Abstract
OUR readers must be familiar with this name as that of an occasional contributor to NATURE of thoughtful and acute articles in the department of mental science; they will be sorry to hear—but those who knew him will not be surprised—that Mr. Spalding died on October 31, at Dunkirk, just as he was preparing to go to the Mediterranean coast to spend the winter. Not much is known of Mr. Spalding's early life, but we are told by one who ought to know that his parents, belonging to Aberdeenshire, were in very humble circumstances, and that he was born in London about the year 1840. He himself spent his early years in Aberdeen as a working slater, doing his best to educate himself. By the kindness of Prof. Bain Mr. Spalding was allowed to attend the classes of Literature and Philosophy in Aberdeen University free of charge, in the year 1862. After that he got some teaching about London, and worked very hard to support himself, and even managed to keep his terms as barrister, though he never practised. It was during this period of privation that he contracted disease of the lungs, from which he suffered greatly up to the time of his premature death. The first thing that brought him to the notice of the scientific world was his experiments on the instinctive movements of birds, which were first described at the Brighton meeting of the British Association in 1872, and published in Macmillan's Magazine for February, 1873. From a series of interesting experiments on chickens he showed that the only theory in explanation of the phenomena of instinct that has an air of science about it is the doctrine of inherited association. Instinct, he maintained, in the present generation of animals, is the product of the accumulated experiences of past generations. In another paper at the Bristol meeting of 1875 he communicated the results of further experiments, some described in NATURE, vol. viii. p. 289, bearing out still more strongly the conclusions he had already reached, and which he summed up in the statement that “animals and men are conscious automata.” The Brighton paper brought Mr. Spalding into deserved repute. while travelling in France he became acquainted with John Stuart Mill, and through him afterwards with many other distinguished men, who all treated Spalding with great respect. Through Mill also, we believe, he became acquainted with Lord and Lady Amberley, with whom he lived as companion and tutor to their children from 1873 until the death of Lord Amberley. Mr. Spalding was appointed guardian to the children, but was ultimately compelled to withdraw from this office owing to his religious opinions, Earl Russell, however, allowing him to retain for life the salary settled upon him by Lord Amberley. For the last two years Mr. Spalding has lived mostly in the south of France, bearing his fatal and protracting illness with the greatest equanimity, regretting only his powerlessness to work and his enforced absence from London.
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Douglas A. Spalding . Nature 17, 35–36 (1877). https://doi.org/10.1038/017035b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/017035b0