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Article ID: CBB001034932

The Darwins and Wells: From Revolution to Evolution (2010)

Wade, Nicholas J. (Author)

Journal of the History of the Neurosciences
Volume: 19
Pages: 85--104
Publication date: 2010
Language: English

Publication Date: 2010
Edition Details: Part of a special issue on Darwin

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Vision Visual perception Experimental psychology 18th century 19th century Great Britain Darwin, Erasmus Darwin, Charles Robert

In the biography of his grandfather (Erasmus Darwin), Charles Darwin hinted that his father (Robert Darwin) had received parental assistance in conducting and writing his medical thesis (which concerned afterimages). The experiments also involved visual vertigo, and they were elaborated by the senior Darwin in his Zoonomia, published in 1794. Erasmus Darwin's interpretation was in terms of trying to pursue peripheral afterimages formed during rotation; it was at variance with one published two years earlier by William Charles Wells, who had investigated the visual consequences of body rotation when the body is subsequently still. Wells penned two retorts to the Darwins' theory; although they were not accepted by Erasmus, he did devise a human centrifuge, models of which were employed in later studies of vertigo. Wells's ideas on evolution were expressed in a paper delivered to the Royal Society (in 1813) but not published in its Transactions. Commenting on the case of a white woman, part of whose skin was black, he proposed a process of change that was akin to natural selection. His ideas were acknowledged by Charles Darwin in the fourth edition of On the Origin of Species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Description On the sensation of visual vertigo as studied by Robert Darwin and his father Erasmus.

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Article Smith, C. U. M.; Smith, C. U. M. (2010) The Charles Darwin Anniversary. Journal of the History of the Neurosciences (p. 83). unapi

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