Evolution Before Darwin: Theories of the Transmutation of Species in Edinburgh, 1804-1834

by Bill Jenkins

Overview

It was long believed that evolutionary theories received an almost universally cold reception in British natural history circles in the first half of the nineteenth century. However, a relatively recently serious doubt has been cast on this assumption. This book shows that Edinburgh in the late 1820s and early 1830s was witness to a ferment of radical new ideas on the natural world, including speculation on the origin and evolution of life, at just the time when Charles Darwin was a student in the city. Those who were students in Edinburgh at the time could have hardly avoided coming into contact with these new ideas.
This book is the first major study of what was probably the most important centre or pre-Darwinian evolutionary thought in the British Isles. It sheds new light on the genesis and development of one of the most important scientific theories in the history of western thought.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781474445795
Publisher:	Edinburgh University Press
Publication date:	08/31/2021
Pages:	232
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.49(d)

About the Author

Dr Bill Jenkins is a lecturer in the School of History at the University of St Andrews, working on a project funded by the Leverhulme Trust entitled ‘After the Enlightenment: Scottish Intellectual Life, c.1790-c.1843’. Jenkins received his PhD at the University of Edinburgh has published several papers in key journals, including the Journal of the History of Biology, Journal of Scottish Historical Studies and British Journal for the History of Science. He is the author of Evolution Before Darwin: Theories of the Transmutation of Species in Edinburgh, 1804–1834 (EUP, 2019).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: Edinburgh’s university and medical schools in the early nineteenth century The legacy of the Scottish Enlightenment The University of Edinburgh at the beginning of the nineteenth century The University of Edinburgh’s medical school Edinburgh’s extra-mural anatomy schools Chapter 3: Natural History in Edinburgh, 1779–1832 Natural history in Edinburgh in the late eighteenth century Robert Jameson and the chair of natural history Comparative anatomy at the extra-mural medical schools Natural history, scientific and medical societies Natural history and science journals Chapter 4: Geology and evolution The Wernerian model of earth history Wernerians and Huttonians in Edinburgh The story of life as a tale of progressive development Wernerian geology and transformism Werner, Lamarck and Geoffroy in Edinburgh Chapter 5: Edinburgh and Paris Contemporary transformism in France: Jean-Baptiste Lamarck and Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire Lamarck in Scotland The impact of Geoffroy’s theories in Edinburgh Chapter 6: The legacy of the ‘Edinburgh Lamarckians’ The eclipse of transformism in Edinburgh Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation Transmutation without progress: Robert Knox and Hewett Cottrell Watson The legacy of Darwin’s Edinburgh years Chapter 7: Conclusion Bibliography; Unpublished primary sources; Published primary sources; Secondary sources

Editorial Reviews

Jenkins has introjected new life and meaning into the existing body of scholarship and greatly enriched our understanding of this critical place and period in the history of evolution theory.

Isis - Evelleen Richards

Bill Jenkins masterfully explores a brilliant era for science in Scotland [...] Jenkins's excellent book significantly helps us to better understand Darwin, while still being a tribute to the brilliant Scottish civic and scientific culture of the early 19th century, to the characters who forged it, and to the open-minded institutions that made it possible.

Centaurus - José Carlos Sánchez-González

A well-written and very interesting read and an important contribution to the historiography of (British) evolutionism.

Journal of the History of Biology - Koen B. Tanghe