Familiar Quotation

[Gregory Matthews]

The following quotation will probably sound familiar to many reading this post.  It was written in  1858 by an Englishman, scientist and naturalist.  On one of his travels, of which he wrote a book, he traveled 1,000 miles up the Amazon River in South America.  He authored the quotation below after reading a book by Thomas Malthus.  His finding were presented, in a paper he wrote to the Linnean Society in London  in 1858.

Who was the author of the probably, familiar sounding quotation, below:

NOTE:  This is just basic Science History 101.

 

It occurred to me to ask the question, Why do some die and some live?  And the answer was clearly, that on the whole the best fitted lived.   From the effects of disease the most healthy escaped; from enemies, the strongest, the swiftest, or the most cunning:  from famine, the best hunters or those with the best digestion; and so on.

Then, I at once variability of all living things would furnish the material from which, by the mere weeding out of those less adapted to the actual conditions, the fittest alone would continue the race. 

There suddenly flashed upon me the idea of the survival of the  fittest. 

The more I thought over it, the more I became convinced that I had at length found the long-sought-for law of nature that solved the problem of the Origin of Species.

[Gregory Matthews]

O.K.  I will give you some help:

*  The majority of the clues point to Charles Darwin.  So, the questions now is:  Are those clues distractors who also point to another person?

*  There are two (2) red-flags that  seem to point to someone other than Darwin.

    Did Darwin travel 1,000 miles up the Amazon Rivera?  We know that Darwin spent five (5) years on the Beagle visiting various laces.

    Darwin published The Origin of Species in 1859.  So, what about this paper presented in 1858?   The answer to this is that Darwin presented his views at the same      time,        1858, to the same scientific group.

* A partial answer is:  Charles Darwin did not write the quote that I have cited in the post above.  It was written by someone else.

Who was that person and what is the story behind this?

 

 

[Gregory Matthews]

O.K.  I will give the answer:  Alfred Russel Wallace was the scientist who actually wrote the quotation that I cited in the opening post.

In actual fact, the theory of evolution was conceived by two different scientists who lived at the same time and in the same English culture.   Russel was 14 years younger than Darwin.  

In actual fact, Russel was the first to begin to publish his theory of evolution.  But, Darwin had conceived it prior to Russell.  However, Darwin probably did not want to have his theory published until after his death.  He had made provision for such to happen in his Will.  With the knowledge that Russel was working on the same theory and planning to publish, Darwin knew that he had to publish if he wished to be recognized.

A "gentleman's agreement" between Russel, Darwin and the scientific community resulted in credit being given to both, but for Darwin being given the priority that exists today.

However there exist today some (a few) who object to that   agreement and continue to argue for the priority being given to Russel.

Just an interesting bit of history that interests me.