patience and forbearance. Science is one of God’s interpreters in the hands of man, although we may misunder- stand its meaning.”3 CONTEXT FOR THE ACADEMIC RECEPTION OF DARWINISM For more than two decades before Origin of Species (1859) appeared in Upper Canada, the university chairs and Protestant pulpits had earnestly imparted the symbiotic doctrines of “Common Sense” mental discipline, and piety, from the Scottish Enlightenment, and Natural Theology from William Paley through the country’s leading science educators.4 Then from 1859 British North America witnessed another rare convergence by these opinion leaders. English and Scots, the Established (Anglican) Church and other denominations, titanic ecclesiastical foes like Strachan and Ryerson, the secular University of Toronto and the phalanx of reli- gious colleges envious of its Provincial status and endowment, all united in opposition to evolution, as advanced by Origin and Darwin’s 1871 sequel, The Descent of Man. So thunderously did the heavens rain down on Darwin and his evolution paradigm that their prospective defenders and those still undecided, such as two U of T physical science professors, H. H. Croft of chemistry and Wright’s predecessor, Alleyne Nicholson, discreetly maintained a public silence.5 The formidable bulwark of traditional belief in Divine Creation and fixity of species began to be breached at a few universities by the 1870s, through the confluence of four intellectual streams. First, the inde- pendent “critical spirit” of objective reason unfettered by dogma—par- ticularly contentious as applied to the Bible in Higher Criticism— steadily gained adherence. Second, from the 1870s, new chairs in philosophy, notably the stellar John Watson (Queen’s) and Paxton Young at Toronto introduced the more overarching and evolution-com- patible doctrine of philosophical idealism.6 Third and conjointly, the exploratory research ideal and the hypothetico-deductive method 194 JOHN P. M. COURT appeared, introducing laboratory technology that originated from Ger- man scientists.7 Fourth, stood the compelling clarity of evidence (acknowledged as incomplete) of Darwin’s texts and those of his prolific “Bulldog” defender, T. H. Huxley. This coalescence of allied forces, buttressed by the 1849 University of Toronto Act that gradually eroded the dogmatic influences carried over from King’s College, raised the sightlines of influential former students. From 1873 there were 15 alumni members in the university senate,8 sev- eral of whom harboured ambitions for institutional challenges to the traditional perspectives. In particular this cadre of ambitious students, who had enrolled after 1849 with the understanding that secularism was the basis for this “godless university,” expressed their disdain for the traditional outlooks espoused by the Rev. President John McCaul and several senior professors: Beaven and Hincks, also both clerics; together with Daniel Wilson and Edward Chapman, who were initially anti-Dar- winian.9 By 1874, no doubt influenced by their former classmate, the strongly pro-evolution William Dawson Lesueur, and his spirited articles in the Canadian Monthly and National Review, these influential alumni supported evolution and its companion forces—the interrogative inves- tigation of natural phenomena, and the critical spirit of objective rea- soning unencumbered by dogma. Senate members notwithstanding, what is clear from the sources doc- umenting that era for U of T, the religious colleges and the Provincial Government, is that no faculty member taught as an openly vocal pro- Darwinian in Ontario’s universities during the initial 15 years to 1874. Ramsay Wright much later recalled that to have done so during the 1870s “was still regarded as dangerous.”10 Suzanne Zeller, citing other authorities, went further in asserting that: “No strong public defender of the [Darwinian] theory emerged [in Canada] during the half-century after 1859.”11 Those few whose supportive sympathies were later appar- ent, such as the briefly-tenured Alleyne Nicholson and James Loudon, evidently felt constrained, even at Ontario’s secular university, and with- held their opinions until the older generation of faculty had retired. RAMSAY WRIGHT’S UNACKNOWLEDGED WELLSPRINGS Throughout his 38 years at Toronto, Ramsay Wright refrained from iden- tifying the fundamental influences that affected his intellectual journey. Accordingly, this study will examine sources to interpret the scientific and social influences that Wright absorbed and reflected in the course of his successful introduction of evolution, for both his adopted univer- sity’s teaching of basic sciences and medicine, together with the German research model and laboratory technology, and as well to English-Cana- dian secondary schools’ zoology curricula. Introducing Darwinism to Toronto’s Medical School 195 Recollections found in Wright’s obituaries together with mentions found within his students’ and colleagues’ memoirs focus overwhelm- ingly on the favourable regard with which he was held for his charis- matic teaching and mentoring attributes. They reveal little, however, about