The Darwinian Heritage (review)

Abstract

Reviews David Kohn, ed., and Malcolm J. Kottier, asst. ed., The Darwinian Heritage. Princeton , N.J.: Princeton University Press in association with Nova Pacifica, 1985. 1138 pp. $95.00. In the year 1982, in commemoration of the centennial of Charles Darwin's death, over one hundred symposia, lecture series, and special events, were held around the world: and over seventy publications of collected essays were devoted to the occasion.1 The Darwinian Heritage contains 28 essays, and 3 commentaries, which were derived from a large Darwin Centennial symposium held in Florence, Italy—at the Florence Center for the History and Philosophy of Science—in June 1982. (Throughout Italy there was enormous attention given to the Centenary). The Heritage's authors come from different scholarly specialties (including biology, physics, psychology, literature, philosophy , and history), and different academic institutions in America, England, Italy, and France. They possess what the Heritage editor describes as "a high regard for Darwin" (1). They have long studied Darwin documents—often discussing their studies with each other—and they form a community of scholars, which did not exist in the year 1959 when the centenary of the Origin of Species was celebrated. Over two thirds of the Heritage essays and commentaries are about aspects of Darwin's biography, and the remainder are about the comparative reception of Darwin's ideas in different countries and the historical and philosophical significance of his publications. Although all of the Heritage pieces are first-rate, in the following review I shall only consider the biographical ones. The continued absence of an adequate Life of Darwin makes these pieces especially timely and important for those who are interested in biography. I shall summarise how the pieces add new insights to our view of Darwin's scientific and social development; and how they sometimes fail to suggest personal and psychological forces which influenced this development. I shall also comment on the Heritage's comprehensive Bibliography. Two essays are about Darwin's first scientific interests. Duncan Porter chronicles the early history of Darwin as a collector of different things: "all sorts of things" (974) as a Shrewsbury schoolboy; marine invertebrates as an Edinburgh medical student; 270 REVIEWS beetles as a Cambridge divinity student. During the Beagle cruise he collected geological specimens, minerals, fossils, land and sea animals, insects, birds, reptiles, and plants—all of which would fuel his future publications. Phillip R. Sloan—"Darwin's Invertebrate Program, 1826-1836: Preconditions for Transformism"—shows how Darwin became prepared to believe in transmutation of species because of the following (hitherto unknown) sequence of thoughts. At Edinburgh in 1826-27 Darwin was influenced by his first zoology teacher, Dr. Robert Grant, to become interested in the "analytic" functions of invertebrate zoology, in " 'zoophytes' as possible keys to more complicated issues in biology", and in "embryological stages as indicative of taxonomic relationship." (86) During the Beagle voyage he thought about the nature of what he called the "granulated matter" which formed many invertebrates. (92) By the end of the voyage he had come to believe in "the strong analogy between plants and animals and the possibility of uniting these two kingdoms in a common point"; and he had given a "key role" to the "common granulated matter in reproduction of both animals and plants." (109-110) These thoughts then augmented his post-Beagle thoughts on the transmutation of species. Frank Sulloway, in "Darwin's Early Intellectual Development: An Overview of the Beagle voyage (1831-1836)," selects letters that Darwin wrote to his friends and family during his 5 years on the Beagle and applies to the contents of these a specialised technique known as computer assisted content-analysis—which (as Sulloway notes) "can sometimes detect significant patterns of co-occurrence and dissociation that go unnoticed even in the most careful reading of a text." (124) Using this technique Sulloway shows how on the Beagle Darwin underwent four intellectual changes. From an early "anxious and insecure self image," with doubts about his ability to observe scientific phenomena, he developed "a confident self-image" with pride in his scientific work, and in his general observations about the places and peoples he had visited. (129) From an intellectual dependence on his...