Charles Robert Bree (11 February 1811 – 17 October 1886) was a British physician, ornithologist and zoologist, best known for his opposition to Darwin's theory of evolution.
Biography
Born in Ambleside, Bree received his medical education at York and London. He practiced medicine in Bildeston and Stowmarket. He married Frances Elizabeth Henniker in 1845.Anonymous. (13 November 1886). Charles Robert Bree, M.D. Edin., M.R.C.S. Eng., L.S.A., & C. The British Medical Journal 2 (1350): 954.
Bree obtained his M.D. degree from University of Edinburgh in 1858, presenting the thesis "On the types and treatment of continued fever". He was elected physician to the Essex and Colchester Hospital in 1859 where he worked for 22 years. He authored books on natural history and was joint-editor of the Naturalist journal, with Francis Orpen Morris. He was a Fellow of the Zoological Society of London. Bree rejected Darwin's theory of evolution and argued for creationism. In 1872, he authored An Exposition of the Fallacies in the Hypothesis of Mr. Darwin, which was widely criticized in academic journals.Wallace, Alfred Russel. (1872). The Last Attack on Darwinism. Nature 6: 237–239.An Exposition of the Fallacies in the Hypothesis of Mr. Darwin. Reviews and Notices of Books. The Lancet. August 31, 1872. pp. 297-298.An Exposition of the Fallacies in the Hypothesis of Mr. Darwin. The London Quarterly and Holborn Review. v. 39 1872-73. pp. 254-256.An Exposition of the Fallacies in the Hypothesis of Mr. Darwin. The British Quarterly Review. v.56 1872. pp. 536-538.The Fallacies of Darwinism. The Popular Science Review: A Quarterly Miscellany. v.11 1872. pp. 291-292.
Bree was a Christian creationist who argued that proof of evolution could never be obtained. However, he did not believe that the scriptures were intended to be authorities on science and his objections to evolution were not Biblically based. He argued that Darwin's theories were speculations without evidence. Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace criticized Bree for making errors and misconceptions about evolution.Moore, James R. (1979). The Post-Darwinian Controversies: A Study of the Protestant Struggle to Come to Terms with Darwin in Great Britain and America, 1870-1900. Cambridge University Press. pp. 199-200. Wallace negatively reviewed the book in the Nature journal, stating it contained "numerous errors, misrepresentations, and misconceptions." In a letter to Wallace, Charles Darwin supported his review and described the book as "a mass of inaccuracies & rubbish"."To A. R. Wallace 27 July ". Darwin Correspondence Project.
Historian James Moore has described Bree as "one of Darwin's more philosophically-minded critics in Britain".
Selected publications
Species Not Transmutable, Nor the Result of Secondary Causes (1860) A History of the Birds of Europe, not Observed in the British Isles (1864) Volume 1 2 3 4 Popular Illustrations of the Lower Forms of Life (1868) An Exposition of the Fallacies in the Hypothesis of Mr. Darwin (1872)
References
Further reading
Bree on Darwinism. Br Foreign Med Chir Rev. 1873 Oct; 52 (104): 305–319. John M. Lynch. (2001). Darwin's Theory of Natural Selection: British Responses, 1859-1871. Thoemmes Press.