Alpheus Packard writes a book: Lamarck

Longtime readers of the HPL blog know that I have two Lovecraft quirks - one to uncover exactly what the relationships and espionage of Houdini with Eddy, and Lovecraft (together) were in the 1924-1926 era, and to link Alpheus Spring Packard, Jr to the Beast in the Cave, HPL's 1904-1905 weird short story.

No smoking guns on either of these, to date, but Chrispy did uncover this little gem from 23 November 1901. This means the book circulated a good 2-1/2 years before HPL came across the notion of Mammoth Cave, and the phenomenon of devolution. Of course, today, devolution is completely discredited, but not so in 1900. Biologists were puzzled by the loss of what they believed to be higher traits - blind crawfish in caves being one of these. HPL was already trying to fathom why his sophisticated and noble Providence was being overwhelmed by swarthy skinned immigrants. (Speaking of being ripped from today's headlines? Are we so "evolved" in the 21st century?)

Back on track, here is an article pericope from the New York Tribune of 23 November 1901 speaking of Packard's new book. The writer of the book is Alpheus Spring Packard, Jr. noted biologist and senior professor at Brown University. His father, Apheus Spring Packard was well known and lauded as a professor of ancient languages. Sadly, after their deaths their memories completely faded from the record, although the late Stephen Jay Gould did mention Packard, Jr in his magnum opus of evolution.

Packard was a neo-Lamarkian, as is obvious from the book he wrote. It was an eclectic group, primarily in New England, and were holdouts of believing fully in Darwinism. It's also obvious who won that academic battle, as neo-Lamarkianism has been erased from everything except from Lovecraft's writngs which still circulate.

Later, Lovecraft was fascinated by writers such as Haeckel that assisted his - sorry to say this - racist points of view on first the Nordic-type, and later Aryan thoughts.

So, did a chance meeting or lecture by Packard lead 13 year old Lovecraft to race to the library and study harder than he had to that point in order to attempt to master a new theory? Of the hundreds of caves in new England - including the one in Foster, RI, why did he reach out to write about Mammoth Cave in far off Kentucky? Stay tuned, maybe we will uncover more on this mystery.



_____

"organic evolution": Lamarck in 1801, proposed organic evolution as the explanation for the physical similarity among groups of organisms, and proposed a mechanism for adaptive change based on the inheritance of acquired characteristics.

He wrote of the giraffe:
"We know that this animal, the tallest of mammals, dwells in the interior of Africa, in places where the soil, almost always arid and without herbage, obliges it to browse on trees and to strain itself continuously to reach them. This habit sustained for long, has had the result in all members of its race that the forelegs have grown longer than the hind legs and that its neck has become so stretched, that the giraffe, without standing on its hind legs, lifts its head to a height of six meters."

Thus, acquired characteristics force evolved changes.

Contra Darwin who believed that survival of the fittest, those who have the characteristics most adaptive survive, and therefore all others begin to appear similar to those most adaptive. It is genetic driven, not adaptive driven.

The point may seem subtle, but it is profound. Only in fiction could Lovecraft's Rats in the Walls conclusion, or Beast in the Cave conclusion appear.

Hope Street High School Adminsitration (1903 ff)

Let's pause and discuss Charles Edward Tilley. Unknown how much Lovecraft knew of him, but they would have crossed paths.

In numerous journals, particularly as a member of The American Association of the Advancement of Science, Tilley of Hope Street High School is mentioned along with Winslow Upton of Brown University, etc.

In 1906's book for Phi Delta Theta we find he is still preeminent...



He has a major article in Education, Volume 27, p. 467, 1907. of which the first page is reporduced below ...



He was a Brown University Graduate ( CHARLES EDWARD TILLEY, AM Pedagogy, 1898-99.) and of Amherst College (Charles Edward Tilley Providence AB {Amherst College) 1892,Charles Edward Tilley, MA 1897 and CHARLES EDWARD TILLEY, MA, [Providence, R. L], son of Charles H. and Phebe A.)


In a Who's Who, His wife is listed as a suffrage movement member and more ...



Finally here is the list of the members of the AAAS in 1904's late edition (obviously published mid 1905 or so). Winslow Upton (Ladd Observatory and Lovecraft's mentor), John Howard Appleton (living on Angell Street), Alpheus Spring Packard (Jr) (Living on Angell Street), and Tilley (Hope High School) are all listed. Packard had just died (14 February 1905). These were all in Lovecraft's orbit.

Providence Blue Book of Society (1905)

A number of folks are listed here, notably:

_____

Prof. and Mrs. Winslow Upton
Mrs. Eleanor Stuart Upton
Professor Astronomy and Dean Brown University
Author: Star Atlas for Schools

_____

Mr. and Mrs. John Rossiter Hess
21 Oriole Avenue
Miss Clara L Hess

{This must be THE Clara Hess of the 1940's anecdotes}
_____

Mrs. Winfield S Lovecraft (nee Phillips )
Mr. Whipple V Phillips
{no adress listed}

_____

Roff. and Mrs. Hohn Howard Appleton (nee Day)
209 Angell Street
Miss Ruth Appleton
Mr. Everard Appleton
Mr. William Day Appleton
Miss Alice Walker Appleton

_____

{Chrispy continues to make a point that the then (1905) late Packard was influential in Beast in the Cave. They were neighbors, as we now can see.)

Prof. and Mrs. Alpeus S{pring} Packard {Jr.} (nee Walcott)
275 Angell Street

Summer Residence: Merepoint, ME
Miss Martha W Packard

{which might explain why HPL had less contact with this professor, plus as a biologist he traveled greatly more than a chemist or an astronomer, one suspects.}

_____
Addison Munroe is prominent:

Serendipity and HPL's Beast in the Cave

As I've stated a few times on the blog, I believe that Lovecraft wrote Beast in the Cave as an homage to Alphaeus Spring Packard, Jr. of Brown University (d. 1905), a famous biologist whose life study was centered around his discoveries in Mammoth Cave of Kentucky.

In any event, the story is of a person who gets lost on a cave tour (a near impossibility in 1904, as Mammoth Cave was one of the regions largest tourism site and well staffed with many safeguards).

*** Spoiler Warning***


The lost wanderer discovers a retro-human which played in much of Lovecraft's fiction in the years to come. It also played with Neo-Lamarkian themes, especially Lovecraft's belief in de-evolution (or devolution.) If standards were not maintained and upheld (whatever the definition of those standards) then civilization would fall apart. Thus his paranoia and xenophobia of the infiltration of adverse elements into society, and particularly Providence.

He warily eyed foreign migrations, opposed change, upheld the antiquarian standard of the American and British mid-1700's, and often chimed to the defence of the noble, but felled, South.

In any event, at the writing of this blog entry, I just finished listening to Sunday's Coast to Coast AM that talked about Big-Foot in Kentucky. Philip Spencer is an interesting Kentucky character. He lives in Anderson County, Central Kentucky, a bit between my hometown of Louisville, and Lexington. His haunts are "the Frazier Land" where many paranormal events are said to have taken place. Listening to the descriptions, I'd say they were more Fortean than paranormal.

However, it is cave country and I'm sure Mammoth Cave tendrils snake underground into Anderson County. Spencer claims that the center of many of the strange events occur near Panther Rock (down Harry Wise Road - no I haven't been there.) It's historical and legendary claim to fame was that In 1773, one Elijah Scearce, a hunter and trapper out of Fort Harrod, was saved from death, when the pursuing Indian Chief Arrowhead was killed by a panther (probably a Kentucky Wildcat). Scearce found the dead man, and buried him near a large rock - hence Panther Rock.

I'm sure that whatever research materian Lovecraft used to concocy his story was filled with stuff like this. Panthers (species lynx) were very prevalent in the mid-18th century, but were quickly eradicated. Still, many legends and hair-raising adventures were written and told about these felines.

Lovecraft wrote: I was now convinced that I had by my own cries aroused and attracted some wild beast, perhaps a mountain lion which had accidentally strayed within the cave.

Yet more to the point, during the latter hours of that Coast to Coast AM broadcast the interviewee was another Bigfoot Hunter, David Paulides. As the call-in portion of the show ensued, a caller asked if Bigfoot could be a "feral" tribe of humans. As dogs or cats become feral after several generations, couldn't the same happen to humans?

Paulides debunked that idea.

This, however, is precisely the eclectic Neo-Lamarkian idea of Lovecraft. If a fish, cave cricket, or shrimp could lose pigment, lose it's eyesight, after many generations, couldn't a human being? Adaptive attributes thrust upon an individual tribe would mutate that set of organisms (against the natural selection traits of Darwin).

So, Lovecraft's early ideas are still alive in the public's imagination!

Fishy note on Beast in the Cave

As I often relate, I believe that The Beast in the Cave was influenced by the NeoLamarkian views of Apheus Spring Packard, Jr. He worked intensively at Mammoth Cave, Kentucky and it was a notable claim to his fame when he studied the blind fish in that cave study.

NoeLarkianism has fallen out of favor. It basically states that if a species is seculded in it's ecosytem and that ecosystem traumatizes part of it, then that trait will dominate. In this case, fish in caves do not need to see light frequencies, and therefore over millions of years the eyes are useless. The controversy is that many scenarios exist whereby this does NOT happen. You can cut the tails off of a dog and yet every dog will always be born with a tail. Billions of men have been circumcised, but peple are not born uncircumcised. Despite millions of apendectomies and gall bladder removals, people are still born with those organs.

Now we have some insight in 12 January 2008 Science News.

Richard Borowsky of New York University cross bred two different unsighted cave species. That crossoing bred some % of sighted fish. Lineages of the same sepcies, long sepereated in different caves may all end up being blind, but different genes have mutated to converge on the same result. Thus pairing them off again reactivates dormant functionality.

This is called the "Scenario of Convergence".

Borowsky mixed and matched fish from 29 different caves.

Now how does one rationalize Lovecraft's fictional Lamarkianism? Perhaps the advanced species - the gods, the Old Ones - realize that humans' traits are as limited and limiting as those of blind fish. A sudden transfusion of new Dna quickly and permannnetly alters the DNA of humans to becomes Icky Ichthus men, or froggish things, or lobster clawed morphs, ar even star-headed monsters?

Stay tuned as science gets closer to solving Lovecraft's mysterious ideas.

Lovecraft's "Beast in the Cave": Antecedent?

Make special note of this passage, "In another portion of the cave is a representation of a panther upon the dead limb of a tree which is singularly correct." As is my supposition, in the first draft - due to the loss of his cat, N-man, Lovecraft first utilizes a panther in the cave, Later, perhaps under influence of Packard, Jr. and Ernst Haekel, he transmogrifies it to an albino anthropoid. (Which he uses again in Arthur Jermyn".

This was published in: Scientific_American vol 1 no 3. Lovecraft not only would have access to this, but he was an avid reader.

***
Mammoth Cave.
(From Arthur's Lady's Magazine for July.)
The scenery of Edmonson Co. Kentucky, in which mammoth cave is situated, is unusually wild and picturesque. The surface is much broken, being in fact, a succession of high hills, but a little distance apart, between which are deep and narrow valleys. The bottoms of these valleys, or ravines, are composed of a spongy, yielding soil, and are full of pits, or "sink-holes," some of them of great extent, and filled with treacherous mire, the consistency of which is little greater than that of water. The soil upon the hills is generally composed of rich vegetable mould of considerable depth, which has gradually formed upon a substratum of rock, clay, or gravel. This wide territory was formally nearly destitute of vegetation-hence it has been called the "Barrens;" but it is now covered with a luxuriant growth of timber, long grass, vines, and wild flowers of endless variety. This change has been effected by nature during the last thirty-five years. The prospect has thus been rendered more pleasing to the eye, to which is presented a view seldom surpassed in wild and solitary beauty.
Mammoth Cave is situated in one of the deep and narrow ravines above mentioned, which, gradually growing wider, extends to Green River (so called from the dark ocean colour of its waters) a large and beautiful stream flowing within half a mile of the mouth of the cavern. This cave is literally "a world within a world," so numerous are its objects of beauty and grandeur. To describe it completely would be impossible, for the best description would be but a cold epitome of its wonders. Nor will our limits allow more than a brief notice of a few of its more striking curiosities which, we trust, will not be unacceptable to our readers.
The entrance to the cave is thirty feet high and forty feet broad, the archway being composed of a thick stratum of limestone. The descent is made by means of stone steps, which lead to the floor of the "Main Cave," which is divided into two parts, separated from each other by streams of water of which we shall speak in the proper place. The cave upon this side of the river is remarkable for the gloomy grandeur and sublimity of its scenery. It abounds in spacious rooms, precipices overhanging apparently bottomless gulfs, lofty galleries, and magnificent domes, reaching upwards of hundreds of feet, which when brightly lighted, dazzle the eye with the brilliancy reflected from their crystal walls. The feelings of the beholder are those of awe, and he is over-whelmed with a sense of the immensity of the place. That portion of the cave which is situated beyond the rivers, is less grand, but more beautiful in scenery, and is characterized by the peculiar delicacy as well as the variety of the formation of gypsum, which hang from the ceiling. The general formation of the cave, however, is limestone.
The feelings of the visitor on entering the cave, for the first time, are those of awe, not unmingled with dread. If it be in the summer, he feels the cool air issuing from its mouth, as if it were the breath of some huge monster, and hears the distant sound of the hidden waterfall; fain would he penetrate with sight, before entering the darkness within, which has never yet been banished by the light of day.
After entering the broad mouth and passing the "Narrows," the "Rotunda" is the first object of note which presents itself. This is a spacious circular chamber one hundred feet in diameter, and forty feet high. When illuminated by "Bengal lights" the formations upon the walls reflect the cave in a thousand different shades of brilliancy;-the different avenues leading off in various directions, are also partially revealed, until the view is shut out by the impenetrable gloom beyond. The remains of the "Saltpetre works," which were in operation here during the war of 1813, are yet to be seen. The peculiar atmosphere of the cave has kept the wood in a perfect state of preservation.
To the right of the Rotunda is Audubon's Avenue, which is nearly as large as the main cave. In this, in the winter season are found great quantities of bats, hanging in clusters of thousands from the ceiling. Hence the avenue has been called after the celebrated ornithologist, although we cannot say that we entirely acquiesce in the propriety of the name. Beyond the "Bat's-nest," the cave grows wider and higher, from the walls of which, are huge rocky projections to which has been given the name of the "Kentucky Cliffs," from their resemblance to the cliffs on the Kentucky River. These rocks tower up to the distance of sixty-five feet. The remoter end of these cliffs assume, by degrees, the shape and appearance of a gallery, about midway between the floor and the ceiling of the cave; hence the name of the "Church-gallery." This leads to the "Church," a spacious chamber, three hundred feet square and sixty-five feet high. In the centre has been erected a stand for preaching, and meetings have frequently been held here. Beyond the "Gothic Galleries," which are elevated sixty-five feet from the floor, and which lead from the "Church," is the entrance to "Gothic Avenue," which takes its name from a resemblance between its structure and the Gothic order of architecture. The remote end of this avenue is distant two-and-a-half miles from the entrance of the cave. In this branch are the "Haunted Chambers," a series, or cluster of contiguous rooms, so connected together that the slightest noise made in one is re-echoed throughout all the rest. Beyond the haunted chambers, in the Gothic Avenue, are some splendid stalagmites and stalactites. The first and principal one is the "Port-oak Pillar" extending from the floor to the ceiling, and several feet in diameter, as if supporting the roof of the cave. A short distance beyond in the "Gothic Chapel" is another pillar of crystallized limestone. It is larger than the one already mentioned, and is called "Hercules Pillar." Its diameter is eight feet, and its surface is covered with crystals, which sparkle like diamonds in the light of the torches. Next to the Gothic Chapel, is "Vulcan's shop," with its huge limestone anvil, one of the most curious formations in this part of the cave, which boasts of many beautiful ones. Among these, the principal are the "Elephant's Head" and the "Arm-Chair." The first is an exact representation of an elephant's head; so correct is it indeed, that, at the first view it has the appearance of having come from the sculptor's hand. The second is formed by the union of a stalagmite and a stalactite. It is, in reality, a pillar, with a cavity on one side in which is a convenient seat and a foot stool. The "Lover's Leap" is temptingly near this place for reflection. It is a rock, projecting over a deep it, into which the plunge would be fearful! The name given to it is well deserved-that is, if lovers now-a-days ever leap over precipices. But I had nearly forgotton to mention the "Flying Indian," one of the greatest curiosities of the cave. This is a black figure upon the ceiling (that is perfectly smooth and white) formed by the dripping of water previously impregnated with some bituminous susbstance. This is retained and absorbed by the rock, which it has coloured; while accident has given the outlines of an Indian-with outstretched arms, grasping his bow and arrows. The position of the figure has caused it to be named the "Flying Indian." In another portion of the cave is a representation of a panther upon the dead limb of a tree which is singularly correct. Near by is the "Giant Coffin," a huge rock, fifty feet long and ten feet high, having the exact shape of a coffin. At this point is the "Acute Angle" of the cave, after turning which, you enter the "Star-chamber," decidedly the most beautiful curiosity in the cave, although there are other portions which may surpass it in grandeur.
(To be continued.)

More on The Beast in the Cave and Alpeus Spring Packard, Jr.

In the production of these cave species, the exceptional phenomena of darkness, want of sufficient food, and unvarying temperature, have been plainly enough _verae causae_. ... while the process of the origination of the new forms which have survived, or been selected by nature, is to be explained by the action of the physical environments of the animals coupled with inheritance-force.

From this point forward, whether it was The Beast in thr Cave, Arthur Jermyn, Dunwich Horror, or Colour Out of Space - or his views of foreigners and races - Lovecraft deeply held onto Neo-Lamarkism.

What is The Beast in the Cave All About?

Lovecraft came under the influence of two powerful intellectual forces. The first was the emerging weird tale found in his dark fiction sources. He read tarzan, and ghost tales, and western mysteries, and so much else. This is not much different than kids today reading comic books, watching John Carpenter movies, or reading science fiction and horror.

He also was deeply influenced by Scinetific Adventurism. It was the rage of the Edwardian era. He lept from chemsitry, to antarctic exploration, to evolution, to astronomy, to arctic geology, and more. He wrote letters to Scinetific American, and later newspaper articles, and letters to fiction magazines that disputed scientific facts.

It is explicit that he knew Upton the astronomer, and Appleton the chemist. I propose he also knew the most famous biologist in America - Packard.

Lovecraft worked hard on this little tale, and it is significantly different than anything that came before.

I believe the first version showed a cave cat (he had just lost his cat in the 1904 move), and Packard died at the same time that his grandfather Whipple did. At least within several months of each other.

The cave cat had devolved just as Packard proposed in many published sources. Notably" "1. Change in environment from light, even partial, to twilight or total darkness, and involving diminution of food, and compensation for the loss of certain organs by the hypertrophy of others.

"2. Disuse of certain organs.

"3. Adaptation, enabling the more plastic forms to survive and perpetuate their stock.

"4. Isolation, preventing intercrossing with out-of-door forms, thus insuring the permanency of the new varieties, species, or genera.

Lovecraft is "actng out" through his weird fiction science as he knows it. It would be an ongoing theme until he died.

Lovecraft, Packard, and Beast In The Cave

I submit this long extract from Packard's book: Lamarck, the Founder of Evolution

The present writer, {Alpeus Spring Packard, Jr. - CP} from a study of the development and anatomy ofLimulus and of Arthropod ancestry, was early (1870)[217] led to adoptLamarckian views in preference to the theory of Natural Selection, which
never seemed to him adequate or sufficiently comprehensive to explain
the origin of variations.

In the following year, from a study of the insects and other animals of Mammoth Cave, we claimed that "the characters separating the genera and species of animals are those inherited from adults, modified by their physical surroundings and adaptations to changing conditions of life, inducing certain alterations in parts which have been transmitted with more or less rapidity, and become finally fixed and habitual."

In an essay entitled "The Ancestry of Insects" (1873) we adopted the Lamarckian factors of change of habits and environment, of use and disuse, to account for the origin of the appendages, while we attributed the origin of the metamorphoses of insects to change of habits or of the temperature of the seasons and of climates, particularly the change in the earth's climates from the earlier ages of the globe, "when the temperature of the earth was nearly the same the world over, to the
times of the present distribution of heat and cold in zones."

From further studies on cave animals, published in 1877, we wrote as follows:

"In the production of these cave species, the exceptional phenomena of darkness, want of sufficient food, and unvarying temperature, have been plainly enough _verae causae_. To say that the principle of natural selection accounts for the change of structure is no explanation of the phenomena; the phrase has to the mind of the writer no meaning in connection with the production of these cave forms, and has as little meaning in accounting for the origination of species and genera in general. Darwin's phrase 'natural selection,' or Herbert Spencer's term 'survival of the fittest,' expresses simply the final result, while the process of the origination of the new forms which have survived, or been selected by nature, is to be explained by the action of the physical environments of the animals coupled with inheritance-force. It has always appeared to the writer that the phrases quoted above have
been misused to state the cause, when they simply express the result of the action of a chain of causes which we may, with Herbert Spencer, call the 'environment' of the organism undergoing modification; and thus a form of Lamarckianism, greatly modified by recent scientific discoveries, seems to meet most of the difficulties which arise in accounting for the origination of species and higher groups of organisms. Certainly 'natural selection' or the 'survival of the fittest' is not a _vera causa_, though the 'struggle for existence' may show us the causes which have led to the _preservation_ of species, while changes in the environment of the organism may satisfactorily account for the original tendency to variation assumed by Mr. Darwin as the starting-point where natural selection begins to act."

In our work on _The Cave Animals of North America_, after stating that Darwin in his _Origin of Species_ attributed the loss of eyes "wholly to disuse," remarking (p. 142) that after the more or less perfect obliteration of the eyes, "natural election will often have effected other changes, such as an increase in the length of the antennae or palpi, as a compensation for blindness," we then summed up as follows the causes of the production of cave faunae in general:

"1. Change in environment from light, even partial, to twilight or
total darkness, and involving diminution of food, and compensation
for the loss of certain organs by the hypertrophy of others.

"2. Disuse of certain organs.

"3. Adaptation, enabling the more plastic forms to survive and
perpetuate their stock.

"4. Isolation, preventing intercrossing with out-of-door forms,
thus insuring the permanency of the new varieties, species, or
genera.

"5. Heredity, operating to secure for the future the permanence of
the newly originated forms as long as the physical conditions remain
the same.

"Natural selection perhaps expresses the total result of the working of these five factors rather than being an efficient cause in itself, or at least constitutes the last term in a series of causes. Hence Lamarckism in a modern form, or as we have termed it, Neolamarckism, seems to us to be nearer the truth than Darwinism proper or natural selection."

An Aside: Appleton Family and Packard Family

Chrispy has no evidence, but ti may be possible that John Howard Appleton and Alpeus Spring Packard, Jr. were distantly related.

An important theologian and President of Bowdoin College, Rev. Jesse Appleton often came into close contact with the nation's educational, financial, and political elites. The most remarkable feature of his life, however, may have been the knack that his family displayed for marrying well. His eldest daughter, Jane, became the wife of Franklin Pierce, and another daughter, Frances, married the theologian and Bowdoin professor, Alpheus Spring Packard. {This is Packard, Jr.'s father - CP} Three of Appleton's sisters-in-law were similarly well connected: Ellis Means married an important minister, Rev. Teppan; Mary Means became the wife of Senator Jeremiah Mason, a supporter of Daniel Webster; and Nancy Means married the exceedingly wealthy merchant and philanthropist, Amos Lawrence.
In 1832, Rev. Appleton's youngest daugher, Mary (d. 1883), followed in the family tradition by marrying John Aiken, an attorney from Lowell, Mass., an agent for the Tremont Mills, and a significant figure in the textile industry. The couple had five children -- Jane, John F., Sarah, Alfred, and Mary -- adding to the two children, William and Charles Augustus, that John had through a previous marriage to Harriet (Adams). This marriage brought about the merger of two of the most powerful families in the region, further extending an already far flung network of family, educational, and political relationships. The family worked through this kinship network to further their interests. All of the Aiken children received good educations, with Charles and William attending Dartmouth, rather than Bowdoin.
Following the death of John Aiken, Mary moved from Lowell to live with her daughter Jennie, who had married Professor Francis H. Snow of the University of Kansas.

Lovecraft's Alleged Head Trauma as a Boy

S T Joshi has reported in a few places, notably in his Lovecraft biographies, that HPL may have had a terrible fall and blow to his head. Harold W. Munro (1) wrote of the incident (2). However, it is a FOAF tale - a friend of a friend. In this case, his wife told Munroe that as a kid (younger than HPL at the time) that, "a new house was going up, which ... intrigued the youth of the neighborhood ... the mystery of it also appealed to little Howard, who never ran with the pack but waited until near darkness when the field was clear for his solo visitations. Then came news that a boy, the Lovecraft boy, had fallen ... and landed on his head ... word followed that ... the injured head was kept packed in ice ..."(3)

Mr. Joshi, whom we must always respect greatly, says this may have led to or contributed to Lovecraft's troubles in high school.

If one deconstructs this annecdote, however, there are some suspect traits. Lovecraft's long walks at night started in his older years. Therefore it appears this may be apocraphal. Munro says Howard never ran with the pack, but we have Lovecraft's testimony that he often played games with his neighboring children. In other remarks, Munro recalled Howard was not athletic, that they argued about athletics, that Howard shunned buying a ticket from one of Munro's athletic buddies, and that Lovecraft's face had lots of ingrown hairs. These tend toward a darker perspective on his memories of Lovecraft. The nature of the story is, on the face of it, a concern. Any youth who fell and struck his head, would be hospitalized. This is a catastrophic issue, and Susan would have immediately sought aid from a number of family members and community doctors. If the blow was slight, then ice might have been used. However, if it was slight, then there is really no story. It seems clear the intention is that the famous Howard was weird, and therefore a weird story is concocted to justify it. At least that is my {CP} suspicion.

1. In an on-line version this was erroneously attributed to Harold Bateman Munroe. The link is not defunct, as best as I can determine. {CP}
2. Munro's quote comes from Joshi's biography (1990) and note 5.6 (page 660) states "Lovecraft, My Childhood Friend", Etchings and Odysseys No,2, 1983, p.104.
3. As best as I {CP} can determine this memory was recorded by Peter Canon in Lovecraft Remembered, and from a 1983 recollection. Mr. Munro would have undoubtedly been in his very late 80's or more likely 93 years old. This does not mean the story is not true, just unverified by a second source.

Lovecraft Influenced by Alphaeus (Alpheus) Spring Packard, Jr. ?

Ne·o-La·marck·ism (n-l-märkzm), n., The theory, based on Lamarckism, that response to environmental influence can be inherited and transmitted through the action of natural selection.

Packard graduated from Bowdoin College and promptly joined the survey as a volunteer entomologist at the age of twenty-two. He afterward studied with the famous biologist, Agassiz, at the Lawrence Scientific School and was professor of zoology and geology at Brown University for years. A prolific writer, he gained prominence as entomologist, paleontologist, and neo-Lamarckian. He was quite influential and was a member of the National Academy of Sciences.

Alphaeus Spring Packard, Jr. (1839-1905; APS 1878, ANSP 1876) DAB

Packard's father was equally reknowned in other fields.

As to Lovecraft, it's well established that he had acquaintanceships with many professors at Brown University. In some cases, he had the run of the campus as a youth. Many of his tutors came from Brown, and we can speculate that he attended the occassional lecture, too.