Sir E. Ray Lankester | |
|---|---|
 Sir E. Ray Lankester in 1908 | |
| Born | (1847-05-15)15 May 1847 London, England |
| Died | 13 August 1929(1929-08-13) (aged 82) London, England |
| Alma mater | Downing College, Cambridge Christ Church, Oxford |
| Known for | Evolution,Rationalism |
| Awards | Knight Bachelor(1906) Darwin-Wallace Medal(Silver, 1908) Copley Medal(1913) Linnean Medal(1920) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Zoology |
| Institutions | University College London Oxford University British Museum (Natural History) |
| Author abbrev. (botany) | Lank. |
Sir Edwin Ray Lankester KCB FRS (15 May 1847 – 13 August 1929) was a Britishzoologist.[1][2]
Aninvertebrate zoologist andevolutionary biologist, he held chairs atUniversity College London andOxford University. He was the third Director of theNatural History Museum, London, and was awarded theCopley Medal of theRoyal Society.[3]
Ray Lankester was born on 15 May 1847 on Burlington Street[4] inLondon, the son ofEdwin Lankester, a coroner[5] and doctor-naturalist who helped eradicatecholera in London, and his wife, the botanist and authorPhebe Lankester. Ray Lankester was probably named after the naturalistJohn Ray: his father had just edited the memorials of John Ray for theRay Society.
In 1855 Ray went to boarding school atLeatherhead, and in 1858 toSt Paul's School. His university education was atDowning College, Cambridge, andChrist Church, Oxford;[6] he transferred from Downing, after five terms, at his parents' behest because Christ Church had better teaching in the form of the newly appointedGeorge Rolleston.[7]
Lankester achieved first-class honours in 1868. His education was rounded off by study visits toVienna,Leipzig andJena, and he did some work at theStazione Zoologica atNaples. He took the examination to become aFellow ofExeter College, Oxford, and studied underThomas H. Huxley before taking hisMA.
Lankester therefore had a far better education than most English biologists of the previous generation, such asHuxley,Wallace andBates. Even so, it could be argued that the influence of his father Edwin and his friends were just as important. Huxley[8] was a close friend of the family, and whilst still a child Ray metHooker,Henfrey,Clifford,Gosse,Owen,Forbes,Carpenter,Lyell,Murchison,Henslow andDarwin.[9]
He was a large man with a large presence, of warm human sympathies and in his childhood a great admirer ofAbraham Lincoln. His interventions, responses and advocacies were often colourful and forceful, as befitted an admirer of Huxley, for whom he worked as a demonstrator when a young man. In his personal manner he was not so adept as Huxley, and he made enemies by his rudeness.[10] This undoubtedly damaged and limited the second half of his career.[11][page needed]
Lankester appears, thinly disguised, in several novels. He is the model for Sir Roderick Dover inH. G. Wells'Marriage (Wells had been one of his students), and inRobert Briffault'sEuropa, which contains a brilliant portrait of Lankester, including his friendship withKarl Marx. (Lankester was one of the thirteen people at Marx's funeral.)[12] He has also been suggested as the model forProfessor Challenger inArthur Conan Doyle'sThe Lost World,[13] but Doyle himself said that Challenger was based on a professor of physiology at the University of Edinburgh namedWilliam Rutherford.[14][15]
Lankester never married. In 1895, he was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest while in the company of a group of female prostitutes on the street, but was acquitted.[16] (It is incorrect, as has been alleged,[17] that the charge concerned homosexual offences.) He died inLondon on 13 August 1929.
A finely decorated memorial plaque to him can be seen at theGolders Green Crematorium, Hoop Lane, London.
Lankester became aFellow ofExeter College, Oxford, in 1873. He co-edited theQuarterly Journal of Microscopical Science which his father had founded. From 1869 until his death he edited this journal (jointly with his father, 1869–1871).[1] He worked as one of Huxley's team at the new buildings inSouth Kensington, and after the death ofFrancis Balfour became Huxley's intended successor.
Lankester was appointedJodrell Professor of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy and curator of what is now theGrant Museum of Zoology at University College London from 1874 to 1890,Linacre Professor of Comparative Anatomy atMerton College, Oxford, from 1891 to 1898, and director of the Natural History Museum from 1898 to 1907. He was a founder in 1884 of theMarine Biological Association and served as its second President between 1890 and 1929. Influential as teacher and writer on biological theories, comparative anatomy, and evolution, Lankester studied theprotozoa,mollusca, andarthropoda. Lankester was elected an International Honorary Member of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1902, and an International Member of both the United StatesNational Academy of Sciences and theAmerican Philosophical Society in 1903.[18][19][20] He wasknighted in 1907, awarded the Copley Medal of the Royal Society in 1913, and theLinnean Society of London'sDarwin-Wallace Medal in 1908.[21]
At University College London, one person who attended his class wasRaphael Weldon (1860–1906).[22] Another interesting student wasAlfred Gibbs Bourne, who went on to hold senior positions in biology and education in theIndian Empire.
After Huxley the most important influence on his thought wasAugust Weismann, the German zoologist who rejectedLamarckism, and wholeheartedly advocatednatural selection as the key force in evolution at a time when other biologists had doubts. Weismann's separation ofgermplasm (genetic material) from soma (somatic cells) was an idea which took many years before its significance was generally appreciated. Lankester was one of the first to see its importance: his full acceptance of selection came after reading Weismann's essays, some of which he translated into English.
Ernst Mayr said "It was Lankester who founded a school of selectionism at Oxford".[23] Those he influenced (in addition to Weldon) includedEdwin Stephen Goodrich (Linacre chair in zoology at Oxford 1921–1946) and (indirectly)Julian Huxley (the evolutionary synthesis). In turn their disciples, such asE. B. Ford (ecological genetics),Gavin de Beer (embryology and evolution),Charles Elton (ecology) andAlister Hardy (marine biology) held sway during the middle years of the 20th century.
Lankester was a comparative anatomist of theHuxley school, working mostly oninvertebrates. He was also a voluminous writer on biology for the general readership; in this he followed the example of his old mentor, Huxley.
He published over 200 papers during his career. For an overview of his scientific work, see the obituary notice byEdwin S. Goodrich.[3]
Lankester's booksDevelopmental history of the Mollusca (1875) andDegeneration: a chapter in Darwinism (1880) established him as a leader in the study of invertebrate life histories. InDegeneration he adapted some ideas ofErnst Haeckel andAnton Dohrn (the founder and first director of theStazione Zoologica,Naples).[24] Connecting Dohrn's work withDarwinism, Lankester held that degeneration was one of three general avenues that evolution might take (the others being balance and elaboration). Degeneration was a suppression of form, "Any new set of conditions occurring to an animal which render its food and safety very easily attained, seem to lead to as a rule to Degeneration".[25] Degeneration was well known in parasites, and Lankester gave several examples. InSacculina, a genus ofbarnacles which is a parasite ofcrabs, the female is little more than "a sac of eggs, and absorbed nourishment from the juices of its host by root-like processes" (+wood-engraved illustration). He called this degenerative evolutionary process in parasitesretrogressive metamorphosis.
Lankester pointed out that retrograde metamorphosis could be seen in many species that were not, strictly speaking, degenerate. "Were it not for the recapitulative phases of thebarnacle, we may doubt whether naturalists wouldever have guessed it was acrustacean." The lizardSeps has limbs which are "ridiculously small", andBipes, a burrowing lizard, has no front limbs, and rear limbs reduced to stumps. TheDibamidae are legless lizards of tropical forests who also adopt the burrowing habit.Snakes, which have evolved unique forms oflocomotion, and are probably derived from lizards. Thus degeneration or retrogressive metamorphosis sometimes occurs as speciesadapt to changes inhabit or way of life.
As evidence of degeneration, Lankester identifies the recapitulative development of the individual. This is the idea propagated byErnst Haeckel as a source of evolutionary evidence (recapitulation theory). As antecedents of degeneration, Lankester lists:[26]
He also considered theaxolotl, amole salamander, which can breed whilst still in its gilled larval form without maturing into a terrestrial adult. Lankester noted that this process could take the subsequent evolution of the race into a totally different and otherwise improbable direction.[27] This idea, which Lankester calledsuper-larvation, is now calledneoteny.
Lankester extended the idea of degeneration to human societies, which carries little significance today, but it is a good example of a biological concept invading social science. Lankester andH. G. Wells used the idea as a basis for propaganda in favour of social and educational reform.[28]
In Lankester's time theNatural History Museum had its own building inSouth Kensington, but in financial and administrative matters it was subordinate to theBritish Museum. Moreover, the Superintendent (= Director) of the NHM was the subordinate of the Principal Librarian of the BM, a fact which was bound to cause trouble since that august person was not a scientist.[29][30][31] We can see that the conflict which took place was one aspect of the struggle undertaken, in their different ways, byOwen,Hooker,Huxley andTyndall to emancipate science from enslavement by traditional forces.
There was trouble from the moment Lankester put forward his candidature for the office vacated by SirWilliam Flower, who was on the point of death. The Principal Librarian, SirEdward Maunde Thompson, thepalaeographer, was also the Secretary to the Trustees, and hence in a strong position to get his own way. There is good evidence that Thompson, an efficient and authoritarian figure, intended to take control of the whole Museum, including the Natural History departments.[32][33] In the absence of Huxley, who had led most of the battles for over thirty years, it was left to the younger generation to struggle for the independence of science,Mitchell,Poulton, andWeldon were his main supporters, and together they lobbied the Trustees, the Government and in the press to get their point over. Finally Lankester was appointed instead of Lazarus Fletcher (a relative nonentity).[34]
Lankester was appointed in 1898, and the outcome was inevitable. Eight years of conflict with Maunde Thompson followed, with Thompson constantly interfering in the affairs of the museum and obstructing Lankester's attempt to improve the museum. Lankester resigned in 1907, at the direction of Thompson, who had discovered a clause in the regulations which allowed him to call for the resignation of officials at the age of 60.Lazarus Fletcher was appointed in his stead. There was a vast clamour in the press, and from foreign zoologists protesting at the treatment of Lankester. That Lankester had some friends in high places was shown by the Archbishop of Canterbury offering him an enhanced pension, and the knighthood that was bestowed on him the next year.
The issues raised by this affair did not end there. Eventually the NHM gained, first, its administrative freedom, then finally there was a complete separation from the BM. Today theBritish Library, the British Museum and the Natural History Museum all occupy separate buildings, and have complete legal, administrative and financial independence from each other.
Lankester had close family connections withSuffolk (theWoodbridge andFelixstowe area), and was an active member of theRationalist group associated with the circle ofThomas Huxley,Samuel Laing and others. He was a friend of the RationalistEdward Clodd ofAldeburgh. From 1901 to his death in 1929 he was Honorary President of theIpswich Museum. He became convinced of the human workmanship of the (now unfavoured) 'Pre-palaeolithic' implements and rostro-carinates, and championed their cause at the Royal Society in 1910–1912. Through correspondence he became the scientific mentor of the Suffolk prehistorian James Reid Moir (1879–1944). He was a friend ofKarl Marx in the latter's later years and was among the few persons present at his funeral.[35]
Lankester was active in attempting to expose the frauds ofSpiritualist mediums during the 1920s. He was an important writer of popular science, his weekly newspaper columns over many years being assembled and reprinted in a series of books entitledScience from an Easy Chair (first series, 1910; second series, 1912).
His professional writings include the following:
TheLankester Pamphlets are held at theNational Marine Biological Library at the Marine Biological Association in Plymouth. These consist of 43 volumes of reprints, with an author index.[39]
In 1903 he was invited to deliver theRoyal Institution Christmas Lecture onExtinct Animals.
4th series, vol 4,issue 707 (May, 1900), p. 242–3.
| Academic offices | ||
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| Preceded by | Fullerian Professor of Physiology 1898–1901 | Succeeded by |
