William Charles Wells

William Charles Wells MD FRS FRSEd (1757–1817), was a Scottish-American physician and printer. He did some notable medical research, and made the first clear statement about natural selection. [Green J.H.S. 1957. William Charles Wells FRS (1757–1817). "Nature" 179, 997-99.] He applied the idea to the origin of different skin colours in human races, and from the context it seems he thought it might be applied more widely. This was an original discovery and a genuine achievement.

Life

Wells was the second son of Robert and Mary Wells. Wells' parents were both Scots who had settled in South Carolina in 1753. Wells was born in Charleston, and sent to school in Dumfries, Scotland at the age of eleven. After he completed his preparatory school studies he attended the University of Edinburgh.

Wells returned to Charleston in 1771 and became a medical apprentice under Dr Alexander Garden, a naturalist and physician, who himself was a pupil of Charles Alston, Director of the Botanical Gardens in Edinburgh. Between 1775 and 1778, Wells studied medicine and passed the preliminary exams at Edinburgh, but did not yet take his degree. In 1779 he went to Holland as a surgeon in a Scottish regiment, after which he prepared his dissertation at the University of Leiden. This was the Inaugural Thesis, published at Edinburgh in 1780 when he took the degree of Doctor of Medicine; the subject of his thesis was "Cold".

When the British withdrew from Charleston in December 1782, he traveled to St. Augustine, Florida. There he published the "East Florida Gazette", the first weekly newspaper printed in Florida. Other publications during the British period of Florida included the "Address of the principal inhabitants of East Florida". He returned to England in 1784 to practice medicine.

In 1790 he was appointed one of the Physicians to the Finsbury Dispensary, and remained so until 1798. In 1793 he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society. In 1798 he was elected Assistant Physician to St Thomas's Hospital; and in 1800 became one of the Physicians. From about 1800, his health was uncertain, and he led a more limited life which was nevertheless fairly productive in medical research.

Wells was elected to the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1814, and the same year the Royal Society of London awarded him the Rumford Medal for his "Essay on Dew". He died in 1817 after suffering symptoms of heart malfunction.

Wells' idea

Wells was the elder of three British medical men who formulated evolutionary ideas in the period 1813-1819. He was, arguably, the most successful in this endeavour; the others were James Cowles Prichard and William Lawrence.

In 1813 a paper by Wells was read before the Royal Society; it was published in 1818. This was "Two Essays... with some observations on the causes of the differences of colour and form between the white and negro races of men. By the Late W.C. Wells…with a Memoir of his life, written by himself."

Wells was clearly interested in how different races might have arisen. [Wade N.J. 2003. "Destined for distinguished oblivion: the scientific vision of William Charles Wells (1752–1817)." Springer.] [Wells, Kentwood D. 1973. William Charles Wells and the races of man. "Isis" 64, 215.] [Zirkle, Conrad 1941. Natural selection before the "Origin of Species". "Proc Am Phil Soc" 84, 71-123.] After some preliminary remarks on the different races of man, and of the selection of domesticated animals, he observes that:

:" [What was done for animals artificially] seems to be done with equal efficiency, though more slowly, by nature, in the formation of varieties of mankind, fitted for the country which they inhabit. Of the accidental varieties of man, which would occur among the first scattered inhabitants, some one would be better fitted than the others to bear the diseases of the country. This race would multiply while the others would decrease, and as the darkest would be the best fitted for the [African] climate, at length [they would] become the most prevalent, if not the only race."

Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace were not aware of this work when they published their theory in 1858, but later Darwin acknowledged:

:"In this paper he [Wells] distinctly recognizes the principle of natural selection, and this is the first recognition which has been indicated..." (Charles Darwin, "Origin of Species" 4th ed, 1867)

Credit for the first appreciation of natural selection should therefore go to Wells rather than to Edward Blyth or Patrick Matthew. The triumph is limited to the extent of being applied only to skin colour, and not, as Darwin and Wallace did, to the whole range of life.

References

Publications

*Wells W.C. 1814. "An essay on dew". Taylor & Hessay, London. [The basis of his Rumford Medal]

*Wells W.C. 1818. "Two essays: upon a single vision with two eyes, the other on dew". Constable, London. This contains an appendix entitled "An account of a female of the white race of mankind, part of whose skin resembles that of a negro, with some observations on the cause of the differences in colour and form between the white and negro races of man." [It is this last part which contains the idea of natural selection. The book, which concludes with a memoir of his life, written by himself, contains the material which he had designated for publication before his death; apparently there was other material destroyed on his instructions] .

Most of his writings on medical subjects are contained in the second and third volumes of the "Transactions of a Society for the Promotion of Medical and Chirurgical Knowledge" 1811-12:
*Observations on Erysipelas.
*An instance of an entire want of hair in the human body.
*Observations on the dropsy which succeeds Scarlet Fever.
*A case of Tetanus, with observations on the disease.
*A case of aneurism of the Aorta, communicating with the Pulmonary artery.
*A case of considerable enlargement of the Cœcum and Colon.
*A case of extensive Gangrene of the cellular nembrane between the muscles and skin of the neck and chest.
*On rheumatism of the heart.
*On the presence of the red matter and serum of the blood in the urine of dropsy, which has not originated in Scarlet Fever.
*Observations on Pulmonary Consumption and intermittent fever, chiefly as diseases opposed to each other; with an attempt to arrange several other diseases, according to the alliance or opposition which exists between them, and one or other of the two former.

External links

* http://web2.ccpl.org/prvEmployees/HTML/scienceproject/ScienceWalk/William%20Wells.html