Rev Prof John Fleming

1785-1857

Graduated in Divinity from the University of Edinburgh in 1805. In 1808, he participated in founding the Wernerian Society, devoted to the study of natural history. n 1824, he became involved in a famous controversy with the geologist William Buckland (1784–1856) about the nature of The Flood as described in the Bible. Fleming was a close associate of Robert Edmond Grant, who considered that the same laws of life affected all organisms. In 1828, Fleming published his History of British Animals. This book addressed not only extant, but also fossil species. It explained the presence of fossils by climate change, suggesting that extinct species would have survived if weather conditions had been favourable. Fleming was a vitalist who was strongly opposed to materialism. He believed that a 'vital principle' was inherent in the embryo with the capacity of "developing in succession the destined plan of existence." In 1831, Fleming found some fossils which he recognized as fish in the Old Red Sandstone units at Fife. This did not fit the generally accepted notion that the Earth was approximately 6,000 years old. He was awarded the Chair of Natural Philosophy (Physics) at the University of Aberdeen's King's College in 1834. In the Disruption of 1843 he left the established Church of Scotland to join the Free Church. In 1845, he became Professor of Natural History at the Free Church's New College in Edinburgh. He was three times elected President of the Edinburgh Botanical Society (1847–48, 1849–50 and 1856–57).