Gideon Mantell
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Gideon Mantell MRCS FRS | |
---|---|
Born | Lewes, Sussex, England | 3 February 1790
Died | 10 November 1852 London, England | (aged 62)
Occupation(s) | Surgeon, palaeontologist |
Known for | Describing Iguanodon |
Spouse | Mary Ann Mantell |
Relatives | Walter Mantell (son) |
Awards | Wollaston Medal (1835) Royal Medal (1849) |
Gideon Algernon Mantell
Early life and medical career
Mantell was born in
Mantell returned to Lewes at age 15. With the help of a local Whig party leader, Mantell secured an
He returned to Lewes, and immediately formed a partnership with his former master, James Moore. In the wake of the
In 1816, he married Mary Ann Woodhouse, the 20-year-old daughter of one of his former patients who had died three years earlier. Since she was not 21 and still technically a minor under English law, she had to obtain permission from her mother and a special licence to marry Mantell. After obtaining consent and the licence, she married Mantell on 4 May at St. Marylebone Church.[15] That year, he purchased his own medical practice and took up an appointment at the Royal Artillery Hospital, at Ringmer, Lewes.
Geological research
Inspired by
By 1820, he had started to find very large bones at Cuckfield, even larger than those discovered by
How the king heard of Mantell is unknown, but Mantell's response is known. Galvanised and encouraged, Mantell showed the teeth to other scientists but they were dismissed as belonging to a fish or
Although according to Charles Lyell, Cuvier made this statement after a late party and apparently had some doubts when reconsidering the matter when he awoke, fresh in the morning. "The next morning he told me that he was confident that it was something quite different." Strangely, this change of opinion did not make it back to Britain where Mantell was mocked for his error. Mantell was still convinced that the teeth had come from the Mesozoic strata and finally recognised that they resembled those of the iguana, but were twenty times larger. He surmised that the owner of the remains must have been at least 60 feet (18 metres) in length.
Recognition
He tried in vain to convince his peers that the fossils were from Mesozoic strata, by carefully studying rock layers. William Buckland famously disputed Mantell's assertion, by claiming that the teeth were of fish.
When it was proved Mantell was correct in 1825, the only question was what to call his new reptile. His original name was "Iguana-saurus" but he then received a letter from
Years later, Mantell had acquired enough fossil evidence to show that the dinosaur's forelimbs were much shorter than its hind legs, therefore proving they were not built like a mammal as claimed by Sir Richard Owen. Mantell went on to demonstrate that fossil vertebrae, which Owen had attributed to a variety of different species, all belonged to Iguanodon. He also named a new genus of dinosaur called Hylaeosaurus and as a result became an authority on prehistoric reptiles.
Later years
In 1833, Mantell relocated to Brighton but his medical practice suffered. He was almost rendered destitute, but for the town's council, which promptly transformed his house into a museum. There he gave a series of lectures that were published in 1838 with the title The wonders of geology, or, A familiar exposition of geological phenomena: being the substance of a course of lectures delivered at Brighton.[16] The museum in Brighton ultimately failed as a result of Mantell's habit of waiving the entrance fee. Financially destitute, Mantell offered to sell the entire collection to the British Museum in 1838 for £5,000, accepting the counter-offer of £4,000. He moved to Clapham Common in South London, where he continued his work as a doctor.
Mary Mantell left her husband in 1839. That same year, Gideon's son Walter emigrated to New Zealand. Walter later sent his father some important fossils from New Zealand. Gideon's daughter, Hannah, died in 1840.
In 1841 he began to suffer from what would eventually be diagnosed as scoliosis, possibly precipitated by a carriage accident.[17] Despite being bent, crippled and in constant pain, he continued to work with fossilised reptiles and published a number of scientific books and papers until his death in November the 10th 1852. He moved to Pimlico in 1844 and began to take opium, as a painkiller, in 1845.
Death and legacy
On 10 November 1852, Mantell took an overdose of opium and later lapsed into a coma. He died that afternoon. His
Mantell's surgery, on the south side of Clapham Common, is now a dental surgery.
At the time of his death Mantell was credited with discovering four of the five genera of dinosaurs then known.[20]
In 2000, in commemoration of Mantell's discovery and his contribution to the science of palaeontology, the Mantell Monument was unveiled at Whiteman's Green, Cuckfield. The monument has been confirmed as the location of the Iguanodon fossils that Mantell first described in 1822.
He is buried at
Works by Mantell
Sixty-seven books and memoirs appear in Agassiz and Strickland's Bibliographia Zoologiæ, and forty-eight scientific papers in the Royal Society's Catalogue.
- The Fossils of the South Downs. Royal
- Outlines of the natural history of the environs of Lewes. 4to, 24pp, 3pl. Lewes, 1824.
- Illustrations of the Geology of Sussex, containing figures and descriptions of the fossils of Tilgate Forest. Royal 4to, 20 plates, £2. 15s. 6d. 1827.
- The Geological Age of Reptiles. In Jameson's Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, 1831, Vol. 11, pp. 81–85
- A Narrative of the Visit of their most Gracious Majesties William IV and Queen Adelaide, to the Ancient Borough of Lewes, on the 22nd of October 1830. London: Lupton Relfe, 1831.
- The Geology of the South-East of England. 8vo, with coloured maps, sections, and numerous plates, £1. 1/-. 1833.
- Thoughts on a Pebble. 1836. 8th edition, 1849
- The Wonders of Geology or, a familiar exposition of geological phenomena: being the substance of a course of lectures delivered at Brighton. 2 vols, London, 1838. Lithographic plates drawn by his wife. Data from 4th ed of 1840: vol 1: 428p, frontis & 4 plates; vol 2: pages 429–795 plus appendix, glossary and other material, coloured frontis & 10 coloured plates, most drawn by his wife. Mantell's most extensive work.
- The Medals of Creation. 2 vols, 1844.
- A Day's Ramble in and about the Antient Town of Lewes. London: Henry G. Bohn, 1846.
- Thoughts on Animalcules. small 4to, 144p, 12 coloured plates. London: Murray, 1846. 1850 title: The invisible world revealed by the microscope or, thoughts on animalcules.
- Geological Excursions round the Isle of Wight and along the adjacent Coast of Dorsetshire. 1847.
- Pictorial Atlas of Fossil Remains consisting of coloured Illustration selected from Parkinson's "Organic Remains of Former World" and Arti's "Antediluvian Phytology". London: Bohn. 1850.
- Petrifactions and their teachings. 1851.
References
- ^ Cadbury 1998, p. 38.
- ^ Dean 1999, p. 7.
- ^ Cadbury 1998, p. 34.
- ^ Cadbury 1998, p. 36.
- ^ Cadbury 1998, pp. 36–37.
- ^ a b Dean 1999, p. 14.
- ^ Dean 1999, p. 13.
- ^ Cadbury 1998, p. 37.
- ^ Dean 1999, pp. 16–17.
- ISBN 9781908759290.
- ^ Cadbury 1998, p. 41.
- ^ Dean 1999, p. 17.
- ^ Cadbury 1998, p. 42.
- ^ Dean 1999, p. 28.
- ^ a b Dean 1999, p. 31.
- Google books
- ^ Fairbank 2004, p. 350.
- ^ a b Historic England, "West Norwood Memorial Park: tomb of Doctor Gideon Mantell (1106387)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 3 April 2017
- ^ Fairbank 2004, pp. 351–352.
- ^ Lee, Sidney, ed. (1893). . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 36. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
- ^ Royal 4to is a paper size. It produces a fairly large book, with pages of 10 by 12.5 inches (250 by 320 mm) untrimmed.
- ^ Price details from trade adverts in other volumes.
Sources
- ISBN 1-85702-959-3.
- US edition: Terrible Lizard: the first dinosaur hunters and the birth of a new science. New York: ISBN 0-8050-6772-8
- US edition: Terrible Lizard: the first dinosaur hunters and the birth of a new science. New York:
- Critchley, Edmund Michäel R. (2010). Dinosaur doctor: the life of Gideon Mantell. Stroud: Amberley. ISBN 978-1-84868-947-3.
- Dean, Dennis R. (1999). Gideon Mantell and the Discovery of Dinosaurs. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-42048-2.
- Fairbank, J. C. T. (2004). "William Adams and the spine of G. A. Mantell". Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. 86 (5): 349–52. PMID 15333172.
- McGowan, Christopher (2001). The Dragon Seekers: how an extraordinary circle of fossilists discovered the dinosaurs and paved the way for Darwin. Cambridge: Perseus Publishing. ISBN 0-7382-0282-7.
External links
- Works by or about Gideon Mantell at Wikisource
- A History of Dinosaur Hunting and Reconstruction
- Schedule of Mantell related tours and events in and around Lewes and Brighton
- Gideon Mantell Biography at Strange Science.net
- Mantell and Wilds by the Friends of West Norwood Cemetery
- The Medals of Creation (1844) First Lessons in Geology and in the Study of Organic Remains by Gideon Mantell
- The journal of Gideon Mantell, Hathi Trust
- Scanned copy of The Fossils of the South Downs (1822)