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 (biology), cell, a multicellular organism, or a Community (ecology), community of Biological inter ...

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

Biography

Spalding was born in

Islington Islington ( ) is an inner-city area of north London, England, within the wider London Borough of Islington. It is a mainly residential district of Inner London, extending from Islington's #Islington High Street, High Street to Highbury Fields ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

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 he was working as a

slater A slater, or slate mason, is a tradesperson who covers buildings with slate. Tools used The various tools of the slater's trade are all drop-forged. The slater's hammer is forged in one single piece, from crucible-cast steel, and has a lea ...

in Aberdeen, the philosopher Alexander Bain persuaded the

University of Aberdeen The University of Aberdeen (abbreviated ''Aberd.'' in List of post-nominal letters (United Kingdom), post-nominals; ) is a public university, public research university in Aberdeen, Scotland. It was founded in 1495 when William Elphinstone, Bis ...

to allow Spalding to attend courses without charge. He studied

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

and

literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...

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

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...

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

Avignon Avignon (, , ; or , ; ) is the Prefectures in France, 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 Communes of France, commune had a ...

met

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

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 as 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 again from 1865 to 186 ...

, by then 1st Earl Russell). He became tutor to Viscount Amberley's children at

Cleddon Hall Cleddon Hall, formerly known as ''Ravenscroft'', is a 19th-century Victorian country house in Trellech, Monmouthshire, Wales. In the later 19th century it was owned by Lord and Lady Amberley, and their youngest son, the philosopher Bertrand Russ ...

, Monmouthshire, including perhaps the young

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

, 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 mos ...

, then studied at length and popularised by

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

. 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. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...

; the biologist J. B. S. Haldane 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 In evolutionary biology, the Baldwin effect describes an effect of learned behaviour on evolution. James Mark Baldwin and others suggested that an organism's ''ability to learn'' new behaviours (e.g. to acclimatise to a new stressor) will affect ...

.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