Everything about Charles Wyville Thomson totally explained
Professor Sir Charles Wyville Thomson (
March 5,
1830 –
March 10,
1882) was
professor of
zoology and chief scientist on the
Challenger expedition.
Career
A prominent
Scottish naturalist, Wyville Thomson was born at
Bonsyde,
West Lothian, on
March 5 1830, the son of a surgeon in the service of the
British East India Company. He was baptized
Wyville Thomas Charles Thomson.
He was educated at
Merchiston Castle School and the
University of Edinburgh. In
1850 he was appointed
lecturer and professor of
botany in
1851 at the
University of Aberdeen. In
1853 he became a professor of
natural history in
Queen's College, Cork,
Ireland, succeeding Professor
Hincks. A year later he was nominated to the
chair of
mineralogy and
geology at the
Queen's University of Belfast, and in
1860 was transferred to the chair of natural history at the same institution. In
1868 he assumed the duties of professor of botany at the
Royal College of Science,
Dublin, and finally in
1870 he received the natural history chair at the University of Edinburgh.
Interests
Wyville Thomson is remembered for his studies of the biological conditions of the
deep seas. Being interested in
crinoids, and prompted by the results of the
dredgings of
Michael Sars in the deep sea off the
Norwegian coasts, he persuaded the
Royal Navy to grant him use of
HMS Lightning and
HMS Porcupine for deep sea dredging expeditions in the summers of 1868 and 1869. They showed that animal life existed down to depths of 650
fathoms (1200 m), that all marine
invertebrate groups are present at this depth, and that deep-sea temperatures are not as constant as had been supposed, but vary considerably, and indicate
oceanic circulation. These results were described in
The Depths of the Sea, which he published in
1873.
Challenger Expedition
The remarkable
hydrographic and zoological results which Wyville Thomson had demonstrated, in addition to the growing demands of ocean
telegraphy, soon led to the Royal Navy to grant use of
HMS Challenger for a global
expedition. Wyville Thomson was selected as chief scientist, and the ship sailed on
December 23,
1872. A detailed description of the voyage is available on the
Challenger expedition page.
Aftermath
The Challenger Expedition was deemed a great success, and on his return Wyville Thomson received a number of academic honours, as well as a
knighthood. In 1877 he published two volumes,
The Voyage of the Challenger in the Atlantic, a preliminary account of the results of the voyage. He spent the next two years working on administrative duties connected with the publication of the full
monograph of the voyage. Wyville Thomson had a highly strung mentality, and his health was generally poor throughout his life. He found dealing with publishers over the requirements of publishing 50 volumes of detailed illustration and scientific description enormously stressful. In 1879 he ceased to perform his university duties, gave up overseeing the reports of the expedition in 1881, took to his bed and died a broken man at Bonsyde on
March 10,
1882. The publishing was finally completed by his friend and colleague Sir
John Murray. Wyville Thomson is commemorated in the stained glass window above the altar in
St. Michael's Parish Church, Linlithgow. In addition the
Wyville-Thomson Ridge in the
North Atlantic Ocean is named after him.
Further Information
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