Edward Perceval Wright
Encyclopedia
Edward Percival Wright was an Irish
ophthalmic surgeon
, botanist
and zoologist
.
, and was taught natural history by George James Allman
. From 1852 he studied at Trinity College, Dublin
, graduating B.A.
in 1857. In that same year he became Curator of the University Museum at Trinity and, the following year, 1858, Lecturer in Zoology, a post which he held for ten years. At the same time he undertook medical studies and lectured in botany at the medical school of Dr Steevens' Hospital
, Dublin gaining an M.A.
(University of Dublin) in 1859 and an MA Ad eundem degree
(University of Oxford
). He graduated M.D
in 1862.
Wright next studied ophthalmic surgery in Vienna
, Paris
and Berlin
. In Berlin he was taught by Hermann Loew
's pupil Albrecht von Gräfe
. He practised this profession both before and after becoming Professor of Botany at Trinity College, Dublin
, in 1869, a position he held until 1905, having previously assisted William Henry Harvey
in this post. He was also appointed Curator
of the herbarium
.
In 1872 he married Emily Shaw, second daughter of Colonel Ponsonby Shaw. The couple had no children.
in 1867 he spent six months in the Seychelles
making large collections of the fauna and flora. Some animals , for instance the Whale shark
were studied in depth.
He spent the spring of 1868 in Sicily and the autumn of this year in dredging off the coast of Portugal. He joined Alexander Henry Haliday
on a later entomological expedition to Portugal
and two further natural history
trips to Sicily
, then little known. "I have still a strong harkening for Sicily were it but to set foot on the soil and breathe the air of it". Haliday died shortly after the last trip and Wright became his entomological executor after a twenty year friendship.
which he edited. He contributed articles on Irish birds, fungi parasitic upon insects, mollusc collecting,Irish filmy ferns, the flora of the Aran Islands
, Irish sea anemones, sponges, and sea slugs. More scientic work followed.
In 1857 he joined Alexander Henry Haliday
on a speleological excursion to Mitchelstown
Caves in County Galway to study the Cave insects
. One, Lipura wrightii was subsequently named for him. With Dr Theophil Rudolf Studer he reported on the corals (Alcyonaria) of the Challenger expedition
producing a report in 1889.
Also in the 1850s an exceptional assemblage of Upper Carboniferous fossil amphibians(these are very rare only two other occurrences are known worldwide) were discovered in coal measures at Jarrow Colliery, Castlecomer
. They were described by Wright with Thomas Henry Huxley.
His principal research was in marine zoology however and at the Leeds
meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science
in 1858, he, with Joseph Reay Greene
, gave a report on the marine fauna of the south and west coasts of Ireland. He was one of the earliest workers in deep water dredging at (800-900 m) at Setubal Bay
, Portugal. He also described a species of copepod
Pennella in 1870, published on Irish sponges in 1869 and on algae. The alga Cocconeopsis wrightii (O'Meara, 1867) was named in his honour.
Wright was the Secretary of the Dublin University Zoological and Botanical Association
the Royal Geological Society of Ireland
and a member of the Dublin Microscopical Club and president of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland
(1900–02). He became a member of the Royal Irish Academy
in 1857 and in 1883 he was awarded the Cunningham gold medal for editing the society's Proceedings
He died at Trinity College on 2 March 1910, and was buried at Mount Jerome Cemetery
, Dublin.
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
ophthalmic surgeon
Ophthalmology
Ophthalmology is the branch of medicine that deals with the anatomy, physiology and diseases of the eye. An ophthalmologist is a specialist in medical and surgical eye problems...
, botanist
Botany
Botany, plant science, or plant biology is a branch of biology that involves the scientific study of plant life. Traditionally, botany also included the study of fungi, algae and viruses...
and zoologist
Zoology
Zoology |zoölogy]]), is the branch of biology that relates to the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct...
.
Family, education and career
He was the eldest son of barrister, Edward Wright and Charlott Wright. Edward was educated by a private tutorTutor
A tutor is a person employed in the education of others, either individually or in groups. To tutor is to perform the functions of a tutor.-Teaching assistance:...
, and was taught natural history by George James Allman
George James Allman
George James Allman FRS , M.D., Emeritus Professor of Natural History in Edinburgh, was an eminent Irish naturalist.-Life:...
. From 1852 he studied at Trinity College, Dublin
Trinity College, Dublin
Trinity College, Dublin , formally known as the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, was founded in 1592 by letters patent from Queen Elizabeth I as the "mother of a university", Extracts from Letters Patent of Elizabeth I, 1592: "...we...found and...
, graduating B.A.
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
in 1857. In that same year he became Curator of the University Museum at Trinity and, the following year, 1858, Lecturer in Zoology, a post which he held for ten years. At the same time he undertook medical studies and lectured in botany at the medical school of Dr Steevens' Hospital
Dr Steevens' Hospital
Dr Steevens' Hospital in Dublin was one of Ireland's most distinguished eighteenth-century medical establishments...
, Dublin gaining an M.A.
Master of Arts (postgraduate)
A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...
(University of Dublin) in 1859 and an MA Ad eundem degree
Ad eundem degree
An ad eundem degree is a courtesy degree awarded by one university or college to an alumnus of another. The recipient of the ad eundem degree is often a faculty member at the institution where he or she is receiving the honor....
(University of Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
). He graduated M.D
Doctor of Medicine
Doctor of Medicine is a doctoral degree for physicians. The degree is granted by medical schools...
in 1862.
Wright next studied ophthalmic surgery in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
and Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
. In Berlin he was taught by Hermann Loew
Hermann Loew
Friedrich Hermann Loew was a German entomologist who specialised in the study of Diptera, an order of insects including flies, mosquitoes, gnats and midges...
's pupil Albrecht von Gräfe
Albrecht von Gräfe
Friedrich Wilhelm Ernst Albrecht von Graefe was a pioneering German ophthalmologist. Graefe was born in Finkenheerd, Brandenburg, the son of Karl Ferdinand von Graefe...
. He practised this profession both before and after becoming Professor of Botany at Trinity College, Dublin
Trinity College, Dublin
Trinity College, Dublin , formally known as the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, was founded in 1592 by letters patent from Queen Elizabeth I as the "mother of a university", Extracts from Letters Patent of Elizabeth I, 1592: "...we...found and...
, in 1869, a position he held until 1905, having previously assisted William Henry Harvey
William Henry Harvey
William Henry Harvey was an Irish botanist who specialised in algae.- Biography :William Henry Harvey was born at Summerville near Limerick, Ireland, in 1811, the youngest of 11 children. His father Joseph Massey Harvey, was a Quaker and prominent merchant...
in this post. He was also appointed Curator
Curator
A curator is a manager or overseer. Traditionally, a curator or keeper of a cultural heritage institution is a content specialist responsible for an institution's collections and involved with the interpretation of heritage material...
of the herbarium
Herbarium
In botany, a herbarium – sometimes known by the Anglicized term herbar – is a collection of preserved plant specimens. These specimens may be whole plants or plant parts: these will usually be in a dried form, mounted on a sheet, but depending upon the material may also be kept in...
.
In 1872 he married Emily Shaw, second daughter of Colonel Ponsonby Shaw. The couple had no children.
Travel
Wright was a keen traveller spending most vacations on the continent of Europe collecting natural history specimens andin 1867 he spent six months in the Seychelles
Seychelles
Seychelles , officially the Republic of Seychelles , is an island country spanning an archipelago of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean, some east of mainland Africa, northeast of the island of Madagascar....
making large collections of the fauna and flora. Some animals , for instance the Whale shark
Whale shark
The whale shark, Rhincodon typus, is a slow-moving filter feeding shark, the largest extant fish species. The largest confirmed individual had a length of and a weight of more than , but unconfirmed claims report considerably larger whale sharks...
were studied in depth.
He spent the spring of 1868 in Sicily and the autumn of this year in dredging off the coast of Portugal. He joined Alexander Henry Haliday
Alexander Henry Haliday
Alexander Henry Haliday, also known as Enrico Alessandro Haliday and Alexis Heinrich Haliday sometimes Halliday , was an Irish entomologist. He is primarily known for his work on Hymenoptera, Diptera and Thysanoptera, but Haliday worked on all insect orders and on many aspects of entomology.Haliday...
on a later entomological expedition to Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
and two further natural history
Natural history
Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...
trips to Sicily
Sicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...
, then little known. "I have still a strong harkening for Sicily were it but to set foot on the soil and breathe the air of it". Haliday died shortly after the last trip and Wright became his entomological executor after a twenty year friendship.
Natural history and scientific zoology
Wright had very varied natural history interests and in 1854 founded the Natural History ReviewNatural History Review
The Natural History Review was a short-lived, quarterly journal devoted to natural history. It was published in Dublin and London between 1854 and 1865....
which he edited. He contributed articles on Irish birds, fungi parasitic upon insects, mollusc collecting,Irish filmy ferns, the flora of the Aran Islands
Aran Islands
The Aran Islands or The Arans are a group of three islands located at the mouth of Galway Bay, on the west coast of Ireland. They constitute the barony of Aran in County Galway, Ireland...
, Irish sea anemones, sponges, and sea slugs. More scientic work followed.
In 1857 he joined Alexander Henry Haliday
Alexander Henry Haliday
Alexander Henry Haliday, also known as Enrico Alessandro Haliday and Alexis Heinrich Haliday sometimes Halliday , was an Irish entomologist. He is primarily known for his work on Hymenoptera, Diptera and Thysanoptera, but Haliday worked on all insect orders and on many aspects of entomology.Haliday...
on a speleological excursion to Mitchelstown
Mitchelstown
Mitchelstown is a town in County Cork, Ireland with a population of approximately 3300. Mitchelstown is situated in the valley to the south of the Galtee Mountains close to the Mitchelstown Caves and is 28 km from Cahir, 50 km from Cork and 59 km from Limerick...
Caves in County Galway to study the Cave insects
Cave insects
Caves are perhaps the most distinct and well-defined of insect habitats. A number of insects are permanent habitual inhabitants of caves, characterized by marked specializations for the extreme conditions. These are the true cavernicole species. Most caverniculous insect species are severely...
. One, Lipura wrightii was subsequently named for him. With Dr Theophil Rudolf Studer he reported on the corals (Alcyonaria) of the Challenger expedition
Challenger expedition
The Challenger expedition of 1872–76 was a scientific exercise that made many discoveries to lay the foundation of oceanography. The expedition was named after the mother vessel, HMS Challenger....
producing a report in 1889.
Also in the 1850s an exceptional assemblage of Upper Carboniferous fossil amphibians(these are very rare only two other occurrences are known worldwide) were discovered in coal measures at Jarrow Colliery, Castlecomer
Castlecomer
Castlecomer is a town in the barony of Fassadinin, County Kilkenny in Ireland.The Irish name for the town translates to "The castle at the confluence of the rivers"; the "rivers" refers to the rivers Deen, Brocagh and Clohogue while the "castle" refers to the castle built by the Normans in 1171...
. They were described by Wright with Thomas Henry Huxley.
His principal research was in marine zoology however and at the Leeds
Leeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...
meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science
British Association for the Advancement of Science
frame|right|"The BA" logoThe British Association for the Advancement of Science or the British Science Association, formerly known as the BA, is a learned society with the object of promoting science, directing general attention to scientific matters, and facilitating interaction between...
in 1858, he, with Joseph Reay Greene
Joseph Reay Greene
Joseph Reay Greene was an Irish zoologist.Between 1858 and 1877 Reay Greene was Professor of Natural History in Queen's College, Cork. He was one of the Editors of the Natural History Review. He was a specialist in Hydrozoa....
, gave a report on the marine fauna of the south and west coasts of Ireland. He was one of the earliest workers in deep water dredging at (800-900 m) at Setubal Bay
Setúbal
Setúbal is the main city in Setúbal Municipality in Portugal with a total area of 172.0 km² and a total population of 118,696 inhabitants in the municipality. The city proper has 89,303 inhabitants....
, Portugal. He also described a species of copepod
Copepod
Copepods are a group of small crustaceans found in the sea and nearly every freshwater habitat. Some species are planktonic , some are benthic , and some continental species may live in limno-terrestrial habitats and other wet terrestrial places, such as swamps, under leaf fall in wet forests,...
Pennella in 1870, published on Irish sponges in 1869 and on algae. The alga Cocconeopsis wrightii (O'Meara, 1867) was named in his honour.
Wright was the Secretary of the Dublin University Zoological and Botanical Association
Dublin University Zoological Association
The Dublin University Zoological Association was founded in 1853 to promote zoological studies in Ireland. Dublin University is now Trinity College, Dublin.It commenced proceedings in the Natural History Review in 1854.-Notable members:*Robert Ball...
the Royal Geological Society of Ireland
Royal Geological Society of Ireland
The Royal Geological Society of Ireland traces its origin to the founding in 1831 in Dublin of the Geological Society of Dublin, under the leadership of William Buckland and Adam Sedgwick....
and a member of the Dublin Microscopical Club and president of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland
Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland
The Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland is a learned society based in Ireland, whose aims are 'to preserve, examine and illustrate all ancient monuments and memorials of the arts, manners and customs of the past, as connected with the antiquities, language, literature and history of Ireland'. ...
(1900–02). He became a member of the Royal Irish Academy
Royal Irish Academy
The Royal Irish Academy , based in Dublin, is an all-Ireland, independent, academic body that promotes study and excellence in the sciences, humanities and social sciences. It is one of Ireland's premier learned societies and cultural institutions and currently has around 420 Members, elected in...
in 1857 and in 1883 he was awarded the Cunningham gold medal for editing the society's Proceedings
He died at Trinity College on 2 March 1910, and was buried at Mount Jerome Cemetery
Mount Jerome Cemetery
Mount Jerome Cemetery is situated in Harold's Cross on the south side of Dublin, Ireland. Since its foundation in 1836, it has witnessed over 300,000 burials...
, Dublin.
Works
Partial list- (1855) Catalogue of British Mollusca. Natural History Review Society (Proceedings of Societies) 2: 69-85.
- (1859) Notes on the Irish nudibranchiata. Natural History Review Society (Proceedings of Societies) 6: 86-88.
- (1859) with Greene, J.R. 1859 Report on the marine fauna of the south and west coasts of Ireland. Report for the British Association for the Advancement of Science : 176-181
- (1860) Wright, E.P. 1860 Notes on the Irish nudibranchiata. Proceedings of the Natural History Society of Dublin 2: 135-137.
- (1864) Translation of F. C. DondersFranciscus Donders-External links:* B. Theunissen. , F.C. Donders: turning refracting into science, @ History of science and scholarship in the Netherlands.* in the Virtual Laboratory of the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science* P. Eling, , Geneeskundige en fysioloog....
's The Pathogeny of Squint (1864) - (1865) A modification of LiebreichRichard LiebreichRichard Liebreich was a German ophthalmologist and physiologist who was a native of Königsberg.In 1853 he earned his doctorate at Halle, and from 1854 until 1862 was an assistant to Albrecht von Graefe in Berlin. He subsequently practiced medicine in Paris and London , where he was head of...
's ophthalmoscope in ? - (1865) Notes on Colias edusa. Proceedings of the Dublin Natural History Society 5: 7-8.
- (1866) with Huxley, T. H. On a collection of fossils from the Jarrow Colliery, Kilkenny Geological Magazine, v. 3, p. 165-171.
- (1867) with Huxley,T.H. On a Collection of Fossil Vertebrata from the Jarrow Colliery County Kilkenny Ireland. Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy Vol. 24 - Science.
- (1867) Remarks on freshwater rhizopods Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science, new ser., v. 7, p. 174-175.
- (1868) Notes on the bats of the Seychelles group of islands. Annals and Magazine of Natural History.
- (1868) Notes on Irish sponges. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 10: 221-228.
- (1870). Six months at the Seychelles. Spicilegia Zoologica, Dublin 1, 64–65.
- (1872) English translation and revision of Louis FiguierLouis FiguierLouis Figuier was a French scientist and writer. He was the nephew of Pierre-Oscar Figuier and became Professor of chemistry at L'Ecole de...
The ocean world. New York: D. Appleton.(Louis Figuier was a prolific writer on scientific and technological matters for the general public. Much of the scientific information in the novels of Jules VerneJules VerneJules Gabriel Verne was a French author who pioneered the science fiction genre. He is best known for his novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea , A Journey to the Center of the Earth , and Around the World in Eighty Days...
was taken from his work. Wright's translations earned substantial royaltiesRoyaltiesRoyalties are usage-based payments made by one party to another for the right to ongoing use of an asset, sometimes an intellectual property...
). - (1875) English translation and revision of Louis Figuier Mammalia, Their Various Forms and Habits London, Cassell & Company, Ltd. Reprinted until 1892.
- (1877). On a new genus and species of sponge Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, ser. 2, v. 2, p. 754-757, pl. 40.
- (1889) with Studer, T. Report on the Alcyonaria -Voyage of H.M.S. Challenger Zoology 31, i–lxxvii + 1.– 314.
- (1896) The herbarium of Trinity College, a retrospect Notes from the Botanical School of Trinity College, Dublin, 1, 1–14