George Britton Halford (26 November 1824 – 27 May 1910) was an English-born anatomist and physiologist, founder of the first medical school in Australia, University of Melbourne School of Medicine.
Creationism
Halford was a creationist who rejected evolution.Mozley, Ann. (1967). Evolution and the Climate of Opinion in Australia, 1840-76. Victorian Studies 10 (4): 411–430. He criticized the idea of common descent and challenged the views of T. H. Huxley. He argued that humans and apes shared no common ancestor.Numbers, Ronald L; Stenhouse, John (2001). Disseminating Darwinism: The Role of Place, Race, Religion, and Gender. Cambridge University Press. pp. 41-42 In his book on snake venom he wrote that the snake had been designed by "some omnipotent power with infinite will."
Publications
On the Time and Manner of Closure of the Auriculo-Ventricular Valves (1861) Not Like Man, Bimanous and Biped, nor yet Quadrumanous, but Cheiropodous (1863) Lines of Demarcation Between Man, Gorilla, & Macaque (1864) Thoughts, Observations and Experiments on the Action of Snake Venom on the Blood (1894)
See also Royal College of Physicians
References
K. F. Russell, 'Halford, George Britton (1824 - 1910)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 4, MUP, 1972, pp 321–322. Retrieved 3 January 2009
Further reading
Barry Butcher. (1988). Gorilla Warfare in Melbourne: Halford, Huxley and Man's Place in Nature. In R. W. Home. Australian Science in the Making. Cambridge University Press. pp. 153–167.