Patrick Matthew
Scottish grain merchant, fruit farmer, forester, and landowner / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Patrick Matthew (20 October 1790 – 8 June 1874) was a Scottish grain merchant, fruit farmer, forester, and landowner, who contributed to the understanding of horticulture, silviculture, and agriculture in general, with a focus on maintaining the British navy and feeding new colonies. He published the basic concept of natural selection as a mechanism in evolutionary adaptation and speciation (directional selection) and species constancy or stasis (stabilizing selection) in 1831 but did not further publicly develop his ideas until after Darwin and Wallace published their theories of evolution by natural selection in 1859. It has been suggested that Darwin and/or Wallace had encountered Matthew's earlier work, but there is no hard evidence of this. After the publication of On the Origin of Species, Matthew contacted Darwin, who in subsequent editions of the book acknowledged that the principle of natural selection had been anticipated by Matthew's brief statement, mostly contained in the appendices and addendum of his 1831 book On Naval Timber and Arboriculture.
This article may contain an excessive amount of intricate detail that may interest only a particular audience. (October 2023) |
Patrick Matthew | |
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Born | (1790-10-20)20 October 1790 |
Died | 8 June 1874(1874-06-08) (aged 83) |
Burial place | Errol, Perth and Kinross, Scotland, United Kingdom |
Education | University of Edinburgh |
Known for | Early evolutionary theory |
Spouse |
Christian Nicol (m. 1817) |
Children | 8 |