Tag: The Beagle

On Two Failed Medical Careers

Robert wanted his son to be a doctor, a physician, like he was. In fact, he wanted both of his sons, Ras (short for Erasmus) and Charlie to study medicine. So, in the autumn of 1825, Robert sent the pair of young men to the most prestigious medical school in the United Kingdom and, in fact, also Robert’s own alma mater: The University of Edinburgh. The reputation of the school was beyond dispute. Almost all of the modern medical world passed through the medical school in the Scottish capital city. And Robert wished that his sons would have the best education possible–as he himself had.

So, the brothers (Ras was a few years older than Charlie) took some rooms only a few steps away from the medical college on what was then Lothian Street, south of the Royal Mile and near what is today the Scottish National Museum. The rooms, the boys found were bright and airy and not at all stuffy as much of the student rooms in Edinburgh tended to be. At first, all seemed well; the boys loved Edinburgh, and they attended their lectures and classes and conducted themselves like the young, gentlemanly students they were.

However, as I mentioned, Ras was older than Charlie, and he had already been studying medicine at Cambridge in England for some time. By the time the spring of 1826 rolled around, Ras was pretty much finished with the Edinburgh part of his training. It was time for him to go to London to complete his medical education at the anatomy school there. That left Charlie alone in the Scottish city. And it was that spring that Charlie decided he didn’t like the study of medicine. Writing to one of his sisters, he complained that the lectures were boring him to the point of madness. He stopped attending his required beginning anatomy labs. He began hanging out in the natural sciences departments of the university, and he started to learn about botany and what today we would call earth science.

All of this disappointed Charlie’s father. The hopes he had for his son to follow in his footsteps as a physician were fading, fast. Now, it didn’t help that Robert’s youngest son was only 16 when he left home to go to university and then was a still-young 17 when Ras left him alone in Edinburgh. So, it quite possible that homesickness played a part in Charlie’s decision to quit the medical school at Edinburgh after less than two years there. He talked often of going into the clergy as his family had a long history of ministers as well as physicians. Ras, for his part, was a sickly young man most of the time; his delicate constitution proved too fragile for medicine. Thus, it was with great sadness on his father’s part that Ras also quit his medical studies at the precise moment that he was about to finish them. Neither son, then, followed in Robert’s footsteps.

Of course, Charlie wouldn’t become a minister, either. No, the interest he found in the natural sciences at university soon put Charles Darwin aboard the ship The Beagle and on the way to changing how we view our natural world.

On a Taxidermist

Taxidermy is one of those skills that thrives today in the American south and west and not much of anywhere that hunting is not a popular pastime. That has not always been the case; 200 years ago, taxidermy shops were fairly common businesses in most large towns. Everyone from schools to scientists to collectors wanted stuffed animals on display or to study. The good ones were and are combinations of skilled artists, sculptors, and naturalists according to the Guild of Taxidermists. The word comes from two Greek words for “arrangement” and “skin.”

One of the most famous taxidermists of the 19th Century was a man named John Edmonstone. John practiced his art/skill in Edinburgh, Scotland, not too far from the University Medical College. Edinburgh must have been quite different than where John was from. You see, John was born a slave in British Guyana, in South America. His last name was the name of the man who owned John. One time, a naturalist named Charles Waterton came to the plantation where John lived. He asked the young John to assist him in collecting and then preserving specimens from the jungles surrounding the plantation. Waterton found that John had a knack for the trade, and he suggested to the plantation owner that John be allowed to pursue taxidermy as part of his work.

In 1817, John’s owner moved to Scotland, and John came along. There, he was granted his freedom and began to pursue taxidermy as a profession. Again it must have seemed a long way from Guyana to Scotland for the young man. Soon, he had a thriving business and quickly gained a reputation for his skill. His first shop was in Glasgow, and he made good money. Eventually, John was able to open a store on the main shopping street of the wealthier city of Edinburgh, Princes Street, in New Town.

In addition to selling posed specimens (natural poses) and trophies (heads on walls), John supplemented his income by taking on students who wanted to learn this potentially lucrative trade. He taught many students over the years. One of them, a 15 year old student at the university, wrote home telling his family how wonderful his taxidermy teacher was to him. Even though the price for the lessons was fairly steep (a guinea for an hour’s class), the young man said that John, “gained his (good) livelihood by stuffing birds, at which he is excellent.”

Over the course of his career, John Edmonstone worked for the museum of the university, and several examples of his work are still available to be seen today. His knowledge of tropical birds and animals made him unique in the trade in Scotland. In 2003, he was listed as one of the 100 Great Black Britons in a BBC poll.

And that 15 year old student of John’s who spoke so highly of his skill? He put his lessons in taxidermy to good use in expeditions to South America and beyond. Some say that his learning from John insured him a place on one of his first expeditions to the Galapagos Islands.

You know that young taxidermist as Charles Darwin.