Hugh Falconer MD, FRS | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | (1808-02-29)29 February 1808 Forres, Scotland |
| Died | 31 January 1865(1865-01-31) (aged 56) London, England |
| Alma mater | University of Aberdeen University of Edinburgh |
| Known for | Precursor ofpunctuated equilibrium |
| Father | David Falconer |
| Awards | Wollaston Medal 1837 |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Geology,Botany,Paleontology |
| Institutions | Saharanpur Botanical Gardens Calcutta Medical College Agric. Hort. Soc. Bengal |
| Doctoral advisor | Robert Jameson |
| Author abbrev. (botany) | Falc. |
Hugh FalconerMDFRS (29 February 1808 – 31 January 1865[1]) was aScottishgeologist,botanist,palaeontologist, andpaleoanthropologist. He studied theflora,fauna, andgeology ofIndia,Assam,Burma, and most of theMediterranean islands and was the first to suggest the modern evolutionary theory ofpunctuated equilibrium. He studied theSiwalik fossil beds, and may also have been the first person to discover afossilape.
Falconer was the youngest son of David Falconer ofForres,Elginshire. In 1826 Hugh Falconer graduated at theUniversity of Aberdeen, where he studiednatural history. Afterward, he studied medicine in theUniversity of Edinburgh, taking the degree of MD in 1829.[2] During this period he zealously attended the botanical classes of Prof. R. Graham (1786–1845), and those on geology by Prof.Robert Jameson, the teacher ofCharles Darwin.
Falconer became an assistant-surgeon on theBengal establishment of theBritish East India Company in 1830.[2] Upon his arrival in Bengal he made an examination of thefossil bones fromAva, upper Burma in the possession of theAsiatic Society of Bengal. His description of the fossils, published soon afterward, gave him a recognized position among the scientists ofIndia. Early in 1831 he was posted to the army station atMeerut, India, then in the North Western Provinces, and now in the state ofUttar Pradesh.
In 1832, Falconer became Superintendent of theSaharanpur botanical garden, India, succeedingJohn Royle.[2] Falconer remained at Saharanpur until 1842, during which time he became widely known for his study of fossilmammals in theSiwalik Hills.
Falconer and his associates may have made the first discovery of a fossil ape, in the 1830s in theNeogene deposits in the Siwalik Hills.[3] In theTertiarystrata of the Siwalik Hills in 1831 Falconer discovered bones ofcrocodiles,tortoises and other animals. With others, he later brought to light a sub-tropicalfossilfauna of unexampled extent and richness, including remains ofMastodon, the colossalruminantSivatherium, and the enormous extincttortoiseColossochelys atlas. Falconer also published a geological description of the Siwálik Hills in 1834. For these valuable discoveries he andProby Cautley (1802–1871) together received theWollaston Medal from theGeological Society of London, its highest award, in 1837.
In 1834 Falconer was asked by a Commission of Bengal to investigate the commercial feasibility of growing tea in India. On his recommendationtea plants were introduced, and the resultantblack tea became competitive with Chinese teas.[4]
Falconer returned from India in 1842 because of ill health. He brought back 70 large chests of dried plants and 48 cases of fossils, bones and geological specimens.[5] He then travelled throughout Europe making geological observations, and was elected Fellow of theRoyal Society in 1845. Continuing in the service of the British East India Company as a naturalist, he pursued research at theBritish Museum andEast India House and prepared casts of the most remarkable fossils for the leading museums of Europe.
In 1847 Falconer became superintendent of theCalcutta Botanical Garden and professor of botany in theMedical College,Calcutta, near his older brother, Alexander Falconer, a Calcutta merchant. Hugh Falconer served as an advisor to the Indian government and the Agricultural and Horticultural Society of Bengal, thede facto colonial "Department of Agriculture". He prepared an important report on theteak forests ofTenasserim, and this saved them from destruction by reckless felling. Through his recommendation, the cultivation of thecinchona in the Indian empire was introduced for themedicinal use of its bark in the treatment ofmalaria.
Falconer was originally acreationist who denied the fact ofevolution.[6] In November 1859,Charles Darwin sent Falconer a copy of hisOn the Origin of Species with a letter which stated "I am fully convinced that you will become, year after year, less fixed in your belief in the immutability of species".[6] In June 1861, Falconer expressed respect in a letter to Darwin for receiving the book. By the early 1860s he reassessed his worldview and came to embrace evolution from his studies of the fossil record.[6]
In 1863, Falconer authored a monographOn the American Fossil elephant of the regions bordering the Gulf of Mexico.[6] A year before he had privately sent the work to Darwin who was delighted to read it. In the work he observed long periods of evolutionary stasis in fossil mammals with short periods of rapid evolutionary change throughout geological time.[6] This research shows great foresight.Niles Eldredge andStephen Jay Gould developed the same basic theory a century later, a theory known aspunctuated equilibrium. According to Gould, the work "anticipates a primary inference of punctuated equilibrium— that a local pattern of abrupt replacement does not signify macromutational transformation in situ, but an origin of the later species from an ancestral population living elsewhere, followed by migration into the local region."[6]
Having to leave India again in 1855 because of ill health, he spent the remainder of his life examining and comparing fossil species in England and the Continent to those he found in India, notably the species of mastodon, elephant, and rhinoceros. He also described some newmammalia from thePurbeck strata ofWessex. Turning to the subject of human origins, he reported on the bonecaves ofSicily,Malta,Gibraltar,Gower, andBrixham. He discovered the dwarf elephant speciesPalaeoloxodon falconeri on Sicily and Malta, and also found the bones of the flightless giant swanCygnus falconeri in Malta atGħar Dalam .
Falconer served as vice-president of theRoyal Society 1863–1864. Although suffering from exposure and overwork, Falconer returned hastily from Gibraltar to supportCharles Darwin's claim to theCopley Medal in 1864. Falconer succumbed in London, England, on 31 January 1865[1] from rheumatic disease of the heart and lungs. He is buried inKensal Green Cemetery, London.
The flowerRhododendron falconeri was named after Falconer byJoseph Dalton Hooker.
Falconer's botanical notes, with 450 coloured drawings of Indian plants, were deposited in the library atKew Gardens, together with some of the specimens he collected. A marble bust was placed in the rooms of theRoyal Society of London, and another in theAsiatic Society of Bengal, Calcutta. A competitive Falconer scholarship of £100 per year was created for graduates in science or medicine of the University of Edinburgh.
The Falconer Museum inForres, Scotland (57°36′36″N3°36′44″W / 57.609906°N 3.612346°W /57.609906; -3.612346 (Falconer Museum)), a "Victorian Gem",[7] houses, amongst numerous other collections, the many Falconer finds that had not been sent to other institutions like the library of Kew Gardens or the British Museum, including Palaeolithic finds that enable "visitors of the Falconer Museum [to] look at three different species of humans at once,homo erectus, homo neanderthalensis andhomo sapiens".[8]
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This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Falconer, Hugh".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 10 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 140.
