Douglas Alexander Spalding (14 July 1841 – 1877) was a British

biologist A biologist is a scientist who conducts research in biology. Biologists are interested in studying life on Earth, whether it is an individual cell, a multicellular organism, or a community of interacting populations. They usually specialize in ...

who studied animal behaviour and worked in the home of Viscount Amberley.

Biography

Spalding was born in

Islington Islington () is a district in the north of Greater London, England, and part of the London Borough of Islington. It is a mainly residential district of Inner London, extending from Islington's High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the a ...

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 major s ...

in 1841, the only son of Jessey Fraser and Alexander Mitchell Spalding, office clerk. Not long after his birth his parents moved to Aberdeenshire, Scotland where they had previously lived. While working as a slater in Aberdeen, the philosopher Alexander Bain persuaded the

University of Aberdeen , mottoeng = The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom , established = , type = Public research universityAncient university , endowment = £58.4 million (2021) , budget ...

to allow him to attend courses without charge. He studied

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some s ...

and

literature Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...

, and after a year left for London. He trained as a lawyer. But when he contracted

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in w ...

, he travelled in Europe in hopes of finding a cure, and in

Avignon Avignon (, ; ; oc, Avinhon, label= Provençal or , ; la, Avenio) is the prefecture of the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of Southeastern France. Located on the left bank of the river Rhône, the commune ha ...

met

John Stuart Mill John Stuart Mill (20 May 1806 – 7 May 1873) was an English philosopher, political economist, Member of Parliament (MP) and civil servant. One of the most influential thinkers in the history of classical liberalism, he contributed widely to ...

and through him Viscount Amberley (son of the former British prime minister

Lord John Russell John Russell, 1st Earl Russell, (18 August 1792 – 28 May 1878), known by his courtesy title Lord John Russell before 1861, was a British Whig and Liberal statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1846 to 1852 and ...

, by then 1st Earl Russell). He became tutor to Viscount Amberley's children at Cleddon Hall, Monmouthshire, including perhaps the young

Bertrand Russell Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician, and public intellectual. He had a considerable influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, linguistics, ar ...

, and also carried on an intermittent affair with Viscountess Amberley. After the Lord Amberley's death in 1876, Spalding returned to the continent and remained there until his death the following year. Spalding carried out some experiments on animal behaviour, and discovered the phenomenon now known as imprinting, later rediscovered by

Oskar Heinroth Oskar Heinroth (1 March 1871 – 31 May 1945) was a German biologist who was one of the first to apply the methods of comparative morphology to animal behavior, and was thus one of the founders of ethology. He worked, largely isolated from mo ...

, then studied at length and popularised by

Konrad Lorenz Konrad Zacharias Lorenz (; 7 November 1903 – 27 February 1989) was an Austrian zoologist, ethologist, and ornithologist. He shared the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Nikolaas Tinbergen and Karl von Frisch. He is often regarded ...

. He was greatly ahead of his time in his recognition of the importance of the interaction between learning and instinct in determining behaviour, and in his use of the experimental method in studying behaviour. Although his work is little known nowadays, its importance is recognised by historians of

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries between ...

; the biologist

J. B. S. Haldane John Burdon Sanderson Haldane (; 5 November 18921 December 1964), nicknamed "Jack" or "JBS", was a British-Indian scientist who worked in physiology, genetics, evolutionary biology, and mathematics. With innovative use of statistics in biolog ...

reprinted Spalding's essay "On Instinct" in 1954 to clarify the history of the subject. He was first to identify, in 1873, the process which is now known as the Baldwin effect.Noble, R and Noble D (2017) Was the Watchmaker Blind? Or Was She One-Eyed? ''Biology'' 2017, 6(4), 47; doi:10.3390/biology6040047, quoting Bateson, P. The adaptability driver: Links between behaviour and evolution. Biol. Theory 2006, 1, 342–345.

References

Notes

*Boakes, R. A. (1984). ''From Darwin to behaviorism''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. *Gray, P. H. (1967). Spalding and his influence on research in developmental behavior. ''Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, 3'', 168-179. *Gray, P. H. (1968). Prerequisite to an analysis of behaviorism: The conscious automaton theory from Spalding to William James. ''Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, 4'', 365-376. *Griffiths, P. E. (2004). Instinct in the ‘50s: The British reception of Konrad Lorenz's theory of instinctive behavior. ''Biology and Philosophy, 19'' (also availabl
online
. *Haldane, J. B. S. (1954). Introducing Douglas Spalding. ''British Journal for Animal Behaviour, 2'', 1. *Spalding, D. A. (1873). Instinct. With original observations on young animals. ''Macmillan's Magazine, 27'', 282-293. *Spalding, D. A. (1872). On instinct. ''Nature, 6'', 485-486. {{DEFAULTSORT:Spalding, Douglas Amateur biologists British biologists 1841 births 1877 deaths