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Edinburgh Lamarckians? The Authorship of Three Anonymous Papers (1826-1829)
- Source :
- Journal of the History of Biology
- Publication Year :
- 2021
-
Abstract
- In the space of four years, from 1826 to 1829, the Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal published three anonymous articles seemingly advocating doctrines inspired by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck. Decades of scholarship have initially attributed the most outspoken of the three articles, the 1826 “Observations on the Nature and Importance of Geology,” to Robert Grant, and subsequently to Robert Jameson, thanks to a critical reassessment by James Secord (1991). More recently, scholars have also ascribed to Jameson an article published in 1829, “Of the Continuity of the Animal Kingdom by Means of Generation from the First Ages of the World to the Present Times.” A third short contribution, the 1827 “Of the Changes which Life has Experienced on the Globe” has been credited to the Franco-German Ami Boué. Research undertaken over several years has led to the identification of the three authors hiding behind the veil of anonymity. They were not the ones scholars have agreed upon, nor were they really “Lamarckians.” The discussion of the ways in which the three texts reached Edinburgh broadens our understanding of the daily working practices of contemporary periodicals and of the networks of circulation of texts at the Continental level. Finally, when considered within their proper conceptual and social context, the three articles throw light on the many ways in which, during the 1820s, European amateurs, naturalists, and journalists debated the succession of life forms throughout the history of the Earth.
- Subjects :
- Jean-Baptiste Lamarck
Evolution
André d’Audebard de Férussac
Globe
Social environment
Robert Jameson
Periodicals
Kingdom
Philosophy of biology
Scholarship
medicine.anatomical_structure
History and Philosophy of Science
Alexandre Bertrand
medicine
Identification (psychology)
General Agricultural and Biological Sciences
History of science
Classics
Anonymity
Original Research
Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 15730387
- Volume :
- 54
- Issue :
- 3
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Journal of the history of biology
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....326a8ad7d9c95f36be088d35aa866408