The supply of marine biological specimens (principally animals) for teaching and research in Great Britain from the nineteenth century until today

Abstract

The nineteenth-century growth of biology, particularly as developed in Germany, was focused initially on morphology and anatomy. In Britain, the growth of biology followed T. H. Huxley's principle of teaching the characters of certain plants and animals selected as types of vegetable and animal organization, which brought demands for marine specimens for dissection. The history of the provision of such material in Britain is investigated, particularly apropos of the Marine Station at Millport. Supplementary information is presented on the equally long-standing specimen trade at Plymouth and on two small commercial concerns that supplied marine specimens (from the Isle of Luing and Shoreham-by-Sea). The demise of the specimen-supply trade in Britain in recent decades has resulted from curriculum changes in schools and universities no longer requiring students to do dissections (relating also to Health and Safety concerns about formalin-preserved material); and biology departments that can often no longer, as a result of financial stringency, afford the “luxury” of supplying students with the range of practical experiences that previous generations once valued so highly. The concern among some students about the ethics, or religious strictures, surrounding dissection is acknowledged. The need for biological conservation is stressed, as too, the need for awareness of the risks posed by alien species introduced into foreign ecosystems via international trade in live marine organisms.