Sir Benjamin Hawes (1797 – 15 May 1862) was a British Whig politician.
45-572: Hawes was a grandson of William Hawes , founder of the Royal Humane Society , and son of Benjamin Hawes of New Barge House, Lambeth , who was a businessman and Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London ; his mother was Ann Feltham, sister of John Feltham . He had a younger brother, who also was called William . There was another brother, Thomas, and a sister, Caroline who married John Donkin , and
90-531: A chain, or an escalator, which was kept moving upwards by the appearance of spontaneously emerging monads at its base. In 1824 Grant gave lectures on invertebrates, covering their comparative anatomy ; these were in place of John Barclay . He was also elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh . Grant was a stalwart of the Plinian Society for student naturalists, which Charles Darwin joined in
135-419: A common origin for plants and animals, and the basic units of life ('monads'), he proposed, were spontaneously generated. This is both reductionism and materialism. The programme went further than either Geoffroy or Lamarck, but was not a complete theory of evolution. Grant was a 'progressive' in both social and scientific terms. He was widely and probably correctly regarded as a materialist or atheist : there
180-561: A deputy. Hawes encouraged James FitzGerald , introduced by Anthony Panizzi of the British Museum, in his initial scheme of 1847 for a colony on Vancouver Island , closely based on the ideas of Edward Gibbon Wakefield ; when there was serious criticism in the Commons, particularly from William Ewart Gladstone , of Grey and the Hudson's Bay Company as Fitzgerald's scheme foundered, Hawes defended
225-436: A forgotten anachronism. In his will he bequeathed his estate, of less than £1,500, to UCL. He was buried on the eastern side of Highgate Cemetery . The second half of Grant's long professional life was not successful, and his style of teaching zoology was swept aside by T. H. Huxley 's disciple E. Ray Lankester , in the new Jodrell Chair of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy. Lankester did, however, retain, reorganise and expand
270-570: A guest to the Wernerian society which was held in Robert Jameson 's room, with membership restricted to MDs; there Darwin saw a demonstration by John James Audubon . On 24 March 1827 Grant announced to the society that black spores often found in oyster shells were the eggs of a skate leech , and published a paper on this discovery. This discovery was in fact Darwin's and Darwin lost interest in Grant as
315-441: A homology between these simple creatures and mammals, tying them into his controversial chain of life. Grant then became Professor of Comparative Anatomy at University College London, a post he held from 1827 until his death in 1874. Grant's pay was £39 per annum. He was involved in radical and democratic causes, campaigning for a new Zoological Society museum run professionally rather than by aristocratic amateurs; and tried to turn
360-474: A medical practitioner of Vauxhall , he became assistant to a Mr. Dicks in the Strand and eventually succeeded him in his practice. Around 1773, Hawes became well known as a campaigner for the possibility of resuscitating persons apparently dead from drowning, or other causes of asphyxia . For a year he offered a reward to anyone who brought to him, or his supporters, the body of a person who had been taken out of
405-630: A member of the Anti-Corn Law League , he was an advocate of the repeal of the Corn Laws . He worked on behalf of the penny postage system; he was a supporter of the Thames tunnel scheme; and interested himself in the battle of the gauges . He was a proponent of the electric telegraph , and made the first arrangement for the partnership between Sir William Fothergill Cooke and Sir Charles Wheatstone in 1837. When Robert Peel announced in parliament
450-531: A mentor after this event. Darwin himself made a presentation on 27 March announcing this and his observations on sea-slug larvae to the Plinian Society. Darwin contributed to Grant's investigations into the 'unity of plan' of animals which culminated with Grant's announcement to the Wernerian Society that he had identified the pancreas in molluscs , demonstrated with a pinned-out sea-slug. This showed
495-420: A phrenologist who later turned his energies to asylum reform and neurological psychiatry. Grant took these ideas to London, where he introduced homology (the basic Geoffroyan technique) to his UCL students. He also advanced Lamarck and de Blainville , whose ideas were of similar vein, and included ideas of recapitulation theory . Geoffroy was a deist , and his theory was not a theory of common descent , but
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#1733093745535540-524: A publication now in the public domain : Stephen, Leslie ; Lee, Sidney , eds. (1891). " Hawes, William (1736-1808) ". Dictionary of National Biography . Vol. 25. London: Smith, Elder & Co. Robert Edmond Grant Robert Edmond Grant MD FRCPEd FRS FRSE FZS FGS (11 November 1793 – 23 August 1874) was a British anatomist and zoologist. Grant was born at Argyll Square in Edinburgh (demolished to create Chambers Street),
585-593: A scientific approach to gunnery. Hawes was the author of: He also wrote a paper in the Transactions of the Central Society of Education , 1838. In 1820, Hawes married Sophia Macnamara Brunel, daughter of Marc Brunel . She died on 17 January 1878. The eldest daughter Sophia Brunel Hawes married Charles Justin MacCarthy in 1848. The marriage made Isambard Kingdom Brunel his brother-in-law; and in his capacity at
630-466: A second sister Sarah, married name Curtis. Barge House, where Hawes lived in the 1830s, was in the Christ Church area of Lambeth, at the corner of Commercial Road and Broad Wall. Hawes was educated at William Carmalt's school at Putney , and when of age in 1818 entered into partnership with his father and uncle, in the business of soap-boiling. He spent relatively little of his life in the industry, but
675-431: A working-out of existing potential in a given type. For him, the environment causes a direct induction of organic change. This opinion Ernst Mayr labels as 'Geoffroyism'. It is definitely not what Lamarck believed (for Lamarck, a change in habits is what changes the animal). Lawrence had argued in 1816 that the climate does not directly cause the differences between human races. Geoffroy's comparative anatomy featured
720-589: Is either inside or outside its vertebral column" – he met his nemesis . The Geoffroy-Cuvier debate in Paris before the Académie des Sciences (15 February 1830) saw Georges Cuvier demolish his claim that the four Cuvierian branches of the animal kingdom could be reduced to one. The relation between the ideas of Geoffroy and Cuvier can be expressed thus: whereas with Cuvier structure determines function, with Geoffroy function determines structure. The issue between them, however,
765-610: The British Museum into a research institution run along French lines. He was opposed by Tories who attacked him for supporting "the reptile press" and its "blasphemous derision of the truths of Christianity" and succeeded in getting him voted out of a post at the Zoological Society of London . Richard Owen , vehemently opposed to Grant's evolution theory, succeeded in supplanting him. Darwin visited Grant in 1831 to get advice on storing specimens immediately before setting out on
810-599: The Chapter Coffeehouse on Paternoster Row to consider further operations. This was done, and at the meeting "The Institution for affording immediate relief to persons apparently dead from drowning" was formed, later renamed the Humane Society , and acquiring the "Royal" prefix in 1787. In the following years, Hawes worked as the organisation's secretary, registrar and treasurer. In 1779 Hawes received his MD degree from Marischal College , Aberdeen, in 1779. Hawes
855-470: The Firth of Forth , collecting specimens around the shores near a house he took at Prestonpans as well as from fishing boats, and becoming an expert on the biology of sponges and sea-slugs. He considered that the same laws of life affected all organisms, from monad to man (in this context monad means a hypothetical primitive living organism or unit of organic life). Following Geoffroy, Grant arranged life into
900-502: The Lancet and its radical programme with fulsome praise of Grant, and printed the text of all 60 lectures of Grant's comparative anatomy course in the Lancet for 1833–4. Reviewers agreed that Grant's course was the first 'comprehensive and accessible' exposition of philosophical anatomy in English. Grant died at home at 2 Euston Grove, Euston Square, London, still occupying the chair at UCL,
945-462: The River Thames unconscious, within a reasonable time after immersion. The reward was paid whether the attempt to resuscitate proved successful or not. Thomas Cogan , who translated in 1773 an account of an Amsterdam society for the resuscitation of the apparently drowned, thought that Hawes should not pay all the rewards, and it was arranged in 1774 that he and Cogan should each bring 15 friends to
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#1733093745535990-655: The Royal Institution 1837–8, and in 1847 Dean of the UCL Medical Faculty. In 1853 he became Swiney lecturer in geology to the British Museum . Grant travelled widely, visiting universities in France, Germany, Italy and Switzerland. He came into contact with the French zoologist Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire who promulgated a view on evolution similar to that of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck 's. Grant studied marine life around
1035-422: The 1840s, by Edward Wedlake Brayley , stated that the works had been in existence for 75 years. In the 1820s manufacturers on Merseyside were beginning to compete seriously with those of London, and issues of process and duty on raw materials (such as kelp , barilla for alkali, and common salt) were affecting business decisions. The Hawes family were engaged in lobbying Parliament. Benjamin Hawes as MP spoke for
1080-682: The Church Rates Abolition Society founded in 1836 by Charles Lushington , with the MPs Thomas Slingsby Duncombe , William Ewart , Daniel Whittle Harvey , and Joseph Hume . He was one of a small group of MPs showing sympathy with Chartist agitation in 1837; though he backed away from close involvement. He was also one of a group of radicals in parliament attempting to regulate the medical profession. With Hume, Thomas Wakley and Henry Warburton he tried, unsuccessfully, to introduce legislation for medical reform. Under
1125-856: The Colonial Office position in lukewarm fashion. Charles Pearson stood successfully, and Hawes was defeated, in Lambeth at the 1847 general election and was instead elected for the corrupt seat of Kinsale by only three votes. He resigned on 25 October 1851 by appointment as Steward of the Chiltern Hundreds , and was appointed to the unelected position of Deputy Secretary at War, a position he held till 1857. Hawes as official opposed sweeping change in his department. When Charles Edward Trevelyan reported on it, Hawes produced his own counter-report. For two years he served under Sidney Herbert , who worked closely with Florence Nightingale ; but in 1854, during
1170-586: The Voyage of the Beagle . When Darwin returned from his voyage, Grant was one of those to offer to examine his specimens, but was turned down: they do not seem to have had further contact. On his frequent trips to the continent Grant became close friends with Geoffroy, a leading French comparative anatomist. The Edinburgh extramural medical schools were fertile ground for Geoffroy's ideas, and Scottish radicals became Geoffroyan disciples. These included William A. F. Browne ,
1215-814: The War Office, Hawes called in 1855 on the younger Brunel to design a pre-fabricated military hospital, for the Crimean War . He died on 15 May 1862 and is buried in a family vault in Highgate Cemetery , where he happened to be chairman for a number of years. [REDACTED] This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Boase, George Clement (1891). " Hawes, Benjamin ". In Stephen, Leslie ; Lee, Sidney (eds.). Dictionary of National Biography . Vol. 25. London: Smith, Elder & Co. William Hawes (physician) William Hawes (28 November 1736 – 5 December 1808)
1260-457: The autumn of 1826 on starting his second year of medical studies at Edinburgh University. Darwin became Grant's keenest student and assisted him with collecting specimens. During that winter and spring Grant published twenty papers in Edinburgh journals, mostly on sponges , eggs and larvae, which won him an international reputation, with the papers being translated into French. Grant took Darwin as
1305-465: The comparison of the same organ or group of bones through a range of animals. He argued (1818–22) for the 'unity of composition' of all vertebrates. One of his major discoveries was the homology of the opercular plates of the gill cover of fishes with the inner ear ossicles of mammals. Geoffroy's methods worked well for vertebrates, but when he compared vertebrates to invertebrates by turning invertebrates upside down and partly inside out – "every animal
1350-502: The first half of the nineteenth century, was debated by William Hawes and Warren De la Rue . Hawes became a magistrate for Surrey in 1828 and was elected as a Member of Parliament for Lambeth at the 1832 general election . As a member of parliament he proposed radical changes in several areas, promoted technical advances, and was the instigator in 1841, and an initial member of, the Royal Fine Art Commission . Though not
1395-483: The first part of the Crimean War , Herbert went out of office. Hawes then acquired the reputation, with Nightingale, of obstructing her at every turn. Jonathan Peel was of the view that the adoption of the Armstrong Gun was a result of Hawes's influence. In 1857, reorganisation of the War Office brought Hawes into a new post, as Permanent Under-Secretary . In 1860 Charles Babbage was dealing with Hawes, promoting
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1440-469: The foremost naturalists of the early 19th century at Edinburgh and subsequently the first Professor of Comparative Anatomy at University College London . He is noted for his influence on the young Charles Darwin and his espousal of Geoffroy 's ideas on evolution . Grant held the UCL chair of comparative anatomy for life (1827–1874); he was elected FRS in 1836; he became Fullerian Professor of Physiology at
1485-595: The government of John Russell, 1st Earl Russell he was made Under-Secretary of State for War and the Colonies rather than a full cabinet minister in an attempt to appease Henry Grey , the Secretary of State . When it was revealed Grey would prefer Charles Buller Hawes offered to resign. Grey being in the House of Lords, Hawes had to answer on Colonial Office business in the Commons; and managed to make his own opinions known, though
1530-481: The museum should become a research institution, with systematic across the field of natural history , and should implement current views on taxonomy ; they had support from James Scott Bowerbank , but they were resisted successfully by Philip Grey Egerton and John George Children , who backed the more conservative views of Richard Owen . There were other issues, such as public access, and Edward Edwards addressed proposals about that to Hawes in 1836. Hawes joined
1575-520: The product of the "cold process" for soap manufacture, and was granted a patent in 1839. The works closed down in 1849. Soap was taxed at that time in the United Kingdom, and an article in the Freeman's Journal made the case that the demands of the exciseman had put the Hawes factory out of business. In 1856, at the Royal Society of Arts , the industrial history of soap-making in the United Kingdom, in
1620-548: The reduction of soap duties. In 1820 Josias Parkes gave evidence to a parliamentary select committee that his firm had supplied steam power to the boiler of the Hawes Works. The works then installed its own gas oil plant. In 1824 Benjamin Hawes the elder gave parliament evidence of the company's use of gas lighting. He went on to be chairman of the Gas Light & Coke Company . His younger son William innovated with "Hawes' soap",
1665-430: The removal of support for the difference engine , in 1842, Hawes was the only MP to speak in its support. Having engineered an inquiry in 1835 into the running of the British Museum , Hawes put the case for scientists having a voice among its trustees, a line supported by witnesses Robert Edmond Grant and Nicholas Vigors . Opposition came from Robert Harry Inglis . The zoologists Grant and Vigors were concerned that
1710-457: The son of Alexander Grant WS, and his wife, Jane Edmond. He was educated at the High School in Edinburgh then studied Medicine at Edinburgh University . Having obtained his MD at Edinburgh in 1814, Grant gave up medical practice in favour of marine biology and the zoology of invertebrates , living on a legacy from his father. As a materialist and freethinker , and politically radical , he
1755-635: Was also physician to the London Dispensary . From 1791, he lived in Spital Square , and in 1793 worked to alleviate the distress which then was found among the Spitalfields weavers. He died on 5 December 1808. He was buried at St Mary's Churchyard, Islington on 13 December 1808. Hawes authored the following works: Hawes married Sarah Fox (1740–1814) in 1759; they had nine children, including: [REDACTED] This article incorporates text from
1800-526: Was an English physician and philanthropist, and one of the founders of the Royal Humane Society . He worked to spread the practice of resuscitation , and to relieve poverty in East London . William Hawes was born in Islington , London, on 28 November 1736, and was first educated at John Shield's academy, and afterwards at St Paul's School, London . After passing some time as an apprentice of Mr. Robert Carsan,
1845-514: Was later known in parliament as "Hawes the Soap-Boiler". The Hawes Soap Works stood on the site of the royal barge house of the 16th century, later used as a glassworks; it is also described as being on Upper Ground Street, Blackfriars . To the west of Blackfriars Bridge , it was the largest soap factory in London in its time, during a period in the 19th century. The Topographical History of Surrey of
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1890-559: Was no place for the supernatural in his account of biology. He was a supporter of Thomas Wakley , The Lancet and the BMA , all of whom were anti-establishment in their day. The main idea of the radical reformers was that government should take over or at least oversee the licensing powers of the medical corporations. When Grant came to London he was not eligible to become a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of London (RCP) because he
1935-519: Was not a graduate of Oxford or Cambridge . Others who wished to practice in England had to take a licence from the RCP or acquire an apothecary's qualification. Grant refused to take out a London licence from the RCP, and so cut himself off from a lucrative source of income. He campaigned all his life for reform to both the RCP and the Royal College of Surgeons of London . Wakley responded to Grant's support for
1980-507: Was open to ideas in biology that were considered subversive in the climate of opinion prevailing in Britain after the Napoleonic Wars . He cited Erasmus Darwin 's Zoönomia in his doctoral dissertation, a work which introduced the idea of evolution in poetical form. In 1824 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh his proposer being Dr John Barclay . He became one of
2025-430: Was religious, political and social as well as scientific. Grant first went public on the subject of evolution in 1826. Here he speculated that 'transformation' might affect all organisms. He noted that successive strata seemed to show a progressive, natural succession of fossil animals. These forms "have evolved from a primitive model" by "external circumstances": this is a clear Lamarckian statement. Also, Grant accepted
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