Charles Robert Bree (11 February 1811 – 17 October 1886) was a British

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

ornithologist Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the "methodological study and consequent knowledge of birds with all that relates to them." Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and th ...

and

zoologist Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the Animal, animal kingdom, including the anatomy, structure, embryology, evolution, Biological clas ...

, best known for his opposition to

Darwin's theory of evolution Darwinism is a theory of biological evolution developed by the English naturalist Charles Darwin (1809–1882) and others, stating that all species of organisms arise and develop through the natural selection of small, inherited variations tha ...

Biography

Born in

Ambleside Ambleside is a town and former civil parish, now in the parish of Lakes, in Cumbria, in North West England. Historically in Westmorland, it marks the head (and sits on the east side of the northern headwater) of Windermere, England's larges ...

, Bree received his medical education at

York York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...

and

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

.Anonymous. (13 November 1886)
''Charles Robert Bree, M.D. Edin., M.R.C.S. Eng., L.S.A., & C''
''

The British Medical Journal ''The BMJ'' is a weekly peer-reviewed medical trade journal, published by the trade union the British Medical Association (BMA). ''The BMJ'' has editorial freedom from the BMA. It is one of the world's oldest general medical journals. Origina ...

'' 2 (1350): 954. He practiced medicine in Bildeston and

Stowmarket Stowmarket ( ) is a market town in Suffolk, England,OS Explorer map 211: Bury St.Edmunds and Stowmarket Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton A2 edition. Publishing Date:2008. on the busy A14 road (Great Britain), A14 trunk ...

. He married Frances Elizabeth in 1845. Bree obtained his M.D. degree from

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

in 1858, presenting the thesis ''"On the types and treatment of continued fever"''. He was elected physician to the Essex and Colchester Hospital in 1859 where he worked for twenty-two years. He authored books on natural history and was joint-editor of the ''Naturalist'' journal, with

Francis Orpen Morris Francis Orpen Morris (25 March 1810 – 10 February 1893) was an Anglo-Irish clergyman, notable as " parson-naturalist" (ornithologist and entomologist) and as the author of many children's books and books on natural history and heritage build ...

. He was a Fellow of the

Zoological Society of London The Zoological Society of London (ZSL) is a charity devoted to the worldwide conservation of animals and their habitats. It was founded in 1826. Since 1828, it has maintained the London Zoo, and since 1931 Whipsnade Park. History On 29 ...

. Bree rejected Darwin's theory of evolution and argued for

creationism Creationism is the religious belief that nature, and aspects such as the universe, Earth, life, and humans, originated with supernatural acts of divine creation. Gunn 2004, p. 9, "The ''Concise Oxford Dictionary'' says that creationism is 't ...

. In 1872, he authored ''An Exposition of the Fallacies in the Hypothesis of Mr. Darwin'', which was widely criticized in academic journals.Wallace, Alfred Russel. (1872)
''The Last Attack on Darwinism''
''

Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physics, physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomenon, phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. ...

'' 6: 237–239. Bree was a Christian creationist who argued that proof of

evolution Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...

could never be obtained.Moore, James R. (1979). ''The Post-Darwinian Controversies: A Study of the Protestant Struggle to Come to Terms with Darwin in Great Britain and America, 1870-1900''. Cambridge University Press. pp. 199-200. However, he did not believe that the scriptures were intended to be authorities on science and his objections to evolution were not biblically based. He argued that Darwin's theories were speculations without evidence.

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended fr ...

and

Alfred Russel Wallace Alfred Russel Wallace (8 January 1823 – 7 November 1913) was a British naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist, biologist and illustrator. He is best known for independently conceiving the theory of evolution through natural se ...

criticized Bree for making errors and misconceptions about evolution. Wallace negatively reviewed the book in the ''

'' journal, stating it contained "numerous errors, misrepresentations, and misconceptions." In a letter to Wallace, Charles Darwin supported his review and described the book as "a mass of inaccuracies & rubbish"."To A. R. Wallace 27 July [1872]"
Darwin Correspondence Project. Historian James Moore has described Bree as "one of Darwin's more philosophically-minded critics in Britain".

Selected publications

''Species Not Transmutable, Nor the Result of Secondary Causes''
(1860) *''A History of the Birds of Europe, not Observed in the British Isles'' (1864)
''Popular Illustrations of the Lower Forms of Life''
(1868)
''An Exposition of the Fallacies in the Hypothesis of Mr. Darwin''
(1872)

Biography

Selected publications

References

Further reading