If Henry De la Beche ever thought himself criticized with undue harshness (and he did), it might have had something to do with his nose for trouble. As a central figure in a protracted debate about geologic formations in Devonshire, De la Beche studied geology and drew caricatures in the early 19th century. His work, along with that of many other geologists, eventually led to the identification of major geologic periods in the Paleozoic.
In 1834, Roderick Impey Murchison — one of De la Beche's fellow gentleman scientists — was publicizing his "discovery" that a rock formation known as the Greywacke (or Grauwacke) predated the appearance of terrestrial plants. If correct, this finding had huge economic implications. England's favorite 19th-century power source was coal, and coal seams result from ancient swamps. If the Greywacke had no fossil plants, it certainly had no coal seams, and coal miners could save money by looking elsewhere. Unfortunately for Murchison, his hypothesis was wrong, and De la Beche found the proof: fossil plants in the Greywacke that looked like those found in the Carboniferous (the formation best known for its coal deposits). De la Beche shipped a box of his newly discovered fossils to an expert for identification with the understated note, "the specimens, as I need not tell you, acquire considerable interest." They also acquired Murchison's considerable animosity — he had already suppressed the paper of another gentleman geologist who contradicted his hypothesis. When Murchison publicly questioned De la Beche's ability to identify rock formations, De la Beche should not have been surprised, but he apparently was. One result of the Murchison-De la Beche quarrel was this caricature.
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De la Beche: This, Gentlemen, is my Nose. His Critics: My dear Fellow! — your account of yourself generally may be very well, but as we have classed you, before we saw you, among men without noses, you cannot possibly have a nose. From The Great Devonian Controversy by Martin J.S. Rudwick |
De la Beche titled this little work "Preconceived Opinions vs. Facts." He added to the aristocratic air of his rivals by dressing them in tails and giving them hand-held spectacles. It is interesting to note that De la Beche wore glasses himself, but they are strangely absent from this picture. (It's also worth noting that in real life, De la Beche's hair up top was a bit thinner than this picture shows, too.)
 From Gideon Mantell and the Discovery of Dinosaurs by Dennis R. Dean |
Murchison wasn't the only one skewered by these cartoons; Lyell was another favorite target, initially ridiculed in the back of De la Beche's field notebook and eventually in a lithograph of Professor Ichthyosaurus. But not all of De la Beche's caricatures were barbs. When surgeon-turned-paleontologist Gideon Mantell — whose efforts De la Beche championed — earned his LL.D. (Doctor of Laws), De la Beche drew him wearing a laurel wreath with his Iguanodon dinosaur find in a puppy-like pose.
In all fairness, De la Beche was an eminently capable scientist who doggedly put the facts first and avoided speculating about things he couldn't know. His arguments with other geologists over rock formations led to a better — not worse — understanding of the earth's remote past. In contrast to his fellow gentlemen, he actually had to work for a living, after suffering a loss in family fortunes. He assumed a post as a geological surveyor (he was appointed the director of a survey of England and Wales in 1835), and his job often kept him away from scholarly meetings and debates he wanted badly to attend. Moreover, any criticism of his findings implied incompetence and jeopardized his employment. De la Beche's career actually marked the beginning of a transition in geology as more geologists began to pursue the science as paid professionals. Perhaps because of his own need to work, De la Beche was unusually sympathetic toward fossil collector Mary Anning, whose contributions were seldom mentioned by other scientists — even William Conybeare. (Conybeare and De la Beche collaborated to identify the plesiosaur fossil Anning found.)
Despite some financial disadvantages, De la Beche enjoyed considerable success in geology, and was elected as president of the Geological Society of London in 1847 and again in 1848. He successfully petitioned Parliament for money to study Britain's soils and mineral deposits. He also founded the Museum of Practical Geology and launched a series of scientific lectures for "working men," a tradition continued by Thomas Huxley.
For more information:
The Great Devonian Controversy by Martin J.S. Rudwick
To See the Fellows Fight by John C. Thackray
Scenes from Deep Time by Martin J.S. Rudwick
The Dinosaur Papers edited by Weishampel and White
Gideon Mantell and the Discovery of Dinosaurs by Dennis R. Dean
The Meaning of Fossils by Martin J.S. Rudwick
The Dragon Seekers by Christopher McGowan
Charles Darwin, Geologist by Sandra Herbert
Nature's Government by Richard Drayton
Time's Arrow, Time's Cycle by Stephen Jay Gould
Making Modern Science by Bowler and Morus
"Provincial Geology and the Industrial Revolution" by Leucha Veneer in Endeavour Magazine, June 2006 issue
Narrative text and graphic design © by Michon Scott - Updated September 22, 2006