Natural Historians Research Articles

In Memoriam: David L. Nanney (1925-2016): Tetrahymena Genetics Founder and Epigenetics Champion.

![David L. Nanney][1] David L. Nanney David Ledbetter Nanney, who passed away on June 4, 2016, was a distinguished geneticist, cell, and developmental biologist who founded Tetrahymena genetics and reinvented the word “epigenetics.” Nanney was truly a natural historian, with a gift for

The platypus in Edinburgh: Robert Jameson, Robert Knox and the place of the Ornithorhynchus in nature, 1821–24

SUMMARYThe duck-billed platypus, or Ornithorhynchus, was the subject of an intense debate among natural historians in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Its paradoxical mixture of mammalian, avian and reptilian characteristics made it something of a taxonomic conundrum. In the early 1820s Robert Jameson (1774–1854), the professor of natural history at the University of Edinburgh and the curator of the University's natural history museum, was able to acquire three valuable specimens of this species. He passed one of these on to the anatomist Robert Knox (1791–1862), who dissected the animal and presented his results in a series of papers to the Wernerian Natural History Society, which later published them in its Memoirs. This paper takes Jameson's platypus as a case study on how natural history specimens were used to create and contest knowledge of the natural world in the early nineteenth century, at a time when interpretations of the relationships between animal taxa were in a state of flux. It shows how Jameson used his possession of this interesting specimen to provide a valuable opportunity for his protégé Knox while also helping to consolidate his own position as a key figure in early nineteenth-century natural history.

Nature, Human Nature, and Human Difference: Race in Early Modern Philosophy

Nature, Human Nature, and Human Difference: Race in Early Modern Philosophy

« What is the best theory of generation? » : Arguments and debates among students from the Royal Medical Society in eighteenth-century Edinburgh

This article proposes a different approach to the long generation controversy that divided naturalists in eighteenth-century Europe between those in favour of preformationism, on the one hand, and supporters of the theory of epigenesis on the other. This controversy has mostly been studied through the publications of the intellectual elite, that was constituted of medical doctors, natural historians, philosophers, and theologians. Rather than reviewing the ideas and antagonisms of the direct agents of the controversy, I will attempt to approach it from the margins. What is the legacy of a long-term controversy when it seems to be over? How was such an extended controversy perceived by contemporaries that would only have a fragmented access to quarrel? What is the role of scientific disputes in the education of doctors? I will address these questions by analyzing four essays written by medical students of the Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh.

Weniger schlechte Bilder. Walfängerwissen in Naturgeschichte, Ozeanographie und Literatur im 19. Jahrhundert

AbstractLess Erroneous Pictures. Whalers’ Knowledge in Nineteenth‐Century Natural History, Oceanography, and Literature. This paper uses the iconoclasm of Herman Melville's Moby‐Dick as a point of departure to examine the problem of representing whales pictorially. Focussing on the use of images in cetological works and whaling logbooks, the paper investigates how the whalers’ knowledge, which served the hunting, killing, and economic exploitation of whales, came to be inscribed in the antithetical work of natural historians who were increasingly interested in living organisms. This paper argues that Melville's juxtaposition of whalers’ and naturalists’ knowledge runs parallel with a dichotomy, along which natural histories, travelogues, and thematic maps of oceanography constitute the whale as an object of knowledge. It concludes by suggesting that, at the same time, this dichotomy is repeatedly undermined for the sake of the whale's representation.

An Uncommon Threat: Shipworms as a Novel Disaster

The sudden arrival of shipworms (Teredo navalis) along Dutch coasts in the 1730s posed significant challenges for water management. Although this invasive mollusc would eventually catalyse a dramatic transformation of coastal dike infrastructure, those changes only developed in the context of years of experimentation, wide ranging popular participation and increasing public anxiety. The perceived novelty of the shipworm episode was crucial to the Dutch interpretation of this disaster. This was the first sustained, explosive appearance of marine boring molluscs in Dutch waters. The novelty of the shipworm threat revealed the limitations of adaptive decision-making based in prior experience or cultural memory. At the same time, the novelty of the biological organism offered unique possibilities for natural historians and laypeople to participate in adaptive dialogues. Finally, moralists used the exceptionality of the threat as proof of divine influence. Ultimate technological ‘solutions’ to the shipworm threat developed out of this expanded adaptive discourse.

Necessary, Not Sufficient

The craft of making stained glass all but disappeared from the northern Netherlands in the long eighteenth century, but craft knowledge continued to circulate in texts and rare attempts at revival. This paper studies the role of artisans, natural historians and apothecaries and their use of texts in attempts to maintain and revive the knowledge of and techniques for the production of stained glass in the northern Netherlands between 1650 and 1821. I argue that their efforts contributed to the preservation of existing stained glass, and raised awareness about the cultural and historical value of stained glass and the knowledge and skills required to produce it. Although much tacit, practical knowledge was lost, basic technical knowledge circulated in a small number of texts. Combined with preserved stained glass, these texts served as the basis for reconstructive experiments that would lead to a revival of the art in the nineteenth century.

Studying Wisconsin: The Life of Increase Lapham, Early Chronicler of Plants, Rocks, Rivers, Mounds, and All Things Wisconsin by Martha Bergland and Paul G. Hayes

Reviewed by: Studying Wisconsin: The Life of Increase Lapham, Early Chronicler of Plants, Rocks, Rivers, Mounds, and All Things Wisconsin by Martha Bergland and Paul G. Hayes Robert Morrissey Martha Bergland and Paul G. Hayes, Studying Wisconsin: The Life of Increase Lapham, Early Chronicler of Plants, Rocks, Rivers, Mounds, and All Things Wisconsin. Madison: Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2014. 424 pp. $26.95. Increase Allen Lapham was a key figure in nineteenth century Wisconsin. As Americans were exploring and exploiting the Midwest for the first time in the mid-nineteenth century, Lapham joined the settler colonial process as an early scientist, helping to make meaning and construct knowledge in this newly opened land. Characteristic of his era of generalist scientists, he was an “all-in-one botanist, zoologist, meteorologist, geologist, archaeologist, and naturalist,” with “a keen all-encompassing eye” (349). Bringing his impressive skills to Wisconsin territory, he helped to found early scientific and academic institutions, authored key scientific publications, and brought the midwestern landscape and its natural features into the scientific conversations of nineteenth century America. As Bergland and Hayes show in this impressively written and rich biography, Lapham’s impact on scientific knowledge in the early Midwest was huge. This is the first full-length biography of Lapham and thus the first to consider Lapham’s life before his important career in Wisconsin. The biography is based on Lapham’s papers, and also on a crucial previous work—the 1,500-page edited transcript of Lapham’s papers, made after his death by his daughter Julia. The authors’ careful use of intimate sources provides great access into Lapham’s life and career. From his journals, Bergland and Hayes reconstruct Lapham’s activities in rich and satisfying detail, from his early education to his successes and setbacks. At the same time, close reliance on these sources sometimes commits the authors to a fairly uncritical view of Lapham that neglects wider contexts for understanding his life and its larger significance. The book succeeds impressively as an account of Lapham’s remarkable and fascinating career. Born in New York to a Quaker canal engineer and carpenter, Lapham learned about rocks as a young boy by living next to canal ditches. He began a remarkable self-education by subscribing to Yale professor Benjamin Silliman’s Journal of Science at the age of fifteen. Starting his own career as a canal engineer on construction projects in New York, Kentucky, and Ohio, he pursued botany and natural history on the side, nurturing his passion by writing geological papers that he sent to Silliman, as well as in conversation with his brother Darius. The authors treat [End Page 164] the young Lapham as an astonishing intellect with massive ambition and somewhat inexplicable motives. As they write, “his mind needed . . . scientific knowledge the way his body needed meat and bread” (36). By the 1830s Lapham had helped to found historical and philosophical societies and a geological survey in Ohio. In 1836, however, he joined a land speculator and early Milwaukee promoter and headed west to work as a surveyor and engineer on the proposed Milwaukee and Rock River Canal. Economic downturns in the 1830s ruined his early plans, but he nevertheless settled permanently in Wisconsin, where he found a new field for scientific endeavor. He went on scientific explorations around the state, building a huge botanical collection, and sending specimens to eminent natural historians like Silliman and Asa Gray at Harvard. By 1844, he published a Geography of Wisconsin, which launched his most consistent career as a writer. Fascinated by Indian mounds he discovered on his travels, he wrote Antiquities of Wisconsin in 1855. But his outsider status made his scientific career precarious. His planned catalog of American grasses went unfunded. And while he helped to found the Wisconsin Historical Society and the Wisconsin Geological Survey, he did much labor without compensation, eventually developing resentment for the way his work went underappreciated. Although his pioneering storm-warning system (precursor to the National Weather Service) finally gained him a steady salary, Lapham often worked for nothing and only achieved financial stability late in life. For the authors, a great theme of Lapham’s life is his selfless...

The Saline Chymistry of Color in Seventeenth Century English Natural History.

Before Newton's seminal work on the spectrum, seventeenth-century English natural philosophers such as Robert Boyle, Robert Hooke, Nehemliah Grew and Robert Plot attributed the phenomenon of color in the natural world to salts and saline chymistry. They rejected Aristotelian ideas that color was related to the object's hot and cold qualities, positing instead that saline principles governed color and color changes in flora, fauna and minerals. In our study, we also characterize to what extent chymistry was a basic analytical tool for seventeenth-century English natural historians.

The “killer of the cane fields”: The social construction of the Australian coastal taipan

ABSTRACTThis paper makes an original contribution to human–animal studies through the application of social construction theory to an iconic species of Australian snake, the coastal taipan. Little research attention using this approach has been focused on reptiles, and this study addresses this gap in the literature. The taipan has achieved a high level of notoriety in Australia. This paper seeks to understand why and how this has occurred. Drawing on a range of data derived from analysis of newspaper articles, popular magazines and books, and the scientific literature, four dominant narratives are identified: the taipan as an object of science and natural history, as social problem, as object quest and as celebrity. The insights gained from this study support the contention that the meanings made of Australia's fauna are fluid, historically contextualised and socially constructed. In the specific case of the taipan, key individuals, including scientists, popular natural historians and snake men contributed greatly to the species’ construction, as did popular cultural forms such as newspapers and natural history books.

A VIGNETTE OF BOTANY IN THE AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT: THE STORY OF CATESBY'S CLIMBER OR THE CAROLINA KIDNEY BEAN TREE,WISTERIA FRUTESCENS

SummaryThe history ofWisteria frutescens(L.) Poir. is discussed, with particular reference to those associated with its discovery in South Carolina, its transmission to Europe, and its initial cultivation in England and the Dutch Republic. A brief appraisal is given of those natural historians associated with the species in the interconnected worlds of medicine, botany, botanical art and horticulture in the early 18th century whose efforts enabled the Carolina kidney bean tree to be discovered, described and distributed. A description ofWisteria frutescens,with a key to the two varieties, is provided. A lectotype is chosen for the nameGlycine frutescensvar.magnificaHérincq and neotypes are selected for the namesDiplonyx elegansRaf. andThyrsanthus floridanaCroom.

The ichneumon fly and the equilibration of British natural economies in the eighteenth century.

The parasitic ichneumon fly, discovered by European natural philosophers in the seventeenth century, remained largely unstudied until it captured the attention of Enlightenment-era natural historians. Although this sudden surge of interest has been explained as an effort to understand the natural 'evil' of parasitism, the heyday of ichneumon studies was actually inspired by the political and agricultural context of late eighteenth-century Britain. British naturalists were captivated by this insect for reasons both philosophical and practical. In the providentially self-equilibrating qualities of 'natural' ichneumon economies, they saw solutions to political problems of famine, dearth, national wealth, governance and excess population, in addition to finding reassurance that Enlightened confidence in nature's inherent stability and fruitfulness was not unfounded.

Neptunism and Transformism: Robert Jameson and other Evolutionary Theorists in Early Nineteenth-Century Scotland.

This paper sheds new light on the prevalence of evolutionary ideas in Scotland in the early nineteenth century and establish what connections existed between the espousal of evolutionary theories and adherence to the directional history of the earth proposed by Abraham Gottlob Werner and his Scottish disciples. A possible connection between Wernerian geology and theories of the transmutation of species in Edinburgh in the period when Charles Darwin was a medical student in the city was suggested in an important 1991 paper by James Secord. This study aims to deepen our knowledge of this important episode in the history of evolutionary ideas and explore the relationship between these geological and evolutionary discourses. To do this it focuses on the circle of natural historians around Robert Jameson, Wernerian geologist and professor of natural history at the University of Edinburgh from 1804 to 1854. From the evidence gathered here there emerges a clear confirmation that the Wernerian model of geohistory facilitated the acceptance of evolutionary explanations of the history of life in early nineteenth-century Scotland. As Edinburgh was at this time the most important center of medical education in the English-speaking world, this almost certainly influenced the reception and development of evolutionary ideas in the decades that followed.

The contribution of Nicolae Botnariuc to evolutionary biology using systems theory

Early this year, the Romanian Academy commemorated the centennial birthday of the evolutionary biologist Nicolae Botnariuc (1915-03-13–2011-03-01; Fig. 1). The scientific contribution of Botnariuc has been well recognized within the Romanian community of biologists which fostered influential personalities like Emil G. Racovitza, Constantin Motas, and Radu Codreanu (cf. Iftimovici 1977; Negrea 2007). However, many aspects of Botnariuc's scientific achievements remain largely unknown beyond the Romanian academic space, likely owing to publications with a restricted international distribution — at the time the academic space of Eastern Europe was still constrained ideologically. Nicolae Botnariuc was a natural historian, with a long career in zoology, ecology, and evolutionary biology. He joined the Department of Biology at the University of Bucharest in 1948 where he served as the head of department for more than 30 years. Botnariuc served also as the editor of the series of academic volumes Romania’s Fauna, an important contribution to the documentation of the biological diversity of fauna in Eastern Europe that resulted in 78 volumes. In 1991 Botnariuc became amember of the Romanian Academy. Over three decades of research and teaching, many generations of students were inspired by the clarity of his lectures, advanced ideas, and generous nature. Botnariuc introduced his students to the evolutionary theory and the systems theory in general biology while extending a strong appreciation for natural history and the history of biology (Negrea and Negrea 2008). He published more than 150 research articles along with a series of seminal books. His first book, printed in 1961 (Botnariuc 1961), portrayed a detailed and attractive history of biology that inspired many generations of students. This early publication was followed by several books (Botnariuc 1967, 1976, 1992, 2003a) in which Botnariuc adopted the general systems theory of Ludwig von Bertalanffy (von Bertalanffy 1932, 1950a, 1950b, 1968) and explored its applications to the evolutionary theory rooted in the neo-darwinian concepts. Botnariuc adopted the view of nature being organised in systems, with each system being formed by amultitude of interconnected parts and having emergent properties that differ from those of the constituent subunits. However, mid-career Botnariuc started reviewing critically the hierarchical systems proposed and debated at the time (e.g., Dice 1955; Odum 1959; Eldredge 1985; Mayr 1998) and recognized the diversity of ideas and the need for a clear definition of the notion of organizational level. In his books, Principles of biology (1967) and later in Systemic conception in general biology (1976), Botnariuc considered that living matter is structured in a series of interactive units forming hierarchic biological systems. For Botnariuc “a level of living matter organization is the assembly of equivalent biological systems, with a character of universality, able to have an independent existence” (Botnariuc 2003b,

MINERAL WATERS ACROSS THE CHANNEL: MATTER THEORY AND NATURAL HISTORY FROM SAMUEL DUCLOS'S MINERALLOGENESIS TO MARTIN LISTER'S CHYMICAL MAGNETISM, CA. 1666-86.

Our essay analyses a little-known book, Observations sur les eaux minerales des plusieurs provinces de France (1675), which is a study of French mineral waters, commissioned by and conducted at the French Royal Academy of Science (est. 1666). Its author, Samuel Cottereau Duclos (1598-1685), was a senior founding figure of the Academy, its chief chymist and one of its most influential members. We examine Observations with a focus on the changing attitudes towards chymical knowledge and practice in the French Academy and the Royal Society of London in the period 1666-84. Chymistry was a fundamental analytical tool for seventeenth-century natural historians, and, as the work of Lawrence Principe and William Newman has shown, it is central to understanding the 'long' Scientific Revolution. Much study has also been done on the developing norms of openness in the dissemination and presentation of scientific, and particularly chymical knowledge in the late seventeenth century, norms that were at odds with traditions of secrecy among individual chymists. Between these two standards a tension arose, evidenced by early modern 'vociferous criticisms' of chymical obscurity, with different strategies developed by individual philosophers for negotiating the emergent boundaries between secrecy and openness. Less well studied, however, are the strategies by which not just individuals but also scientific institutions negotiated these boundaries, particularly in the formative years of their public and political reputation in the late seventeenth century. Michael Hunter's recent and welcome study of the 'decline of magic' at the Royal Society has to some extent remedied these omissions. Hunter argues that the Society--as a corporate body--disregarded and avoided studies of magical and alchemical subjects in the late seventeenth century. Our examination problematizes these distinctions and presents a more complex picture.

A Cheyenne Voice: The Complete John Stands In Timber Interviews by John Stands (review)

Reviewed by: A Cheyenne Voice: The Complete John Stands In Timber Interviews by John Stands Christina Gish Hill A Cheyenne Voice: The Complete John Stands In Timber Interviews. By John Stands In Timber and Margot Liberty. Foreword by Raymond J. DeMallie. Map commentary by Michael N. Donahue. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2013. xxi + 495 pp. Illustrations, maps, map notes, index. $34.95 cloth. By publishing A Cheyenne Voice, a compilation of the transcribed interviews of John Stands In Timber, Margot Liberty has made available a priceless resource on Northern Plains history. This volume represents not only years of careful scholarship by both Liberty and Stands In Timber, but it is also a model of collaborative research between Native and non- Native scholars. Since 1967, thousands of readers have enjoyed Cheyenne Memories, the first book to emerge from the long scholarly relationship between these two historians. Whereas Cheyenne Memories resembles other as- told-to Indigenous life histories, presenting a rather seamless historical narrative woven together from unseen interviews, A Cheyenne Voice records each interview in the order recorded, including the questions posed by Liberty, revealing a record of a life and a research process that is rarely available to the public. Most field notes and interviews languish away in archives, inaccessible without time and money for travel. By publishing these transcriptions, Liberty has made the fruits of her collaboration with Stands In Timber accessible to anyone. A Cheyenne Voice provides insight into both Cheyenne history and the methodology of learning and recording these narratives from both a scholarly and an Indigenous perspective. Through the foreword and introduction, readers learn about the life of John Stands In Timber and his diligent efforts to learn about Northern Cheyenne histories from the oldest generations of his home community. They also discover the potential of collaborative relationships between scholars and Native historians. The interviews themselves reveal the depth of knowledge Stands In Timber had gained [End Page 189] about Northern Cheyenne history and culture. It is obvious from the text that he was a natural historian, not only learning narratives but also carefully documenting dates of important events and names of participants. The volume provides detailed information on almost any topic related to Cheyenne culture and history, including early migrations, practices of the military societies, expectations of the chiefs, courtship, marriage, battles with other tribal nations and with US troops, the transition to reservation life, and even religious narratives and ceremonies. The text also reproduces three maps of the Battle of Little Big Horn, drawn by Stands In Timber himself. Though long, at 480 pages of narrative, this book is a treasure for anyone wishing to learn more about the Northern Cheyenne. Readers have Stands In Timber’s words before them, almost unadulterated by an editor’s pen. In these pages, they will find one Cheyenne man’s perspective on his people’s history and their adaptations to the dramatic transition of life on the Plains to life on the reservation, including the violence that accompanied this process. This book is not merely an autobiographical account of this powerful history, it is also a carefully researched ethnohistory of a people. Stands In Timber certainly deserves the title of historian for his detailed exploration of oral histories preserved by the generations who came before him. Now his important research is finally available to us all. Christina Gish Hill Iowa State University Copyright © 2015 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln

Looking backwards to look forwards: the role of natural history in temperate reef ecology

Temperate reefs are superb tractable systems for testing hypotheses in ecology and evolutionary biology. Accordingly there is a rich history of research stretching back over 100 years, which has made major contributions to general ecological and evolutionary theory as well as providing better understanding of how littoral systems work by linking pattern with process. A brief resumé of the history of temperate reef ecology is provided to celebrate this rich heritage. As a community, temperate reef ecologists generally do well designed experiments and test well formulated hypotheses. Increasingly large datasets are being collected, collated and subjected to complex meta-analyses and used for modelling. These datasets do not happen spontaneously – the burgeoning subject of macroecology is possible only because of the efforts of dedicated natural historians whether it be observing birds, butterflies, or barnacles. High-quality natural history and old-fashioned field craft enable surveys or experiments to be stratified (i.e. replicates are replicates and not a random bit of rock) and lead to the generation of more insightful hypotheses. Modern molecular approaches have led to the discovery of cryptic species and provided phylogeographical insights, but natural history is still required to identify species in the field. We advocate a blend of modern approaches with old school skills and a fondness for temperate reefs in all their splendour.

Island biology and the consequences of interspecific interactions

Island biology and the consequences of interspecific interactions

Suppressing Synonymy with a Homonym: The Emergence of the Nomenclatural Type Concept in Nineteenth Century Natural History.

'Type' in biology is a polysemous term. In a landmark article, Paul Farber (Journal of the History of Biology 9(1): 93-119, 1976) argued that this deceptively plain term had acquired three different meanings in early nineteenth century natural history alone. 'Type' was used in relation to three distinct type concepts, each of them associated with a different set of practices. Important as Farber's analysis has been for the historiography of natural history, his account conceals an important dimension of early nineteenth century 'type talk.' Farber's taxonomy of type concepts passes over the fact that certain uses of 'type' began to take on a new meaning in this period. At the closing of the eighteenth century, terms like 'type specimen,' 'type species,' and 'type genus' were universally recognized as referring to typical, model members of their encompassing taxa. But in the course of the nineteenth century, the same terms were co-opted for a different purpose. As part of an effort to drive out nomenclatural synonymy - the confusing state of a taxon being known to different people by different names - these terms started to signify the fixed and potentially atypical name-bearing elements of taxa. A new type concept was born: the nomenclatural type. In this article, I retrace this perplexing nineteenth century shift in meaning of 'type.' I uncover the nomenclatural disorder that the new nomenclatural type concept dissolved, and expose the conceptual confusion it left in its tracks. What emerges is an account of how synonymy was suppressed through the coinage of a homonym.

Metaphor or Method. Jennifer Mensch’s Organicist Kant Interpretation in Context

In her recent study, Kant's Organicism.Epigenesis and the Development of Critical Philosophy (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2013), Jennifer Mensch employs the technical term organicism to designate both Kant’s thinking about organisms and his thinking about other matters–chiefly among those transcendental cognition –in terms of his thinking about organisms. The article places Mensch's organicist reading of Kant into the wider context of recent and current work on Kant as a natural historian (Naturforscher) and its repercussion for understanding the critical core of Kant’s philosophy. To that end, the article addresses the methodological function of conceptual metaphors in general and of biological metaphors in particular in Kant. The article proceeds in three steps, first focusing on an alleged anthropological turn in recent work on Kant, then addressing the distinction between schematism and symbolism in Kant’s critical epistemology and concluding with a consideration of the possibilities and limitations inherent in an organicist reading of Kant.