Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-c9gpj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-09T22:31:12.781Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Importance of French Transformist Ideas for the Second Volume of Lyell'S Principles of Geology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2009

Pietro Corsi
Affiliation:
Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine, 47 Banbury Road, Oxford OX2 6PE.

Extract

Recently there has been considerable revaluation of the development of natural sciences in the early nineteenth century, dealing among other things with the works and ideas of Charles Lyell. The task of interpreting Lyell in balanced terms is extremely complex because his activities covered many fields of research, and because his views have been unwarrantably distorted in order to make him the precursor of various modern scientific positions. Martin Rudwick in particular has contributed several papers relating to Lyell's Principles of geology, and has repeatedly stressed the need for a comprehensive evaluation of Lyell's scientific proposals, and of his position in the culture of his time. In the present paper I hope to contribute to the reassessment of Lyell's work by concentrating on his discussion of transformism, which constituted the central theme of the second volume of the Principles of geology: the very length of Lyell's detailed and critical analysis of Lamarck's theories reveals the importance he attributed to the question of transformism in the contemporary natural sciences.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © British Society for the History of Science 1978

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

NOTES

1 For recent works on Charles Lyell see: Bartholomew, M. J., ‘Lyell and evolution: an account of Lyell's response to the prospect of an evolutionary ancestry for man’, The British journal for the history of science, 1973, 6, 261303CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed; ‘Lyell Centenary issue’ of The British journal for the history of science, 1976, 9Google Scholar, and in particular Porter, R., ‘Charles Lyell and the principles of the history of geology’, pp. 91103Google Scholar, and Rudwick, M. J. S., ‘Charles Lyell speaks in the lecture theatre’, pp. 147–55.Google Scholar Amongst other recent publications by Professor Rudwick, see: ‘Poulett Scrope on the volcanoes of Auvergne. Lyellian time and political economy’, ibid., 1974, 8, 205–42; ‘Charles Lyell, FRS (1797–1875), and his London lectures on geology’. Notes and records of the Royal Society of London, 1975, 29, 231–63.Google Scholar

2 Rudwick, M. J. S., ‘The strategy of Lyell's Principles of geology’, Isis, 1970, 61, 433.Google Scholar For discussions of the French natural sciences in the early nineteenth century, see the works cited in notes 4, 49, 59 below.

3 Lyell, Charles, Principles of geology, 3 vols., London, 18301833, iii, XIV.Google Scholar Hereafter cited as Principles.

4 On Lyell's journeys to Italy and France, see Wilson, L. G., Charles Lyell. The years to 1841, the revolution in geology, New Haven, 1972, passimGoogle Scholar; and ‘The intellectual background to Charles Lyell's Principles of geology, 1830–1833’, in Schneer, Cecil J.. ed. Towards a history of geology, Cambridge, Mass., 1969, 426–33.Google Scholar

5 de Lamarck, J. B. P. A. Monet, Philosophie zoologique, ou exposition des considérations relatives à l'histoire des animaux, Paris, 1809Google Scholar; Histoire des animaux sans vertèbres, Paris, 18151822.Google Scholar See also: Landrieu, M., Lamarck, le fondateur du transformisme, sa vie, son oeuvre, Paris. 1909Google Scholar; Daudin, H., Cuvier et Lamarck: les classes zoologiques et l'idée de série animale (17901830), 2 vols., Paris, 1926.Google Scholar For reviews of recent themes in Lamarckian studies, see Burkhardt, R. W., ‘Lamarck and the politic of science’. Journal of the history of biology. 1970, 3, 270–98CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and ‘The inspiration of Lamarck's belief in evolution’, ibid., 1972, 5, 13–38; Mayr, E., ‘Lamarck revisited’Google Scholar, ibid., 1972, 5, 55–94; Burkhardt, R. W., The spirit of system: Lamarck and evolutionary biology, Cambridge, Mass., 1977CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Jordanova, L. J., The natural philosophy of Lamarck in its historical context. University of Cambridge PhD thesis, 1976.Google Scholar

6 Fleming, John. The philosophy of zoology, London, 1822. i, 7.Google Scholar

7 Ibid., p. 14.

8 Ibid., pp. 311–12.

9 [Fleming, J.], review of J. E. Bicheno's On systems and methods in natural history, in The quarterly review, 1829, 41, 302–28 (321).Google Scholar

10 MacLeay, W. S.. ‘On the dying struggle of the dichotomous system’. Philosophical magazine, 1830, 44, 137.Google Scholar

11 [Grant, R. E.], ‘Observations on the nature and importance of geology’, Edinburgh new philosophical journal, 1826. 1, 297.Google Scholar For attribution, see Dictionary of national biography, at ‘Grant, R. E.’.

12 On Fleming's habit of discussion with ‘young Lyell’, see Fleming, J., The lithology of Edinburgh, edited with a memoir by the RevDuns, John, Edinburgh, 1859, p. lvi.Google Scholar

13 [Lyell, C.]. ‘Transactions of the Geological Society of London’, The quarterly review, 1826, 34, 507–40.Google Scholar

14 Hooykaas, R., ‘Geological uniformitarianism and evolution’, Archives internationales d'histoire des sciences, 1966, 19, 17Google Scholar; Rudwick, M. J. S., op. cit. (2), p. 26.Google Scholar

15 Bartholomew, M. J., op. cit. (1), pp. 272–6 and passim.Google Scholar

16 [] MrsLyell, K. M. (ed.), Life, letters and journals of Sir Charles Lyell, Bart., 2 vols., London, 1881, ii, 365.Google Scholar

17 SirDavy, H., Consolation in travel, or, the last days of a philosopher, London, 1830, p. 150.Google Scholar

18 Ibid., p. 219.

19 Prichard, J. C., Researches into the physical history of mankind, 2nd edn., London 1826, i, 97Google Scholar; quoted by Lyell, , Principles, ii, 52.Google Scholar For a brief but substantially correct assessment of Prichard's position in the anthropological debates of the early nineteenth century, see Bynum, W. F., ‘The great chain of being’, History of science, 1975, 13, 13CrossRefGoogle Scholar and passim. For a more complete consideration of Lyell's debts to Prichard's work, see Egerton, F. N., ‘Studies in animal population from Lamarck to Darwin’, Journal of the history of biology, 1968, 1, 225–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

20 Desnoyers, J. P., ‘Observations sur un ensamble de dépôts marins plus récens que les terres tertiaries des bassins de la Seine, et constituant une formation géologique distincte; précédés d'un aperçu de la non simultanéité des bassins tertiaries’, Annales des sciences naturelles, 1829, 16, 171208, 402–91.Google Scholar

21 Deshayes, G. P., ‘Conchyliologie’, Dictionnaire classique des sciences naturelles (hereafter Dictionnaire), Paris, 1823, iv, 377Google Scholar; idem, ‘Mollusques’, ibid., 1827, xi, 42.

22 Loc. cit. (16), i, 308.Google Scholar

23 Histoire des mollusques terrestres et fluviatiles, Paris, 18381851.Google Scholar

24 Loc. cit. (16), i, 139.Google Scholar

25 de Férussac, A., ‘Monographie des espèces vivantes et fossiles du genre Mélanopside’, Mémoires de la Societé d'histoire naturelle de Paris, 1823, 1, 131Google Scholar; see also Bulletin universel, 1823, 3, 3940.Google Scholar

26 de Saint Vincent, Bory, Dictionnaire, 1825, viii.Google Scholar

27 Bory de Saint Vincent, ibid.: ‘Histoire Naturelle’, 1825, viiiGoogle Scholar; ‘Matière’, 1826, xGoogle Scholar; ‘Création’, 1824, vGoogle Scholar; ‘Géographie’, 1825, vii.Google Scholar

28 Bory de Saint Vincent, ‘Histoire Naturelle’, ibid., 1825, viii, 251.

29 Bory de Saint Vincent, ‘Matière’, ibid., 1826, x, 249.

30 Bory de Saint Vincent, ‘Instinct’, ibid., 1825, viii, 587.

31 Saint Hilaire, E. Geoffroy, ‘Mémoire où l'on se propose de rechercher dans quels rapports de structure organique et de parenté sont entre eux les animaux des âges historiques, et vivantes actuellement, et les espèces antédiluviennes et perdues’, Mémoires du Muséum d'histoire naturelle, 1828, 17, 209–29Google Scholar; see in particular p. 213.

32 Saint Hilaire, E. Geoffroy, ‘Sur les organes sexuelles et sur les produits de génération des poulets dont on a souspendu la ponte, en fermant l'oviducte’Google Scholar, ibid., 1822, 9, 1–24.

33 E. Geoffroy Saint Hilaire et Marcel de Serres, ‘Rapport fait à l'Académie Royale des Sciences sur un mémoire de M Roulin, ayant pour titre: Sur quelques changemens observés dans les animaux domestiques transportés de l'ancien monde dans le nouveau continent’, ibid., 1828, 17, 207.

34 Lyell, C., Principles, ii, 2.Google Scholar

35 Rudwick, M. J. S., op. cit. (2), p. 18, note 46.Google Scholar

36 Bulletin des sciences naturelles et de géologie, 1830, 20, 144–7Google Scholar (144). This paper is a review of E. Geoffroy Saint Hilaire's work cited in note 31.

37 For various and different interpretations of Lyell's second volume, see Bartholomew, M. J., op. cit. (1), p. 278.Google Scholar

38 Lyell, C., Principles, ii, 8.Google Scholar

39 Ibid., ii, 11.

40 Ibid., ii, 18.

41 Ibid., ii, 22–3.

42 Saint Hilaire, E. Geoffroy, ‘Recherches sur l'organisation des gavials, sur leurs affinités naturelles …’, Mémoires du Muséum d'histoire naturelle, 1825, 12, 154.Google Scholar

43 Cuvier, G., Discours sur des révolutions de la surface du globe, et sur les changemens qu'elles ont produits dans le règne animal, 3rd edn., Paris, 1825, p. 121.Google Scholar Cf. Prichard, J. C., op. cit. (44; 1st edn., 1813), p. 9.Google Scholar

44 Lyell, C., Principles, ii, 55–6.Google Scholar

45 de Candolle, A. P., ‘Essai élémentaire de géographie botanique’, in Cuvier, F., ed., Dictionnaire des sciences naturelles, Paris, 1819, xviii.Google Scholar The quotations will be from an undated offprint copy given by de Candolle to the Tuscan naturalist Ottaviano Targioni Tozzetti (1755–1826), now preserved in the Biblioteca Nazionale of Florence. On the theme of competition in nature, see in particular p. 26.

46 Cuvier, F., ‘Essai sur la domesticité des mammifères, précédé de considérations sur les divers états des animaux, dans lesquels il nous est possible d'étudier leurs actions’, Mémoires du Muséum d'histoire naturelle, 1825, 13, 415–16, 448.Google Scholar

47 de la Malle, A. Dureau, ‘De l'influence de la domesticité sur les animaux depuis le commencement des temps historiques jusqu'à nos jours, Annales des sciences naturelles, 1830, 21, 52–3.Google Scholar

48 Tiedemann, F., Anatomie und Bildungsgeschichte des Gehirns im Foetus des Menschen nebst einen vergleichenden Darstellung des Hirnbaues in den Thieren, Nürnberg, 1816.Google Scholar The French edition was published in Paris in 1823; the English one, which was a translation from the French, appeared in Edinburgh in 1826.

49 Serres, A. E. R. A., Anatomie comparée du cerveau, dans les quatres classes des animaux vertébrés, appliquée à la physiologie et à la pathologie du système nerveux, Paris, 1826, ii, LXIII.Google Scholar Cf. Lyell, C., Principles, ii, 62.Google Scholar For a still satisfactory account of Serres's work and ideas, see Russell, E. S., Form and function. A contribution to the history of animal morphology, London, 1916, passim.Google ScholarCahn, T., La vie et l'oeuvre d'Étienne Geoffroy Saint Hilaire, Paris, 1962Google Scholar, fails to distinguish between Marcel de Serres and A. E. R. A. Serres.

50 de Humboldt, A., Voyage aux régions equinoxiales du nouveau continent, fait en 1799–1804, Paris, 1814Google Scholar; idem, Essai sur la géographie des plantes, accompangé d'un tableau physique des régions équinoctiales, Paris, 1807Google Scholar; Brown, R., Prodromus florae Novae Hollandiae et insulae Van Diemen, exhibens characteres plantarum quae annis 1802–1805 collegit et descripsit R. Brown, London, 1810.Google Scholar See Egerton, F. N., op. cit. (19)Google Scholar, and idem, ‘Humboldt, Darwin and population’, Journal of the history of biology, 1970, 3, 325–60.Google Scholar

51 Loc. cit. (16), i, 245:Google Scholar ‘He [de Candolle] is in full force, and has been most useful to me, having given me what cannot be bought, his splendid Essay on Geographical Botany … I have just had this morning a famous geologico-botanical discussion with Prof. De Candolle.’

52 de Candolle, A. P., op. cit. (45) p. 59.Google Scholar

53 Lyell, C., Principles, ii, 124Google Scholar; cf. Prichard, J. C., op. cit. (19), pp. 910, 1618.Google Scholar

54 de Candolle, A. P., op. cit. (45), p. 58.Google Scholar

55 Desmoulins, A., ‘Mémoire sur la distribution géographique des animaux, moins les oiseaux’, Bulletin général et universel, 1823, p. 381Google Scholar; Ramond, L., Obervations faites dans les Pyrenées, pour servir de suite à des observations sur les Alpes, Paris, 1789Google Scholar, and idem, Voyage au Mont Perdu, et dans la partie adjacente des Hautes Pyrenées, Paris, 1801.Google Scholar This last work was quoted at length by Bory de Saint Vincent in his article ‘Montagnes’, Dictionnaire, 1826, xi.Google Scholar Cf. de Férussac, A., ‘Géographie’Google Scholar, ibid., 1825, vii, 267.

56 de Saint Vincent, Bory, ‘Création’Google Scholar, ibid., 1825, v, 41, 44.

57 Wilson, J., review of [?], Fauna borealis Americana, or the zoology of the northern parts of British America, Edinburgh review, 1831, 53, 338–40.Google Scholar

58 Lyell, C., Principles, ii, 126.Google Scholar

59 On the question of Cuvier's ‘catastrophism’, and its various interpretations, see: Russell, E. S., op. cit. (49)Google Scholar; Rudwick, M. J. S., The meaning of fossils, London, 1972, 134–5Google Scholar, and passim; Coleman, W., George Cuvier, zoologist. A study in the history of evolution theory, Cambridge, Mass., 1964CrossRefGoogle Scholar, passim; cf. also Bourdier, F., ‘Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire vs. Cuvier’Google Scholar, in Scheer, Cecil J., ed., op. cit. (4), pp. 3961Google Scholar; see in particular pp. 43–4. For an early recognition of the misrepresentation of Cuvier's ideas in England, see Knox, R., Great artists and great anatomists: a biographical and philosophical study, London, 1852, pp. 26–9, 42–5.Google Scholar

60 Brocchi, G. B., Conchologia fossile subapennina, con osservazioni geologiche sugli Appennini e sul suolo adiacente, Milano, 1814, pp. 227–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

61 Grant, R. E., op. cit. (11), p. 298.Google Scholar

62 Lyell, C., Principles, ii, 141.Google Scholar

63 Fleming, J., ‘Remarks illustrative of the influence of society on the distribution of British animals’, Edinburgh new philosophical journal, 1824, 11, 287305.Google Scholar

64 For some remarks on the dodo, see Brocchi, G. B., op. cit. (62), p. 236Google Scholar; Cuvier, G., ‘Notes sur quelques ossemens qui paraissent appartenir au dronte, espèce d'oiseau perdue seulement depuis deux siècles’, Bulletin des science naturelles, 1830, 17, 122–5Google Scholar; de Saint Vincent, Bory, ‘Dodo’, Dictionnaire, 1823, iiiGoogle Scholar; Duncan, J. S., ‘A summary review of the authorities on which naturalists are justified in believing that the Dodus, Dodus ineptus, Linn, was a bird existing in the isle of France or the neighbouring islands, until a recent period’, Zoological journal, 1828, 3, 554–66.Google Scholar

65 Lyell, C., Principles, ii, 156–7.Google Scholar

66 de Candolle, A. P., op. cit. (45), p. 27Google Scholar; Lyell, C., Principles, ii, 174–5.Google Scholar

67 C. Lyell, ibid., 179.

68 C. Lyell, ibid., 183–4.

69 Lyell, C., Principles, iii, 30Google Scholar; and loc. cit. (16), i, 464–9; ii, 2–5.

70 See Russell, E. S., op. cit. (49), p. 63Google Scholar; but cf. p. 128.