Science and Intellectual Authority in Mid-Nineteenth Century Britain: Robert Chambers and Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation

Abstract

Robert Chambers' anonymous work, Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation, is well known as a best selling statement of evolutionary speculation before Charles Darwin. Although mainly known as a publisher, Chambers was an amateur geologist and a voracious reader of scientific and philosophical literature. His book, which first appeared in 1844, offered a general theory about the origin and development of the natural world, and was presented as "the first attempt to connect the natural sciences into a history of creation."1 The nature of Chambers' theory, its relation to Darwin's, and its social and intellectual impact on Victorian society have been studied by social historians and historians of science. 2 While drawing upon this scholarship, the present article attempts to consider the controversy provoked by Chambers' work in terms of the questions it raised about the image of science and the authority of the scientific community.