Louis Marius Vialleton (December 22, 1859 - December 18, 1929) was a French
zoologist
Zoology ( , ) is the scientific study of animals. Its studies include the structure, embryology, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct, and how they interact with their ecosystems. Zoology is one ...
and writer, best known for his advocation of
non-Darwinian evolution.
Career
Vialleton was born in
Vienne, Isère
Vienne (; ) is a town in southeastern France, located south of Lyon, at the confluence of the Gère and the Rhône. It is the fourth-largest commune in the Isère department, of which it is a subprefecture alongside La Tour-du-Pin. Vienne w ...
. He was the first professor of
histology
Histology,
also known as microscopic anatomy or microanatomy, is the branch of biology that studies the microscopic anatomy of biological tissue (biology), tissues. Histology is the microscopic counterpart to gross anatomy, which looks at large ...
in the faculty of medicine at the
University of Montpellier
The University of Montpellier () is a public university, public research university located in Montpellier, in south-east of France. Established in 1220, the University of Montpellier is one of the List of oldest universities in continuous opera ...
.
[Lavabre-Bertrand T. (2015)]
''Louis Vialleton (1859-1929) was the first Professor of Histology in the Faculty of medicine of Montpellier''
Rev Hist Pharm (Paris) 62 (385): 109-123. Vialleton rejected any form of continuous evolution and favoured
saltationism
In biology, saltation () is a sudden and large mutational change from one generation to the next, potentially causing single-step speciation. This was historically offered as an alternative to Darwinism. Some forms of mutationism were effectivel ...
.
Vialleton attempted to refute gradual
transformism from a morphological perspective in his work ''Morphologie générale Membres et ceintures des vertébrés tétrapodes: Critique morphotogique du transformisme'' (1924).
[Engels, Eve-Marie; Glick, Thomas F. (2008). ''The Reception of Charles Darwin in Europe, Volume 1''. Continuum. pp. 341-242. ] Zoologist
Étienne Rabaud responded with a critical article.
He contributed the chapter ''Morphologie et transformisme'' to the book ''Le Transformisme'' (1927). Vialleton's views were often misrepresented by
creationists as anti-evolutionary. His writings were influential to creationists such as
Douglas Dewar. However, he did not reject evolution. He was also incorrectly described as a critic of evolution by
A. Morley Davies.
Vialleton 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 ...
.
Publications
*''Un monstre double humain du genre Ectopage'' (1892)
*''Un Problème de l'Évolution: La Théorie de la Récapitulation des Formes Ancestrales au Cours du Développement Embryonnaire (Loi Biogénétique Fondamentale de Haeckel)'' (1908)
*''Éléments de Morphologie des Vertébrés Anatomie et Embryologie Comparées, Paléontologie et Classification'' (1911)
*''Membres et ceintures des Vertébrés Tétrapodes: Critique morphologique du transformisme'' (1924)
*''Morphologie générale Membres et ceintures des vertébrés tétrapodes: Critique morphotogique du transformisme'' (1924)
[L. Guinet. (1924)]
''Morphologie generale; Membres et ceintures des vertebres tetrapodes; Critique morphologique du transformisme. Vialleton, Louis''
''Isis
Isis was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kingdom () as one of the main characters of the Osiris myth, in which she resurrects her sla ...
'' 6 (3): 435-437.
*''Le Transformisme'' (1927)
ith Élie Gagnebin, Lucien Cuénot, William Robin Thompson">Lucien_Cuénot.html" ;"title="ith Élie Gagnebin, Lucien Cuénot">ith Élie Gagnebin, Lucien Cuénot, William Robin Thompson, Roland Dalbiez]
*''L'origine Des Etres Vivants, L'illusion Transformiste'' (1929)
See also
*The eclipse of Darwinism
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vialleton, Louis
1859 births
1929 deaths
French zoologists
Non-Darwinian evolution
Writers from Vienne, Isère
University of Montpellier alumni
Vitalists