WALKER, ALEXANDER

(b. Leith, Scotland, 20 May 1779; d. Leith, 7 December 1852), physiology.

Walker probably matriculated at the medical school of the University of Edinburgh in 1797 and certainly studied anatomy with John Barclay.¹ He seems not to have completed his studies, since no record of his receiving a medical degree exists.² At the age of twenty he went to London, where he was associated with the well-known John Abernethy at St. Barthtolomew’s Hospital. Following some difficulties there Walker returned in 1808 to Edinburgh.³ where he lectured in the Assembly Rooms to mixed audiences on general and particular science; his lectures in the Lyceum and else where were well attended by students and medical practitioners. He attracted considerable notice by instructing the students on the mode of cutting down arteries, for which he gave exact mathematical directions. Walker is listed as a lecturer in the “Extra-academical School of Medicine and Surgery” only for the year 1808.⁴

Walker was the founder and editor of Archives of Universal Science (1809). Perhaps his earliest writings on neuroanatomy are the two articles published in the Archives in April and July 1809. The final issue (July 1809), divided into major sections—science, arts, and review—contained twelve articles by Walker.⁵.

Walker’s principal training was in anatomy and his publications in this area are the most controversial; they also are most frequently associated with his name, at least in the medical community. According to P. F. Cranefied, in 1809 Walker suggested that the roots of the spinal nerves differ in function, the anterior root being sensory and the dorsal root being motor—the reverse of the actual state of affairs.⁶ Throughout his life Walker maintained his original views, which were proclaimed in The Nervous System (1834) and Documents and Dates of Modern Discoveries in the Nervous System (1839).⁷ Cranefiedl concludes that Walker was the first to conjecture that one root is sensory and the other motor, while François Magendie was the first to assign the functions correctly and to provide the experimental evidence.

Historian H. T. Buckle cites Walker and others in the use of the deductive method in physiology, although in the case noted it led to erroneous conclusions. Thus Walker was in no sense an experimentalist, as his refusal to learn from the experiments of Magendie well illustrates.⁸

Some years later Walker returned to London, where his major efforts were literary. J. Struthers records that he was connected with several newspapers and was an active founder of the Literary Gazette.⁹ Walker as a person has remained obscure; but his many books were widely read and reviewed, and many editions appeared both in Britain and in the United States. He pioneered as an authoritative and popular writer on subjects that in the Victorian era received little if any careful attention in print. Beauty in Woman (1836) still remains a striking and scholarly work, illustrated with plates from drawings by Henry Howard of the Royal Academy of Arts.¹⁰ This book, together with Intermarriage (1838)¹¹ and Women Physiologically Considered (1839), was issued in 1843 as a three-volume collection under the general title Anthropological Works. His Physiognomy Founded on Physiology (1834) is an excursion into a curious but then popular subject.¹²

In surviving letters Walker refers to his wife and family, but children are not specifically mentioned.¹³ Two poignant letters of 1850 have been preserved from the correspondence of Richard Owen, both relating to Owen’s support of Walker’s request for a Civil List pension from Lord John Russell, the British prime minister.¹⁴

In 1842 Walker returned to Leith in weakened health and was cared for by James Struthers until his death ten years later.¹⁵ The few surviving records indicate that his final years were extremely difficult.

Walker’s dogged determination is evident in much of his writing, particularly in that on the Bell Magendie controversy. Contributions in the medical area have been well documented, but efforts in other area are little known. His interests ranged widely, and his literary efforts to popularize science (as then understood) were considerable. Walker’s creative nature and sensibility to the arts are revealed in a group of works and articles. His lifelong fighting spirit sustained him during many protracted struggles with creditors and other adversaries.

NOTES

1. “Alexander Walker” appears on the matriculation roll of the University of Edinburgh medical school for 1797-1798, 1798 – 1799, and 1799– 1800. Photocopies of the 1797 – 1798 signature, those from the nine letters of 1809 – 1812, and two letters of 1850 have been carefully studied (letters, Jean R. Guild, University of Edinburgh library). There are differences as well as similarities; since the latter predominate, the current judgment favors the possibility that it was the subject of this article who signed the matriculation roll. In 1797 Walker was eighteen, certainly an acceptable age for a beginning medical student. The name Alexander Walker is very common in Scotland, however, so caution is essential in the attribution of publications and other materials bearing this name (see P. F. Cranefield, Alexander Walker, vii). A. C. P. Callisen. Medicinisches Schriftsteller–Lexicon, XX, 329, notes to Alexander Walker 2, “Med. Dr. Edinb. 1832; geb, in Schottland,” and his dissertation title: “De calore animali,” dated 12 July 1832 at Edinburgh.

Biographical data are extremely meager for Walker; the only account, by John Struthers (1867), provides no information on lineage or on Walker’s immediate family. John Walker (1731 – 1803) was a professor of natural science at Edinburgh who married late and died without issue (Fastiecclesiae scotiacanae, as noted by Jean R. Guild, University of Edinburgh library, letter, 15 Feb, 1974)–thus any connection with Alexander Walker seems unlikely. Extensive searches for obituary accounts have yielded only the brief Lancet note at the time of his death. Searches of Edinburgh newspapers of that date (The Scotsman, and others) revealed no obituary (letter, Margaret Deas, National Library of Scotland, 22 Jan. 1974), nor was one found in Art Journal for 1852 (letter, A. P. Burton, Victoria and Albert Museum library, 28 Jan. 1974).

The illustrious Alexander Walker LL.D. (1825 – 1903) of Aberdeen apparently was not related to the physiologist (obituary, Aberdeen Daily Journal, 11 Feb. 1903; letter, Ian M.Smith, (Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museum, 8 Jan. 1975); also see In Memoriam (Aberdeen, 1903), 152 – 161(letter, C. A. McLaren, Aberdeen University library, 16 Apr. 1975).

2. Walker recognized that the lack of a medical degree reduced his ability to attract students to his lectures. He desired one from “St. Andrews,” but no record of receiving it exists (Walker letters, University of Edinburgh, 1809; letter, R. N. Smart, University Library, St. Andrews, 8 Jan. 1974).

3. “In London he had had to leave the school in consequence of showing the students, after lecture, that Abernethy, instead of tying the subclavian artery, had put the ligature round the neighboring nerve-trunk. What position he had occupied at St. Bartholomew’s, or in Abernethy’s class, I am unaware, but the incident of the nerve being tied instead of the artery (on the dead subject), and Mr. Walker’s giving offence and having to leave there, in consequence of pointing it out, I have on good authority” (J. Struthers, Historical Sketch …77; also Cranefield, op. cit., v).

4. Struthers, loc. cit.; also Cranefield, loc. cit.; J. D. Comrie, History …, 628, 629.

5. Only three issues of Archives of Universal Science appeared: Jan., Apr., July 1809. The title pages all state: “By Alexander Walker, Esq., Lecturer on Physiology, Etc.” The Journal was printed by Charles Stewart, university printer and a good friend and benefactor to Walker. Most of Walker’s surviving letters are to Stewart, and they detail his financial woes.

6. The complicated story of this controversy has been ably analyzed by P. F. Cranefield (1973) in the introductory pages to the reprint of Walker’s principal work on this topic, Documents and Dates …(1839). Cranefield has also published The Way in and the Way out, Francois Magendie, Charles Bell and the Roots of the Spinal Nerves (Mt. Kisco, N.Y., 1974), which reprints all of Walker’s writings on the subject.

7. In reference to his controversy with Bell, one reviewer in 1833 stated: “You are a bold man Mr. Walker, and it is to be feared that you think too favorably of yourself. It may be true what you say, but modesty and genius are very usually twins.” (London Monthly Review, in reference to walker’s priority claims against Bell and Magendie; cited in Allibone, Critical Dictionary …, 160).

8. H. T. Buckle, On Scotland …(1970), 23.

9. An examination of early issues of Literary Gazette does not record Walker’s name among the editional or other staff listings. He did contribute a letter (signed “W”) in 1 , no. 9 (22 Mar. 1817); also in 1 , no. 10 (29 Mar. 1817).

10.Beauty in Woman is an admirable work and, following the 1st ed. (1836), was issued in at least six other printings or eds., the last being the 5th ed. by T. D. Morison (Glasgow, 1892). An exquisitely bound and deluxe copy with extra plates, prepared by the Paris bookbinder Petrus Ruban, is now in the New York Public Library. Ruban may have been active until about 1910 (see Catalogue de beaux livers …de Mr. Petrus Ruban [Paris, 1910]. Such a specially bound work with extra illustrations was a custom of certain nineteenth-century collectors, and the process is also referred to as grangerizing (letter, P. Needham, Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, 26 Feb. 1975).

11. Alexander Walker was a very early writer on heritable variation in man and in domestic animals, Intermarriage …and …and Account of Corresponding Effects in the Breeding of Animals … (1838) includes both a dedicatory letter by Walker to “Thomas Andrew Knight, Esq., F.R.S., F.L.S., President of the Horticultural Society, etc…” and a letter to Walker “…respecting his work from George Birkbeck, Esq., M.D., F.G.S.”

12. The following has been attributed– perhaps erroneously– to Walker: Natural System of the History, Anatomy, and Physiology and Pathology of Man, Adapted to the Use of Professional Students, Amatorie, and Artists (London, 1813), in 4 vols. with atlas of copperplates. No copies of this work are known (listed only in Callisen, op. cit., xxxiii, 328–329). An inquiry failed to locate a copy of the work or to verify Walker’s authorship (letter, P. A. Christiansen, University Liberary, Copenhagen, 3 Sept. 1974).

13. From this period one may note “Mrs. A. Walker” as the author of Female Beauty as Preserved and Improved by Regimen, Cleanliness and Dress … (London, 1836), also in an American ed. (New York, 1840). The title page of the 1837 ed. reads “by Mrs. A. Walker,” yet most book catalogs and library catalog cards list this under “Mrs. Alexander Walker.” Among the advertising pages at the end of the 1837 ed. of the work (p. 355) a book is listed by Donald Walker, Exercises for Ladies. The 1837 title page also states, “All that regrards hygine and health being furnished by medical friends, and revised by Sir Anthony Carlisle, F.R.S., Vice President of the College of Surgeons…”

It is possible that this was written by Alexander Walker and issued under his wife’s name, although no direct evidence exists for this supposition. The publisher, Hurst, was never utilized by Walker for his many works. One association is interesting, however; in Walker’s Intermarrige (1839 ed.) a paragraph is quoted from “Sir A. Carlisle in a letter to the author.” Anthony Carlisle was professor of anatomy at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, from 1808 to 1824.

One puzzling work is the listing Walker’s Observations on the Constitution of Women in The London Catalogue of Books (London, 1811). The author’s full name is not given, but the title reads like a work by Alexander Walker. The title is suggestive of both Beauty…in Woman and Female Beauty…

14. The first is a small handwritten note sent from Seafield, Leith, Scotland, on 16 Jan. 1850 to “Professor Owen” : “In kindly & generously supporting my memorial with Lord John Russell it is not to be forgotten that philosophers & medical men have been enlightened by my discoveries during the last forty years; that I am consequently overwhelmed with debts contracted during so long a period: and that a suitable allowance can alone support me in satisfying these, and in closing my life in peace and honour. See the three volumes of Archives of Universal Science, 1809, in the Library of the British Museum, as well as many subsequent publications from which I never deviated. I am, My Dear Sir, Your Most Respectful, Obedient and Obliged Servant, Alexander Walker.”

“Professor Owen” almost certainly was Sir Richard Owen, distinguished anatomist and former conservator of the Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons, E. H. Cornelius (letter, Royal College of Surgeons, 11 Mar, 1975) notes that this would have been a Civil List Pension, that is, a government pension awarded by Queen Victoria on the recommendation of Lord John Russell, prime minister, for services to the nation. It would have been very natural for Owen, as a leading scientist of the day, to support an application on Walker’s behalf. The letter, in the collections of the British Library (British Museum) bears a stamp mark “Et Litt. Ricardi Owen.”

The second letter, also to Owen and dated 1 Mar. 1850, was sent from Seafield and is in the Owen Collection. British Museum (Natural History). It further reveals Walker’s dire straits and again refers to the pension request.

The pension apparently was not granted, for no record exists in The Register of Warrants for Civil List Pensions, T. 38/824, or The Civil List Ledger (1850) T. 38/252. The Register of Treasury Papers (1849), T.2/208, records two such requests by Walker. Other funds, however, were made available to him. care of Rev. T. Laing of Leith (The Minute Book of the Treasury Board [1849], T. 29/539; letter, D. Crook, Public Record Office, London, 24 Apr. 1975).

15. James Struthers M.D. was the brother of John Struthers M.D. author of Historical Sketch…(1867), which included some biographical notes on A. Walker. John Struthers’ information on this point is at variance with a published record: Edinburgh and Leith Post Office Directory for 1850-1851 listed Alexander Walker as living in Seafield, but there is no mention of his living there in earlier issues of the Directory (letter, Margaret Deas. National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh, 14 Apr. 1975).

BIBLIOGRAPHY

I. Original Works. A bibliography of Walker’s publication is provided in the intro. to P. F. Cranefield’s facs. repr. (1973) of Walker’s Documents and Dates…, vii-xi; additional items and notes are provided in Cranefield’s The Way in and the Way Out…(Mt. Kisco, N. Y., 1974), 1–3, 24–25. The former lists works of questionable Walker authorship and provides a record of many eds. and printings. Only principal works are listed below; those marked with an asterisk are newly revealed (and hence are not listed by Cranefield).

The earliest include Prospectus of Lectures on the Natural System of Universal Science (Ediburgh, 1808[?]), a pamphlet; Prospectus of Two Courses of Lectures; One on Anatomy and Physiology; the Other on Pathology and the Practice of Medicine (Edinburgh, 1808), a pamphlet; Result of the Operation, Publicly Performed, in Order to Refute or to Confirm the Principle of Surgical Operation Proposed by…(Edinburgh, 1808), a pamphlet; “Theory of Phonics, Hearing, etc. Physiological Dissertation on the Functions of the Ossicula auditus, and on the Tympanic Muscles in Particular, and on those of the Ear in General,” in London Medical and Physical Journal,19 (1808), 385–414; “General physiology of the Intellectual Organs,” in Archives of Universal Science, no. 2 (1809), 167–205; “New Anatomy and Physiology of the Brain,” ibid., no. 3, 172–179; * “A Critique on the Antique Status and Those of Michael Angelo, in Which Not Only the Defects in Their Attitudes, but Also the Errors Which They Present With Regard to the Particular Muscles Brought Into Action, Are Pointed out, “ibid., no. 3 (July 1809), 224–234; “Sketch of a General Theory of the Intellectual Functions of Man and Animals. Given in Reply to Drs. cross and Leach,” in Thomson’s Annals of Philosohy, 6 (1815), 26–34, 118–124; and * “An Attempt to Systematise Anatomy, Physiology and Pathology,” ibid., 283–292.

Further works are “A Simple Theory of Electricity and Galvanism; Being an Attempt to Prove That the Subjects of the Former Are the Mere Oxygen and Azote of Air, and the Subjects of the Latter the Mere Oxygen and Hydrogen of Water,” in Thomson’s Annals of Philosophy, 8 (1816), 182–189; *a probable Walker letter in Literary Gazette (London), 1 , no. 10 (29 Mar. 1817), 146, which refers to the last number of Thomson’s Annals of Philosophy concerning an article by “Mr. Magendie” on physiological experiments on animals and criticizing Thomson for having published this article, signed “W.” ; * “Character of the French,” in Blackwood’s26 (1829), 309–314; * “Comparison of the Modern with the Ancient Romans,” ibid., 314–317; * “Character of the English, Scots, and Irish,” ibid., 818–824; * “The Picturesque,” in Arnold’s Magazine of the Fine Arts n.s. 1 , no. 2 (June 1833), 105–106; * “Cause of the Fine Arts in Greece,” ibid., 1 , no. 6 (Oct. 1833), 491–493; and “On the Cause of the Direction of Continents and Islands, Peninsulas, Mountain Chains, Strata, Currents, Winds, Migrations, and Civilization,” in Philosophical Magazine, 3rd ser., 3 (1833), 426–431.

Also see Physiognomy Founded on Physiology, and Applied to Various Countries, Professions, and Individuals…(London, 1834); reviewed in Arnold’s Magazine of the Fine Arts,4 ,no. 9(July 1834), 255; The Nervous System, Anatomical and Physiological … (London, 1834); Beauty Illustrated Chiefly by an Analysis and Classification of Beauty in Woman …(London, 1836); Influence of Natural Beauty, and of Its Defects on Offspring, and Law Regulating the Resemblance of Progeny of Parents (London, 1837),apamphlet; Intermarriage: Or, the Mode in Which, and the Causes Why, Beauty, Health, and Intellect Result From Certain Unions: and Deformity, Disease, and Insanity From Others … (London, 1838); The New Lavater, or an Improved System of Physiognomy Founded Upon Strictly Scientific Principles …(London, 1839); Women Physiologically Considered as to Mind, Morals, Marriage, Matrimonial Slavery, Infidelity, Divorce(London, 1839); the unsigned Documents and Dates of Modern Discoveries in the Nervous System (London, 1839), about which Cranefield (1973), in his reprint of this work, notes “…it has always been taken for granted that it is by Walker, and there is not the slightest reason to doubt that assumption” (p. iii); Pathology Founded on the Natural System of Anatomy and Physiology …, 2nd ed. (London, 1841); and “Purification of Edinburgh, etc.,” in Letters on the Sanitary Condition of Edinburgh (Edinburgh, 1842), cited by Cranefield (1973, p.x) from a copy in the british Museum.

Archival items include a printer’s proof of an Edinburgh lecture schedule with markings, and eleven MS letters, Nine MS letters from Walker to Charles Stewart, university printer, are held by the University of Edinburgh library; photocopies have been made available for study (letters, Jean R. Guild, reference librarian, 7 Nov. 1973, 18 Dec. 1973, 15 Feb, 1974). They consist largely of pleas for funds, but a few other matters may be gleaned from them, but a few other matters may be gleaned from them. Only a few letters are dated, but the time span appears to be about 1809-1812. They generally are not individually cited here but are referred to as the “Walker letters.”

A possible early signature (1797) occurs on the matriculation rolls of Edinburgh University medical school. No authenticated portrait is known. The National Portrait Gallery (London) notes that a portrait of an Alexander Walker by C. Ambrose was exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts (London) in 1829 (Walker would have been fifty) and that there is a drawing by Alphonse Legros of a sitter of the same name in the Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museum (letter, M. Rogers, assistant keeper, 2 Dec. 1974). A. Graves, The Royal Academy of Arts (Exhibitors, 1769-1904) (1905), 30, lists the works by C. Ambrose exhibited in 1829: no. 24, Alderman Walker: no. 274, David Walker, Esq: no. 344, Alexander Walker, Esq: no. 425, Portrait of a Lady. The Scottish National Portrait Gallery (Edinburgh) has no Walker portrait (letter R. E. Hutchinson, keeper, 25 Nov. 1974).

II. Secondary Literature. See S. A. Allibone, A Critical Dictionary of English Literature and British and American Authors …, III (Philadelphia, 1898), 1539, which cities a review of Walker’s Intermarriage (Philadelphia, 1851) in Medical Examinar and Record of Medical Science, 14 (n.s.7) (1851), 371-372; an anonymous death notice of Walker in Lancet (1852), 2 , 583, dated Leith, Scotland, 7 Dec. 1852; British Museum, Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts, 1931-1935 (London, 1967)—see 843, listing of letter from Alexander Walker, physiologist, to R. Owen (1850), item 42577, F. 273; and Catalogue of Printed Books, xxvi , microprint ed. (New York, 1967), 553-554; H. T. Buckle. On Scotland and the Scotch Intellect, H. J. Hanham, ed. (Chicago, 1970), 23, taken from History of Civilization in England, I (London, 1857); A. C. P. Callisen, Medicinisches Schriftstellar-Lexicon, XX (Copenhagen, 1834), 205-206, and Nachtrag, XXXIII (Altona, 1845), 328-329, valuable for the citations to reviews of Walker’s many works in the medical journals.

Further works are J. D. Comrie, History of Scottish Medicine, 2nd ed., II (London, 1932), 628, 629; P. F. Cranefield, Alexander Walker, Documents and Dates of Modern Discoveries in the Nervous System facs. of the London ed.(1839), with intro. by Cranefield (Metuchen, N. J., 1973)—in notes, p. vi: “Nor should one overlook, in all the polemic and eccentricity, the fact that Walker had a brilliant mind and a wry sense of humor and appears to have begun life as a first rate anatomist, while the many editions of his popular books testify to his skill as a writer” : A. Durel, Catalogue de beaux livres moderenes ed éditions de luxe, recouverts de riches reliures composant la bibliothèque de Mr. Petrus Ruban Exrelieur (Paris, 1910), in which Walker’s works are not listed; A Graves. The Royal Academy of Arts (Exhibitors, 1769-1904), I (London, 1905), 30; and Sir N. Moore, The History of St. Bartholomew’s Hospial, II (London, 1918), which makes no mention of A. Walker.

Also see The New Statistical Account of Scotland, I , List of Parishes—Edinburgh (Edinburgh, 1845), 760-782; J. M. D. Olmsted, François Magendie—Pioneer in Experimental Physiology and Scientific Medicine in XIX Century France (New York, 1944), 119, 265; J. Russell, The Story of Leith (London, 1922), 334–335, passim; J. Struthers, Historical Sketch of the Edinburgh Anatomical School (Edinburgh, 1867), 76–78—these pages quoted verbatim in Cranefield’s ed. of Walker’s Documents and Dates …,v–vi; J. Thornton, John Abernethy, A Biography (London, 1953), in which no reference to A. Walker is included; University of Edinburgh, Catalogue of the Library, III (Edinburgh, 1923), 1106; and W. Wright, “Alexander Walker—Who was He?” in Notes and Queries, 8th ser., 3 (1893), 329; no reply or comment was ever published.