The Darwin centenary : an address from the Royal College of Surgeons of England to the Chancellor, Masters, and Scholars of the University of Cambridge.

  • Morris, Henry, Sir, 1844-1926.
Date:
1909
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: The Darwin centenary : an address from the Royal College of Surgeons of England to the Chancellor, Masters, and Scholars of the University of Cambridge. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    8 Lamarck, and Erasmus Darwin, and the principle of natural selection had been enunciated by Dr. Wells and Mr. Matthew, yet the central hypothesis of the “ Origin of Species ” came in 1859 as a revelation to the historians of scientific ideas as well as to all the biological specialists then living. Charles Darwin knew that he was regarded as “the greatest revolutionist in natural history of this if not all centuries,” and he naturally yearned for some half dozen great and sound scientists to accept his views, for then he would have no fear of their ultimate success. And whose were the opinions he most especially valued and “longed to learn” ? They were those of J. D. Hooker, Charles Lyell, Huxley, Richard Owen, W. B. Carpenter, Milne-Edwards, and Asa Gray, every one of whom except Sir Charles Lyell had received a medical education and was the holder of a medical degree or other medical qualification. Two of them, Huxley and Owen, ha.d been intimately asso- ciated with the Royal College of Surgeons of England, Huxley as a Member of the College and Hunterian professor, and Owen as a Member and Fellow of the College and Hunterian professor and conservator of the Hunterian Museum for many years. Hooker and Huxley were the most sympathetic exponents and staunchest champions of the Darwinian principles, and if Owen never actually expressed a definite opinion of Darwinism he at least inclined to the theory of “natural selection,” and conduced to the writing of a letter in which Charles Darwin evinced a candour, a modesty, a tolerance of disagreement, and an indifference to the claims of priority which so supremely characterised him throughout his whole scientific career. It is interesting to us who are connected with the College of Surgeons to re-call that in 1859 Owen delivered the Rede lecture at Cambridge—his subject being the “Classification of Mammalia ”—and that he then received the degree LL.D., thus becoming the recipient of the first honorary degree ever conferred by this University. Also in the same year the remains of John Hunter, the great founder of scientific surgery, the fruits of whose labours will for all time be the chief glory of our College, were removed from the vaults