Joseph Thomas Cunningham (1859–1935) was a Britishmarine biologist andzoologist known for his experiments onflatfish and his writings onneo-Lamarckism.[1]
Cunningham worked at theLondon Hospital Medical College. He completed his science scholarship atBalliol College, Oxford.[2] Cunningham was a neo-Lamarckian. In his bookHormones and Heredity (1921) he proposed that the mechanism for theinheritance of acquired characteristics werehormones. He termed this "chemical Lamarckism".[3]
According to science historianPeter J. Bowler the idea held by Cunningham that hormones transferred from one generation to the next independent of thegerm plasm was seen at the time by neo-Lamarckians as a plausible hypothesis, however "its advocates were unable to get beyond the stage of providing indirect evidence for the effect they postulated."[4]
In a series of experiments (in 1891, 1893 and 1895) on the action of light on the coloration offlatfish, Cunningham directed light upon the lower sides of flatfishes by means of a glass-bottomedtank placed over a mirror. He discovered that light causes the production ofpigments on the lower sides of flatfishes, and gave his results a Lamarckian interpretation.[5][6][7] Other scientists interpreted his results differently.[8]George Romanes wrote approvingly of Cunningham's interpretation, but thegeneticistWilliam Bateson was not convinced that the cause of the increase in pigmentation was from the illumination.[9]Thomas Hunt Morgan criticized the experiments and did not believe the results were evidence for Lamarckism.[10]
Cunningham challenged the concept ofsexual selection.[11] His bookSexual Dimorphism in the Animal Kingdom (1900) attempted to explain secondarysexual characters by Lamarckian principles.[12] The chemistRaphael Meldola noted in a review forNature that "although many of us may arrive at the conclusion that Mr. Cunningham has not succeeded in establishing his case, it will be generally admitted that he has discussed the problem, on the whole, in a more or less scientific spirit."[13]
He translatedTheodor Eimer'sDie Enstehung der Arten (1888) into English.
243/244.| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| People | |
| Other | |
