A re-assessment of Dr Robert Knox and his contribution to early evolution science

Abstract

Dr Robert Knox was publicly scorned and disgraced for his unwitting involvement in the Burke and Hare serial murders in 1828. Far less appreciated is his brilliance as an anatomist and he espoused the European movement in Transcendental Anatomy, which aimed to uncover the laws governing what we now know as evolution and the origin of species. Knox fully embraced Transcendental Anatomy during a sojourn in Paris and taught it on his return to Edinburgh, where there was a critical mass of like-minded Transcendental Anatomists. Charles Darwin spent 1825–1827 as a medical student in Edinburgh when Transcendental Anatomy was at its peak amongst the city's anatomists, and evolution – then known as transmutation – was a source of great interest and controversy. Knox intended to research Transcendental Anatomy, but this was thwarted by conflicting demands on his time in the second half of the 1820s decade and the Burke and Hare tragedy. He did, however, go on to champion Transcendental Anatomy and write extensively on it.