Arthur Keith

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Arthur Keith

Arthur Berridale Keith (born February 5, 1866 in Old Machar ( Aberdeenshire ), Scotland , † January 7, 1955 in Downe ( Kent ), England ) was a Scottish anatomist and anthropologist .

family

He was born the sixth of ten children of farmer John Keith and his wife Jessie (Macpherson) on Quarry Farm. In 1899 he married Cecilia Caroline (Gray) († 1934).

education and profession

Keith was originally supposed to work as a farmer on his parents' farm, so he didn't go to school for a while. He soon felt more attracted to science. To prepare for medical training, he attended Gordon's College at the University of Aberdeen , where he created the basis for an academic career by studying the classical languages ( Latin , Greek ). In 1884 he switched to the medical subject at Marischal College , where the influence of James Trail ( botany ) and John Struthers (1823-1899; anatomy) caused his turn to Darwinian evolutionary theory. Keith graduated from medical school in 1888 (MB).

Keith first worked for two months as an assistant at Murthly Asylum , a psychiatric institution, where, among other things, he performed post-mortem brain dissections . This was followed by an assistant position in a general practice.

In 1889 he accepted a position as the medical supervisor of a gold mine in Siam . He spent three years here, primarily engaged in collecting botanical samples, and also studied the monkeys and apes of the Thai jungle. The collected plants later formed the basis of the standard work Flora of the Malay Peninsula ( Henry Nicholas Ridley ).

Returned home, Keith received his doctorate from Aberdeen University in 1894 with a thesis on the muscular anatomy of the Catherine monkeys and was accepted into the Royal College of Surgeons (FRCS). Short study visits to University College London and Leipzig followed. From 1895 he worked as a demonstrator of anatomy at the Medical School of the London Hospital , where he and the physiologist Leonard Hill examined the mechanisms of breathing using X-ray technology. After all, Keith took over the anatomical lectures here. Keith devoted the following years mainly to the comparative anatomical study of the heart , together with the medical student and later colleague Martin Flack . The discovery of the sinoauricular knot as the primary cardiac pacemaker in 1907 established the worldwide scientific recognition of Keith.

In 1908 he was appointed curator of the Royal College of Surgeons and director of the Hunterian Museum in London.

During the First World War , Keith was mainly concerned with surgical anatomy in connection with war injuries and therapeutic proposals based on anatomical and physiological principles for muscle, bone and joint injuries.

In 1921 he was ennobled as a Knight Bachelor , from 1918 to 1923 he held the position of Fullerian professor of physiology . After a serious illness, he retired from Royal College in 1933 to live at Buckston Browne Research Institute in Downe. There he concentrated mainly on the study of skeletal finds from Paleolithic people.

Keith received numerous honors during his life (honorary doctorates from the Universities of Aberdeen, Durham , Manchester , Oxford , Birmingham ) and was a member of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1933), the American Philosophical Society ( 1931), the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the New York Academy of Sciences .

power

Keith and Flack's investigations followed shortly after Tawara's extensive publication on the AV node (1906). In the original paper from 1907, they examined the muscular connections of the individual heart sections in all classes of vertebrates (fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals, human embryonic hearts and normal and pathological hearts in adults). The morphological-anatomical study showed that the dominant rhythmic impulse of the heart movement must emanate from the muscle tissue of the sino-auricular connection: “As a result, we must assume that the impulse of the heart is transmitted in the cardiac muscle tissue, that normally the impulse in the muscles of the Sinus arises, determines the rhythm of the heart and then runs to the auricles and the ventricle, finally reaching the bulbus cordis. " Keith himself named the structure he found according to morphological aspects Sino-auricular knot (1907) ( Keith-Flack knot ) . The synonym sinus node , however, came from W. Koch (1907, 1909).

Under Keith's leadership, the Hunterian Museum developed into a Mecca for morphologists, clinicians and anthropologists. During his 25 years of activity, he enriched this anatomical collection with special collections from the fields of pathological anatomy, the anatomy of teeth and anatomical specimens from the war period (1914–1918). Keith also documented embryology , human development history and surgical failures here. He conducted successful and popular anatomical lectures and courses. During this time he became increasingly interested in the history of human evolution and diversification into different races . Paleoanthropological studies now occupied a large part of his activities, followed by numerous publications on the subject (e.g. The Antiquity of Man ).

Keith had now become an ardent proponent of the Darwinian theory of evolution , which regarded the anthropoid apes as the root of Homo sapiens . In the inaugural address to the rector's office of Aberdeen University (1930) he even advocated the harshly criticized thesis that nationalism is a potent factor in racial differentiation. (He says, "Every nation is a race in statu nascendi " - that is, if it remained isolated long enough.) Keith not only wrote a biography of Darwin (1955), he also campaigned for the preservation of Darwin's house in Downe, Kent, a.

End of the 20th century Keith came into the focus of interest again: An attempt was made to prove that he was responsible or at least complicit in the Piltdown-Mensch fraud. At the same time, sociobiology has reinforced various theses of Keith about the selective value of human aggressiveness (see e.g. I. Eibl-Eibesfeldt ).

Works

  • Human Embryology and Morphology . 1902 (6th edition 1948)
  • with Martin Flack: The form and nature of the muscular connections between the primary divisions of the vertebrate heart. In: Journal of Anatomy and Physiology . 41 (1907), pp. 172-189.
  • The Antiquity of Man . 1915.
  • The functional anatomy of the heart. In: Br Med J. 1 (1918), pp. 361-363.
  • Report on the human remains. In: HR Hall, CL Woolley, CJ Gadd, Arthur Keith: Ur excavations. I. Al- 'Ubaid. Oxford 1927.
  • Evolution and Ethics ( Memento of May 16, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) . 1946
  • A new theory of Human Evolution ( Memento from May 16, 2008 in the Internet Archive ). 1948
  • To Autobiography . London 1950.
  • Darwin revalued . London 1955.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Museum - The Royal College of Surgeons
  2. ^ Member History: Arthur Keith. American Philosophical Society, accessed October 19, 2018 .
  3. ^ Fellows Directory. Biographical Index: Former RSE Fellows 1783–2002. (PDF file) Royal Society of Edinburgh, accessed December 25, 2019 .
  4. ↑ I. Eibl-Eibesfeldt, FK Salter (ed.): Ethnic conflict and indoctrination. Altruism and identity in evolutionary perspective. New York 2001.

See also

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Keith, Arthur
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Keith, Arthur Berridale (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Scottish anatomist and anthropologist
DATE OF BIRTH February 5, 1866
PLACE OF BIRTH Old Machar ( Aberdeenshire ), Scotland
DATE OF DEATH January 7, 1955
Place of death Downe ( Kent ), England