George Romanes facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
George Romanes
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Photograph by Elliott & Fry
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| Born | 20 May 1848 Kingston, Canada West (now Ontario), Canada
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| Died | 23 May 1894 (aged 46) Oxford, Oxfordshire, England
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| Citizenship | British |
| Alma mater | Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge |
| Known for | Comparative psychology |
| Spouse(s) | Ethel Romanes |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Evolutionary biology Physiology |
| Influences | Charles Darwin |
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George John Romanes (born May 20, 1848 – died May 23, 1894) was an important scientist from Canada and Scotland. He studied how living things change over time (called evolutionary biology) and how bodies work (called physiology).
Romanes is famous for starting a field of study called comparative psychology. This field looks at how humans and animals think and behave in similar ways. He believed that animals have thought processes much like our own.
He was a close friend and the youngest academic partner of Charles Darwin, the famous scientist who developed the theory of evolution. Romanes' ideas about evolution are still important today. He is also known for using the term "neo-Darwinism," which describes a view of evolution that focuses on natural selection as the main driving force. Sadly, Romanes died young, which was a big loss for the study of evolution in Britain.
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Early Life and Education
George Romanes was born in Kingston, Canada, in 1848. He was the youngest of three boys in a wealthy and smart family. His father was a Scottish minister. When George was two, his family moved to London, United Kingdom. This move helped him later become friends with Charles Darwin.
As a young person, Romanes lived for a while in Germany and Italy. This helped him learn to speak both German and Italian very well. He didn't always go to regular schools; sometimes he was taught at home. He loved poetry and music, and was very good at them. But his real passion was science. He decided to study science instead of becoming a clergyman like his father.
Becoming a Scientist
Even though he came from an educated family, Romanes' school life was a bit mixed up. He went to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge to study medicine and how bodies work. He finished his degree in 1871. There's even a special stained glass window in the college chapel to remember him!
It was at Cambridge that he met Charles Darwin. Darwin was very happy to see how young Romanes was. Romanes was known for being calm and kind, which made it easy for him to become good friends with Darwin. They stayed friends for the rest of their lives.
Romanes continued his studies on how the nervous systems of animals like jellyfish work. In 1879, when he was 31, he became a Fellow of the Royal Society. This is a very high honor for scientists.
However, Romanes sometimes used stories and observations instead of strict experiments to prove his ideas. This led another scientist, Lloyd Morgan, to create a rule called Morgan's Canon. This rule says that when you explain why an animal does something, you should always choose the simplest explanation first, rather than assuming it's a complex thought process like humans have.
Romanes started as a Christian, but because of Darwin's ideas, he became an agnostic. This means he wasn't sure if God existed. He even wrote that the theory of evolution made him stop believing in religion. Later in his life, he returned to some Christian beliefs.
He also started a series of free public talks called the Romanes Lectures. These lectures are still given today in his memory. Romanes died in Oxford on May 23, 1894.
Important Scientific Work
Romanes and Darwin became very close friends. Romanes even became Darwin's research assistant for the last eight years of Darwin's life. Darwin shared many of his unfinished works with Romanes, which Romanes later used in his own publications.
Like Darwin, Romanes' ideas were not always accepted at first. Most of Romanes' work tried to show how animal consciousness (how animals think and feel) was connected to human consciousness. He believed that the more evolved an animal was, the smarter it would be.
Romanes also developed his own idea called "physiological selection." This was his way of explaining how new species form, especially when Darwin's ideas didn't fully cover it. He thought that differences in how animals reproduce, which stopped them from mixing with other groups, were key to creating new species.
Romanes supported both Darwin's idea of natural selection and the idea that animals could pass on traits they learned or developed during their lives (called inheritance of acquired characteristics). He even had a disagreement with another famous scientist, Alfred Russel Wallace, about what "Darwinism" truly meant.
Family Life
George Romanes was the youngest of three children. His family came from the Scottish Highlands. His father was a professor at Queens College in Canada before the family moved to England.
In 1879, Romanes married Ethel Mary Duncan. They were very happy together and even studied science as a team. Romanes was described as an "ideal father" to their six children.
Even though his parents were not deeply religious, Romanes was raised in the Anglican Church and was very involved in its teachings when he was young. It's thought that Darwin might have been like a father figure to Romanes. Darwin didn't agree with some religious teachings because his scientific discoveries didn't support them. This might help explain why Romanes later became agnostic.
Published Works
After Charles Darwin died, Romanes worked to defend Darwin's theories. He wrote books to answer criticisms from other scientists. Romanes also expanded on Darwin's ideas about evolution and natural selection by developing his own theory of behavior based on comparative psychology.
In his book Animal Intelligence, Romanes showed how different animals have similar and different ways of thinking and moving. In Mental Evolution in Animals, he explained how animal thinking and physical abilities evolved. Romanes believed that animals get smarter through behavioural conditioning, which is like learning through rewards. He then wrote Mental Evolution in Man, which focused on how human thinking and bodies evolved.
In 1890, Romanes published Darwin, and After Darwin. In this book, he tried to explain how science and religion could relate to each other. He left many notes on this topic, which were later used to publish another book under his name, Thoughts on Religion. His book The Life and Letters of George Romanes tells the story of his life.
Key Accomplishments
- 1879: Romanes was chosen as a Fellow of the Royal Society. This is a very high honor for scientists in the UK.
- 1886–1890: He was a professor at the University of Edinburgh.
- 1892: While a professor at the University of Oxford, Romanes started a series of talks called the Romanes Lectures. These lectures are still held once a year today to honor him.
- Romanes also helped create or popularize important scientific terms:
- Anthropomorphism: This is when you give human-like qualities or feelings to animals.
- Anecdotal method: This is a way of collecting information about animal behavior by observing them and telling stories about what you saw.
- He developed ideas about the "stepping stairs" for cognitive development, which means how thinking abilities grow and change over time.
