Transcript Origin of Species Sesquicentennial Talk

Charles Darwin and The Origin of
Species: Reception and Reactions in
19th Century Nova Scotia
Darwin on HMS Beagle 1831-1836
http://darwin-online.org.uk/
Establishing a respectable career
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1838-43
Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle (5 parts)
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1839
Journal of Researches (Voyage of the Beagle)
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1842
The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs
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1844
Geological Observations of Volcanic Islands
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1846
Geological Observations of South America
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1851-54
Monograph on Cirripedia (Barnacles) 4 vols.
all the while being more and more convinced of a heresy…Transmutation
Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802)
1794
Jean Baptiste de Lamarck (1744-1829)
1809
Robert Chambers (1802-1871)
• Vestiges of the History of Natural
Creation (1844), Anonymous
• ‘A Victorian Sensation’
Secord (2001)
http://pages.britishlibrary.net/phrenology/images/ch
ambers.jpg
Herbert Spencer (1820-1903)
“The Development
Hypothesis” (1852)
“Progress: Its law and
cause” (1857)
Establishing a respectable career
•
1838-43
Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle (5 parts)
•
1839
Journal of Researches (Voyage of the Beagle)
•
1842
The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs
•
1844
Geological Observations of Volcanic Islands
•
1846
Geological Observations of South America
•
1851-54
Monograph on Cirripedia (Barnacles) 4 vols.
Working on a big book, ‘Natural Selection’, when suddenly…
Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913)
“On the tendency of varieties to depart indefinitely from the
original type” (1858)
Darwin’s Key Supporters
Lyell (1797-1875)
Hooker (1817-1911)
Huxley (1825-1895)
Darwin
http://darwin-online.org.uk/
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Nov. 24, 1859 1st edition
1860 2nd ed.
1861 3rd ed.
1866 4th ed.
1869 5th ed.
1872 6th ed.
1876 6th ed. with
additions and
corrections (final
version)
http://darwin-online.org.uk/
T
Origins, 1st edition
Ch. 9 “Imperfection of the
geological record”
Sir John William Dawson (1820-1899)
• Born Pictou, NS
http://jogginsfossilcliffs.net/
• Mentored by Lyell (and
Darwin!)
• Described with Lyell:
• Ancient fossil trees Joggins
(Origins 1st ed.)
• Earliest fossil land snail
(Origins 2nd ed. 1860)
• Early vertebrate fossils,
Dendrerpeton Acadianum,
Hylonomus Lyelli
• Champion of Eozoon
Canadense (Origins 4th ed.
1866)
Hylonomus Lyelli (1859[1851])
http://jogginsfossilcliffs.net/
Dawson
• Acadian Geology
– 1855; 1868; 1878
http://jogginsfossilcliffs.net/
• Review of Darwin’s
Origin of Species,
Canadian Naturalist and
Geologist V(2), April
1860: 100-120
• Adherent of Special
Creation; rejected
transmutation
Eozoon Canadense ‘The dawn animal of Canada’
(1858) found in Azoic (pre-Cambrian) deposits
http://cgc.rncan.gc.ca/paleochron/04_e.php?p=1
http://geology.com
A focus on geology and paleontology
• “…the finest example in the world
of a natural exposure in a
continuous section ten miles
long, occurs in the sea cliffs
bordering a branch of the Bay of
Fundy in Nova Scotia.” Sir C. Lyell
• “In no part of the world are the
coal measures better developed,
or more fully exposed, than in the
coast sections of Nova Scotia and
Cape Breton.” J.W. Dawson (1893)
• “the Galapagos of the Coal-Age”
http://museum.gov.ns.ca/fossils/sites/coal/index.htm
Nova Scotian Institute of Natural Science
founded 1862
• The Transactions:
• P.C. Hill, President. 1867. Inaugural Address. x
• T. Belt. 1867. Some recent movements of the earth’s
surface. =
• W. Gossip. 1867. Enquiry into the Antiquity of Man. x
• G. Lawson. 1867. Notice on the occurrence of Heather
(Calluna vulgaris) at St. Ann’s Bay, Cape Breton Island. √
• T.F. Knight. 1870. Natural History, and its place in the
Sciences. x
• A. Ross. 1874. Evolution. √
• A. Dewar. 1875. Spontaneous Generation, or Predestinated
Generation. √
Baconian Inductive Science
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empiricist
stick to facts
eschew speculation and hypotheses
a rhetorical device to criticize evolution and
other unorthodox (religious) ideas
• Natural Theology of Bishop Paley
• Natural History: proper role for a young and
largely uncatalogued colony/country
– “Inventory Sciences” Suzanne Zeller (1987)
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1838-43
Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle (5 parts)
•
1839
Journal of Researches (Voyage of the Beagle)
•
1842
The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs
•
1844
Geological Observations of Volcanic Islands
•
1846
Geological Observations of South America
•
1851-54
Monograph on Cirripedia (Barnacles) 4 vols.
•
1859
On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in
the Struggle for Life
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1862
On the Various Contrivances by which British and Foreign Orchids are Fertilised by Insects
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1868
Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication
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1871
The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex
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1872
The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals
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1875
Movement and Habits of Climbing Plants
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1875
Insectivorous Plants
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1876
The Effects of Cross and Self-Fertilisation in the Vegetable Kingdom
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1877
The Different Forms of Flowers on Plants of the Same Species
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1879
The Life of Erasmus Darwin
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1880
The Power of Movement in Plants
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1881
The Formation of Vegetable Mould Through the Action of Worms
• Ultimately ‘Darwinism’
provided a theoretical and
unifying basis which raised
the status of the natural
history disciplines (geology,
paleontology, botany,
zoology) in the new
organization of university
faculties and curricula
around the end of the 19th
century
Personal photo, Dept. of Zoology, Cambridge
“Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution.” T. Dobzhansky (1973)
Personal photo, Museum of Natural History, London
Acknowledgments
• Prof. Paul Bogaard, Dept. of Philosophy, Mt
Allison University, Sackville, NB
• Lou Duggan, Cape Breton University (CBU)
Library
• Dave McAulay, (volunteer research assistant)
• Prof. David McCorquodale, Dept. of Biology,
CBU
• Prof. Sean Modesto, Dept. of Biology, CBU
• Prof. Andy Parnaby, Dept. of History, CBU
References
Atlantic Geological Society. (2001). The Last Billion Years: A Geological History of
the Maritime Provinces of Canada. Nimbus Publishing.
Berger, C. (1983). Science, God, and Nature in Victorian Canada. University of
Toronto Press.
Bogaard, P. (1997).“The Presbyterian Contribution to Higher Education: Teaching
science in Maritime Universities.” In C.H.H. Scobie and G.A. Rawlyk (eds.). The
Contribution of Presbyterianism to the Maritime Provinces of Canada. McGillQueen’s University Press.
Bogaard, P. (1996). “Science within the Liberal Arts: Mount Allison and the
Maritime Universities.” In C. Storm (ed.). Liberal Education and the Small
University in Canada. McGill-Queen’s University Press.
Bogaard, P. (ed.) 1990. Profiles of Science and Society in the Maritimes prior to
1914. Acadiensis Press.
Brown, J. Darwin’s Origin of Species: A Biography. Douglas & McIntyre.
Cook, R. (1985). The Regenerators: Social Criticism in Late Victorian English
Canada. University of Toronto Press.
McKillop, A.B. (1979). A Disciplined Intelligence: Critical Inquiry and Canadian
Thought in the Victorian Era. McGill-Queen’s Press.
O'Brien, C.F. (1970). ”Eozoon canadense ‘The dawn animal of Canada’”. Isis, 61:
206-223.
Secord, J. (2001). Victorian Sensation: The Extraordinary publication, Reception,
and Secret Authorship of Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation. University
of Chicago Press.
Zeller, S. (1987). Inventing Canada: Early Victorian Science and the idea of a
Transcontinental Nation. University of Toronto Press.
Zeller, S. (1996). Land of Promise, Promised Land: The Culture of Victorian Science
in Canada. Canadian Historical Society Association Historical Booklet No. 56.
Sir William Logan (1798-1875)
• Director Geological
Survey of Canada
• Theory of coal
formation (1840)
Source: Natural Resources Canada/KGS-709
© Public Domain. Photo: Courtesy of Natural Resources Canada.
nlc-10595
Cambridge University Library
Darwin Archives and
http://jogginsfossilcliffs.net/
http://jogginsfossilcliffs.net/