Darwin not the first to moot `natural selection'?
London
PTI
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A Scottish horticulturist proposed the idea of `evolution by natural selection' 27 years before Charles Darwin, according to a UK scientist who suggests the man should be more widely acknowledged for his contribution.A new paper by King's College London geneticist Dr Michael Weale argues that Patrick Matthew deserves to be considered alongside Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace as one of the three originators of the idea of large-scale evolution by natural selection.
Matthew's version of evolution by natural selection captures a valuable aspect of the theory that isn't so clear in Darwin's version --namely, that natural selection is a deductive certainly more akin to a `law' than a hypothesis or theory to be tested, researchers said.
Matthew (1790-1874) was a Scottish landowner with an interest in politics and agronomy .
He established extensive orchards of apples and pears on his estate at Gourdie Hill, Perthshire, and became adept in horticulture, silviculture and agriculture.
Matthew's version of evolution by natural selection captures a valuable aspect of the theory that isn't so clear in Darwin's version --namely, that natural selection is a deductive certainly more akin to a `law' than a hypothesis or theory to be tested, researchers said.
Matthew (1790-1874) was a Scottish landowner with an interest in politics and agronomy .
He established extensive orchards of apples and pears on his estate at Gourdie Hill, Perthshire, and became adept in horticulture, silviculture and agriculture.
