Ray Lankester

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Ray Lankester : biography

15 May 1847 – 15 August 1929

Lankester pointed out that retrograde metamorphosis could be seen in many species that were not, strictly speaking, degenerate. "Were it not for the recapitulative phases of the barnacle, we may doubt whether naturalists would ever have guessed it was a crustacean." The lizard Seps has limbs which are "ridiculously small", and Bipes, a burrowing lizard, has no front limbs, and rear limbs reduced to stumps. The Dibamidae are legless lizards of tropical forests who also adopt the burrowing habit. Snakes, which have evolved unique forms of locomotion, and are probably derived from lizards. Thus degeneration or retrogressive metamorphosis sometimes occurs as species adapt to changes in habit or way of life.

As evidence of degeneration, Lankester identifies the recaptitulative development of the individual. This is the idea propagated by Ernst Haeckel as a source of evolutionary evidence (recapitulation theory). As antecedents of degeneration, Lankester lists:Lankester, E. Ray 1880. Degeneration: a chapter in Darwinism. p52

1. Parasitism
2. Fixity or immobility (sessile habit)
3. Vegetative nutrition
4. Excessive reduction in size

He also considered the Axolotl, a mole salamander, which can breed whilst still in its gilled larval form without maturing into a terrestrial adult. Lankester noted that this process could take the subsequent evolution of the race into a totally different and otherwise improbable direction.Lester, E. Ray Lankester, p87. This idea, which Lankester called super-larvation, is now called neoteny.

Lankester extended the idea of degeneration to human societies, which carries little significance today, but it is a good example of a biological concept invading the social world. Lankester and H.G. Wells used the idea as a basis for propaganda in favour of social and educational reform.Barnett R. 2006. Education or degeneration: E. Ray Lankester, H.G. Wells and the outline of history. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences. 37, 203–229.

Trouble at the Museum

In Lankester’s time the Natural History Museum had its own building in South Kensington, but in financial and administrative matters it was subordinate to the British Museum. Moreover, the Superintendent (= Director) of the NHM was the subordinate of the Principal Librarian of the BM, a fact which was bound to cause trouble since that august person was not a scientist.Gunther, Albert 1975. A century of zoology at the British Museum through the lives of two Keepers, 1815-1914. London.Gunther, Albert 1981. The founders of science at the British Museum, 1753-1900. Halesworth, London.Stearne, William T. 1981. The Natural History Museum at South Kensington. London. We can see that the conflict which took place was one aspect of the struggle undertaken, in their different ways, by Owen, Hooker, Huxley and Tyndall to emancipate science from enslavement by traditional forces.

There was trouble from the moment Lankester put forward his candidature for the office vacated by Sir William Flower, who was on the point of death. The Principal Librarian, Sir Edward Maunde Thompson, the palaeographer, was also the Secretary to the Trustees, and hence in a strong position to get his own way. There is good evidence that Thomson, an efficient and authoritarian figure, intended to take control of the whole Museum, including the Natural History departments.Mitchell, P. Chalmers. 1937. My fill of days. London. p170 et seqSir John Evans to Lankester, Lankester family papers; reported in Lester p128-9. In the absence of Huxley, who had led most of the battles for over thirty years, it was left to the younger generation to struggle for the independence of science, Mitchell, Poulton, and Weldon were his main supporters, and together they lobbied the Trustees, the Government and in the press to get their point over. Finally Lankester was appointed instead of Lazarus Fletcher (a relative nonentity).Lester Chapter 11, p127 et seq.