The ‘Stronsay Beast’: testimony, evidence and authority in early nineteenth-century natural history

Bill Jenkins

doi:10.1098/rsnr.2021.0050

Abstract

When an unknown sea creature was washed ashore on the Orkney Islands in September 1808, the Edinburgh anatomist John Barclay declared that this was the first solid scientific evidence for the existence of the ‘great sea snake’. The testimony of witnesses along with some of its preserved body parts were examined by both the Wernerian Natural History Society in Edinburgh and the surgeon and anatomist Everard Home in London. Contradicting Barclay's opinion, Home identified the creature as a decomposing basking shark. While Barclay took the testimony of the local witnesses largely on trust and accepted their interpretation of the Beast, Home discounted it and instead asserted his own expert authority to correctly interpret the evidence. Both made use of the preserved physical remains of parts of the creature in strikingly different ways: Barclay to support the accounts of the witnesses, Home to undermine them. The debate between the two anatomists has much to tell us about the uses of evidence and testimony in early nineteenth-century natural history, but also has broader resonances for the roles of evidence and authority in science that still remain relevant today.

Highlights

In September 1808 a body was washed ashore at Rothiesholm Head in the estate of the merchant and agricultural improver Gilbert Laing Meason (1769–1832) on the island of Stronsay in the Orkney Islands, approximately 16 kilometres off Caithness on the north coast of Scotland.[1]
The debate between the two anatomists has much to tell us about the uses of evidence and testimony in early nineteenth-century natural history, and has broader resonances for the roles of evidence and authority in science that still remain relevant today
Parts of its body were even preserved and sent to some of the leading comparative anatomists of the day to examine. When they came to give their opinions on the nature of the Beast, two main types of evidence were used by these anatomists to support their truth claims regarding the creature: the written testimony of the witnesses and images of the creature and its body parts

Summary

INTRODUCTION

In September 1808 a body was washed ashore at Rothiesholm Head in the estate of the merchant and agricultural improver Gilbert Laing Meason (1769–1832) on the island of Stronsay in the Orkney Islands, approximately 16 kilometres off Caithness on the north coast of Scotland.[1]. News quickly spread of its discovery and curious inhabitants hurried to the spot to view the remains. The authorities were alerted and soon began an investigation of the case. The local justices of the peace took sworn testimony from witnesses who had seen the body. This was not the human victim of some tragic accident or grisly crime

Jenkins

A TALE OF TWO ANATOMISTS

A NEW SPECIES OF ANIMAL OR ‘A NEW AND REMARKABLE VARIETY OF THE HUMAN SPECIES’?

CONCLUSION