Joseph Thomas Cunningham (1859–1935) was a British

marine biologist Marine biology is the scientific study of the biology of marine life, organisms in the sea. Given that in biology many scientific classification, phyla, family (biology), families and genera have some species that live in the sea and others 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 ...

known for his experiments on

flatfish A flatfish is a member of the Ray-finned fish, ray-finned demersal fish order (biology), order Pleuronectiformes, also called the Heterosomata, sometimes classified as a suborder of Perciformes. In many species, both eyes lie on one side of the ...

and his writings on

neo-Lamarckism Lamarckism, also known as Lamarckian inheritance or neo-Lamarckism, is the notion that an organism can pass on to its offspring physical characteristics that the parent organism acquired through use or disuse during its lifetime. It is also calle ...

Career

Cunningham worked at the

London Hospital Medical College Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, commonly known as Barts or BL, is a medical school, medical and dental school in London, England. The school is part of Queen Mary University of London, a constituent college of the federal Un ...

. He completed his science scholarship at

Balliol College, Oxford Balliol College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who provided the f ...

. Cunningham was a neo-Lamarckian. In his book ''Hormones and Heredity'' (1921) he proposed that the mechanism for the

inheritance of acquired characteristics Lamarckism, also known as Lamarckian inheritance or neo-Lamarckism, is the notion that an organism can pass on to its offspring physical characteristics that the parent organism acquired through use or disuse during its lifetime. It is also calle ...

were

hormone A hormone (from the Greek participle , "setting in motion") is a class of signaling molecules in multicellular organisms that are sent to distant organs by complex biological processes to regulate physiology and behavior. Hormones are required ...

s. He termed this "chemical Lamarckism". According to science historian

Peter J. Bowler Peter J. Bowler (born 8 October 1944) is a historian of biology who has written extensively on the history of evolutionary thought, the history of the environmental sciences, and on the history of genetics. His 1984 book, ''Evolution: The His ...

the idea held by Cunningham that hormones transferred from one generation to the next independent of the

germ plasm Germ plasm () is a biological concept developed in the 19th century by the German biologist August Weismann. It states that heritable information is transmitted only by germ cells in the gonads (ovaries and testes), not by somatic cells. The r ...

was seen at the time by neo-Lamarckians as a plausible hypothesis, however "its advocates were unable to get beyond the stage of providing indirect evidence for the effect they postulated."

Experiments

In a series of experiments (in 1891, 1893 and 1895) on the action of light on the coloration of

, Cunningham directed light upon the lower sides of flatfishes by means of a glass-bottomed

tank A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle intended as a primary offensive weapon in front-line ground combat. Tank designs are a balance of heavy firepower, strong armour, and good battlefield mobility provided by tracks and a powerful engin ...

placed over a mirror. He discovered that light causes the production of

pigments A pigment is a colored material that is completely or nearly insoluble in water. In contrast, dyes are typically soluble, at least at some stage in their use. Generally dyes are often organic compounds whereas pigments are often inorganic compou ...

on the lower sides of flatfishes, and gave his results a Lamarckian interpretation. Other scientists interpreted his results differently.

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 mechanis ...

wrote approvingly of Cunningham's interpretation, but the

geneticist A geneticist is a biologist or physician who studies genetics, the science of genes, heredity, and variation of organisms. A geneticist can be employed as a scientist or a lecturer. Geneticists may perform general research on genetic processe ...

William Bateson William Bateson (8 August 1861 – 8 February 1926) was an English biologist who was the first person to use the term genetics to describe the study of heredity, and the chief populariser of the ideas of Gregor Mendel following their rediscove ...

was not convinced that the cause of the increase in pigmentation was from the illumination.

Thomas Hunt Morgan Thomas Hunt Morgan (September 25, 1866 – December 4, 1945) was an American evolutionary biologist, geneticist, embryologist, and science author who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1933 for discoveries elucidating the role tha ...

criticized the experiments and did not believe the results were evidence for Lamarckism.

Opposition to sexual selection

Cunningham challenged the concept of

sexual selection Sexual selection is a mode of natural selection in which members of one biological sex mate choice, choose mates of the other sex to mating, mate with (intersexual selection), and compete with members of the same sex for access to members of t ...

. His book ''Sexual Dimorphism in the Animal Kingdom'' (1900) attempted to explain secondary sexual characters by Lamarckian principles.Review in ''

The Zoologist ''The Zoologist'' was a monthly natural history magazine established in 1843 by Edward Newman and published in London. Newman acted as editor-in-chief until his death in 1876, when he was succeeded, first by James Edmund Harting (1876–1896) ...

,'' 4th series, vol 4, issue 707 (May, 1900),

243 __NOTOC__ Year 243 ( CCXLIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Arrianus and Papus (or, less frequently, year 996 '' Ab ...

/244. The chemist

Raphael Meldola Raphael Meldola FRS (19 July 1849 – 16 November 1915) was a British chemist and entomologist. He was Professor of Organic Chemistry in the University of London, 1912–15. Life Born in Islington, London, he was descended from Raphael Me ...

noted in a review for ''

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. ...

'' that "although many of us may arrive at the conclusion that Mr. Cunningham has not succeeded in establishing his case, it will be generally admitted that he has discussed the problem, on the whole, in a more or less scientific spirit."Meldola, Raphael. (1900). ''Sexual Dimorphism in the Animal Kingdom: A Theory of the Evolution of Secondary Sexual Characters''. ''

'' 63: 197-202. He translated

Theodor Eimer Gustav Heinrich Theodor Eimer (22 February 1843 – 29 May 1898) was a German zoologist. He was a popularizer of orthogenesis, a form of directed evolution through mutations that made use of Lamarckian principles. Life and work Eimer was born ...

's ''Die Enstehung der Arten'' (1888) into English.

Publications

''Charles Darwin: Naturalist''
(1886)
''Sexual Dimorphism in the Animal Kingdom: A Theory of the Evolution of Secondary Sexual Characters''
(1900)
''The Preservation of Fishing Nets''
(1902)
''Hormones and Heredity''
(1921) *''Modern Biology: A Review of the Principal Phenomena of Animal Life in Relation to Modern Concepts and Theories'' (1928)

References

* * {{Authority control 1859 births 1935 deaths British marine biologists British zoologists Charles Darwin biographers Lamarckism