What is Douglas Spalding?
'''Douglas Alexander Spalding''' (1841–1877) was an English [[biology|biologist]]. He was one of the founders of [[ethology]] (animal [[behaviour]]), but it took a long time before this was [[wikt:appreciate|appreciated]].<ref>Thorpe W.H. 1979. ''The origins and rise of ethology: the science of the natural behaviour of animals''. Heinemann Praeger, London 1979. Chapter 3: The British contribution to the development of ethology through the nineteenth into the twentieth century. ISBN </ref> He was born in [[Islington]] in [[London]] in 1841, and began life as a workman. Later, when he lived near [[Aberdeen]], he attended courses without charge.<ref>One of the professors arranged this.</ref> He studied [[philosophy]] and [[literature]], but after a year he returned to London. Spalding trained to be a lawyer, but contracted [[tuberculosis]]. He travelled in Europe in hopes of finding a cure. In [[Avignon]] he met [[John Stuart Mill]], and through Mill he met John Russell, Viscount Amberley. Russell was the son of the former British [[Prime Minister]] [[John Russell, 1st Earl Russell|Lord John Russell]].<ref>Russell was by then the 1st Earl Russell.</ref> Spalding became [[tutor]] to Viscount Amberley's children, including perhaps the very young [[Bertrand Russell]]. He also carried on an intermittent affair with Katharine Russell, Lord Amberley's wife. After Lord Amberley's death in 1876, Spalding returned to the continent and died there the following year. == Ethology == Spalding carried out some remarkable experiments on animal behaviour, and discovered the phenomenon now known as [[imprinting (ethology)|imprinting]].<ref>Spalding D.A. 1872. On instinct. ''Nature'', '''6''', 485-486.</ref><ref>Spalding D.A. 1873. Instinct, with original observations on young animals. ''Macmillan's Magazine'', '''27''', 282-293.</ref> This was later rediscovered by [[Oskar Heinroth]], then studied and popularised by [[Konrad Lorenz]] and [[Niko Tinbergen]].<ref>Tinbergen, Niko 1951. ''The study of instinct''. Oxford University Pr