Josiah Clark Nott (1804 - 1873) was an American
physicianA physician — also known as medical practitioner, doctor of medicine, medical doctor, or simply doctor — practices the ancient profession of medicine, which is concerned with maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease or injury...
and
surgeonIn medicine, a surgeon is a person who performs surgery. Surgery is a broad category of invasive medical treatment that involves the cutting of a body, whether human or animal, for a specific reason such to remove a diseased organ or to repair a tear or breakage. Surgeons may be medical doctors,...
. He was also acal]],
yellow feverYellow fever is an acute viral disease. The virus, a 40 to 50 nm enveloped RNA virus of the family of Flaviviridae is transmitted by the bite of mosquitoes...
, and race theories.
Josiah Nott was born in
South CarolinaSouth Carolina is a U.S. state that borders Georgia to the south and North Carolina to the north. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence from the British Crown during the American Revolution. The colony was...
, son of the
FederalistThe Federalist Party was an American political party in the period 1792 to 1816, with remnants lasting into the 1820s. The Federalists controlled the federal government until 1801. The party was formed by Alexander Hamilton, who, during George Washington's first term, built a network of...
politician and judge
Abraham NottAbraham Nott was a United States Representative from South Carolina. Born in Saybrook, Connecticut, he was educated in early life by a private teacher. He graduated from Yale College in 1787 and in 1788 moved to McIntosh County, Georgia, where he became a private tutor for one year. He moved to...
. He received his medical degree from the
University of PennsylvaniaThe University of Pennsylvania is a private research university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, and is one of several institutions that claims to have been the first university in America...
in 1827 and completed his post-graduate training in Paris, France. He moved to
MobileMobile is the third most populous city in the Southern U.S. state of Alabama and is the county seat of Mobile County. It is located on the Mobile River and the central Gulf Coast of the United States. The population within the city limits was 198,915 during the 2000 census...
,
AlabamaAlabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States of America. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its...
in 1833 and began a surgical practice.
Nott took up theories that the
mosquitoMosquito is a common insect in the family Culicidae...
was a vector for
malariaMalaria is a vector-borne infectious disease caused by a eukaryotic protist of the genus Plasmodium. It is widespread in tropical and subtropical regions, including parts of the Americas, Asia, and Africa. Each year, there are approximately 350–500 million cases of malaria, killing between one and...
, held by
John CrawfordJohn Crawford may refer to:* John Crawford , Australian economist* John Crawford , American actor* John Crawford , Canadian hockey player* John Crawford , Manitoba politician...
and his contemporary Lewis Daniel Beauperthy.
Josiah Clark Nott (1804 - 1873) was an American
physicianA physician — also known as medical practitioner, doctor of medicine, medical doctor, or simply doctor — practices the ancient profession of medicine, which is concerned with maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease or injury...
and
surgeonIn medicine, a surgeon is a person who performs surgery. Surgery is a broad category of invasive medical treatment that involves the cutting of a body, whether human or animal, for a specific reason such to remove a diseased organ or to repair a tear or breakage. Surgeons may be medical doctors,...
. He was also acal]],
yellow feverYellow fever is an acute viral disease. The virus, a 40 to 50 nm enveloped RNA virus of the family of Flaviviridae is transmitted by the bite of mosquitoes...
, and race theories.
Biography
Josiah Nott was born in
South CarolinaSouth Carolina is a U.S. state that borders Georgia to the south and North Carolina to the north. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence from the British Crown during the American Revolution. The colony was...
, son of the
FederalistThe Federalist Party was an American political party in the period 1792 to 1816, with remnants lasting into the 1820s. The Federalists controlled the federal government until 1801. The party was formed by Alexander Hamilton, who, during George Washington's first term, built a network of...
politician and judge
Abraham NottAbraham Nott was a United States Representative from South Carolina. Born in Saybrook, Connecticut, he was educated in early life by a private teacher. He graduated from Yale College in 1787 and in 1788 moved to McIntosh County, Georgia, where he became a private tutor for one year. He moved to...
. He received his medical degree from the
University of PennsylvaniaThe University of Pennsylvania is a private research university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, and is one of several institutions that claims to have been the first university in America...
in 1827 and completed his post-graduate training in Paris, France. He moved to
MobileMobile is the third most populous city in the Southern U.S. state of Alabama and is the county seat of Mobile County. It is located on the Mobile River and the central Gulf Coast of the United States. The population within the city limits was 198,915 during the 2000 census...
,
AlabamaAlabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States of America. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its...
in 1833 and began a surgical practice.
Nott took up theories that the
mosquitoMosquito is a common insect in the family Culicidae...
was a vector for
malariaMalaria is a vector-borne infectious disease caused by a eukaryotic protist of the genus Plasmodium. It is widespread in tropical and subtropical regions, including parts of the Americas, Asia, and Africa. Each year, there are approximately 350–500 million cases of malaria, killing between one and...
, held by
John CrawfordJohn Crawford may refer to:* John Crawford , Australian economist* John Crawford , American actor* John Crawford , Canadian hockey player* John Crawford , Manitoba politician...
and his contemporary Lewis Daniel Beauperthy. He is credited as being the first to apply the insect vector theory to
yellow feverYellow fever is an acute viral disease. The virus, a 40 to 50 nm enveloped RNA virus of the family of Flaviviridae is transmitted by the bite of mosquitoes...
, then a serious health problem of the American South. In his 1850
Yellow Fever Contrasted with Bilious Fever he attacked the prevailing miasma theory. Nottlost four of his own children to yellow fever in September 1853.
Nott was influenced by the racial theories of
Samuel George MortonSamuel George Morton was an American physician and natural scientist. Morton was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1820. After earning an advanced degree from Edinburgh University in Scotland, he began practice at Philadelphia in 1824...
(1799–1851), one of the inspirators of
physical anthropologyBiological anthropology, or physical anthropology is a branch of anthropology that studies the mechanisms of biological evolution, genetic inheritance, human adaptability and variation, primatology, primate morphology, and the fossil record of human evolution.Physical anthropology was developed in...
. Morton collected hundreds of human skulls from around the world and tried to classify them. Morton had been among the first to claim that he could judge the intellectual capacity of a race by the
cranial capacityCranial capacity is a measure of the volume of the interior of the cranium of those vertebrates who have both a cranium and a brain. The most commonly used unit of measure is the cubic centimetre or cc...
(the measure of the volume of the interior of the skull). A large skull meant a large brain and high intellectual capacity, and a small skull indicated a small brain and decreased intellectual capacity. By studying these skulls he decided at what point
CaucasiansThe term Caucasian race has been used to denote the general physical type of some or all of the indigenous populations of Europe, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, West Asia, Central Asia, and South Asia...
stopped being Caucasians, and at what point Negroes began. Morton had many skulls from
ancient EgyptAncient Egypt was an ancient civilization of eastern North Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. The civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh, and...
, and concluded that the ancient Egyptians were not African, but were
CaucasiansThe term Caucasian race has been used to denote the general physical type of some or all of the indigenous populations of Europe, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, West Asia, Central Asia, and South Asia...
.
Stephen Jay GouldStephen Jay Gould was an American paleontologist, evolutionary biologist, and historian of science. He was also one of the most influential and widely read writers of popular science of his generation. Gould spent most of his career teaching at Harvard University and working at the American Museum...
(1941–2002), an American paleontologist, evolutionary biologist and historian of science, studied from a historical perspective these craniometric works in
The Mismeasure of ManThe Mismeasure of Man is a 1981 book written by the Harvard paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould . The book is a history and critique of the methods and motivations underlying biological determinism, the belief that "the social and economic differences between human groups—primarily races,...
(1981) and concluded that Morton had fudged data and "overpacked" the skulls with filler in order to justify his racist opinions. Other historical studies alleging a black-white difference in brain size include
Paul BrocaPierre Paul Broca was a French physician, anatomist, and anthropologist. He was born in Sainte-Foy-la-Grande, Gironde...
, 1873, Bean (1906), Mall, (1909), Pearl, (1934) and Vint (1934).
Morton's followers, particularly Josiah Nott and
George GliddonGeorge Robins Gliddon was an American Egyptologist, born in Devonshire, England. His father, a merchant, was United States consul at Alexandria where Gliddon was taken at an early age....
(1809–57) in their monumental tribute to Morton's work,
Types of Mankind (1854), carried Morton's ideas further and claimed that his findings supported the notion of polygenism, which claims that humanity originates from different lineages and is the ancestor of the
multiregional hypothesisThe multiregional hypothesis is a model to account for the pattern of human evolution proposed by Milford H. Wolpoff in 1988. Multiregional origin holds that the evolution of humanity from the beginning of the Pleistocene 2.5 million years BP to the present day has been within a single, continuous...
. Morton had been reluctant to espouse polygenism because it was a major challenge to the biblical account of creation.
Charles DarwinCharles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist who realised and presented compelling evidence that all species of life have evolved over time from common ancestors, through the process he called natural selection...
opposed Nott and Glidon's polygenist — and creationists — arguments in his 1871
The Descent of Man, arguing for a monogenism of the species. Darwin conceived the common origin of all humans (aka single-origin hypothesis) as essential for evolutionary theory.
Nott put forth his own racial theories in 1854 in a book of essays written with George Robins Gliddon, an Egyptologist who was also a follower of Morton. Their book
Types of Mankind or Ethnological Research popularized the polygenist theory of separate origins for various races of humans. Darwin cited its arguments in
The Descent of Man as an example of those classing the races of man as separate species; Darwin disagreed and he concluded that humanity is one species. In 1856, with Henry Hotz,
Nott translated
Arthur de GobineauJoseph Arthur Comte de Gobineau was a French aristocrat, novelist and man of letters who became famous for developing the racialist theory of the Aryan master race in his book An Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races...
's
An Essay on the Inequality of the Human RacesAn Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races by Joseph Arthur Comte de Gobineau is a voluminous work; while originally intended as a work of philosophical enquiry, it is today considered as one of the earliest examples of scientific racism.Expanding upon Boulainvilliers' use of ethnography to...
(1853–55), a founding text of "biological racism" that contrasts with Boulainvilliers (1658–1722)'s theory of races.
Nott was a founder of the
Medical CollegeA medical school is a tertiary educational institution—or part of such an institution—that teaches medicine.In addition to a medical degree program, some medical schools offer programs leading to a Master's Degree, Doctor of Philosophy , or other post-secondary education. Medical schools can also...
of Alabama, established in Mobile in 1858, and served as its Professor of Surgery. In 1860 he successfully appealed to the
state legislatureThe Alabama Legislature is the legislative branch of the state government of Alabama. It is a bicameral body composed of the Alabama House of Representatives, with 105 members, and the Alabama Senate, with 35 members...
for a monetary appropriation and a state charter for the school. During the
American Civil WarThe American Civil War , also known as the War Between the States and several other names, was a civil war in the United States of America. Eleven Southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America...
he served as a
ConfederateThe Confederate States of America was a separatist political entity existing between 1861 to 1865, established by eleven southern slave states of the United States of America, each of which had previously declared their secession from the United States...
surgeon, staff officer, and hospital inspector. He lost both of his remaining sons to the war. Upon his own death in 1873 he was interred in
Magnolia CemeteryMagnolia Cemetery is a city cemetery located in Mobile, Alabama, United States. The cemetery is situated on 120 acres and was established in 1836. From that time onward it served as Mobile's primary burial site during the 19th century. It is the final resting place for many of...
in Mobile.
Works
- Nott, Josiah Clark. Sketch of the Epidemic of Yellow Fever of 1847, in Mobile. (1848)
- Nott, Josiah Clark. Two Lectures on the Connection between the Biblical and Physical History of Man, Delivered by Invitation, from the Chair of Political Economy, Etc., of the Louisiana University, in December, 1848. (1848)
- Nott, Josiah Clark, and Ralph Hermon Major. Yellow Fever Contrasted with Bilious Fever: Reasons for Believing It a Disease Sui Generis - Its Mode of Propagation - Remote Cause - Probable Insect or Animalcular Origin. Oxford: Blackwell Scientific (1850)
- Nott, Josiah Clark. An Essay on the Natural History of Mankind, Viewed in Connection with Negro Slavery Delivered Before the Southern Rights Association, 14 December, 1850. (1851)
- Nott, Josiah Clark, George R. Gliddon, Samuel George Morton, Louis Agassiz, William Usher, and Henry S. Patterson. Types of Mankind: Or, Ethnological Researches : Based Upon the Ancient Monuments, Paintings, Sculptures, and Crania of Races, and Upon Their Natural, Geographical, Philological and Biblical History, Illustrated by Selections from the Inedited Papers of Samuel George Morton and by Additional Contributions from L. Agassiz, W. Usher, and H.S. Patterson. (1854)
- Nott, Josiah Clark, George Robins Gliddon, and Louis Ferdinand Alfred Maury. Indigenous Races of the Earth; Or, New Chapters of Ethnological Inquiry; Including Monographs on Special Departments. (1857)