Robert Edmond Grant

Robert Edmond Grant ( born November 11, 1793 in Edinburgh, † August 23 1874 in London) was a Scottish zoologist and comparative anatomist. After graduating as a doctor of medicine Grant made ​​an extensive study tour of Europe, during which he, Étienne Geoffroy Saint- Hilaire and Jean -Baptiste de Lamarck met Georges Cuvier, whose ideas influenced him long term. During his teaching career in Edinburgh he inspired Charles Darwin to the study of invertebrates and introduced him to Lamarck's ideas about the change of species.

From 1827 Grant was the first Professor of Zoology and compare anatomy at the newly founded University College London, where he taught until his death. In London, Grant was the main representative of a system based on Lamarck's views evolutionary thought and a major supporter of radical political movement within the medical community during the 1830s and 1840s.

• 4.1 Books
• 4.2 journal articles

• 5.1 Literature
• 5.2 Notes and references

Life and work

Training

Robert Edmond Grant was the seventh son of 14 children of Alexander Grant ( † 1808). His first training was carried out by the private tutor of the family. From 1803 on, he studied for four years at the Royal High School in Edinburgh, where he was initially taught in English, Latin, Greek, geography and history. Later, mathematics and French were added. Alexander Tweedie (1794-1884) was at this time one of his classmates. A few months after the death of his father in 1808, he finished the literature class at the University of Edinburgh. The following year he attended the chemistry lectures of Thomas Charles Hope and the anatomy at Alexander Monro III. ( 1773-1859 ). In the four subsequent years Grant focused on the study of medicine. John Thomson (1765-1846) instructed him in surgery and John Gordon (1786-1818) in anatomy and physiology. 1810 Grant student was at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh where he heard the lectures of Robert Jameson summer on natural history. A year later he became a member of the Edinburgh Medico - Chirurgical Society ( President 1812) and the Royal Medical Society in Edinburgh (President 1814). On May 3, 1814 Grant received the diploma of Surgery of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and on 24 June of the same year he graduated at Edinburgh University as a Doctor of Medicine with a thesis on the blood circulation in the fetus.

Studies in Europe

After graduating, Grant decided to perfect his skills through a longer stay in Europe. About London, he traveled to Paris, where he spent the winter of 1815/16. At the Jardin des Plantes Grant attended lectures on comparative anatomy by Henri Marie de Blainville Ducrotay, on geology of Barthelemy Faujas de Saint- Fond, on mineralogy of René -Just Haiiy, at the École de Médecine of André Marie Constant Duméril, Anthelme Louis Claude Marie, Baron of Richerand (1779-1840) and at the Institute de France lectures by Georges Cuvier. During this time he was first introduced to Étienne Geoffroy Saint- Hilaire, Jean -Baptiste de Lamarck and Pierre André Latreille in contact. Among his fellow students was Thomas Addison.

After the winter, Grant toured France and held for nine months in Rome to learn the Italian language. In Rome, he attended lectures on comparative anatomy by Luigi Metaxa (1778-1842) at the University La Sapienza and more at the Spedale dello Spirito Santo. A further nine months traveling in Italy led him through Florence, where he remained three months, Pisa, Padua and Pavia. On the Mediterranean coast near Livorno, Genoa and Venice, he studied marine animals. About Geneva Grant returned late in 1817 returned to Paris.

Once there, Grant decided soon after to go to Dresden to acquire the German language. He came in late January 1818 in Dresden and stayed for 14 months in Germany. In March 1819, he left Saxony, stayed briefly in Prague and two months in Vienna. After a month he spent in Munich, Grant wandered for three months through the Tyrol and Switzerland and finally came over Grenoble and Avignon in the south of France, where he arrived in late October 1819 in Montpellier. During his wanderings Grant studied the natural history collections in the visited places and he was student at the local universities.

From Montpellier from Grant returned again to Paris, which he regularly visited in later life year. During the winter of 1820 he spent in London, where he was received with Jameson's support in the Linnean Society of London. End of the year Grant finally returned to his hometown of Edinburgh.

Scientific recognition

After his return Grant practiced first as a doctor because he wanted to work later as a lecturer in comparative anatomy. In 1821 he was one of the founders of the Medico - Chirurgical Society of Edinburgh and became licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh ( to which he was elected a Fellow in February 1827 ).

Under the influence of Cuvier's works, Grant turned to the anatomy of invertebrates, which he abundantly found in close proximity in the Firth of Forth. 1822 Grant had a translation of Cuvier's Le Règne Animal completed for his personal use and started on the advice of Jamesson with a translation of Johann Friedrich Meckel's factory system of comparative anatomy. 1824 asked John Barclay ( 1758-1826 ), elected in January, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Grant to take over in his held at the University over the course lectures of the structure of invertebrates. Regularly in autumn led Grant on the coasts of Scotland and Ireland and their adjacent islands zoological and zootomische investigations that led to numerous publications in the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, and in the Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal in 1825 on sponges. Some of this work gained recognition in Europe and have been translated into French.

In November 1826, Grant was elected to the Council of the Wernerian Natural History Society. Around this time, took the students in Edinburgh Charles Darwin, together with Grant excursions to the Firth of Forth. Darwin made ​​Grant on his observations of the " eggs " of Pontobdella muricata, which, Grant published and Darwin's authorship mentioned by name.

As the chair of zoology and comparative anatomy of the newly founded University of London should be forgiven recommended Robert Jamesson, David Brewster, Alexander Monro Grant and others for this position. Lord Brougham Grant subsequently officially nominated for the post.

Professor at University College London

In June 1827, Grant was appointed to the chair of zoology and comparative anatomy. He moved to London and founded as a teaching collection designed Museum of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy at the University. In his inaugural lecture on 23 October 1828, he spoke about the animal kingdom. In the first, lasting until the end of July 1829, Lecture Year Grant held 158 lectures. In the following years, the number of units held lectures increased to well over 200 in a year.

In November 1828 Grant Member of the Zoological Society of London and in May 1830 a member of the Geological Society of London. 1829 elected him the Linnean Society in their advice. In 1832 he was first elected to the Council of the Geological Society. Since there was no Department of Geology at the University at the University, Grant initiated lectures on the relationship between geology and fossils customer. Edward Turner lectured on Stratigraphy, John Lindley on fossil plants and he himself fossil animals.

In addition to his university commitments Grant held numerous lectures. On January 15, 1833, he began before the members of the Zoological Society a comprehensive 40 lectures course on the structure and classification of animals. In the same year he was elected to the Council of the Zoological Society. The behavior of other Council members led Grant to the fact that he wrote temporarily no more contributions to the Proceedings of the Society but his 60 - part series published Lectures on the Comparative Anatomy and Physiology Animal in the radical journal The Lancet. From April to June 1834, he stopped in front of the Royal Institution of Great Britain lectures on On the Structure, Classification, and History of the Invertebrated Classes of the Animal Kingdom. Beginning of 1834 and in February 1835, he gave courses on human physiology, in which he included galvanic experiments and microscopic observations.

1835 Grant joined the Entomological Society of London at. On February 4, 1836, he was inducted into the Royal Society. From 1837 to 1840 Grant held as Fuller Professor of physiology and comparative anatomy at the Royal Institution of Great Britain, three courses on the nutritional, motor and sensory functions of the animals. On British and Foreign Institute, he gave two courses on radiation Animals ( Radiata ) which were published in the first volume of the Transactions of the Society. 1842 identified and cataloged Grant the remains of a few years earlier mastodons found in North America. His 200 - page manuscript was not published due to its circumference. Grant was one of the first members founded in 1842 Philological Society of London. Throughout his life he had been interested in other languages ​​, such as French, Italian and German. In the 1840s, he 's still learning the Dutch language.

The lecture-free time in the summer and autumn usually spent Grant abroad. He often was a guest of collections and institutions in Paris. In 1831 he spent a few weeks together with Richard Owen and 1845 with his Indian disciples Soorjo Coomar Goodeve Chuckerbutty. 1846 Grant chatted with Chuckerbutty in Berlin and traveled with him in the following year Germany. He was often in the Netherlands and Belgium: 1844 in Brussels and Antwerp, 1848 in Leiden and Utrecht, 1849 to the Belgian universities, Ghent, Brussels, Leuven and Liege 1850 and again in Holland.

1847 Grant was appointed Dean of the Medical Faculty of the University. From 1853 to 1857 he was Swiney lecturer ( founded by George Swiney (1786? -1844 ) ) Of Geology at the British Museum.

Robert Edmond Grant died in 1874 after a two-week illness and was buried at Highgate Cemetery in London. He was not married and was survived by his extensive library and his private collections of the University of London.

Ehrentaxon

John Fleming named 1828 Robert Edmond Grant in honor of the genus of calcareous sponges Grantia.

Honorary Memberships

Grant was among other things an honorary member of the following companies:

• Royal Zoological Society of Ireland
• Société de Statistique de Paris
• Medical Society of London
• British Medical Association
• Literary and Philosophical Society of Leeds
• Plinian Natural History Society of Edinburgh
• Northern Institution of Inverness

Writings (selection )

• Dissertatio physiologica inauguralis, de circuitu sanguinis in foetu. Edinburgh: Ballantyne 1814
• An essay on the animal kingdom being an introductory lecture delivered in the University of London, on the 23rd of October, 1828 J. Taylor, London 1828. ; 2nd edition 1829
• Outline of a course of lectures on the structure and classification of animals, to be delivered to the members of the Zoological Society of London, In Their museum, to commence on Tuesday the 15th of January, 1833, and to continue on the Succeeding Tuesdays and Thursdays, at half -past seven o'clock pm Mills, Jowett & Mills, London 1833
• Lectures on Comparative Anatomy. London 1834; digitized version
• On the study of medicine: being an introductory address delivered at the opening of the medical school of the University of London, October 1st, 1833 Taylor, London 1833.
• On the present state of the medical profession in England; being the annual oration delivered before the members of the British Medical Association, on 21st October 1841. H. Renshaw, London 814
• Outlines of comparative anatomy: Designed to Serve as an Introduction to Animal Physiology, and to the Principles of Classification in Zoology. H. Bailliere, 1841; digitized version; - German translation by Carl Christian Schmidt: outline of comparative anatomy. O. Wigand, Leipzig 1842

Journal articles

• Observations and experiments on the structure and functions of the sponge. In: The Edinburgh Philosophical Journal. Volume 13, pp. 94-107, pp. 333-346
• On the structure and nature of the Spongilla friabilis. In: The Edinburgh Philosophical Journal Volume 14, 1826, pp. 270-284
• Observations and experiments on the structure and functions of the sponge. In: The Edinburgh Philosophical Journal. Volume 14, pp. 113-124, pp. 336-341
• Notice Regarding the ova of the Pontobdella muricata, Lam. In: The Edinburgh Journal of Science Volume 7, 1827, pp. 160-161 - with the support of Charles Darwin
• Baron Cuvier. In: Foreign Review and Continental Miscellany. Volume 5, 1830, pp. 342-380 - published anonymously
• On the structure and history of the mastodontoid animals of North America. In: Proceedings of the Geological Society. Volume 3, 1842, pp. 770-771

Evidence