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    Darwin's Ghosts: In Search of the First Evolutionists
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    Darwin's Ghosts: In Search of the First Evolutionists
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    Darwin's Ghosts: In Search of the First Evolutionists
    Ebook528 pages10 hours

    Darwin's Ghosts: In Search of the First Evolutionists

    By Rebecca Stott

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    Christmas, 1859. Just one month after the publication of On the Origin of Species, Darwin received a letter that deeply unsettled him. He had expected criticism. Letters were arriving every day like swarms, some expressing praise, most outrage and accusations of heresy. But the letter from the Reverend Powell was different. It accused Darwin of failing to acknowledge his predecessors, of having taken credit for a theory that had already been discovered by others, Baden Powell himself and Darwin's own grandfather among them.

    For all the excuses that leapt to mind - publication had been rushed; he hadn't been well - Darwin knew he had made a grave error in omitting to mention his intellectual forebears. Yet when he tried to trace these natural philosophers, he found that history had already forgotten them...

    In Darwin's Ghosts, historian and novelist Rebecca Stott rediscovers Aristotle walking the shores of Lesbos with his pupils and Leonardo da Vinci searching for fossils in the mine shafts of the Tuscan hills; Diderot, in Paris, under the surveillance of the secret police, exploring the origins of species, and the brilliant naturalists of the Jardin de Plantes first recognising proof of evolutionary change in the natural history collections stolen during the Napoleonic wars.

    Darwin's Ghosts is a masterful retelling of the collective daring of a few like-minded men who had the imagination to speculate on nature's ways and the courage to publish at a time when to do so, for political as well as religious reasons, was to risk everything. More than a tale of mummified birds, inland lagoons, Bedouin nomads, secret police files, microscopes and curiosity cabinets, Darwin's Ghosts is the story of an idea that would change the modern world.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBloomsbury Publishing
    Release dateMay 10, 2012
    ISBN9781408826997
    Unavailable
    Darwin's Ghosts: In Search of the First Evolutionists
    Author

    Rebecca Stott

    Rebecca Stott is a novelist, broadcaster, historian and Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. She is Professor Emeritus at UEA. Her books include Darwin’s Ghosts and Darwin and the Barnacle, the novels Ghostwalk (a New York Times bestseller), The Coral Thief, and the Costa Award-winning memoir In the Days of Rain. She lives in Norwich.

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    Reviews for Darwin's Ghosts

    3.5/5

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    • 4/5
      The author reviews the record of evolutionary thought prior to Darwin. Darwin famously said "evolution was in the air", and it was. From the time of Aristotle to the time of Darwin, we see individuals proposing evolution sporadically, though many of these individuals proposed to refute, or simply had a very strange view of evolution. The author writes in lucid prose, avoiding jargon, and telling history like a story rather than a dull recitation of facts. One could take issue with some of the stories, since it is unlikely that the information presented about thoughts going through the author's head are, at least in part, speculation, but in other cases come from journals or other collected writings. In edition, other than one rather convoluted, awkward, nearly incomprehensible sentence, the book is well edited, without the major grammar, spelling, and syntax errors that have become so common in modern publications. Definitely a worthwhile book for anyone interested in the history of science.
    • 5/5
      An eminently readable book, Rebecca Stott has a wonderful facility for bringing what could have been a dry history of evolutionary thought to life. Covering thousands of years of intellectual history, the book shows how much and how little the understanding of animals and life has changed, culminating with Darwin's Theory of Evolution. Some of the people covered are names you would recognize, from Aristotle to da Vinci to Wallace, while others you may never have heard of, such as Jahiz.A wonderful read, even if you would not normally have an interest in the intellectual history of evolution. Highly recommended.
    • 4/5
      Joy's Review: The title's a bit silly, but the book is excellent. Each chapter describes someone who wondered, studied and investigated the 'transmutability' of species. All courageous men- since for most of them the religious powers at the time were (and sadly, often still are) scandalized by such theories and studies. I'd read another of Stott's books any time; she is an excellent non-fiction writer, presenting science history as the stories of individuals asking 'why'.
    • 4/5
      An accessible and engaging look at free thinkers and scientists who preceded Darwin with pioneering insights and discoveries into evolution and natural selection beginning with Aristotle.
    • 3/5
      I was looking forward to reading this book as it hinted at the possibility that Charles Darwin had not been the first to put forth his famous theory. As it turned out, it merely recounted the stories of other scientists through the ages who recognized that living things evolve, an idea that was hardly new in Darwin's time. While I enjoyed reading the stories, I'm a bit disappointed that the author played up the widely-held misconception that Charles Darwin (and Wallace if people care to mention him) discovered "the theory of evolution." He and Wallace actually formulated the theory of Natural Selection which explained the phenomenon of evolution and essentially proved its existence.
    • 5/5
      My favorite kind of read is a nonfiction book that is both informative and engaging. Science and history are my two favorite subjects, so when offered the chance to read Rebecca Stott's Darwin's Ghost, the Secret History of Evolution, I took it. Thank you to Librarything's Early Reader program and to the publisher.Many of us tend to believe great ideas are formed in bubbles; that great thinkers suddenly come up with great ideas. We forget that many ideas build on older ideas. Stott reminds us that Darwin, though brilliant, did not come up with evolution on his own. Stott's writing style is amazing, and I found myself green with envy within the first chapter. My secret desire is to write an engaging nonfiction book, if only I could write like Stott. She easily draws her readers into the lives of those who came before Darwin. We walk along the Greek shores with Aristotle as he studies ocean life. We learn Leonardo spent a lot time wondering how fossilized sea shells got imbedded into mountain regions. We learn of men who are self taught natural philosophers with varying success. We enter the gardens of the French Natural History Museum the Jardin des Plantes and finish off with Alfred Wallace. Each chapter builds upon the last, giving the us a clear map of how Darwin found his way to the Origins of Species. If you are like me, always on the lookout for a well written, well researched nonfiction book, look no further than Stott's book.
    • 4/5
      This is an entertaining book on a topic which isn't really discussed much in general circles - those who touched on the idea of evolution before Darwin. As is made clear by several prior reviewers, the book does contain some factual errors, but as an introduction to the topic for a lay reader, it is probably worth reading with an open mind and perhaps a Darwin reference book at your side.
    • 4/5
      When Charles Darwin published "On The Origin Of Species" in 1859 he received severe backlash from both the scientific and religious communities. Needless to say, the responses from both were overwhelming and expected. To a lesser extent he heard from those that agreed with his theory of the evolutionary process. But, what he was both anticipating and dreading were those that took him to task for not acknowledging the scientists and philosophers that came before him with their own ideas of how plants and animals reached their current state of being. From Aristotle to his fellow contemporary adventurers, such as Alfred Russel Wallace, Darwin knew of their contributions, questions, studies, and travels. But why, his critics asked, did he appear to be taking full credit for a theory that had been under scrutiny for hundreds of years? The fact is that he was aware of his predecessors and did intend to acknowledge their work in the first edition of his book but, even after trying to determine their input to the long process, he felt unable to correctly, knowledgeably, and completely catalog their share of their discoveries. Darwin did create a list of 37 men but he felt that the lack of meaningful knowledge he uncovered would do them no service and so, regrettably, they were not recognized. That is, until the 4th edition when he added a footnote (included in the book) to make amends to his detractors, those men, and himself.What Rebecca Stott has done in "Darwin's Ghosts: The Secret History of Evolution" is provide the background and information about these men that Darwin failed to do. She has whittled down the list from 37 men to 11 and parsed their own theorems to both determine if they truly did "discover" evolution long before Darwin and if Darwin used their knowledge to enhance his own theory. She begins with Aristotle, as Darwin did, and finds that he believed that "[e]verything comes out of something that has lived before. There can be no ultimate origin or beginning." Darwin (who admired him "above all other naturalists") mistakenly believed that statement and Aristotle's studies of the sea creatures in the port of Lesbos confirmed that the changes he saw in the fish were transmutations over thousands of years. Instead Aristotle was limited by what he could examine over a short period of time and this led to his belief that each creature was created to do exactly what it needed to do and was exactly where it needed to be, without the benefit of evolutionary changes. From Aristotle in 344 BC, Stott moves to the intriguing story of the man known as al-Jahiz who resided in Basra and Baghdad in 850 AD. He was a man whose staggering curiosity about everything in the world around him led to him to write the "Book of Living Beings", an unprecedented look at the natural world that "would not be matched for another thousand years." He spoke of ecosystems and how each was a creation of God and is connected to all the other creatures as a food source. Not the philosophy of evolution by any means or definition. After an inexplicable absence of information for nearly a thousand years, Leonardo da Vinci turns his brilliant mind to why seashells are atop mountains and other conundrums. Again, though, not the evolutionary thoughts and theories that Darwin imagined him to hold. However, the writings of both da Vinci and al-Jahiz provide prime examples of what these early scientists, naturalists, and great thinkers were trying to comprehend.In the 17th and 18th centuries, several more scholars and philosophers turned their attentions to how the species reached the levels they held in the world. Each man worked, dissected, and studied to bring their own conjectures to light and each deserves their own accolades. However, it wasn't until Darwin that these ideas were available to the general public. Of course, Darwin's theory was based on his own empirical studies, but there is some credence to the belief that not all of it was original. All in all, this is a fascinating look at the struggles of each of these men and how Darwin himself dealt with his neglect in including the work of his "ghosts" - the men who in some way laid the groundwork for "The Origin of the Species." Highly recommended to readers of early science, natural philosophy, and the evolution of thought regarding how living things came to be as they are.
    • 3/5
      Summary: Darwin gets all the credit for coming up with the theory of evolution, but that's a woeful oversimplification. There were a number of scientists and thinkers that came before Darwin that had pondered evolutionary ideas, including the ideas that species can change over extremely long periods of time, and that species may all share a common ancestor. These men (all men, alas) include not only Darwin's own grandfather, but members of the Parisian botanical garden, a British consul in colonial Cairo, a rogue publisher, a tutor, a ceramicist, and Baghdadi naturalist from 850 CE. While Darwin did what these men (with the exception of Alfred Russell Wallace) couldn't - provide a reasonable and well-documented mechanism by which species change over time (i.e. natural selection) - he owes them all a historical debt, since they laid the foundations of evolutionary thought which he was to build upon.Review: I was really excited about the premise of this book. I am getting more and more into the history of science, and while I knew a fair bit about Alfred Russell Wallace (from The Species Seekers), and I knew who Erasmus Darwin and Lamarck and Cuvier were, I hadn't even heard of most of the other people Stott covers in her book. (Well, I knew who Aristotle was, obviously, but not any details about his scientific pursuits.) And this book was, undoubtedly, well-researched and filled with interesting facts and history and bits of trivia. (For instance, the idea that all species originated in the sea and moved on to land over unimaginably long time periods was around more than a century before the publication of On the Origin of Species. Of course, its major proponent also believed very strongly in the continued existence of mermen. But still!)Unfortunately, something about Stott's writing style never really grabbed me. I could see where she was trying very hard to bring the subjects of each chapter-long biography to life, but it rarely worked for me. As a result, a lot of the details of the history didn't stick in my brain, which makes me wonder what I really retained as a result of reading this book. Also, Stott is a fan of lengthy, complicated sentence structure, which meant that if I wasn't paying very close attention, I could get lost from one end of a paragraph to the other, and things occasionally felt rather dry. There were also times when I felt like I wasn't quite getting the point she was making, especially in the early chapters (they're arranged chronologically), where I couldn't always see how the people's ideas about animals really counted as evolutionary. All of this could be entirely idiosyncratic to me and my somewhat distractible brain at the moment, but I've read other history of science that I've connected with more, and I just didn't feel like this one was as lively as I wanted it to be. 3 out of 5 stars.Recommendation: It had some interesting bits, but not an unqualified success for me. Other readers may get along better with Stott's prose than I did, and I haven't read any other books that focus on the history of evolutionary thought to compare it to (although I'm sure they're out there.)
    • 2/5
      Having loved Rebecca Stott's Darwin and the Barnacle (and having read perhaps 200 books on the history of science), I looked forward eagerly to Darwin's Ghosts. Unfortunately, the book's errors and misconceptions make it unreliable as a source. What's more, the book only partially succeeds in its stated goal of tracing the history of pre-Darwinian evolutionary thought. These are strong criticisms, and it pains me to offer them, but sadly, they are justified. Consider for example the crowning events of the book: in 1858, the naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace sent Charles Darwin a manuscript on natural selection, and Darwin faced the prospect of seeing another get credit for the idea. According to Stott (pp. 266- 284), Darwin's friends Lyell and Hooker called an "emergency meeting" of the Linnaean Society to present for publication a 230 page essay by Darwin along with Wallace's brief paper. They then asked the members to "make a judgment as to which man discovered natural selection first;" whereupon the Society "gave their verdict" and declared that Darwin deserved priority for the idea. However, none of this ever happened. There was no "emergency meeting" engineered by Hooker and Lyell – the venue was the regularly scheduled gathering of the Linnaean Society (see reference 1 below). Darwin's 230 page essay was not presented for publication -- only some excerpts along with others from his correspondence. And members of the society never "voted" on priority nor were they asked to; the question was never raised, and it would have viewed as highly improper if it had been. In fact, Darwin and Wallace's contributions were among several presentations at the lengthy meeting, and from all accounts, it was a tiring affair that engendered no discussion (ref. 2). Stott's version culminates with having Wallace write to Hooker to say that "he didn't mind in the least that Darwin was going to take credit" (p. 6). Again, this is an invention by Ms. Stott -- Wallace said no such thing. The relevant events have been recounted and discussed in countless sources, and entire websites are devoted to the original documents and correspondence. Darwin's Ghosts significantly distorts the history, and in the process, libels the main subject of her book. One would never know from this book that throughout his life Darwin graciously acknowledged Wallace as a cofounder of the idea of natural selection. Other errors are abound. Fish are presented as a type of "invertebrate" (pp. 202 and 203), an error that no one who has ever cooked or eaten one should have made. The author lends credence to the mistaken claim that the 9th century Arab writer Al-Jahiz recognized a form of "natural selection," thus perpetuating a misconception borne of confusion (see ref. 3). She speculates that Erasmus Darwin (Charles' grandfather) was comforted in his garden by Mrs. Elizabeth Pole, upon the death of "his eldest son, William" from an infection received while at medical school (p. 167). In fact, William was Erasmus' fifth son, an infant who died 19 days after birth. It was his son Charles (uncle to his namesake, the famous scientist) who died of the infection, in 1778. At the time, Mrs. Pole (a married woman with children of her own) lived 20 miles away (quite a distance by horse- drawn carriage), and had no cause or opportunity to visit Erasmus (ref. 4) The backdrop for Darwin's Ghosts is the well – established fact that ideas about evolution had a history that predated Origin of Species. In the book's 1859 edition, Darwin made no mention of his predecessors, an oversight that he hastened to correct in subsequent editions. These pre- Darwinian ideas have been explored exhaustively in works written for the general public and the professional scientist (ref. 5). Thus, notwithstanding the subtitle of Stott's book, here is nothing whatsoever that is "secret" about this history, and her book covers well- trod ground in providing yet another account of Darwin's predecessors. Oddly, however, the author misses a number of the key figures, while featuring others whose work bore little or no relationship to evolutionary ideas. For example, Chapter 1 focuses on Aristotle – and not until the end of the chapter does the reader learn that his ideas were entirely antithetical to evolutionary change. Later chapters focus on Leonardo da Vinci, Mary Shelley, and Diderot, peculiar figures for a book on the history of evolutionary thought. Of 15 pre- Darwinian writers that are discussed, only five (Erasmus Darwin, Lamarck, St. Hillaire, Chambers, and Wallace) can be considered as proponents of evolutionary ideas. Meanwhile, other relevant figures, including those named by Darwin, are overlooked. Further, the coverage of each individual too often misses the essence of their ideas in favor of biographical details. For example, the presentation of Lamarck's views is a caricature that overlooks the complexity and metaphysical nature of his ideas. Likewise, important distinctions between Wallace's and Darwin's concepts of selection (e.g., group vs. individual selection; applicability to humans) are never explored. Thus, is lost a valuable opportunity to inform the reader about important differences between the views of these two scientists. Periodically in the book, the author makes up events and episodes, telling the reader what this or that figure supposedly was thinking or feeling. These episodes are presented as if they are factual when they are nothing of the kind. "Despite his resolutions, Darwin still woke in the night, slipping out of bed so as not to disturb Emma and pacing the floor of his study. How many other predecessors had he forgotten?" (p. 11). "He felt the burden of censure heavy on his shoulders now that he was back in the study, stoking the fire, feeling the heat agitating the itching on the dry and flaking skin of his face." (p. 11) "And there in the light from the fire, Darwin remembered the heretics who had been burned in the market places of England…. Burned because, even under torture and starvation, they would not recant." (p. 12). This is not biography – it is fiction! It owes more to the author's imaginings than to her knowledge of either history or science. Notwithstanding its problems, this book mayhelp interest the general reader in the fascinating history of evolutionary ideas. The book is entertaining and written in a delightful style. If this book sparks readers' interests sufficiently to lead them to explore the subject further, it will have served some purpose. However, given the author's talent as a writer, the book could have been far better had it been fact- checked by knowledgeable biologists and historians of science. As it stands, it miseducates readers who are not likely to read further on the subject, by misrepresenting important issues of widespread interest. Note: The Appendix consists of the famous "Historical Sketch" that Darwin added to later editions of Origin of Species to acknowledge his predecessors. Unfortunately, in being reprinted in Stott's book, the first extended footnote in the sketch was omitted and the others were misplaced. As a result, readers will search in vain to find mention of Aristotle and certain other early figures. Accurate versions of the "Historical Sketch" are readily available online. __________________________References cited above:ref. 1: Janet Browne (2002), "The Power of Place," p. 35ref. 2: Browne, op cit., p. 41.ref. 3: As noted by Stott, Jahiz recognized that stronger species prey on weaker ones. This is not natural selection. In the latter, the competition lies between predators, not between them and their prey.ref. 4: Desmond Hele- King (1999), "Erasmus Darwin," p. 141-145.ref. 5): Among hundreds of excellent sources are the following: Peter Bowler (2003), "Evolution: History of an Idea;" Edward J. Larson (2004), "Evolution: The Remarkable History of a Scientific Theory;" and Ernst Mayr (1982), "The Growth of Biological Thought"
    • 4/5
      Upon the long-delayed publication of "The Origin of Species", Darwin, to his dismay, began receiving complaints that he had neglected to mention the scientific contributions of his intellectual forebears. To his credit, Darwin was not aware of many of these people, some of whom had disappeared into history or whose work was either in languages he didn’t read or unavailable to him. Over several editions he attempted to rectify the situation with a “historical sketch” covering the work of those whose work he was able to trace, but, rightfully so, he continued to insist that his ultimate conclusion (survival of the fittest) was unique. Here, Stott collects the stories of others who added to the general progress towards understanding species development. All of these people were, quite simply, overwhelmingly curious; at least one saw his work a means to expound on his god’s wondrous creation; some tried to challenge the prevailing belief that species were immutable and perfect as created, despite mounting evidence to the contrary. Except for intellectual satisfaction, it was a thankless effort for most of these explorers. Aristotle (ancient Greece) and Jahiz (9th century Baghdad), were encouraged and supported as long as their various patrons remained in power, but political fortunes frequently disrupted their work. For the rest, all living in Christian nations, religious intolerance inevitably led to torture, imprisonment, loss of employment and/or campaigns organized to isolate and ruin them led by those with offended religious convictions. It’s quite a depressing history of intolerance, made relevant by our own recent history, especially here in the U.S. The stories are quite interesting and show the progression of human knowledge and the spirit of discovery which, luckily, have never been completely crushed by suppression. There are detailed footnotes and a bibliography on each of the subjects which is bound to encourage general readers to follow up on some of these intriguing people.As much as I enjoyed the book, I do have one little nit to pick with Stott: she describes Herodotus as a Roman(!) geographer.
    • 5/5
      Darwin's Ghosts by Rebecca StottIt is an understatement to say that I enjoyed (and was fascinated by) "Darwin's Ghosts." I can only compliment author Rebecca Stott and thank her for it. Her preface is not to be missed (I read parts of it aloud to a neighbor). The book is well-designed and illustrated. Three pages of acknowledgements bear witness to the complications of writing such a comprehensive work.Stott's family had excised the Darwin information from their Encyclopedia Britannica. As a youngster she used her public library to satisfy her curiosity which never waned. As a researcher she learned about Robert Chambers: he had found/read EB in the attic, there because it was too big for the family's shelves. Stott uses twenty-six pages tell of his accomplishments. My six pages of notes include this gem: "If man had dominion, if he was valued by God above all other creations, why had he not been granted powers of regeneration like the polyp?" I marvel at the parade of individuals that includes Jahiz, who rented bookshops for a night "so that he could read everything at hand without interruption." I was spellbound by the problems endured by Alfred Wallace. (And here I pause, realizing I could name many others but the practical course is simply to urge you to read the book ~~~ it is a splendid account of an important part of the history of our world.)
    • 4/5
      After the publication of his seminal The Origin of Species, Darwin was chastised by his fellows for not discussing the many thinkers and scientists who had entertained similar evolutionary ideas and hypotheses before him. Thus, in the third edition of his work, Darwin wrote up a preface entitled “An Historical Sketch” to fill that gap. But his preface was just what he called it…a sketch, little more than a list of names with very little background or information. Stott here remedies that lack, delving deeply into the historical record to provide brief but information-rich biographies of some of the great thinkers who preceded Darwin’s theory of natural selection. She begins with Aristotle, who, while exiled to the island of Lesbos, undertook one of the first large-scale biological surveys of the rich sea life to be found there. From there, Stott covers other such luminaries as Leonardo da Vinci; 9th century Islamic polymath al-Jahiz; French scientists Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, Georges-Louis Leclerc de Buffon; Georges Cuvier; Darwin’s contemporary Alfred Russel Wallace; and Darwin’s own grandfather, Erasmus Darwin, among others. In the process, Stott conclusively demonstrates that, while evolution itself was still a controversial idea and one which ruined or nearly ruined the lives and careers of many of its early proponents, it was an idea whose time had come by the time Darwin’s book was published. His work was not done in a vacuum, building as it did on a long and rich intellectual history; The Origin of Species merely provided the most fully conceptualized theory and the only one which provided an observable, viable method by which evolution occurred—natural selection.Fascinating, well-researched, and never dry, Darwin’s Ghosts is a treasure-trove for both those already interested in the topic and those coming to this history for the first time. Recommended.