The Politics of Evolution: Morphology, Medicine, and Reform in Radical London

514 Pages·1992·35.238 MB·English

by  Adrian Desmond

THE POLITICS OF EVOLUTION
SCIENCE AND ITS CONCEPTUAL
FOUNDATIONS
David L. Hull, Editor
THE POLITICS OF
EVOLUTION
Morphology, Medicine, and Reform in
Radical London
*
ADRIAN DESMOND
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS
Chicago and London
This book has been brought to publication with the generous
assistance of the Publication Subvention Program of the National
Endowment for the Humanities, an independent federal agency
which supports such fields as history, philosophy, literature, and
languages.
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 1989 by The University of Chicago
All rights reseIVed. Published 1989
Paperback edition 1992
Printed in the United States of America
98 97 96 95 94 93 92 5 4 3
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Desmond, Adrian J., 1947-
The politics of evolution: Morphology, medicine, and reform in
radical London / Adrian Desmond.
p. cm.-(Science and its conceptual foundations)
Bibliography: p. 432.
Includes index.
1. Anatomy, Comparative-Research-England-London
History-19th century. 2. Evolution-Research-England
London-History-19th century. I. Title. II. Series.
QL81O.D47 1989
575' .09421'09034-dc20 89-5137
CIP
ISBN 0-226-14346-5 (cloth)
ISBN 0-226-14374-0 (paperback)
§ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum
requirements of the American National Standard for Information
Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials,
ANSI Z39.48-1984.
Contents
List of Illustrations vii
Acknowledgments ix
1 Evolution and Society: Setting the Scene 1
2 Importing the New Morphology 25
3 Reforming the Management of Medicine and Science:
The Radical Perspective 101
4 Nonconformist Anatomy in the Private Schools 152
5 Accommodation and Domestication: Dealing with
Geoffroy's Anatomy 193
6 Science under Siege: Forging an Idealist Comparative
Anatomy at the College of Surgeons 236
7 Engaging the Lamarckians 276
8 Embryology, Archetypes, and Idealism: New Directions in
Comparative Anatomy 335
9 Grasping the Nettle: Some Concluding Remarks 373
Afterword: Putting Darwin in the Picture 398
Appendix A: Comparative Anatomy Teachers in London in
the 1830s 415
Appendix B: Biographical List of British Medical Men 417
Abbreviations 431
Bibliography 433
Index 467
v

Illustrations
2.1 A lampoon of Henry Brougham peddling shares in the
proposed university 38
2.2 The "showy fa<;ade" of the London University 39
2.3 Jean-Baptiste Lamarck in 1821 43
2.4 The doyen of French comparative anatomy Georges Cuvier 48
2.5 Geoffroy caricatured as an orangutan 50
2.6 Robert E. Grant, c. 1837-40 57
2.7 John Fletcher, one of the most incisive philosophical
anatomists 72
2.8 Robert Knox, the most popular anatomy lecturer in
Edinburgh 78
2.9 Cephalopods studied by Grant 91
3.1 Thomas Wakley, editor of the Lancet 108
3.2 Sir Astley Cooper, controller of a vast hospital patronage
nebwork 113
3.3 William Lawrence in 1839 119
3.4 The ambitious Marshall Hall 131
3.5 The Zoological Gardens in 1831, when only members and
their guests were admitted 138
3.6 The gardens after the public at large was admitted 139
3.7 The new "Coral Room" of the British Museum 148
4.1 Map of London in 1836, showing the proximity of the hospital
and private medical schools 155
4.2 Joshua Brookes in his museum 159
4.3 Punch's view of the London student 167
4.4 Wakley, caricatured as a jackdaw plucking Tory feathers 172
5.1 Southwood Smith attending a meeting of the Health of Towns
Association 202
5.2 William Benjamin Carpenter, systematizer of the newer
biological sciences 212
5.3 Peter Mark Roget, well connected to the leading Whig
families 224
5.4 A meeting of the Royal SOciety in Somerset House 225
6.1 Sir Anthony Carlisle 241
vii
viii ILLUSTRATIONS
6.2 The young Richard Owen 243
6.3 Rebuilding the College of Surgeons 245
6.4 The refurbished Hunterian Museum 253
6.5 Coleridge's leading medical disciple, Joseph Henry Green 261
6.6 A spoof of the vested interests behind the King's College in
London 273
7.1 The larger of Maule's nestling platypuses 281
7.2 Geoffroy about age seventy 285
7.3 Life sketches of the platypus which accompanied George
Bennett's paper to the Zoological Society 287
7.4 George Scharf's print of the zoo's baby chimp in 1835 292
7.5 Owen's illustration of the adult chimpanzee's less humanlike
skull 294
7.6 Owen's comparison of the skulls of young and adult
chimpanzees 295
7.7 Young and adult chimpanzee skeletons 297
7.8 The Stonesfield fossil "opossum" jaws 309
7.9 The numbat Myrmecohius from the Swan River settlement 315
7.10 A satire on the BAAS savants and the police authority 332
8.1 H. W. Pickers gill's portrait of Owen 359
8.2 A disarticulated baby's skull, shOwing Owen's breakdown
of the four cranial vertebrae 364
8.3 Maclise's geometrical approach to the Archetype 370
8.4 Maclise sawall species fused "into one line of extended
analogies" 371
9.1 Thomas Wakley late in life 393
9.2 Robert Grant as an old man 396
Acknowledgments
lowe debts of gratitude to a great many people, for both practical help in
unearthing manuscripts and help of a more committed kind, particularly
in reading lengthy typescripts. In this respect my main support came
from Nellie Flexner, J. A. Cowie, and my late mother, Barbara Desmond,
all of whom ungrudgingly corrected reams of computer printout. William
Bynum was a constant source of encouragement, discussing Robert Grant
and his place in radical medicine. The late Richard Freeman at University
College too was a mine of information on Grant (some of it handed-down
departmental hearsay). James Secord spared time to read the whole type
script and as usual responded with a welter of suggestions, while James
Moore sorted me out on the finer points of religious Dissent. My discus
sions with Evelleen Richards about Robert Knox helped me gain a better
perspective on the varieties of radical science. Others who kindly read
chapters were David Bloor, Steven Shapin, Roy Porter, Michael Neve,
and Fiona Erskine. Some sent unpublished or proof material, for which I
also thank David Allen, Pietro Corsi, and Frank N. Egerton. David Hull,
Peter Bowler, and an anonymous referee provided some crucial advice on
improving the manuscript. Many people replied graciously to a succes
sion of infuriating questions: Did the Rev. Adam Sedgwick know of the
pauper evolutionists? Did the young Knox hold views like those of his
classmate Grant? Was Charles Darwin scared off by the "fierce & licen
tious" radicals?
Susan Gove of the Bloomsbury Science Library at University College
London provided her usual unflagging assistance, giving me an extended
loan of Grant's offprints, lectures, and books. My research was based on
University College's extensive collection of early nineteenth-century Brit
ish and Continental works on comparative anatomy, which once consti
tuted Grant's and William Sharpey's personal libraries. For permission to
study manuscript material I should like to thank the follOwing librarians
and institutions: Janet Percival and Gill Furlong, University College Lon
don; Eustace Cornelius and I. F. Lyle, Royal College of Surgeons of En
gland; M. J. Rowlands, British Museum (Na~ural History); Jeanne Pin
gree, Huxley Archives, Imperial College; N. H. Robinson, Royal Society;
R. Fish, Zoological Society of London; Gina Douglas, Linnean Society of
ix