Some Early Ideas Concerning the Nature, Origin and Development of Peat Lands

Abstract

In perusing recent scientific literature on peat lands one is struck by the paucity of references to early views on the classification and causes of waterlogged and organic soils. Clements (1916) appears to be the exception among modern authors in devoting attention to the historical aspects of bog ecology; most general works (e.g. Warming, 1909; Tansley, 1911, 1939) and also the majority of specialist papers in the field give the impression that scientific study of these areas began during the latter half of the nineteenth century. Yet the English names at present used to distinguish different types of waterlogged habitats-such as marsh, fen, moss, moor, carr and mire-are of very ancient origin. According to the Oxford English Dictionary the first four belong to the Old English period (before A.D. 1150), while the last two are Middle English (before A.D. 1450). And all may be traced either to the Old Norse or Old Teutonic tongues. The term bog, however, appears to have entered English speech about the beginning of the sixteenth century, being derived from Irish or Gaelic. Swamp as a term for waterlogged sites is stated to have come into use in the early seventeenth century, and probably had affinities with an old German word meaning a sponge or fungus (compare modern Swedish svamp). The investigation reported here was undertaken with the aim of discovering whether the nature and development of peat lands had received any systematic study before the establishment of ecology as a separate discipline in the late nineteenth century, and if so, how the earlier views compare with those now in vogue. The scope of the inquiry was limited chiefly to early British literature available in the libraries of the British Museum and the University of London. Continental authorities were only consulted when easily accessible, and large bodies of information undoubtedly remain to be studied. None the less, it has been possible to show that many views regarded as comparatively recent were in fact put forward long before the study of peat lands passed into the hands of professional scientists. Unfortunately, the early ecologists, with the exception of Clements (1916), appear to have made little effort to become acquainted with the work of previous students on this subject, and so had to rebuild independently a structure of biological observation and inference already well developed half a century or more before.