The ‘Stronsay Beast’: testimony, evidence and authority in early early nineteenth-century natural history

Author:

Jenkins Bill1

Affiliation:

1. School of History, University of St Andrews, St Katherine's Lodge, The Scores, St Andrews KY16 9BA, UK

Abstract

When an unknown sea creature was washed ashore on the Orkney Islands in September 1808, the Edinburgh anatomist John Barclay declared that this was the first solid scientific evidence for the existence of the ‘great sea snake’. The testimony of witnesses along with some of its preserved body parts were examined by both the Wernerian Natural History Society in Edinburgh and the surgeon and anatomist Everard Home in London. Contradicting Barclay's opinion, Home identified the creature as a decomposing basking shark. While Barclay took the testimony of the local witnesses largely on trust and accepted their interpretation of the Beast, Home discounted it and instead asserted his own expert authority to correctly interpret the evidence. Both made use of the preserved physical remains of parts of the creature in strikingly different ways: Barclay to support the accounts of the witnesses, Home to undermine them. The debate between the two anatomists has much to tell us about the uses of evidence and testimony in early nineteenth-century natural history, but also has broader resonances for the roles of evidence and authority in science that still remain relevant today.

Publisher

The Royal Society

Subject

History and Philosophy of Science

Cited by 3 articles. 订阅此论文施引文献 订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献

1. Bittersweet;Notes and Records: the Royal Society Journal of the History of Science;2024-08-21

2. The biology and ecology of the basking shark: A review;Advances in Marine Biology;2023

3. Minatory Monsters for Turbulent Times: “The devil in the shape of a great fish” that presaged the English Civil War and other piscatorial prodigies;Shima: The International Journal of Research into Island Cultures;2022-10-14

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