John Fleming
FRSE
Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This soci ...
FRS FSA (10 January 1785 – 18 November 1857) was a Scottish Free Church minister,
naturalist,
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 ...
and
geologist
A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid, liquid, and gaseous matter that constitutes Earth and other terrestrial planets, as well as the processes that shape them. Geologists usually study geology, earth science, or geophysics, althou ...
. He named and described a number of species of
mollusc
Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is esti ...
s. During his life he tried to reconcile
theology
Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...
with science.
Fleming Fjord
Fleming Fjord is a fjord in King Christian X Land, eastern Greenland.
Administratively it lies in the Sermersooq Municipality. History
This fjord was named "Fleming Inlet" by British explorer William Scoresby (1789 – 1857) after Scottish scholar ...
in
Greenland
Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland is t ...
was named after him.
Life
He was born on Kirkroads Farm near
Bathgate
Bathgate ( sco, Bathket or , gd, Both Chèit) is a town in West Lothian, Scotland, west of Livingston and adjacent to the M8 motorway. Nearby towns are Armadale, Blackburn, Linlithgow, Livingston, West Calder and Whitburn. Situated sout ...
in
Linlithgowshire
West Lothian ( sco, Wast Lowden; gd, Lodainn an Iar) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, and was one of its shires of Scotland, historic counties. The county was called Linlithgowshire until 1925. The historic county was bounded geogra ...
, the son of Alexander Fleming and his wife Catherine Nimmo.
After studying divinity at the
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 ...
he graduated in 1805. He was licensed to preach by the
Church of Scotland
The Church of Scotland ( sco, The Kirk o Scotland; gd, Eaglais na h-Alba) is the national church in Scotland.
The Church of Scotland was principally shaped by John Knox, in the Scottish Reformation, Reformation of 1560, when it split from t ...
and ordained as minister of
Bressay
Bressay ( sco, Bressa) is a populated island in the Shetland archipelago of Scotland.
Geography and geology
Bressay lies due south of Whalsay, west of the Isle of Noss, and north of Mousa. With an area of , it is the fifth-largest island in Shet ...
in the
Shetland Islands
Shetland, also called the Shetland Islands and formerly Zetland, is a subarctic archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands and Norway. It is the northernmost region of the United Kingdom.
The islands lie about to the no ...
in 1808. In 1810 he translated to the parish of
Flisk
Flisk ( gd, Fleasg meaning "Stalk" or "Rod") was a parish in Fife, Scotland.
According to the 1853 Gazetteer, in part: "Flisk parish is bounded on the north by the Tay, on the south by Creich and Abdie, on the east by Balmerino and on the wes ...
in
Fife
Fife (, ; gd, Fìobha, ; sco, Fife) is a council area, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries with Perth and Kinross (i ...
and in 1832 translated to
Clackmannan
Clackmannan ( ; gd, Clach Mhanainn, perhaps meaning "Stone of Manau"), is a small town and civil parish set in the Central Lowlands of Scotland. Situated within the Forth Valley, Clackmannan is south-east of Alloa and south of Tillicoultry. Th ...
.
In 1808, he participated in founding the
Wernerian Society, a learned society devoted to the study of
natural history.
John Fleming became a Member of the
Royal Society of London
The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...
on 25 February 1813 (he was not granted Fellowship). In 1814, he was awarded an honorary doctorate (Doctor of Divinity) by the
University of St. Andrews
(Aien aristeuein)
, motto_lang = grc
, mottoeng = Ever to ExcelorEver to be the Best
, established =
, type = Public research university
Ancient university
, endowment ...
and in the same year he became a fellow of the
Royal Society of Edinburgh
The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established i ...
. His proposers for the latter were
John Playfair
John Playfair FRSE, FRS (10 March 1748 – 20 July 1819) was a Church of Scotland minister, remembered as a scientist and mathematician, and a professor of natural philosophy at the University of Edinburgh. He is best known for his book ''Illu ...
,
David Brewster
Sir David Brewster KH PRSE FRS FSA Scot FSSA MICE (11 December 178110 February 1868) was a British scientist, inventor, author, and academic administrator. In science he is principally remembered for his experimental work in physical optics ...
and
Robert Jameson
Robert Jameson
Robert Jameson FRS FRSE (11 July 1774 – 19 April 1854) was a Scottish naturalist and mineralogist.
As Regius Professor of Natural History at the University of Edinburgh for fifty years, developing his predecessor John ...
.
He was awarded the chair of natural philosophy (Physics) at the
University of Aberdeen
The University of Aberdeen ( sco, University o' 'Aiberdeen; abbreviated as ''Aberd.'' in List of post-nominal letters (United Kingdom), post-nominals; gd, Oilthigh Obar Dheathain) is a public university, public research university in Aberdeen, Sc ...
's King's College in 1834. In the
Disruption of 1843
The Disruption of 1843, also known as the Great Disruption, was a schism in 1843 in which 450 evangelical ministers broke away from the Church of Scotland to form the Free Church of Scotland.
The main conflict was over whether the Church of S ...
he left the established
Church of Scotland
The Church of Scotland ( sco, The Kirk o Scotland; gd, Eaglais na h-Alba) is the national church in Scotland.
The Church of Scotland was principally shaped by John Knox, in the Scottish Reformation, Reformation of 1560, when it split from t ...
to join the
Free Church
A free church is a Christian denomination that is intrinsically separate from government (as opposed to a state church). A free church does not define government policy, and a free church does not accept church theology or policy definitions from ...
. In 1845, he became professor of
natural history at the Free Church's
New College in Edinburgh. He was three times elected President of the
Edinburgh Botanical Society
The Botanical Society of Scotland (BSS) is the national learned society for botanists of Scotland. The Society's aims are to advance knowledge and appreciation of flowering and cryptogamic plants, algae and fungi. The Society's activities includ ...
(1847–48, 1849–50 and 1856–57).
He was then living at 22 Walker Street in Edinburgh's West End.
He died at home, Seagrove House in
Leith
Leith (; gd, Lìte) is a port area in the north of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, founded at the mouth of the Water of Leith. In 2021, it was ranked by '' Time Out'' as one of the top five neighbourhoods to live in the world.
The earliest ...
and is buried with his family in the western half of
Dean Cemetery
The Dean Cemetery is a historically important Victorian cemetery north of the Dean Village, west of Edinburgh city centre, in Scotland. It lies between Queensferry Road and the Water of Leith, bounded on its east side by Dean Path and on ...
in
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
. He is buried with his wife, Melville Christie (1796–1862) and son Dr Andrew Fleming (1821–1901) (also a Fellow of the
Royal Society of Edinburgh
The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established i ...
) who rose to be Depute Surgeon General of the Indian Army.
Works
Fleming was a
vitalist
Vitalism is a belief that starts from the premise that "living organisms are fundamentally different from non-living entities because they contain some non-physical element or are governed by different principles than are inanimate things." Wher ...
who was strongly opposed to materialism. He believed that a 'vital principle' was inherent in the embryo with the capacity of "developing in succession the destined plan of existence." He was a close associate of
Robert Edmond Grant
Robert Edmond Grant Doctor of Medicine, MD Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, FRCPEd Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS FRSE Zoological Society of London, FZS Geological Society of London, FGS (11 November 1793 – 23 August 1874) was a Br ...
, who considered that the same laws of life affected all organisms.
In 1824, Fleming became involved in a famous controversy with the geologist
William Buckland
William Buckland Doctor of Divinity, DD, Royal Society, FRS (12 March 1784 – 14 August 1856) was an English theologian who became Dean of Westminster. He was also a geologist and paleontology, palaeontologist.
Buckland wrote the first full ...
(1784–1856) about the nature of
The Flood as described in the Bible. In 1828, he published his ''History of British Animals.'' This book addressed not only extant, but also
fossil
A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...
species. It explained the presence of fossils by climate change, suggesting that extinct species would have survived if weather conditions had been favorable. These theories contributed to the advancement of
biogeography
Biogeography is the study of the distribution of species and ecosystems in geographic space and through geological time. Organisms and biological communities often vary in a regular fashion along geographic gradients of latitude, elevation, ...
, and exerted some influence on
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 ...
(1809–1882). Flemings' comments on instinct in his book ''Philosophy of Zoology'' had influenced Darwin.
[Richards, Robert J. (1987). ''Darwin and the Emergence of Evolutionary Theories of Mind and Behavior''. University of Chicago Press. pp. 103-104. ]
In 1831, Fleming found some fossils which he recognized as fish in the
Old Red Sandstone
The Old Red Sandstone is an assemblage of rocks in the North Atlantic region largely of Devonian age. It extends in the east across Great Britain, Ireland and Norway, and in the west along the northeastern seaboard of North America. It also exte ...
units at
Fife
Fife (, ; gd, Fìobha, ; sco, Fife) is a council area, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries with Perth and Kinross (i ...
. This did not fit the generally accepted notion that the Earth was approximately 6,000 years old.
Partial list of publications
* 1821: ''Insecta'' in ''Supplement to the fourth, fifth and sixth editions of the Encyclopae-dia Britannica, with preliminary dissertations on the history of the sciences''
* 1822: ''Philosophy of Zoology''
''Volume 1''''Volume 2''
* 1828
''A History of British animals, exhibiting the descriptive characters and systematical arrangement of the genera and species of quadrupeds, birds, reptiles, fishes, mollusca, and radiata of the United Kingdom, including the indigenous, extirpated , and extinct kinds, together with periodical and occasional visitants''Edinburgh: i–xxiii + 1–565.
*1837
''Molluscous Animals''* 1851: ''The Temperature of the Seasons, and Its Influence on Inorganic Objects, and on Plants and Animals''
Partial list of described taxa
* Superfamily:
Conoidea
Conoidea is a superfamily of predatory sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks within the suborder Hypsogastropoda. This superfamily is a very large group of marine mollusks, estimated at about 340 recent valid genera and subgenera, and considered ...
Fleming, 1822
* Family:
Conidae
Conidae, with the current common name of "cone snails", is a taxonomic family (previously subfamily) of predatory sea snails, marine gastropod molluscs in the superfamily Conoidea.
The 2014 classification of the superfamily Conoidea, groups onl ...
Fleming, 1822
* Subfamily:
Coninae
Coninae, or as it is more recently (February 2015) represented as a family, Conidae, common names the cone snails, cone shells or cones, is a taxonomic group of small to large predatory sea snails with cone-shaped shells, marine gastropod mo ...
Fleming, 1822
Species in the phylum
Mollusca
Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is esti ...
described by Fleming:
* ''
Chiton laevigatus''
Fleming 1813
* ''
Patella elongata''
Fleming 1813
* ''
Patella elliptica''
Fleming 1813
* ''
Doris nigricans''
Fleming 1820
* ''
Heterofusus retroversus''
Fleming 1823
* ''
Octopus octopodia'' (
Linné 1758 : Sepia)
Fleming, 1826
* ''
Bulla cranchii''
Fleming 1828
* ''
Eolidia plumosa''
Fleming 1828
* ''
Modiola vulgaris''
Fleming 1828
* ''
Lima fragilis''
Gmelin 1791 ''sensu''
Fleming, 1828
* ''
Lutraria vulgaris''
Fleming 1828
* ''
Gastrochaena hians''
Fleming 1828
* ''
Patella clealandi''
Fleming 1828
* ''
Assiminea grayana''
Fleming 1828
* ''
Scissurella crispata''
Fleming 1828
References
External links
Brief biography/timeline
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fleming, John
Scottish zoologists
Scottish entomologists
Scottish geologists
1785 births
1857 deaths
Fellows of the Royal Society
Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
19th-century Ministers of the Church of Scotland
People from West Lothian
Alumni of the University of Edinburgh
Alumni of the University of St Andrews
19th-century British geologists
19th-century British zoologists
Vitalists