My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This book is actually an important Darwinist and Wallacist text because it is well and compellingly written by a truly skeptical and scholarly author who, unfortunately, did not know of the fact that Wallace's publisher and editor in chief of his Sarawak paper (Selby) had read and then cited (in 1842) Patrick Matthew's (1831) full prior published articulation of the complete hypothesis of natural selection.
Moreover, the author Roy Davies failed to discover that the editor and publisher of Blyth's two highly influential articles on natural selection (Loudon) had earlier reviewed Matthew's book in 1832 and actually remarked that it may have had something unique to say on "the origin of species" no less!
Davies never knew when he wrote this book that:
- Knowledge contamination form Matthew to Loudon then to Blyth and then the Darwin appears more likely than not,
- Knowledge contamination from Matthew to Selby and then to Darwin appears more likely than not
I recommend this book for your skeptical scholarship collection.
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