Happy Birthday: Darwin-Malthus and Allen MacNeill

In It’s Darwin-Malthus Day! Allen MacNeill describes the relevance of today’s date

However, what many people don’t know is that today is also a very significant anniversary of a crucial development in Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection. On this day in 1838, Darwin

“…happened to read for amusement ‘Malthus on Population,’ and being well prepared to appreciate the struggle for existence which everywhere goes on from long-continued observation of the habits of animals and plants, it at once struck [him] that under these circumstances favourable variations would tend to be preserved, and unfavourable ones to be destroyed. The result of this would be the formation of new species.” [Darwin’s Autobiography, page 83]

Happy MacNeill-Darwin-Malthus day

In a future posting PT intends to analyze the accusations raised by some against Darwin regarding Alfred Russell Wallace.