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New perspectives on Edinburgh Lamarckians and other transformist thinkers Evolutionary debates in the Athens of the North, 1790–1844 William Jenkins Ph.D. The University of Edinburgh 2015 Abstract Recent scholarship has suggested that transformist ideas had a wider currency in Edinburgh in the first half of nineteenth century than had previously been acknowledged. The first objective of this study is to delve deeper into the reception of transformist theories there in the years 1790 to 1844. The main figures whose theories on the transmutation of species were discussed in contemporary sources are Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778), George-Louis Leclerc, Conte de Buffon (1707–1788), Erasmus Darwin (1731–1802), Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744–1829) and Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (1772–1844); this study therefore concentrates on the reception of their work. The principle Edinburgh contexts in which the reception of their theories is explored are the University of Edinburgh, the extra-mural medical schools and the city’s various learned societies and scientific journals, although the opinions of all those in Edinburgh known to have discussed transformism in this period are considered. The sources examined reveal that transformist theories were largely received with interest. Discussion of them was generally confined to scientific, or naturalistic, arguments, except in the cases of some Evangelical natural historians, who rejected them outright on theological grounds. This thesis also explores how some thinkers in Edinburgh went beyond discussing received ideas about transformism and developed their own theories, synthesising the work of earlier thinkers. The most important of these were Robert Edmond Grant (1793– 1874), Robert Jameson (1774–1854), Robert Knox (1791–1862) and Henry H. Cheek (1807–33). This thesis also explores the genesis of the later transformist theory of Robert Chambers (1802–71), the anonymous author of Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation (1844), to establish to what extent he may have been influenced by the earlier transformists of the 1820s and 30s. Events in Edinburgh in the 1820s also had a wider resonance for the history of evolutionary ideas in Britain, as Charles Darwin (1809–1882) was a student at the University of Edinburgh between 1825 and 1827. It has long been suspected that his experiences in Edinburgh had a larger part to play in the development of his theory of evolution than he later cared to admit. Careful to avoid associating himself with the more speculative theories of earlier transformist thinkers, Darwin made little mention of them in his published writings. We already know, however, that Darwin had a close relationship with Grant during his time in Edinburgh and must have been familiar with his transformist ideas. This thesis aims to show to what extent the intellectual environment that Darwin found himself in was suffused with the idea of the transmutation of species. In broad outline, it can be concluded that transformism was much less controversial in Edinburgh in the first half of the nineteenth century than might be supposed from the prevailing historiography and had a significant number of sympathisers and adherents. 3 Declaration I, William Hugh Wright Jenkins, declare that I composed this thesis, that all the work is my own and that the work has not been submitted for any other degree or professional qualification. ____________________________ ____________________________ 5 Contents Abstract................................................................................................................................... 3 Declaration ............................................................................................................................. 5 Contents .................................................................................................................................. 7 Table of figures ...................................................................................................................... 9 Acknowledgments .............................................................................................................. 11 Chapter 1: Introduction ...................................................................................................... 13 Chapter 2: The context of European transformist thought, 1740–1830 ....................... 23 Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 23 Carl Linnaeus (1707–78) ................................................................................................. 24 Erasmus Darwin (1731–1802) ........................................................................................ 26 George-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707–88) .................................................... 31 Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744–1829) .............................................................................. 40 Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (1772–1844) ................................................................ 61 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 75 Chapter 3: The Edinburgh context .................................................................................... 79 Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 79 The Edinburgh University medical school .................................................................. 80 The chair of natural history at the University of Edinburgh .................................... 83 The natural history syllabus at Edinburgh .................................................................. 94 The extra-mural medical schools ................................................................................ 100 Scientific, medical and natural history societies ....................................................... 107 The Edinburgh natural history journals .................................................................... 118 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 126 Chapter 4: The reception of transformist theories in Edinburgh ............................... 129 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 129 Eighteenth-century thinkers: Linnaeus, Darwin and Buffon.................................. 130 The reception of Lamarck in university and medical circles .................................. 141 Evangelical critiques of Lamarck ................................................................................ 152 Reception of the transformist theories of Geoffroy .................................................. 169 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 179 Chapter 5: Models of transformism in Edinburgh ....................................................... 183 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 183 The history of the earth and the story of life ............................................................. 185 7 Transformist interpretations of the fossil record and the history of life ............... 199 The origin of species and varieties ............................................................................. 218 Transmutation without progress: Robert Knox and Hewett Cottrell Watson ..... 226 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 231 Chapter 6: Physiology, phrenology and Vestiges .......................................................... 235 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 235 Robert Chambers and early nineteenth-century transformism .............................. 240 Comparative anatomy, embryology and the transmutation of species ................ 245 Phrenology, natural law and progress ....................................................................... 251 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 260 Chapter 7: Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 262 Bibliography .....................................................................................................................