[page] 451

Patrick Matthew of Gourdiehill, Naturalist.

By W. T. Calman, D.Sc.

The name of Patrick Matthew is mentioned by most historians of the Evolution theory as one of those who anticipated Darwin and Wallace in enunciating the principle of Natural Selection. Matthew's views were published in 1831 in an appendix to a work on "Naval Timber and Arboriculture," and his claim to priority was fully admitted by Darwin. Apart, however, from the reference in the "Historical Sketch" prefixed to the later editions of the "Origin of Species" and in Darwin's "Life and Letters," little seems to be generally known about him, and it is perhaps not always recognised how complete the anticipation really was. Last year Professor Walther May, of Karlsruhe, published in the "Zoologische Annalen" (vol. iv. pp. 280-295) an elaborate essay on "Darwin und Patrick Matthew," in which full justice is done to Matthew's work and some biographical details are given. The article is accompanied by a portrait which is reproduced here by permission of the publishers.

By the courtesy of Professor May, I have been put into communication with Miss Euphemia Matthew, of Newburgh, who has kindly supplied me with much interesting information relating to her father, supplementing and, in some points, correcting the particulars given by Professor May.*

Patrick Matthew was born on 20th October 1790 at Rome, a farm held by his father, John Matthew, on the banks of the Tay, near Scone Palace. His mother, Agnes Duncan, was related, though in what degree is not known,

* I am also indebted, for information used in the preparation of this notice, to Mr. Francis Darwin, Mr. A. P. Stevenson of Dundee, and Mr. Thomas Bell of Balbeggie.

[page] 452

to the family of Admiral Duncan, the famous ancestor of the present Earl of Camperdown.* He was educated at Perth Academy and at Edinburgh University, but his stay at the latter cannot have been of long duration, for, on his father's death, he undertook, at the age of seventeen, the management of the estate of Gourdiehill, near Errol. This estate he inherited from the Duncan family, in whose possession it had been for more than 300 years. One of his first employments there was the planting of an extensive orchard which, I believe, still exists. In 1817 he married his cousin, Christian Nicol, whose mother, Euphemia, was a sister of Agnes Duncan. Matthew travelled a good deal on the Continent at various times. He was in France in 1815 when the news of Napoleon's return from Elba caused him hurriedly to leave the country. In 1840 he travelled in the north of Spain, and later he lived for some time in Hamburg and in Holstein, where he purchased an estate which he frequently visited in later years. He died at Gourdiehill on 8th June 1874 (his wife had died in 1857), and was buried in Errol Churchyard.

Matthew was a frequent contributor to the local press, especially the Dundee Advertiser, as well as to the Gardeners' Chronicle, Mark Lane Express, and other periodicals, writing chiefly on political and agricultural matters. He was an early and active supporter of the Chartist movement and of the agitation for the repeal of the Corn Laws. It is of interest on the present occasion to record that he attended the last meeting of the British Association in Dundee in 1867, and read a paper (not published in the annual "Report") on "Capital and Labour" before the section of Economic Science. When the scheme for bridging the Tay at Dundee was being considered, Matthew advocated what he deemed a preferable route, crossing the Tay above Newburgh and bringing the various villages on the

*The family tradition alluded to by Professor May, according which the Matthews are descended from a sister of Robert Bruce, is declared by Miss Matthew to be quite without foundation.

[page] 453

Carse in touch with the railway, and so promoting their development. He strongly protested against the inadequacy of the proposed structure, holding that it was quite unfit to resist the gales that occasionally sweep down the valley of the Tay, and these apprehensions were tragically justified a few years after his death. In his last years Matthew gave much attention to the question of exhaustion of the soil, holding that "high farming and the application of foreign arid artificial manures are fast increasing the sterility of our land."

In addition to the work on "Naval Timber" already alluded to, Matthew published in 1839 a book entitled "Emigration Fields," and, in 1864, a political pamphlet on "Schleswig-Holstein." It is on the title-page of the last-named that he describes himself as "solver of the problem of species" (see Darwin's letter to Hooker, "Life and Letters," vol. iii. p. 41).

Matthew's chief claim to remembrance rests, however, on his "Naval Timber," and it is interesting to notice, as Professor May points out, that the conception of Natural Selection is not so entirely foreign to the subject of the book as might at first sight be supposed. Matthew's main theme is naval supremacy, and the means of maintaining it. Writing at a time when the Napoleonic wars were a recent memory, he has much to say on the ennobling influence of war, and on the struggle for existence between nations. On the other hand, his experience as an agriculturist had given him a very clear idea of the importance of artificial selection (p. 106, et seq.). The conjecture may be hazarded that Matthew, like Darwin and Wallace, had read Malthus's "Principles of Population." His reference on p. 247 to "population-preventive checks" would seem to suggest this. At all events in 1831, with the misery of the "hungry forties" already in sight, the problems of over-population were forcing themselves on the attention of all men.

Matthew's views on Evolution are given, in somewhat haphazard order it must be confessed, in various passages of the appendix. He considers it not unphilosophic to-

[page] 454

hold "that living things, which are proved to have a circumstance-suiting power — a very slight change of circumstances by culture inducing a corresponding change of character — may have gradually accommodated themselves to the variations of the elements containing them, and, without new creation, have presented the diverging changeable phenomena of past and present organised existence" (p. 382). His own explanation of this "circumstance-suiting power" is given in the following passage; * —

"There is a law universal in nature tending to render every reproductive being the best possibly suited to its condition that its kind, or that organised matter, is susceptible of, which appears intended to model the physical and mental or instinctive powers to their highest perfection and to continue them so. This law sustains the lion in his strength, the hare in her swiftness, and the fox in his wiles. 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" (pp. 364-365).

 "The self-regulating adaptive disposition of organised life may, in part, be traced to the extreme fecundity of Nature, who, as before stated, has, in all the varieties of her offspring, a prolific power much beyond (in many cases a thousandfold) what is necessary to fill up the vacancies caused by senile decay. As the field of existence is limited and preoccupied, it is only the hardier, more robust, better-suited- to-circumstance individuals who are able to struggle forward to maturity, these inhabiting only the situations to which they have superior adaptation and

* Some slight changes have been made in the punctuation of these passages.

[page] 455

greater power of occupancy than any other kind; the weaker, less circumstance-suited, being prematurely destroyed. This principle is in constant action; it regulates the colour, the figure, the capacities, and instincts ; those individuals of each species whose colour and covering are best suited to concealment or protection from enemies, or defence from vicissitude and inclemencies of climate, whose figure is best accommodated to health, strength, defence, and support; whose capacities and instincts can best regulate the physical energies to self-advantage according to circumstances — in such immense waste of primary and youthful life, those only come forward to maturity from the strict ordeal by which Nature tests their adaptation to her standard of perfection and fitness to continue their kind by reproduction" (pp. 384-385).

This "law" is described as "operating upon the slight but continued natural disposition to sport in the progeny," and "in concert with the tendency which the progeny have to take the more particular qualities of the parents," giving rise to species (p. 385).

On the publication of the "Origin of Species," Matthew wrote to the Gardeners Chronicle (7th April 1860, pp. 312-313), claiming priority for his discovery of Natural Selection, and giving long extracts from his book. A fortnight later a letter from Darwin appeared in the same periodical (pp. 362-363), in which he said, "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." A further letter from Matthew appeared a few weeks later (p. 433). As Darwin wrote to Lyell at the time ( "Life and Letters," vol ii. p. 301), it was "a complete but not developed anticipation." Professor May points out that, while Wells and Prichard both preceded Matthew in recognising the action of Natural Selection, they only discussed its application to the races of mankind.* Matthew, on the other hand, brings

*See, however, Prof. Poulton's interesting essay on Prichard ("A Remarkable Anticipation of Modern Views on Evolution," Science Progress, New Series, Vol. I, No. 3, April 1897; reprinted in Essays on Evolution Oxford, 1908).

[page] 456

it forward as one of the factors in a general theory of evolution.

By the kindness of Miss Euphemia Matthew I have been permitted to see three of Darwin's letters to her father. As they have not hitherto been published, it has been thought worth while to give them here in full. The years in which they were probably written have been kindly added by Mr. Francis Darwin.

 

DOWN, BROMLEY,

KENT, S.E., June 13th [1862].

DEAR SIR, — I presume that I have the pleasure of addressing the Author of the work on Naval Architecture [sic] and the first enunciator of the theory of Natural Selection. Few things would give me greater pleasure than to see you; but my health is feeble, and I have at present a son ill and can receive no one here, nor leave home at present.

I wish to come up to London as soon as I can; if, therefore, you are going to stay for more than a week, would you be so kind as to let me hear, and if able to come up to London, I would endeavour to arrange an interview with you, which [would] afford me high satisfaction. — With much respect, I remain, dear sir, yours very faithfully, CH. DARWIN.

 

DOWN, BROMLEY,

KENT, S.E., Nov. 21 [1863?].

DEAR SIR, — Mr. Darwin begs me to thank you warmly for your letter, which has interested him very much. I am sorry to say that he is so unwell as not to be able to write himself.

With regard to Natural Selection, he says that he is not staggered by your striking remarks. He is more faithful to your own original child than you are yourself. He says you will understand what he means by the following metaphor.

Fragments of rock fallen from a lofty precipice assume

[page] 457

an infinitude of shapes— these shapes being due to the nature of the rock, the law of gravity, &c.— by merely selecting the well-shaped stones and rejecting the ill-shaped an architect (called Nat. Selection) could make many and various noble buildings.

Mr. Darwin is much obliged to you for sending him your photograph. He wishes he could send you as good a one of himself. The enclosed was a good likeness taken by his eldest son, but the impression is faint.

You express yourself kindly interested about his family. We have five sons and two daughters, of these two only are grown up. Mr. Darwin was very ill two months ago and his recovery is very slow, so that I am afraid it will be long before he can attend to any scientific subject.—Dear sir, yours truly.

E. DARWIN

DOWN, BECKENHAM,

KENT, S.E., March 15th [1871]

DEAR SIR,— I thank you for your kind letter. You show no signs of your fourscore years in your letter or in the newspaper article, which seem written with your pristine vigour. My health keeps very indifferent and every exertion fatigues me, so that I doubt whether I shall be good for much more. Your parable of the Damascus Woman is quite new to me and very striking.

I sincerely wish you a happy meeting with your son. I have many letters to write, so pray excuse my brevity, and believe me, with respect, yours faithfully, CH. DARWIN