Charles Robert Bree

Charles Robert Bree (11 February 1811 – 17 October 1886) was a British physician, ornithologist and zoologist, best known for his opposition to Darwin's theory of evolution.

Biography

Born in Ambleside, Bree received his medical education at York and London.[1] He practiced medicine in Bildeston and Stowmarket. He married Frances Elizabeth in 1845.[1]

Bree obtained his M.D. degree from University of Edinburgh in 1858, presenting the thesis "On the types and treatment of continued fever".[2][1] He was elected physician to the Essex and Colchester Hospital in 1859 where he worked for twenty-two years.[1] He authored books on natural history and was joint-editor of the Naturalist journal, with Francis Orpen Morris.[1] He was a Fellow of the Zoological Society of London. Bree rejected Darwin's theory of evolution and argued for creationism. In 1872, he authored An Exposition of the Fallacies in the Hypothesis of Mr. Darwin, which was widely criticized in academic journals.[3][4][5][6][7]

Bree was a Christian creationist who argued that proof of evolution could never be obtained.[8] However, he did not believe that the scriptures were intended to be authorities on science and his objections to evolution were not biblically based. He argued that Darwin's theories were speculations without evidence.[8] Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace criticized Bree for making errors and misconceptions about evolution.[8] Wallace negatively reviewed the book in the Nature journal, stating it contained "numerous errors, misrepresentations, and misconceptions."[3] In a letter to Wallace, Charles Darwin supported his review and described the book as "a mass of inaccuracies & rubbish".[9]

Historian James Moore has described Bree as "one of Darwin's more philosophically-minded critics in Britain".[8]

Selected publications
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Charles Robert Bree

References
  1. Anonymous. (13 November 1886). Charles Robert Bree, M.D. Edin., M.R.C.S. Eng., L.S.A., & C. The British Medical Journal 2 (1350): 954.
  2. Bree, Charles Robert (1859). "On the types and treatment of continued fever". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  3. Wallace, Alfred Russel. (1872). The Last Attack on Darwinism. Nature 6: 237–239.
  4. An Exposition of the Fallacies in the Hypothesis of Mr. Darwin. Reviews and Notices of Books. The Lancet. August 31, 1872. pp. 297-298.
  5. An Exposition of the Fallacies in the Hypothesis of Mr. Darwin. The London Quarterly and Holborn Review. v. 39 1872-73. pp. 254-256.
  6. An Exposition of the Fallacies in the Hypothesis of Mr. Darwin. The British Quarterly Review. v.56 1872. pp. 536-538.
  7. The Fallacies of Darwinism. The Popular Science Review: A Quarterly Miscellany. v.11 1872. pp. 291-292.
  8. Moore, James R. (1979). The Post-Darwinian Controversies: A Study of the Protestant Struggle to Come to Terms with Darwin in Great Britain and America, 1870-1900. Cambridge University Press. pp. 199-200. ISBN 0-521-28517-8
  9. "To A. R. Wallace 27 July [1872]". Darwin Correspondence Project.

Further reading
  • Bree on Darwinism. Br Foreign Med Chir Rev. 1873 Oct; 52 (104): 305–319.
  • John M. Lynch. (2001). Darwin's Theory of Natural Selection: British Responses, 1859-1871. Thoemmes Press.
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