John Hulke

John Whitaker Hulke

John Whitaker Hulke FRCS FRS FGS (6 November 1830 – 19 February 1895) was a British surgeon, geologist and fossil collector. He was the son of a physician in Deal, who became a Huxleyite despite being deeply religious.^[1]

Hulke became Huxley's colleague at the Royal College of Surgeons. He was a long-time collector from the Wealden cliffs of the Isle of Wight, and his work on vertebrate palaeontology included studies of Iguanodon and Hypsilophodon from the Wealden (Lower Cretaceous). He became President of the Geological Society (1882–84); and was awarded Wollaston Medal in 1888. He was President of the Pathological Society of London in 1883, and President of the Royal College of Surgeons from 1893 until his death.

Life

Hulke was born in Deal, Kent the son of a general practitioner. He was educated partly at a boarding-school in England, partly at the Moravian College at Neuwied (1843–1845), where he gained an intimate knowledge of German and an interest in geology through visits to the Eifel district. Of Dutch Reformed descent, and Calvinist leanings, he held strict views: "his Protestantism was of the intolerant kind".^[2] He got on well with Huxley, whose agnosticism was also rather straight-laced. After returning from Germany he entered King's College School, and three years later commenced work at the hospital. He qualified MRCS in 1852.

Career

In the Crimean War he volunteered, and was appointed (1855) assistant-surgeon at Smyrna and subsequently during the Siege of Sevastopol. On returning home he became medical tutor at his old hospital, was elected FRCS in 1857, and afterwards assistant-surgeon to the Royal Ophthalmic Hospital, Moorfields (1857), and surgeon (1868–1890).

In 1861, Hulke first described oculodermal melanosis (Nevus of Ota).^[3] In 1870 he became surgeon at the Middlesex Hospital, and here much of his more important surgical work was accomplished. His skill as an operator was widely known: he was an excellent general surgeon, but made his special mark as an ophthalmologist. As a geologist he attained a European reputation: he was elected FRS in 1867 for his researches on the anatomy and physiology of the retina in man and the lower animals, particularly the reptiles.

He subsequently devoted all his spare time to geology and especially to the fossil reptilia, describing many remains of dinosaurs from the Isle of Wight.^[4] He had access to one of the best private collections of the day: that of Rev. W. Fox on the Isle of Wight. Hulke located a complete Iguanodon braincase in 1869, and offered it to Huxley to describe. Huxley was too busy, but helped Hulke prepare and describe it. Hulke published a string of papers in the Geological Society of London's Quarterly Review.^[5]^[6]^[7] In 1887 the Wollaston Medal was awarded to him by the Geological Society.

He was president of both the Geological and Pathological Societies in 1883, and president of the Clinical Society from 1893 to 1895 and of the Royal College of Surgeons from 1893 until his death. He was a man with a wide range of knowledge not only of science but of literature and art. In all, he published over fifty papers, 28 on dinosaurs. After his death his collection was donated to the Natural History Museum. He delivered the 1891 Bradshaw Lecture at the Royal College of Surgeons on spinal fractures and dislocations.

He was due to read the Hunterian Oration at the Royal College of Surgeons just before his death in February 1895. In the event it was delivered on his behalf by past president Thomas Bryant.

References

↑ Desmond, Adrian (1982). Archetypes and ancestors. Muller, London. pp. 134–135
↑ Anon (1895). "John Whittaker Hulke". The Lancet 146 (3758): 510–511. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(02)06687-4.
↑
↑ "John Whitaker Hulke" in Encyclopaedia Britannica 1911
↑ Hulke J.W. (1871). "Note on a large reptilian skull from Brooke, Isle of Wight, probably Dinosaurian, referable to the genus Iguanodon". Quart J. Geol Soc 27: 199–206. doi:10.1144/GSL.JGS.1871.027.01-02.27.
↑ Hulke, J. W. (1878). "Note on two Skulls from the Wealden and Purbeck Formations indicating a new Subgroup of Crocodilia". Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society 34: 377–382. doi:10.1144/GSL.JGS.1878.034.01-04.25.
↑ Hulke J.W. (1882). "An attempt at a complete osteology of Hypsilophodon foxii: a British Wealden dinosaur". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 173: 1035–1062. doi:10.1098/rstl.1882.0025. JSTOR 109396.

Sources

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "^{article name needed}". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
obit:Hulke, John Whitaker 1896 QJ Geol Soc 52

External links

Works by or about John Hulke at Internet Archive
Works written by or about John Whitaker Hulke at Wikisource
Biography in Plarr's Lives of the Fellows Online

Presidents of the Geological Society of London

19th century	George Bellas Greenough Henry Grey Bennet William Blake John MacCulloch George Bellas Greenough Earl Compton William Babington William Buckland John Bostock William Fitton Adam Sedgwick Roderick Murchison George Bellas Greenough Charles Lyell William Whewell William Buckland Roderick Murchison Henry Warburton Leonard Horner Henry De la Beche Charles Lyell William Hopkins Edward Forbes William Hamilton Daniel Sharpe Joseph Ellison Portlock John Phillips Leonard Horner Andrew Crombie Ramsay William Hamilton Warington Wilkinson Smyth Thomas Henry Huxley Joseph Prestwich George Douglas Campbell John Evans Peter Martin Duncan Henry Clifton Sorby Robert Etheridge John Whitaker Hulke Thomas Bonney John Wesley Judd William Blanford Archibald Geikie Wilfred Hudleston Henry Woodward Henry Hicks William Whitaker

20th century	Jethro Teall Charles Lapworth John Marr Archibald Geikie William Sollas William Watts Aubrey Strahan Arthur Smith Woodward Alfred Harker George Lamplugh Richard Oldham Albert Seward John Evans Francis Bather John Gregory Edmund Garwood Thomas Holland John Green Owen Thomas Jones Henry Hurd Swinnerton Percy Boswell Herbert Leader Hawkins William Fearnsides Arthur Trueman Herbert Harold Read Cecil Tilley Owen Thomas Jones George Lees William King Walter Campbell Smith Leonard Hawkes James Stubblefield Sydney Hollingworth Oliver Bulman Frederick Shotton Kingsley Dunham Thomas Neville George William Alexander Deer Thomas Westoll Percy Kent Wallace Pitcher Percival Allen Howel Francis Janet Watson Charles Holland Bernard Leake Derek Blundell Anthony Harris Charles Curtis R. S. J. Sparks Richard Hardman Robin Cocks

21st century	Ronald Oxburgh Mark Moody-Stuart Peter Styles Richard Fortey Lynne Frostick

Authority control	WorldCat Identities VIAF: 64786984 LCCN: no2015120652 ISNI: 0000 0000 1045 0241 GND: 117539643 SUDOC: 130570184

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