Neptunism and Transformism: Robert Jameson and other Evolutionary Theorists in Early Nineteenth-Century Scotland

Abstract

Abstract. This paper sheds new light on the prevalence of evolutionary ideas in Scotland in the early nineteenth century and explores the connections between the espousal of evolutionary theories and adherence to the directional history of the earth proposed by Abraham Gottlob Werner and his Scottish disciples. A possible connection between Wernerian geology and theories of the transmutation of species in Edinburgh in the period when Charles Darwin was a medical student in the city was suggested in an important 1991 paper by James Secord. This study aims to deepen our knowledge of this important episode in the history of evolutionary ideas and explore the relationship between these geological and evolutionary discourses. To do this it focuses on the circle of natural historians around Robert Jameson, Wernerian geologist and professor of natural history at the University of Edinburgh from 1804 to 1854. From the evidence gathered here there emerges a clear confirmation that the Wernerian model of geohistory facilitated the acceptance of evolutionary explanations of the history of life in early nineteenth-century Scotland. As Edinburgh was at this time the most important center of medical education in the English-speaking world, this almost certainly influenced the reception and development of evolutionary ideas in the decades that followed.

Robert Jameson's transition from Neptunism to Plutonism as reflected in his lectures at Edinburgh University, 1820–33

“…Because it sets the latest date for Jameson's delivery of conventional Neptunism, the timing of the 'Dansey' notetaking is of some importance. For the purposes of this paper a c. 1820 date is taken for the 'Dansey' lecture course rather than the 1826 date proposed by Jenkins (2016). The earlier date is also supported by two further, admittedly circumstantial clues.…”

“…An undated set of notes (and effectively anonymous although preserved by William Dansey) is probably from about 1820. The evidence for this date, which is earlier than the 1826 date previously proposed by Jenkins (2016), is laid out in Appendix 1; the uncertainty is recognised. The four remaining records, by W. S. Walker, Robert McCormick, D. B. Ramsay and an anonymous student, span the early 1830s.…”

“…(1766-1844), Professor of Chemistry, and by John Playfair (1748-1819), Professor of Mathematics. There is an extensive literature on this dispute: for example, Jameson's Neptunist interpretations were neatly summarised by Bailey & Tait (1921), their origins have been examined by Sweet & Waterson (1967), and their scientific basis contrasted with Hutton's Plutonist geology by Flinn (1980), Secord (1991a) and Jenkins (2016). A scholarly overview was provided by Laudan (1987, pp.…”

Who's afraid of epigenetics? Habits, instincts, and Charles Darwin’s evolutionary theory

“…How and under the guidance of whom did the young Charles Darwin learn about French transformism? According to some recent research (Secord 1991;Jenkins 2015Jenkins , 2016Jenkins , 2019, it seems that the two years (1825-1827) that Charles Darwin spent as a medical student at the University of Edinburgh played in this respect an important role. 5 While in Edinburgh Darwin read Lamarck, joined the Plinian Natural History Society, where radical ideas about the natural world, including Lamarck's and Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire's transformism, were discussed, and he was literally surrounded by enthusiastic supporters of transformist ideas, such as Robert Knox, Henry H.…”

“…According to Jenkins (2015), these reflections by Cheek capitalize on Lamarck's principle of use and disuse and on his theory of habits as mechanisms for the formation of new organs and, by means of this, of new species. In a series of recent papers and books, Jenkins has brilliantly reconstructed the Edinburgh "Lamarckian" atmosphere in the first half of the nineteenth century (also in the light of the traditionally very strict connections between France and Scotland, Edinburgh and Paris) and its possible impact on the young Charles Darwin during his two years as a student in Edinburgh (Jenkins 2015(Jenkins , 2016(Jenkins , 2019.…”