Der Fluss des Lebens

Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778)

Carl Linnaeus, who was born in the remote Swedish province of Smaland, to a country parson and a parson's daughter, was introduced to botany through his father's love of flowers, gardens and the parsonage grounds. At school natural history was his favourite subject, and he was very fortunate in his last few years at school, where he was encouraged in his aptitude for botany and was taught the classification system.

While studying medicine at university, Linnaeus could spend time on botanical field trips and the botanical gardens. Around 1730 Linnaeus began to conceive the fundamental features of his botanical taxonomy, based on plant sexuality, an idea originally proposed by the French botanist Sebastien Vaillant. in 1732, sponsored by the Uppsala Society of Science, he made a trip to Lapland that lasted until the Autumn. In 1735 Linnaeus moved to Holland for three years, where learned and wealthy parons helped him get his work published. In 1738 he moved back to Sweden. Although he had already established his reputation as a leading young botanist, there was no academic position available. Fortunately, he had obtained his medical qualification, and began to practise in Stockholm. He also married, and within a year was appointed chief physician to the Swedish Navy. He was one of the prime movers in the foundation of the Swedish Academy of Science, of which he became the first president. Later he was also elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society.

Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778) Continued...........

In 1742, at the age of 35, he was appointed professor of medicine and botany at the University of Uppsala, where he stayed for the rest of his life. He resided in the botanical garden, and his lectures and field trips on bontany and natural history were exceedingly popular.

During this time Linnaeus started to reform Tournefort's taxonomic system. He devised the binomial system classification which bears his name, assigning to every known organism a genus and a species. He used latin, stiil the scientific lingua franca. Which had been used for concise scientific descriptions of plants and animals, but not in a system of classification. The single characteristic, sexual organs, was his method for classifying plants. By seeking simple ways for amateur and professional botanists to identify plants, Linnaeus aimed for the practical. Therefore, recognising that the flower and the fruit are relatively stable characters and not subject to great variation as seen in other parts of  plants. The characters that Linnaeus used for his classification system included the number of pistils and stamens, the presence or absence of flowers, and the presence or absence of both sexual organs on the same plant.

Most naturalists followed his methods of nomenclature and description for taxonomic work well into the nineteenth century, but since it was not always based on natural relationships, modifications of the original system were preferred. He also extended his classification to the animal kingdom, but with less success.

Linnaeus gave his contemporaries the means of identifying the plants and animals then known, and thereby stimulated further collecting and exploration.

Text: James, I. 2009. Remarkable Biologists, Cambridge University Press

Pictures: Wikipedia

Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck (1744-1829)

In the first half of the 19th Century, the leading exponent of evolution was the French naturalist Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck. As a child he was selected for the priesthood, but his interest lay in the military. He soon rose to the rank of Lieutenant and fought with the French army in the Seven Years War. After the war was over he spent 5 years at various French forts on the Mediteranean and eastern borders of France, and it was during this period that he began botanising.

Following injury he left military service and went onto to work as a clerk. It was during this time he studied medicine, and through his studies he became interested in botany. He went on to develop an expert knowledge of the subject and in 1778 published the results of over 9 years of work as a four-volume Flora Francaise, it was arranged as a dichotomous key for the determination of species.

As a result of this he became a protege of Buffon, was elected to the Academy Royale des Sciences in 1779 and later the Royal Botanist. In 1793, when the Museum d'histoire naturelle was created, Lamarck was appointed a professorship of zoology, where he specialised in invertebrates.

Almost everything Lamarck did led to the theory of evolution, which he first presented in a lecture at the Academy in 1800. It was where the term biology began to be used instead of natural history. Lamarck was one of the first to adopt it.

Jean-Baptiste De Lamarck (1744-1829) Continued..........

In its original form, Lamarck maintained that nature formed the simplest plants and animal directly through spontaneous generation. Then changing circumstances and needs led to new responses which eventually produced new habits; these habits tended to strengthen certain parts or organs through use.

During his life Lamarck made significant contributions in botany, invertebrate zoology and palaeontology, and developed one of the first thorough theories of evolution. He was mostly ignored by his own countrymen, but he received some attention in England from the generation before Darwin. However, it was really Darwin's theory of evolution which ensured Lamarck's fame.

There is still much debate of the extension of Lamarck's influence on Darwin. It was mainly Darwin's enemies and detractors who revived Lamarck for a variety of reasons; ranging from scientific, to religion, to nationalism. Towards the end of the 19th century a famous controversey arose between Darwinians and the neo-Lamarckians (who used Lamarck's views selectively and often modified to suit their purposes). Due to the wide acceptance of Darwinism as modified by modern genetic theory, much of Lamarckism has died out, although some still apply it to seemingly purposive biological behaviour.

Text: James, I. 2009. Remarkable Biologists, Cambridge University Press

Pictures: Wikipedia

Georges Cuvier (1769-1832)

The eldest of two scientific brothers, was born in the tiny principality of Montbeliard on 23rd August 1769. During his childhood he gave evidence of a precocious intellectual and emotional development. He was also gifted with an excellent memory as he had mastered those parts of Buffon's natural history that had appeared.

In 1784 Cuvier entered the Caroline Academy, near Stuttgart. The students came from all over eastern and central Europe. The curriculum was broad, discipline strict, and the ethos cosmopolitan. Once Cuvier was promoted to the rank of chevalier, he was allowed to live among students of noble birth and begin his education as a select member of court. He specialised in administrative, juradicial and economic sciences, which included a significant proportion of natural history. During his studies the young zoology lecturer Kielmeyer, taught Cuvier the art of dissection and perhaps some comparative anatomy as well.

After his studies he took a position as a private tutor in the Normandy area. During those six years he kept in contact with friends from the Caroline Academy through letters, but was forced to feign sympathy with revolutionary ideas due to this unpredictable time in history. These letters are of great importance and show Cuvier acquiring his basic ideas that he then went onto develop later in life.

Georges Cuvier 1769-1832 Continued.........

In a letter to Christian Pfaff, 1788, he stated ' I wish everything taht experience shows us to be carefully disassociated from hypotheses...science should be based on facts, not systems.' He was referring to German Naturphilosophie, which maintained that, in spite of a near endless variety of form, all vertebrates are constructed upon one and the same Bauplan, and were to be regarded as manifestations of the same fundamental type. Cuvier explained that the structure of an animal is, of necessity, in harmony with its mode of life, therefore, the form of each organ is related to its function, not to its situation in some master plan.

In Paris Cuvier was appointed assistant professor of animal anatomy at the Museum d'histoire naturelle. Through this he resided within quarters in the jardin near the menagerie, where he stayed till he died. Around 1803 Cuvier accepted an appointment as inspector-general and member of the council of the Universitie imperiale, even though he disagreed with Bonaparte's policies. Cuvier was able to use his powers to reform curricula and to make senior posts. He also tried to develop teachings in religion, modern languages and the natural sciences. He renounced his audacious ideas about evolution due to Napoleon's coronation by the pope in 1804.

Cuvier's appetite for scientific and administrative work was immense and as he gre older it became greater. Cuvier greatly advanced palaeontology, but although he studied the fossil record carefully his erroneous theories brought him into conflict with his former friends Lamarck and Geoffroy. In his youth Cuvier first disputed then accepted the theory of the chain of being, but later came round in favour of the fixity of species and separate creation.

Text: James, I. 2009. Remarkable Biologists, cambridge University Press

Pictures: Wikipedia

Charles Darwin (1809-1882)

The illustrious naturalist Charles Darwin was the son of a wealthy physician and Josiah Wedgwood's daughter. In 1825 he went to Edinburgh as a medical student, until it became clear that medicine was not the career for him.

In October 1827 he was admitted to Christ's College, Cambridge, with the intention of taking the holy orders. While there he made the aquaintance of some natural historians, notably John Stevens Henslow, the professor of botany, who encouraged him to become a naturalist full-time. He was then invited to sail around the world as a naturalist on a voyage which lasted from 1831 to 1836. Henslow helped to persuade Darwin's father tolet him join the expedition.

Darwin joined her Majesty's ship the Beagle, which was captained by Robert Fitzroy and was being sent to make a survey of the coastal waters of the southern part of South America. The highlights of the voyage of the Beagle are described in detail in all the many biographies of Darwin. The ship called at many various places in South America, it also called in at the Cape Verde Islands, the Galapagos Islands, Tahiti, New Zealand, Australia, Mauritius and the Cape of Good Hope. In the course of these excursions wherever the ship landed, Darwin made geological observations and collected both animal and plant specimens. He also collected fossils and the remains of animals that had only recently become extinct. 

Soon after returning to England, Darwin became an active member of the London scientific community, where he first made his name as a geologist.  

Charles Darwin (1809-1882) Continued............

His demonstrations of the differences between cleavage and foliation of rocks, the relations of planes of cleavage to geological features over wide areas, of extensive elevations of land and their connection with earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, and his explanation of the formation of coral atolls were major contributions to science.

Nevertheless, it is Darwin's momentous contributions to biology that have overshadowed these achievements. His demonstration that evolution of living organisms has occurred, and of his discovery of the principle natural selection of hereditable variation as the principle cause of evolution.

From his original, orthodox, acceptance of the fixity of species, he was led gradually to a realisation of the truth of the origin of species by descent with modification, or evolution, by the results of his work in South America and the Galapagos archipelago, and the differences, related to the manner of life, between species of birds on the different geologically recent Galapagos Islands. These facts fall into place if it can be assumed that species were not originally fixed, but had actually arisen from previous species annd had been modified during descent.

These ideas that made Darwin famous actually occurred on reflection after he had returned to England. He realised that it was useless to proclaim such a theory as evolution, as a fact, unless he could also provide an answer to the question of how and by what mechanism it had occurred.

Charles Darwin (1809-1882) Continued.........

The changes demonstrably made in cultivated plants and domestic animals by man since the neolithic period under the practice of artificial selection convinced Darwin, that selection must be the key to the evolution of wild species in nature, but the problem was to discover the agent that performed the selection instaed of man. 

By the late 1830s Darwin had satisfied himself that if hereditable variation occurred, then individuals better adapted to their environment would leave more offspring and thus gradually change the type of species in the direction of more effective adaptation, but he did not yet know how in nature such a change was enforced.

After reading Malthus' essay on the principals of populations, he believed Malthus' arguments could be applied to the case of plants and animals in nature. Where they can not increase their food supply and therefore cannot escape the inevitable mortality that must hit the less efficiently adapted and favour the better adapted. Darwin's theory of natural selection of favourable hereditable variation, expelling inefficient variants from their ecological niches in the environment, and preserving and improving the favourable variants that replaced them in those niches, was then complete. he found this theory explained otherwise inexplicable facts in sciences of comparative anatomy, embryology, palaeontology and geographical distribution.

Nevertheless, Darwin published nothing on this subject for over 20 years. Instead he completed his publication of his journal of the Beagle voyage, his geological researches and his long painstaking research on the species of living and fossil barnacles. In 1856 Darwin outlined to Charles Lyellhis theory of natural selection, who urged to get his theory into print straight away.  

Charles Darwin (1809-1882) Continued..........

Darwin refused and instead he began work on the book that eventually appeared as the Origin of Species.

Two years later Darwin received an essay from Alfred Wallace who was on a remote island of the Malay archipelago, which contained the perfect summary of the work on which Darwin himself had been working on for 21 years. Due to this ethical dilemma, darwin consulted his friends Lyell and Hooker. During an emergency meeting of the Linnean Society, Lyell and Hooker decided that Wallace's essay should be read, but also in order for Darwin, to establish his claim, should prepare a paper for presentation at the same meeting.

Both papers were read by the secretary at the meeting to some 30 fellows. Darwin afterwards immediately began to revise his book, comparing Wallace's version of the theory with his own. He then condensed it in order to expedite publication. The next year (1859), Origin of Species finlly appeared. As darwin had predicted it caused an enormous amount of controversy since a belief in independent creation had almost been concrete, even among biologists. 

Although On the Origin of Species is Darwin's Magnus Opus, he wrote many other important books that contain further evidence for natural selection and other discoveries, such as the operation of sexual election and other aspects of animal behaviour. The other titles include Fertalisation in Orchids; Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication; The Descent of Man; The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals etc.  

Text: James, I. 2009. Remarkable Biologists, Cambridge University Press

Pictures: Wikipedia

Gregor Mendel (1822-1884)........

Johann Mendel was born in the Moravian village of Heizendorf. At the village school the children were taught natural history and natural science, as well as the ordinary subjects of elementary education. Because he already showed unusual ability Johann was sent to a higher school at Lipnik, about thirteen miles away, where he soon distinguished himself, and then to the high school at Opava, twenty miles away. As the family was not well off, it was a struggle to find the school fees. The philosophy course he attended included mathematics and physics, and the base scientific methods he learnt, especially the design of experiments, proved of great value in his future work.

Mendel then went onto the Altbrunn monastery at Bruun, which like other religious foundations were important centres of learning and scientific research. Mendel moved to the Moravian capital (now Brno), where he was accepted as a novice by the Augustinian monestery, and given the name Gregor. Here he was free of financial worries and could pursue his scientific interests.

One of the former monks at the monestery, had built up a huge herbarium at the monastery, including a complete collection of the Moravian flora. Mendel at once took an interest in the herbarium and worked there when he was not occupied with the studies prescribed for his probationary year.

After two years completed at the monastery, Mendel was sent on a course for four years of theological study at Brunn theological college, where he took the vows of th Augustinian order, and was then ordained to the priesthood at the age of twenty-five. However, after an unsuccessful trial period as a parish priest Mendel began temporary work as a schoolteacher in Znaim. He then went onto a similar position at the Brunn Technical School.

Gregor Mendel (1822-1884) Continued........

As Mendel had received no relevant university study and was self-taught, he was helped in order to study at the University of Vienna. Where he attended lectures on experimaental and mathematical physics, also chemistry, botany and zoology. He also attended some private lectures on entomology and went onto become a member of the Zoological and Botanical Society of Vienna. Mendel then left the University and returned to Brunn in 1853 where he obtained a temporary position teaching physics and natural history.

In Brunn in 1862 some young and enthusiastic citizens founded a society for the study of natural science, in which Mendel played a very active part. The leading inspiration of the society was a professor of geodesy, Gustav von Niessl. The versatile Niessl was also intersted in astronomy, botany and meterology. Mendel would often discuss the problem of the origin of species with Niessl, and owed a great deal to his insight and clear thinking. Mendel kept trying to produce permanent variations by transporting plants from their natural habitat, but without success. He therefore concluded that nature does not modify species in that way. It is important to note that Mendel was far from being an adversary of the Darwinian theory, but instead thought something was lacking in it. Among the many scientific books Mendel collected, Darwin's were among them. Mendel also annotated these copies. There is no evidence that Mendel ever got in touch with Darwin or that Darwin was even aware of Mendel's work. If he had been, then the history of evolutionary biology would be very different.    

Gregor Mendel (1822-1884) Continued......

Mendel also owned a microscope and in 1856 at the age of 34, began his experiments in the crossing of the edible pea, and when he was 41, he had substantially finished them. He was allocated a strip of the monastery garden (120ft by under 20ft) for his research, but for Mendel this was not enough. By 1868, he was elected Abbot and was no longer confined to such a small strip, but instead was hampered by lack of time rather than lack of space.

There was no response from the scientific world to his discoveries which were reported in his classic monograph Versuche uber Pflanzenhybriden. This was published in the proceedings of the Brunn Society for the Study of Natural Science, which was exchanged with more than 120 other societies, universities and academies at home and abroad. Reprints were also sent to some 40 biologists who he considered may be interested in his work.

Mendel died in 1884 and in 1900, Hugo de Vries in Amsterdam, Carl Correns in Tubingen, and Erich von Tschermak in Vienna, working independently, reported on research which confirmed Mendel's, of which they had only become aware.

The wider recognition of Mendel's law was finally achieved on the appearance in 1909 of Mendel's Principles of Heredity by William Bateson, who then gave the name 'genetics' to the study of heredity and its variation. Mendel's experimemental work, designed after long contemplation of the problem, extensively executed on a large scale, intelligently analysed and interpreted, and presented in a straightforward and clear manner, thus yielding results of such general and far-reaching significance that his paper became the basis for the science of genetics.

Text: James, I. 2009. Remarkable Biologists, Cambridge University Press

Pictures: Wikipedia

Alfred Wallace (1823-1913)........

Alfred Wallace who was born in the remote market town Monmouthshire. Alfred received his only formal education at the local grammer school in 1828 in Hertford, this was due to family economic constraints. Otherwise Alfred was taught by his father and older brothers. Unfortunately Wallace's fathers bankruptcy left the Wallace family destitute. Alfred was immediately removed from school and sent to his brother John in London. He was not expected to work though and instead attended meetings of the London Mechanics Institute, where he was exposed to radical ideas.

In 1837 Alfred joined his oldest brother William as an apprentice land surveyor in the Welsh town of Neath. During this time Alfred developed an interest in natural history and by then had the understandings of basic geology. By 1843 Alfred Wallace's father had died, leaving his dependents without financial support. It was also a time of widespread unemployment. When William found himself out of work, Alfred went back to London in search of a job. Luckily he found employment as a school teacher in Leicester, teaching drawing, surveying and mapping to schoolboys. He was fortunate to meet Henry Walter Bates there, and on weekends the went around the surrounding countryside and collected insects.

Unfortunately in late 1843, William died suddenly of pneumonia. His surveying business was in heavy debt, and although John and Alfred tried to revibe the business, they had no success. However, the railway boom created collateral for the brothers as surveyors were in demand.Next Alfred and john went into partnership to set up an architectural, engineering and building firm. They settled in Neath with their mother and their firm deisgned and built the Neath Mechanics Institute, where Alfred lectured.

Alfred Wallace (1823-1913) Continued..............

During this period, Robert Chambers set out a materialistic explanation for the creation of the universe and of life, rejecting a literal interpretation of the Judaeo-Christian conception as put forth in the Bible. Like most of his contemporaries Chambers envisioned a great chain of being.  His book, Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation, came under a lot of attack from all sides. Darwin thought it amateurish, while the religious critics dismissed anything that questioned the account given in Genesis. However, the general population took it seriously.

Wallace was very enlightened by Chambers' book, as it altered his perception of the natural world. Bates on the other hand was less than impressed. During an extersion to Paris with his sister and brother, Wallace toured the extensive collection of specimens housed at the Museum d'histoire naturelle. Alfred was deeply impressed by the enormous number of entomological specimens, from all parts of the known world. Wallace persuaded Bates that they ought to try and go to some relatively unknown area and then focus their attention on one particular family of insects. Then hopefully, they might be able to solve the mystery of mysteries (through the facts they gathered), the origin of species. However neither were wealthy individuals, or could they obtain government sponsorship, or were the medically qualified (which would have alllowed them to serve as medical officers of the Royal Navy on the voyage). It was hoped they would be able to cover the expenses of their expedition by selling specimens to wealthy collectors and institutions.  

Alfred Wallace (1823-1913) Continued............

Brazil was chosen as the destination. A wise choice, as at the time, few biologists had penetrated the heart of Amazonia. The vast tropical rainforest, and its rich biodiversity, caused great interest within the London scientific community, and was a good choicefor two neophytes where they could make names for themselves.

In 1948 Bates and Wallace started to make arrangements for an expedition to Amazonia. They met in London to study the treasure trove of specimens of South American fauna in the British Museum, noting gaps that they might hope to fill. They also went to Kew, where the huge conservatories housed live plants while dried specimens were exhibited indoors. They were given advice about the care and preparation of specimens and made an agreement with the reliable agent Samuel Stevens, who would sell their materials. Before leaving Wallace also wound up his architectural business and Bate's father lent them some money. By April 26th they boarded the merchant vessel Mischief in Liverpool, and a month later had crossed the equator and anchored off the small village of Salinas, the only port of entry to the vast Amazonian watershed, waiting to be piloted through the Para.

They rented a house in the rainforest and began scientific work. After slow start, however after 2 months, they could send Stevens 3635 insects and an additional twelve chests full of native plants. They chartered a large canoe, captained by an American expatriate with local knowledge, in which they sailed up the Tocantins river, and found plenty of new flora and fauna.

Alfred Wallace (1823-1913) Continued...

After four months, however, the Bates-Wallace partnership ended in acrimony, through a serious unknown disagreement. The two naturalists avoided each other for the whole of the next year. While in Para for the year, Wallace became adept at shooting, skinning and preserving his specimens. He also made arrangements for his younger brother Herbert to join him in Brazil, and be his new travelling companion. From June 1849 the brothers were soon ready to set out for the heart of Amazonia. Twenty-eight days after leaving Para they arrived in Santarem, their destination. Wallace noted the plentiful wildlife on both sides of the river, but also the difference between the two sides.

In Barra they found Bates, and the two naturalists made up there quarrel. They then parted and agreed to explore different parts of the Amazon basin. They didn't meet again for another twelve years. Herbert was not suited to the life of an explorer and so Alfred left his brother behind in Barra to return to England while he went up the Rio Negro for next five months, reaching the town of San Carlos (Venezuelan border). He continued through Venezuelan territory, on foot, until he reached the headwaters of the Orinoco and a whole new flora and fauna. In unceasing rain he collected more material there than in the whole of his epedition.

He then returned to Barra, where Spruce was awaiting transport to take him up-river. However, there was also a letter from the British consul in Para informing Wallace that Herbert had a severe case of yellow fever and was unlikely to recover. Bates was also in Para at the time and he learnt that the specimens Stevens was receiving in London were selling very well. Bates therefore decides to stay in Brazil.

Alfred Wallace (1823-1913) Continued......

Wallace was welcomed by the London scientific community,however he wanted to make another major epedition. He eventually chose south-east Asia as the best region to continue his work, especially the Malayan archipelago. He also intended to concentrate on ornithology, a subject he was no expert on. Only Java had so far been explored by naturalists.

He eventually arrived Singapore in 1854 to then begin eight years of wandering through the Malay Archipelago, accompanied by a sixteen year old apprentice collector called Charles Allen. Singapore island was an ideal place for beetles, and by the end of May Wallace had sent Stevens about 1000 specimens of 700 different species. He was unfortunately constantly plagued by recurrent bouts of malaria. When around Malacca Wallace took hospitality from Sir James Brooke where he was given every facility to carry on his work. He also aquired a fourteen year old assistant Malay boy, who was for the next seven years Wallace's companion, servant and assistant.

One of Wallace's main objectives was to observe orang-utans in their natural habitat. He concluded that there was only one species but with large individual variations. There was immense variability within the same species, and remarkable similarity of its structure and behaviour, there was also the presence of apparently useless characteristics. He noticed that baby orang-utans were very similar to human babies, suggesting that both could be descended from the same ancestral stock. 

Alfred Wallace (1823-1913) Continued.......

He concluded that a natural law must be present in order to effect 'every species has come into existence coincident  in both space and time with pre-existing closely allied species'. He wrote an article supplying evidence for his conjecture from his own investigations and those of others (notably Darwin).

From there Wallace went on to Bali. Whilst on in Ali he found his first bird of paradise specimen, and then went on to find many others. Wallace concluded that the fauna of Aru was similar to that of New Guinea. Wallace thought that Aru must have been part of New Guinea, which in turn must have been joined to Australia at some time.

Wallace received encouraging letters from both Bates and Darwin, but was Wallace was developing his theories further; he too was planning a book on the origin of species. According to Wallace's recollections, he worked out the whole theory of natural selection, while lying in bed suffering from a severe attack of malaria. His revelation was the mechanism; survival of the fittest. Over the next two evenings he wrote out the theory in full and sent copies to both Darwin and Lyell.

He tried to go onto New Guinea, but the malaria returned and instead he returned to Ternate to recover. It was here he received a letter from Darwin, from which Wallace learnt that what he had written before coincided with the same theory that Darwin had been labouring over for almost two decades, but not published. There are some who accuse Darwin, pressured by Lyell and Hooker, of robbing Wallace of his rightful claim to priority. The two versions of the theory do have significant differences. Darwin believed that survival of the fittest operated at an indivdual level, while Wallace thought it acted at the level of varieties and species.

Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-1895)

Huxley was born in a village just west of London. At the age of eight (1833), Huxley started at school where his father taught. However, he left two years later, and that was the sum total of his formal education. Thomas decided to take a career in medicine, andmoved to London, where he was appointed as an apprentice to a doctor in Rotherhithe. While grinding drugs, he tried to educate himself to the standard required for entrance to University College London. However, he instead enrolled into Sydenham College. His ability and industry won him a place at Charing Cross Hospital. This was London's newest teaching hospital in the Strand. He was a great worker, and became habitue of the Hunterian Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, where he listened to lectures on comparative anatomy.

At twenty he was still too young to obtain a licence to practice medicine. He needed to earn cash though, and so joined the Royal Navy as an assistant surgeon. He was selected by Captain Owen Stanley, who was about to be sent on a voyage of exploration around the mysterious island of New Guinea, in Her Majesty's Ship Rattlesnake. His mission was to survey the Torres Strait, the passage between northern Australia and New Guinea, and to assess sites for British Colonies.

Prevailing winds were a decisive factor on the route to be taken. Therefore, to reach Australia, you normally started by crossing the Atlantic to Brazil, before you could start going east. By 1846 they were on there way to Madeira, and then onto Rio de Janeiro, where Huxley saw tropical luxuriance for the first time. They then went to Cape Town and the to Australia, landing at Hobart, the chief town of Tasmania. They then went onto Sydney. A good time was had by all in Sydney, and at one of the balls, Huxley met Henrietta Anne Heathorn, his future wife.

Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-1895) Continued.....

Stanley purchased a shallow-draft tender, the Bramble, in order to survey close to shore. The coast of Sydney, as far as brisbane was surveyed, and in 1848, they set off again to survey the Great Barrier Reef, and survey the interior. Huxley accompanied the expedition for some of the way, and had his first real experience/encounter with aborigines. After leaving the party, they ran into serious difficulties. They failed to make rendezvous with the Rattlesnake, and ended with loss of life. The Rattlesnake went on touring the coast of Western Australia, and then back to Sydney to refit. It was decided that Huxley and Henrietta would be engaged formally, but not marry until his future was stable.

The Rattlesnake then set sail to New Guinea, but Stanley's unadventurous nature, meant they never set foot on the island. Riddled with self doubt and premature ageing, Stanley died and the decision was made to go back to England as quickly as possible. They returned in October 1850.

Now back in London, Huxley started to try to improve his financial position. He wanted money in order to write a book about his travels. He also wanted to write reports on his biological research to the learned societies in order to become known in scientific circles. He began to build a reputation as a lecturer at the Royal Institution and elsewhere. He was then elected to the Royal Society and was given a Royal Medal, and other honours came his way, this was the age of twenty eight. As positions became vacant, he applied, including the natural history chair at the University of Toronto, but to no avail. 

Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-1895) Continued.......

He at last obtained a position as a natural history lecturer at the Royal School of Mines, Piccadilly. Shortly afterwards he was appointed Hunterian Professor at the Royal College of Surgeons and served as Fullerian Professor at the Royal Institution. He now felt confident enough for Henrietta to come to London and for them to be married. They were joined in 1855 and after that Darwin invited Huxley to Down House, where he (Darwin) would try out his controversial ideas on evolution. After having a few children, Darwin received the famous letter from Wallace that persuaded him it was time to publish his ideas.

There was no shortage of opposition to Darwin's theories. It became clear that, in biology, Huxley would be the one to argue Darwin's case. Huxley was the main supporter of Darwin, who in principle, did more than anyone else to break down religious and obscurantist opposition to the theory of evolution by natural selection. The main opposition to the theory were the clergy and the laity. Things came to a head at the annual meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, in Oxford. One of the speakers was Samuel Wilberforce, the wordly Bishop of Oxford. Before a large crowd, he attacked Darwin's theory. Wilberforce assured the audience, that there was nothing to the idea that is evolution. He spoke to Huxley and asked 'Whether it is through your grandfather or your granmother that you claim descent from a monkey.'  

Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-1895) Continued.....

Huxley replied that he had listened with great attention to the Lord Bishop's speech, but had been unable to discern either a new fact or a new argument within it. He apparently stated:

'Except indeed the question raised as to my personal predilection in the matter of ancestry - that it would not have occurred to me to bring forward such a topic as that bfor discussion myself, but that I was quite ready to meet the Right Reverend prelate even on that ground. If then, said I, the questionis put to me would I rather have a miserable ape for a grandfather or man highly evolved by nature and possessed of great means of influence and yet who employs these faculties and that influence for the mere purpose of introducing ridicule into a grave scientific discussion, I unhesitatingly affirm my preferance for the ape.'

It was a great vistory for Darwin's supporters. And Huxley became a major campaigner in science.

He also by then had three children. Unfortunately his son died, and Henrietta was very scared by the loss. They had another son and the Darwin's invited them to stay withem in order to try and recuperate. Huxley decides to move house in order to help Henrietta.

By then he was giving popular lectures, and decided to write a popular book, as distinct from a scientific monograph. It appeared in 1863 and was called, Zoological Evidences as to Man's Place in Nature. It was a great success. Darwin admired the clarity and condensed vigour of his disciple's prose. The book came at the right time and the opposition wasn't too abusive. Huxley then brought out his Lectures on Comparative Anatomy, a different type of book, this also became a classic.

Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-1895) Continued....

By now Huxley was almost forty and had six children. Proteges of Huxley, by now, were succeeding the older ones to positions of power and a fair amount of influence. Huxley used his abundant energy to lead the movement to establish Working Men's Colleges, and to spearhead the movement to introduce science teaching in schools, on par with classics. He served on at least ten Royal Commissions and numerous committees dealing with education and science. He was a workaholic and by 1871 it was affecting his health. He too a complete break.

On his return, he was persuaded to undertake a two month lecturing tour in America, due to financial problems. He was met with a tremendous reception. The tour was a great success, but it took its toll. Seven years later he became the President of the Rotyal Society, but wasn't strong enough to make full use of the influence that position held, and resigned after two and a half years. He eventually shed as many tasks as he could and gave lectures on special occasions. He continued this, till deafness forced him to stop. The Huxley's then moved out of London.

Unfortunately, his gifted daughter Marian, died, and Henrietta never got over this tragic loss. Huxley died in 1895 due to a heart attack. His funeral was attended by elite scientists and representatives of the various causes he worked so tirelessly for.

Text: James, I. 2009. Remarkable Biologists, Cambridge University Press

Pictures: Wikipedia

Francis Crick (1916-2004)

Francis Crick was born in Northampton, a midland town and the centre for the shoemaking industry in England. After leaving grammer school, Crick entered University College of London at the age of eighteen, where he graduated with a second class degree in physics. He then started research under the physicist E.N. da C. Andrade, and was supported by his pharmacist uncle. During the war he was employed by the Admiralty, mainly designing measures to protect shipping from acoustic and magnetic mines.

After the war, although under-qualified to start scientific research in earnest, he decided to try, and after considering various possibilities, chose molecular biology. He then looked for a suitable opening in Cambridge, and in 1947 found one in biophysics at the Strangeways Research Laboratory. For 2 years he worked there and was supported by a research studentship from the Medical Research Council, after which he was recruited by Max Perutz to join his small research team of moleculatr biologists, at Cavendish Laboratory.

In 1949 he married his second wife Odile Speed, due to at last feeling finacially secure to do so, and they moved to Cambridge. Sir Lawrence Bragg (head of Cavendish) believed Crick had the makings of a good theoretician. He briefly became a fellow of Churchill College, but resigned soon after he found the college was to have a chapel, as he strongly disapproved of religion in any form. Crick's mother soon moved to Cambridge with Crick's son Michael from his first marriage. Odile and Francis had daughter around the same time.

Francis Crick (1916-2004) Continued.........

The discovery of the double helix (for which Crick became known) started with the arrival of the young American James Watson in 1951. The two soon took to each other, and began collaborating in research. It was however, Maurice Wilkins, at Kings College London, who was generally considered to be the leading investigator (at the time), of the structure of DNA, using x-ray crystallography. The sequence of events, are as follows.

The famous American biochemist Linus Pauling had written an article about the structure of DNA, and had sent a copy to Crick. Watson then took this article to London and showed it to Wilkins and Rosalind Franklin (his assistant). Franklin was apparently annoyed by Pauling's paper, and so Wilkins took Watson into his office, and showed (without Franklin's permission), he showed Watson an x-ray photograph she had taken. Watson, not Franklin or Wilkins, realised this provided important evidence as to what the structure of DNA must be. He took the news back to Crick in Cambridge, and together they worked out the double helical structure, with its ability to replicate. By 1953 they were ready to announce their great discovery to the scientific world, ehich opened the way to a much deeper understanding of the fundamental mechanisms which make living organisms possible.

Although the discovery was generally accepted, it was almost ten years befor eall the details were finally confirmed. Crick, Watson, and Wilkins were awarded the Nobel prize in 1962. Watson's book seriously underplayed Franklin's role, and she died in 1958.

William Hamilton (1936-2000)......

William Hamilton was born in Cairo to New Zealander parents. His father who was an engineer, worked in various countries before returning to England. William was brought up mostly in the rural and wooded part of Kent. Hamilton described his childhood as idyllic, full of freedom to roam, and maternal inspiration and encouragement. He was however a risk taker, and one day while unearthing material his fathr had buried related to grenade research, there was an explosion, leaving Hamilton seriously injured.

He was already fascinated by the behaviour of insects. In 1957, he went to St. John's College, Cambridge, on a state scholarship after a rather dull 2 years of compulsory national service in the army. Unfortunately, the old-fashioned undergraduate course failed to inspire him. This changed however, when he found Fisher's classic work, The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection, in the college library. This volume had not had much impact on the other Cambridge biologists, who regarded Fisher as a Statistician. Hamilton was apparently suprised to find that the great man was still in post, and awaiting the appointment of his successor as Arthur Balfour professor of Genetics. Fisher allowed Hamilton (then a third year undergraduate) to work in his department, where he divulged (through letters to his sister), that his dreams of becoming a theoretical biologist could actually occur, even thogh he beilieved his mathematical abilities were poor. Hamilton was actually a capable mathematician (not Fisher's level), but he was able to grasp Fisher's reasoning, which had a profound influenceon his thought process.

Already as a graduate student, Hamilton had become fascinated by altruism, in the social behaviour of animals, something which Darwin found so difficult to account for. It was already well established that animal behaviour evolved, just as the organs of animals evolved, but why was altruisitic behaviour advantageous to the individual?