X Club

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The X Club was a dining club of nine proponents of the evolutionary "new reformation" in naturalism who supported the ideas of Charles Darwin and became increasingly influential in late 19th century science in the United Kingdom.

[edit] Origins

The publication in 1859 of Charles Darwin's book On the Origin of Species through Natural Selection brought a storm of argument, with the scientific establishment of clerical naturalists and the Church of England attacking this new development of the evolutionism that they had seen since the start of the century as an assault on the divinely ordained aristocratic social order. On the other side, Darwin's ideas were welcomed by liberal theologians and a new generation of scientists looking to make science a profession freed from the clerics. Liberal Anglican theologians who publicised their acceptance of evolution and rejection of miracles in Essays and Reviews were convicted of heresy, and when the government overturned the judgement on appeal, Samuel Wilberforce, the High Church and evangelicals organised petitions and a mass backlash against evolution. At the Anglican convocation evangelicals presented a declaration reaffirming their faith in the harmony of God's word and his works and tried to make this a compulsory "Fortieth Article" of faith. They took their campaign to the British Association aiming to overthrow the "dangerous clique" of Darwin's allies led by the ambitious naturalist Thomas Huxley.

In the two previous years supporters had nominated Darwin for the Royal Society's prestigious "Copley Medal", and this year they had a good chance of succeeding, despite the increasingly polarised debate. It was in these circumstances that Huxley decided to start a private monthly dining club at which activist scientists could come together. The first meeting was held on 3 November 1864 at St George's Hotel, Albemarle Street, London, with eight friends in attendance. The nomination of Darwin for the "Copley Medal" was voted through despite furious politicking in opposition and a row following the announcement on 30 November when the Royal Society President used his address to claim that the Origin was "expressly omitted from the grounds of our award"'. William Spottiswoode came along to the second meeting and made up the membership to nine, and the name the "X Club" was suggested by Mrs Busk.

[edit] Membership

The nine members of the X-club were:

Thomas Huxley, biologist
Joseph Dalton Hooker, director of Kew Gardens
Edward Frankland, chemist
John Tyndall, natural philosopher
George Busk, surgeon and zoologist
Sir John Lubbock, banker and archaeologist
Thomas Hirst, mathematician
Herbert Spencer, philosopher
William Spottiswoode, mathematician and physicist

These nine people were influential in the British world of science, and specifically in the Royal Society. They met once a month from 1864 to 1892, to discuss science without any religious influence. Many of the foremost scientists of the day, such as Charles Darwin, Asa Gray, and Louis Agassiz were invited to speak at these meetings. By outsiders, the club was seen as a "governing body" of science, although its members denied this.