J. T. Gulick
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

John Thomas Gulick (March 13, 1832 – April 14, 1923) was an American missionary and naturalist from Hawaii. He was one of the pioneers of modern evolutionary thinking based on his studies of Hawaiian snails of the genus '' Achatinella''. He was among the first to describe the formation of species through geographic separation of breeding populations. He developed early ideas on the founder effect and what is now known as the
Baldwin effect In evolutionary biology, the Baldwin effect, a phenotype-first theory of evolution, describes the effect of learned behaviour on evolution. James Mark Baldwin and others suggested during the eclipse of Darwinism in the late 19th century that an ...
. He coined the term "
divergent evolution Divergent evolution or divergent selection is the accumulation of differences between closely related populations within a species, leading to speciation. Divergent evolution is typically exhibited when two populations become separated by a geog ...
".


Life

Gulick was born in Waimea on
Kauai Island Kauai, () anglicized as Kauai ( ), is geologically the second-oldest of the main Hawaiian Islands (after Niʻihau). With an area of 562.3 square miles (1,456.4 km2), it is the fourth-largest of these islands and the 21st largest island ...
, during the Kingdom of Hawaii. His father was missionary Peter Johnson Gulick (1796–1877) and mother was Fanny (Thomas) Gulick (1798–1883). Early in life he went to Oregon and sought gold in California. In 1851, he started to collect and study Hawaiian land snails. He had been interested in snails (a field now known as
Conchology Conchology () is the study of mollusc shells. Conchology is one aspect of malacology, the study of molluscs; however, malacology is the study of molluscs as whole organisms, whereas conchology is confined to the study of their shells. It includ ...
) since his early teens, and developed independently the concept of their evolution. He discovered many species of snails were only found in very specific areas within the islands, and there was no overlap between these areas. In 1853, after reading
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 ...
's ''
The Voyage of the Beagle ''The Voyage of the Beagle'' is the title most commonly given to the book written by Charles Darwin and published in 1839 as his ''Journal and Remarks'', bringing him considerable fame and respect. This was the third volume of ''The Narrative ...
'' and
Hugh Miller Hugh Miller (10 October 1802 – 23/24 December 1856) was a self-taught Scottish geologist and writer, folklorist and an evangelical Christian. Life and work Miller was born in Cromarty, the first of three children of Harriet Wright ('' ...
's ''The Footprints of the Creator'', Gulick presented his paper, "The Distribution of Plants and Animals", to the Punahou School Debating Society. In 1855, he enrolled for one year at
New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, th ...
and then
Williams College Williams College is a private liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams, a colonist from the Province of Massachusetts Bay who was kill ...
in
Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...
, and studied in their Lyceum of Natural History. In 1859, he was elected Lyceum President, and graduated with an A.B. degree. He then followed the family tradition of attending theological school at Williams College (1859) and enrolled in Union Theological Seminary in New York City from 1859 to 1861. While there, he read Darwin's ''
On the Origin of Species ''On the Origin of Species'' (or, more completely, ''On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life''),The book's full original title was ''On the Origin of Species by Me ...
''. He then collected shells in
Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Co ...
and Japan. On August 22, 1864, Gulick was ordained as a missionary in China, but also continued his study of snails. On September 3, 1864, he married Emily de la Cour. In 1872, he wrote "On the Variation of Species as Related to Their Geographical Distribution, Illustrated by the Achatinellinae", which was published in the journal ''
Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the 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. Although humans are ...
''. In 1872, he traveled to
England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
for two years. While there, he corresponded with Charles Darwin regarding his studies. He finally met Darwin and gave him a synopsis of an upcoming paper. That paper was "On Diversity of Evolution Under One Set of External Conditions", which was published in the ''Journal of the Linnean Society of London, Zoology'' in 1873. Gulick then returned to China, and remained there until 1875. After his first wife died in 1875, he moved to Japan to continue missionary work. As in China, he studied snails while performing as a missionary. On May 31, 1880, he married Frances Amelia Stevens (1848–1928). In 1888, he went again to
London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, 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 dow ...
where his paper "Divergent Evolution Through Cumulative Segregation" was published in the ''Journal of the Linnean Society of London, Zoology''. He met
George Romanes George John Romanes FRS (20 May 1848 – 23 May 1894) was a Canadian-Scots evolutionary biologist and physiologist who laid the foundation of what he called comparative psychology, postulating a similarity of cognitive processes and mechanism ...
who worked with Gulick to refine evolutionary biology. In 1889, he received an honorary A.M. and Ph.D from Adelbert College of
Western Reserve University Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US * Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that i ...
. In 1891, another paper, "Intensive Segregation, or Divergence Through Independent Transformation" was published in the ''Journal of the Linnean Society of London, Zoology''. He moved to
Oberlin, Ohio Oberlin is a city in Lorain County, Ohio, United States, 31 miles southwest of Cleveland. Oberlin is the home of Oberlin College, a liberal arts college and music conservatory with approximately 3,000 students. The town is the birthplace of th ...
in 1899. He expanded his study to societal evolution in humans, coming to believe societal evolution could be attributed to altruistic motives and a spirit of cooperation between humanity. He put forth this thesis in his paper "Evolution, Racial and Habitudinal" in 1905 and received an honorary Ph.D. by Oberlin College. Later in 1905, he returned to Hawaii and sold his shell collection to Charles Montague Cooke Jr. the new curator of the Bernice P. Bishop Museum. He remained there until his death in Honolulu on April 14, 1923. He and his second wife are buried in the Mission Houses cemetery. They had two children, Addison and Louise (Gulick) Whitaker.


Evolutionary theories

In 1872, Gulick was the first to propose the theory that the majority of evolutionary changes are the result of chance variation, which has no effect on the survival and reproductive success of a species (today called "
genetic drift Genetic drift, also known as allelic drift or the Wright effect, is the change in the frequency of an existing gene variant (allele) in a population due to random chance. Genetic drift may cause gene variants to disappear completely and there ...
"). He came to this theory while noting that there was a large diversity of local populations of Hawaiian land snails ('' Achatinella'') which showed random variation under seemingly identical environmental conditions. Although he certainly promoted the importance of random factors in evolution, he also was a strong supporter of Darwinian
natural selection Natural selection is the differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype. It is a key mechanism of evolution, the change in the heritable traits characteristic of a population over generations. Cha ...
, and this led to disagreement with Moritz Wagner's "Migration Theory" of the origin of species. In 1888, Gulick introduced new terms for two patterns of evolution that can be observed: the term monotypic evolution (previously called "transformation;" today "
anagenesis Anagenesis is the gradual evolution of a species that continues to exist as an interbreeding population. This contrasts with cladogenesis, which occurs when there is branching or splitting, leading to two or more lineages and resulting in separate ...
") and the term "polytypic evolution" (previously called "diversification"; today "
cladogenesis Cladogenesis is an evolutionary splitting of a parent species into two distinct species, forming a clade. This event usually occurs when a few organisms end up in new, often distant areas or when environmental changes cause several extinctions, ...
") – simultaneous processes, such as the multiplication of species, manifested by different populations and incipient species. George Romanes later adopted this terminology during his evolutionary studies. Gulick later proposed general geographic models of speciation, and disputed Moritz Wagner's more extreme claims that geographic speciation was the only possible route to speciation. Romanes said of Gulick:
...to his essays on the subject I attribute a higher value than to any other work in the field of Darwinian thought since the date of Darwin's death.


Criticism

Gulick reported collecting 44,500 Hawaiian snails in just three years. Some were of no scientific value because he did not record where they were obtained. Of many of the species he collected, no similar species remain in the wild today. Some modern observers attribute the
extinction Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...
of many
endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...
Hawaiian snail species to him and fellow collectors such as his schoolmate David Dwight Baldwin.


Family tree


Works

* * * * * *


References


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gulick, John Thomas 1832 births 1923 deaths American expatriates in China American expatriates in Japan American expatriates in the United Kingdom American malacologists American naturalists Evolutionary biologists People from Kauai County, Hawaii Williams College alumni