J. T. Gulick

Infobox Scientist
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name = J. T. Gulick


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birth_date = Birth date | 1832 | 3 | 13 | mf=yes
birth_place = Kauii Island, Hawaii
death_date = Death date and age|1923|4|14|1832|3|13|mf=yes
death_place = Honolulu, Hawaii
residence = Hawaii, China, Japan, Ohio
citizenship = American
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fields = Evolutionary Biology
workplaces =
alma_mater = Williams College
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notable_students =
known_for = Evolutionary study of snails
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influences = Charles Darwin
influenced = George Romanes
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religion =


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J.T. Gulick (born March 13, 1832 - died April 14, 1923)cite web | url=http://diogenesii.wordpress.com/2008/03/13/ | title=March 13, 1832 | publisher= Professor Olsen @ Large] cite web | last = Smith, PhD. | first = Charles H. | coauthors = Joshua Woleben, Carubie Rodgers| url=http://www.wku.edu/~smithch/chronob/GULI1832.htm | title=Chrono-Biographical Sketch: John Thomas Gulick ] was an American missionary and naturalist. He is credited with the first modern evolutionary study of Hawaiian land snails. [cite web | url=http://archives.starbulletin.com/2001/04/11/news/story10.html | title=Professor updates Darwin for 2001 | publisher=Honolulu Star-Bulletin]

Biography

John Thomas Gulick was born on March 13, 1832, on Kauai Island, Hawaii. In the 1851, he started studying and collecting Hawaiian land snails. The study of snails was a subject he had been interested in since his early teens, and he started to develop the concept of evolution in regard to them. He had discovered that many of the species of snails in Hawaii were only found in very specific areas within the islands of Hawaii, and there was no overlap between these areas.

In 1853, after reading Darwin's "Voyage of the Beagle" and Hugh Miller's "The Footprints of the Creator", Gulick presented his paper, "The Distribution of Plants and Animals", to the Punahou Debating Society. In 1855, he enrolled in Williams College in Massachusetts, and studied in their Lyceum of Natural History. In 1859, he was elected Lyceum President, and graduated with an A.B. degree.

In 1959, Gulick followed a family tradition of attending theological school, and enrolled in Union Theological Seminary in New York City. While there, he read Darwin's " On the Origin of Species". He remained at the University for two years, after which point he spent 1861-1862 in shell collecting expeditions in Panama and Japan.

In 1864, Gulick began serving as a missionary in China, but while doing this work, he continued his study of snails. In 1872, he wrote "On the Variation of Species as Related to Their Geographical Distribution, Illustrated by the Achatinellinae", which was published in "Nature". In 1872, he left China for two years, traveling to England. While there, he began corresponding with Charles Darwin, regarding his studies, at one point sending him a synopsis of an upcoming paper in order to request Darwin's input. [cite book | last = Darwin | first = Charles R. | co-authors= Frederick Burkhardt, Sydney Smith, David Kohn, Darwin Correspondence Project Staff, William Montgomery, American Council of Learned Societies | authorlink = | title = A Calendar of the Correspondence of Charles Darwin, 1821-1882 | publisher = Cambridge University Press | date = 1994 | pages = 365-367 | url = http://books.google.com/books?id=oXOrh_jBBzEC | isbn = 0521434238, 9780521434232] That paper was "On Diversity of Evolution Under One Set of External Conditions", which was published in the "Journal of the Linnean Society of London, Zoology." in 1873. Gulick then returned to China, and remained there until 1875.

In 1875, he relocated to Japan, and continued his missionary work there. Again, as in China, he continued his study of snails, while performing his duties as a missionary. In 1888, his paper "Divergent Evolution Through Cumulative Segregation" was published in the "Journal of the Linnean Society of London, Zoology". In 1889, he received an honorary A.M. and Ph.D from Adelbert College. In 1891, another paper, "Intensive Segregation, or Divergence Through Independent Transformation" was published in the "Journal of the Linnean Society of London, Zoology".

He left Japan in 1899, moving to Oberlin, Ohio. During this time, he expanded his study to societal evolution in human beings, coming to the belief that societal evolution could be attributed to altruistic motives and a spirit of cooperation between humanity. He put forth this thesis in his paper "Evolution, Racial and Habitudinal" in 1905. Also in 1905, he was given an honorary Ph.D. by Oberlin College.

In 1905, he returned to Hawaii. He remained there until his death, on April 14, 1923 in Honolulu.

Evolutionary Theories

In 1872, Gulick was the first to propose the theory that the majority of evolutionary changes are the result of chance variation, which has no effect on the survival and reproductive success of a species. He came to this theory while noting that there was a large diversity of local populations of Hawaiian land snails (Achatinella) which showed random variation under seemingly identical environmental conditions.

In 1888, Gulick introduced new terms for two patterns of evolution that can be observed: the term monotypic evolution (previously called transformation) – what today we define as “the change in gene frequencies within populations over generations” – and the term polytypic evolution (previously called diversification) – simultaneous processes, such as the multiplication of species, manifested by different populations and incipient species. George Romanes later adopted this terminology during his evolutionary studies.

Criticisms of Gulick's Collection Methods

According to journalist Beverly Stearns and zoology professor Stephen Stearns, Gulick collected 44,500 Hawaiian snails in the space of just three years. Some of his collections were of no scientific value because the locations where they were obtained were not noted properly. Of many of the species he collected, no similar species remain in the wild today. They attribute the extinction of many endemic Hawaiian snail species to him. [cite web | url=http://www.endangeredspecieshandbook.org/dinos_invertebrates.php | title=It's Too Late: Invertebrates | publisher = The Endangered Species Handbook]

References