JR Logan's 1846 observations on Pulau Ubin, Singapore: Their significance for landscape interpretation

Abstract

J.R. Logan was an amateur naturalist who migrated to, and lived his working life in, the Malay Peninsula during the mid-nineteenth century. His taste for travel was insatiable and he made perceptive observations from which he derived significant general conclusions concerning the granite landforms of the Singapore area. In particular, he recognized what are today called unequal activity and reinforcement effects – the suggestion that, once in train, contrasts in activity are maintained and enhanced. But probably he did not appreciate the significance of the conclusions he had drawn and the concepts he had anticipated, with the result that when they were independently discovered or rediscovered Logan received no credit.