Patrick Matthew Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description

Patrick Matthew (20 October 1790 — 8 June 1874) was a Scottish fruit grower who had proposed the principle of natural selection as a mechanism of evolution over a quarter-century earlier than Charles Darwin did in The Origin of Species.

Table of contents

">1 Early life and "Naval Timber" 2 Matthew's theory of natural selection, and application to society 3 References 4 External links

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Early life and "Naval Timber"

Matthew was born near Dundee, Scotland to a relatively wealthy family. He was educated at the University of Edinburgh, though he did not receive a degree, and in 1807 he returned to manage his family's estate in Erol, Scotland. In the growing of fruit trees, he apparently had become familiar with problems of timber forestry, for in 1831 he published a book, On Naval Timber and Arboriculture, focusing on how best to grow trees for the construction of the Royal Navy's warships. He considered the task of be of great importance, as the navy permitted the British race to advance. Matthew had noted the deleterious effect of dysgenic artificial selection on the quality of timber, and in an appendix to the book, he elaborated on how eugenic artificial selection could be used to improve timber quality, and create new varieties of trees, and extrapolated from this to what is today recognized as a description of natural selection:

''As nature, in all her modifications of life, has a power of increase far beyond what is needed to supply the place of what falls by Time's decay, those individuals who possess not the requisite strength, swiftness, hardihood, or cunning, fall prematurely without reproducing—either a prey to their natural devourers, or sinking under disease, generally induced by want of nourishment, their place being occupied by the more perfect of their own kind, who are pressing on the means of subsistence . . .

There is more beauty and unity of design in this continual balancing of life to circumstance, and greater conformity to those dispositions of nature which are manifest to us, than in total destruction and new creation. It is improbable that much of this diversification is owing to commixture of species nearly allied, all change by this appears very limited, and confined within the bounds of what is called species; the progeny of the same parents, under great differences of circumstance, might, in several generations, even become distinct species, incapable of co-reproduction.

The importance of the Matthew's insight was apparently lost upon his readers, as it lingered in obscurity for nearly three decades. In 1860, Matthew read a review of Darwin's The Origin of Species in the Gardeners' Chronicle, including its description of the principle of natural selection. This prompted him to write a letter to the publication, calling attention his earlier explication of the theory. Subsequently, Darwin commented in a letter to Charles Lyell:

In last Saturday Gardeners' Chronicle, a Mr Patrick Matthews [sic] publishes long extract from his work on "Naval Timber & Arboriculture" published in 1831, in which he briefly but completely anticipates the theory of Nat. Selection. — I have ordered the Book, as some few passages are rather obscure but it is, certainly, I think, a complete but not developed anticipation! . . . Anyhow one may be excused in not having discovered the fact in a work on 'Naval Timber'.

Darwin then wrote a letter of his own to the Gardener's Chronicle, stating,

I freely acknowledge that Mr. Matthew has anticipated by many years the explanation which I have offered of the origin of species, under the name of natural selection. I think that no one will feel surprised that neither I, nor apparently any other naturalist, has heard of Mr. Matthew's views, considering how briefly they are given, and that they appeared in the Appendix to a work on Naval Timber and Arboriculture.

In later editions of The Origin of Species, Darwin acknowledged Matthew's earlier work, noting that Matthew "clearly saw...the full force of the principle of natural selection." Later, Matthew would claim credit for natural selection and even had calling cards printed with "Discoverer of the Principle of Natural Selection."

Matthew's theory of natural selection, and application to society

Matthew's work differed from Darwin's. Matthew believe in catastrophism, not gradual change like Darwin.

Matthew also had social views. Although he was a landowner, he was involved with the Chartist movement and published a book Emigration Fields. He believed that overpopulation, as predicted by Malthus, could be solved by mass migration to North America and the Dominians.

References

• Patrick Matthew—Forest Geneticist (1790-1874) by John E. Barker. Forest History Today, Spring/Fall 2001.

External links

• http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/matthew.html
• http://www.dac.neu.edu/english/m.walsh/mtpw/pdfs/pm_exposit.pdf

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