Desire, marriage, and overpopulation: the sexual lives of insects in the Enlightenment

During the eighteenth century, the discovery of sexual reproduction in insect species prompted the demise of spontaneous generation and new developments in natural history, theology, and political economy. The sexual lives of insects prompted debates on whether insects were governed by desire, free will, and even marital tendency. Fuelled by the democratisation of microscopy, early modern entomology took a new turn and breadth: the study of insects and of their sexual lives provided unexpected new insights into human sexuality, reproduction, and Malthusian fears of overpopulation. This article surveys the intellectual culture of entomology and natural history during the crucial decades when entomologists worked to quantify the reproductive capacities of insect species. Assessing the influences these entomological works had within political economy and theology, we argue that the sexual lives of insects − once analysed and delineated − influenced familiar ideological features of the intellectual landscape of the late Enlightenment, particularly in the theological philosophies of northern Europe and in the political economy of population in Britain

The production of a physiological puzzle: how Cytisus adami confused and inspired a century’s botanists, gardeners, and evolutionists

‘Adam’s laburnum’ (or Cytisus adami), produced by accident in 1825 by Jean-Louis Adam, a nurseryman in Vitry, became a commercial success within the plant trade for its striking mix of yellow and purple flowers. After it came to the attention of members of La Société d’Horticulture de Paris, the tree gained enormous fame as a potential instance of the much sought-after ‘graft hybrid’, a hypothetical idea that by grafting one plant onto another, a mixture of the two could be produced. As I show in this paper, many eminent botanists and gardeners, including Charles Darwin, both experimented with Adam’s laburnum and argued over how it might have been produced and what light, if any, it shed on the laws of heredity. Despite Jean-Louis Adam’s position and status as a nurseryman active within the Parisian plant trade, a surprising degree of doubt and scepticism was attached to his testimony on how the tree had been produced in his nursery. This doubt, I argue, helps us to trace the complex negotiations of authority that constituted debates over plant heredity in the early 19th century and that were introduced with a new generation of gardening and horticultural periodicals

An intellectual history of the inheritance of acquired characteristics before Darwin: readers and ideas

In the 19th century, debates over heredity were fuelled by anecdotal evidence and special, unusual cases. Farmers, animal and plant breeders, medical writers and natural historians all took part in wider efforts to compile and arrange this production of evidence in order to tell different stories about nature, and the laws of inheritance. While many historians have claimed that 'the inheritance of acquired characteristics', an important theory about the laws of inheritance, was a widespread belief during this period, the means by which this idea became widespread have been overlooked by other historians. Recently, Bernard Lightman and Sally Shuttleworth have both argued that early-19th century efforts to create community-led scientific periodicals and publications were more constitutive of scientific practice than earlier historians have considered, while Pietro Corsi has argued that the industry of 'contributors' to periodicals, encyclopaedias and dictionaries during this period provides a means by which we can better understand readership and reception of popular scientific ideas. In this thesis, I argue that the evidence produced by practitioners and amateurs in support of the inheritance of acquired characteristics is an important means by which we can come to understand how the idea became a widespread belief, and an important part of how many people understood the workings and laws of nature. This thesis draws on a range of practical agriculture and gardening magazines, popular encyclopaedias, as well as from phrenological journals and temperance writings, many of which have not previously been included in the history of the inheritance of acquired characteristics. One important aspect of this increasing popularity came via the fact that many of the proponents of the inheritance of acquired characteristics found the idea provided a means by which familiar, religious understandings of the family, sin, and reproduction, were preserved. In an era of scientific activity that Adrian Desmond has depicted as materialist and radical, the 1820s and 1830s saw medical and scientific writers from different religious backgrounds, discovering immediate and significant biblical value in the idea that sinful habits and virtues acquired in life are transmitted to offspring.</p

An intellectual history of the inheritance of acquired characteristics before Darwin: readers and ideas

In the 19th century, debates over heredity were fuelled by anecdotal evidence and special, unusual cases. Farmers, animal and plant breeders, medical writers and natural historians all took part in wider efforts to compile and arrange this production of evidence in order to tell different stories about nature, and the laws of inheritance. While many historians have claimed that 'the inheritance of acquired characteristics', an important theory about the laws of inheritance, was a widespread belief during this period, the means by which this idea became widespread have been overlooked by other historians. Recently, Bernard Lightman and Sally Shuttleworth have both argued that early-19th century efforts to create community-led scientific periodicals and publications were more constitutive of scientific practice than earlier historians have considered, while Pietro Corsi has argued that the industry of 'contributors' to periodicals, encyclopaedias and dictionaries during this period provides a means by which we can better understand readership and reception of popular scientific ideas. In this thesis, I argue that the evidence produced by practitioners and amateurs in support of the inheritance of acquired characteristics is an important means by which we can come to understand how the idea became a widespread belief, and an important part of how many people understood the workings and laws of nature. This thesis draws on a range of practical agriculture and gardening magazines, popular encyclopaedias, as well as from phrenological journals and temperance writings, many of which have not previously been included in the history of the inheritance of acquired characteristics. One important aspect of this increasing popularity came via the fact that many of the proponents of the inheritance of acquired characteristics found the idea provided a means by which familiar, religious understandings of the family, sin, and reproduction, were preserved. In an era of scientific activity that Adrian Desmond has depicted as materialist and radical, the 1820s and 1830s saw medical and scientific writers from different religious backgrounds, discovering immediate and significant biblical value in the idea that sinful habits and virtues acquired in life are transmitted to offspring.</p