Francis Trevelyan Buckland
Frank Buckland | |
---|---|
Born | Oxford, England | 17 December 1826
Died | 19 December 1880 | (aged 54)
Nationality | English |
Occupation(s) | naturalist, surgeon, popular writer |
Francis Trevelyan Buckland (17 December 1826 – 19 December 1880), better known as Frank Buckland, was an English surgeon,
Life and career
Frank was the first son of Canon
Buckland studied at Christ Church from 1844 to 1848, graduating at the second attempt. Passing out in May 1848 and at the advice of Richard Owen and Sir Benjamin Brodie, his father sent him to study surgery in London at St George's Hospital under Caesar Hawkins. He attended classes by Henry Gray where another classmate was Francis Day.[13] During this time he also became acquainted with Abraham Dee Bartlett who would send him dead animals at the zoo and he continued to keep many animals.[14] A visit to Paris in 1849 gave him a chance of comparing their methods with those in London. In London most of the nurses were illiterate; one who claimed to read was tested with a label reading "This lotion to be applied externally only". The nurse interpreted it as "Two spoonfuls to be taken four times a day".[15]
Buckland was made a
Four and a half feet in height and rather more in breadth – what he measured round the chest is not known to mortal man. His chief passion was surgery – elderly maidens called their cats indoors as he passed by and young mothers who lived in the neighbourhood gave their nurses more than ordinarily strict injunctions as to their babies. To a lover of natural history it was a pleasant sight to see him at dinner with a chicken before him... and see how, undeterred by foolish prejudices, he devoured the brain.[15]p59
He left St. George's in 1853 and in August 1854 he joined as an assistant surgeon in the 2nd
Frank was elected to the
Buckland married Hannah Papps on 11 August 1863,[20][21] who was an "excellent nurse" and caretaker for their assorted pets.[22]
Buckland's early death was presaged by lung
Natural history and zoöphagy
Buckland gradually gave up medicine and surgery to devote himself to natural history. He made a good income as a writer for The Field and other periodicals, and from the sale of popular books. He was much in demand as a lecturer and speaker.[24]
Buckland was a pioneer of zoöphagy: his favourite research was eating the animal kingdom. This habit he learnt from his father, whose residence, the Deanery, offered such rare delights as mice in batter, squirrel pie, horse's tongue and ostrich. After the "
His writing was sometimes slapdash, but always vivid and racy, and made natural history attractive to the mass readership. This is an example:
- "On Tuesday evening, at 5pm, Messrs Grove, of Bond Street, sent word that they had a very fine sturgeon on their slab. Of course, I went down at once to see it... The fish measured 9 feet in length [nearly three metres]. I wanted to make a cast of the fellow... and they offered me the fish for the night: he must be back in the shop the next morning by 10 am... [various adventures follow] I was determined to get him into the kitchen somehow; so, tying a rope to his tail, I let him slide down the stone stairs by his own weight. He started all right, but 'getting way' on him, I could hold the rope no more, and away he went sliding headlong down the stairs, like an avalanche down Mont Blanc... he smashed the door open... and slid right into the kitchen... till at last he brought himself to an anchor under the kitchen table. This sudden and unexpected appearance of the armour-clad sea monster, bursting open the door... instantly created a sensation. The cook screamed, the house-maid fainted, the cat jumped on the dresser, the dog retreated behind the copper and barked, the monkeys went mad with fright, and the sedate parrot has never spoken a word since."[27]
An enthusiastic lover of natural history, he became a popular author, writing Fish Hatching (1863), Curiosities of Natural History (4 vols. 1857–72), Log Book of a Fisherman and Zoologist (1876) and Natural History of British Fishes (1881). When he fell out with The Field's editor, he founded and edited a rival periodical, Land and Water, in 1866.[24] He became Inspector of Salmon Fisheries in 1867, and retained this post for the rest of his life. In this role he was extremely energetic, and made good use of his talent for publicity. He served on various commissions, experimented with fish hatcheries, and developed the Museum of Economic Fish Culture.[24]
Though observant, he was not always strictly scientific in his methods and modes of expression. Darwin used some of Buckland's writings from Land and Water in the Descent of Man, an honour which Buckland did not appreciate, since he was a strong opponent of Darwinism.[28] But Buckland was no theoretician: his life was lived on the practical side of natural history.
Buckland and fisheries
The Buckland Foundation is a charity endowed from Buckland's estate.[24][29] It funds a Buckland Professor each year to give public talks in relevant parts of the United Kingdom and Ireland on a matter of current concern in the commercial fisheries.[24][30] Buckland sat on four Commissions at Fish and Fishing between 1875 and his death in 1880. Something of the flavour of his views is given by the following quotations from his reports and articles:
- "A greater cry should more properly be established against those which deter or kill the fish by noxious materials which they pour into public waters for their private use and benefit...".
- "What objection can be reasonably argued against the employment of revenue cruisers for the accommodation of naturalists, appointed by government ... in order that they make a thoroughly practical examination of the dark and mysterious habits of food fishes."
- "We want also samples of the surface water itself under peculiar conditions, for instance, what is the meaning of the wonderful white appearance of the sea which took place last autumn in nearly all the waters of the northern coast of England? What is the meaning of the occasional red appearance of the sea for many square miles? Again, how are we to devise a mesh of net that shall let go the small soles and undersized fry of other sea fish, and keep marketable fish only?"
Buckland founded the Museum of Economic Fish Culture in South Kensington in 1865, the remaining contents of which are held by the Scottish Fisheries Museum in Anstruther. These include 45 plaster casts and an 1882 marble bust of Buckland by J. Warrington Wood.[31]
Publications
Books and reports published by Buckland include:
- Buckland, Frank T. (1857). Curiosities of Natural History. 1 ed. Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street, London.
- Buckland, Frank T. (1863). Fish hatching. London: Tinsley Brothers.
- Buckland, Frank T. (1868). Curiosities of natural history. Vol. 1 (2 ed.). London: Richard Bentley.
- Buckland, Frank T. (1868). Curiosities of natural history. Vol. 2 (2 ed.). Richard Bentley.
- Buckland, Frank T. (1875). Log-book of a fisherman and zoologist. Chapman & Hall.
- Buckland, Frank T.; Spencer Walpole; Archibald Young (1880). Report on the disease which has recently prevailed among the salmon in the Tweed, Eden, and other rivers in England and Scotland.
- Buckland, Frank T. (1886). Notes and jottings from animal life (2 ed.). Smith, Elder and Co.
Notes
- ^ Bompas, pp. 6-7.
- ^ Burgess G.H.O. (1967). The curious world of Frank Buckland. Baker, London. pp. 16–17.
- ^ Bompas, pp. 22-25.
- ^ Bompas, pp. 30-32.
- ^ Bompas, p. 38.
- ^ Chisholm (ed.) (1911)
- ^ Bompas, p. 40.
- ^ Bompas, p. 46.
- ^ Bompas, pp. 47-49.
- ^ Bompas, pp. 50-57.
- ^ Bompas, p. 60.
- ^ Gordon, Elizabeth (1894). The life and correspondence of William Buckland, D.D., F.R.S. London: John Murray.
- ^ a b c d Collins, Timothy (2003). "From Anatomy to Zoophagy: A Biographical Note on Frank Buckland". Journal of the Galway Archaeological and Historical Society. 55: 91–109.
- ^ Bompas, pp. 62-49.
- ^ a b Burgess G.H.O. 1967. The curious world of Frank Buckland. Baker, London. p. 48.
- ^ Chisholm (ed.), 1911
- ^ Bompas, pp. 75-83.
- ^ Bompas, pp. 83-95.
- ^ Bompas, pp. 96-98.
- ^ Bompas, pp. 127-128.
- ^ Household of Francis Buckland, St Margaret, London, Middlesex, England; IN: "1861 England, Scotland and Wales Census."
- ^ Bompas, pp. 320-321.
- ISSN 0035-9157.
- ^ a b c d e "Frank Buckland and The Buckland Foundation". British Marine Life Study Society. Retrieved 19 June 2015.
- ^ Barber, Lynn 1980. The heyday of natural history 1820–1870. Cape, London. Chapter 10: The pioneer of zoophagy.
- ^ Kacirk, Jeffrey (1999). Forgotten English. Harper, New York
- ^ Buckland F.C. How we cast the large Sturgeon. Land & Water, vol 3, 27 April 1867; retold in Barber L. 1980. The heyday of Natural History 1820–1870. Cape, London. p149–50 [version here abbreviated]
- ^ Bompas, p. 425.
- ^ "The Buckland Foundation". The Scottish Fisheries Museum Trust. Archived from the original on 19 June 2015. Retrieved 19 June 2015.
- ^ "Buckland Professors and Lectures". The Scottish Fisheries Museum Trust. Archived from the original on 19 June 2015. Retrieved 19 June 2015.
- ^ "The Buckland Collection". The Scottish Fisheries Museum Trust. Archived from the original on 19 June 2015. Retrieved 19 June 2015.
References
- Bompas, George C. (1888). Life of Frank Buckland by his Brother-in-law. London: Smith, Elder, & Co.
- Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 4 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 731.
- Girling, Richard (2016). The man who ate the zoo; Frank Buckland, forgotten hero of natural history. London: Chatto & Windus.