Test for Loudon-Naturalist-Blindness

Naturalist, biologist
 and polymath
John Loudon

Please be aware that it is newly discovered that readers and writers of the works produced by the so-called Darwin Industry are likely to be suffering from Loudon-Naturalist-Blind Syndrome (NLB syndrome) which is the inability to see the words "Loudon" and "Naturalist" along with a few others if those words prove that other naturalists did read Mathew's (1831) prior publication of the full original hypothesis of natural selection before Darwin and Wallace replicated it.  {Details of the 2015 discovery of NLB: here}.

The condition was initially contracted by Charles Darwin - who then spread it as a toxic super-meme in 1860, when he wrote the following words after having been informed in writing that the naturalist Loudon definitely did read Matthew's ideas:

(1) Darwin April 21 1860:  "I think that no one will feel surprised that neither I, nor apparently any other naturalist, had heard of Mr Matthew's views, "

(2) Darwin April 25 1861  (letter to the famous French naturalist Quatrefages de Bréau) : "I have lately read M. Naudin's paper; but it does not seem to me to anticipate me, as he does not shew how Selection could be applied under nature; but an obscure writer on Forest Trees, in 1830, in Scotland, most expressly & clearly anticipated my views—though he put the case so briefly, that no single person ever noticed the scattered passages in his book."

(3) Darwin (1861) wrote in the third edition of The Origin of Species:

' Unfortunately the view was given by Mr. Matthew very briefly in scattered passages in an Appendix to a work on a different subject, so that it remained unnoticed until Mr. Matthew himself drew attention to it in the Gardener's Chronicle,' on April 7th, 1860.'

A Test to self-screen for the existence of LNB

Try to see somewhere in the following texts written by Patrick Matthew the words:

1.  "Loudon" 
2.  "naturalist" 
3. "professor"
4.  "original" 
5. "discovery" 

And :

1. "He is however wrong in thinking that no naturalist was aware of the previous discovery"
2.  "origin of species".

(1) Matthew (1860) in his first letter to the Gardener's Chronicle ( Matthew, P. 1860a. Letter to the Gardeners Chronicle. Nature's law of selection. Gardeners' Chronicle and Agricultural Gazette (7 April): 312-13. Darwin Online: ) wrote:

'In your Number of March 3d I observe a long quotation from the Times, stating that Mr. Darwin "professes to have discovered the existence and modus operandi of the natural law of selection," that is, "the power in nature which takes the place of man and performs a selection, sua sponte," in organic life. This discovery recently published as "the results of 20 years' investigation and reflection" by Mr. Darwin turns out to be what I published very fully and brought to apply practically to forestry in my work "Naval Timber and Arboriculture," published as far back as January 1, 1831, by Adam & Charles Black, Edinburgh, and Longman & Co., London, and reviewed in numerous periodicals, so as to have full publicity in the "Metropolitan Magazine," the "Quarterly Review," the "Gardeners' Magazine," by Loudon, who spoke of it as the book, and repeatedly in the "United Service Magazine" for 1831, &c. The following is an extract from this volume, which clearly proves a prior claim. ..'

(2)  Matthew, P. 1860b. Second letter to the Gardeners Chronicle. Nature's law of selection. Gardeners' Chronicle and Agricultural Gazette (12 May) p. 433.) by way of reply to Darwin's reply

'I notice in your Number of April 21 Mr. Darwin’s letter honourably acknowledging my prior claim relative to the origin of species. I have not the least doubt that, in publishing his late work, he believed he was the first discoverer of this law of Nature. He is however wrong in thinking that no naturalist was aware of the previous discovery. I had occasion some 15 years ago to be conversing with a naturalist, a professor of a celebrated university, and he told me he had been reading my work “Naval Timber,” but that he could not bring such views before his class or uphold them publicly from fear of the cutty-stool, a sort of pillory punishment, not in the market-place and not devised for this offence, but generally practised a little more than half a century ago. It was at least in part this spirit of resistance to scientific doctrine that caused my work to be voted unfit for the public library of the fair city itself. The age was not ripe for such ideas, nor do I believe is the present one,..'

(3) Before going on to edit two of Blyth's influential articles on evolution (which greatly influenced Darwin) The famous naturalist and biologist John Loudon’s review (1832): of Matthew's (1831) book contained the following sentence:

‘One of the subjects discussed in this appendix is the puzzling one, of the origin of species and varieties; and if the author has hereon originated no original views (and of this we are far from certain), he has certainly exhibited his own in an original manner.’

 How did you do?

 If you cannot see the five words and two phrases then there most definitely is something wrong with the wiring in your brain. We are working on a cure. Meanwhile, to reduce NLB infection rates you are advised not to write anything on the topic of the discovery of natural selection.

Please note that if you are not infected with NLB, you can receive lifetime immunity by reading Nullius in Verba: Darwin's greatest secret - available worldwide from all Amazon books stores.

Famous Sufferers of Loudon-Naturalist-Blind Syndrome

In addition to Charles Darwin, other there are many other highly famous and less famous sufferers of LNB. Sufferers include the world's leading Darwinist Sir Gavin de Beer  - Royal Society Darwin Medal winner - who wrote in his Wilkins Lecture for the Royal Society (de Beer 1962 on page 333): 

"...William Charles Wells and Patrick Matthew were predecessors who had actually published the principle of natural selection in obscure places where their works remained completely unnoticed until Darwin and Wallace reawakened interest in the subject.'

Top Darwinist Ernst Mayr was another sufferer (Mayr 1982 The Growth of Biological Thought: Diversity, Evolution and Inheritance p.499) :

'The person who has the soundest claim for priority in establishing a theory or evolution by natural selection is Patrick Matthew (1790-1874). He was a wealthy landowner in Scotland, very well read and well traveled (Wells 1974). His views on evolution and natural selection were published in a number of notes in an appendix to his work On Naval Timber and Arboriculture (1831). These notes have virtually no relation to the subject matter of the book, and it is therefore not surprising that neither Darwin nor any other biologist had ever encountered them until Matthew brought forward his claims in an article in 1860 in the Gardener's Chronicle.''

Richard Dawkins is the equivalent of Typhoid Mary when it comes spreading claptrap about the discovery of natural selection. He has Loudon Naturalist Blindness in its advanced stage, Stage III sufferers lose the ability to understand the meaning of the concepts "history"  and "context" {here}.

Dr Mike Weale (Reader in statistical genetics at Kings College London) who wrote in debate on September 21st 2015 on his Patrick Matthew Project website {here}:

"Darwin would have checked very carefully to make sure there really was no-one else who had read Matthew’s passages relating to evolution by natural selection. I disagree. It would have been a Herculean task for Darwin to have checked with every single naturalist personally, and unnecessary. If there were any “Matthew readers” out there, all they needed to do was to declare themselves. Darwin left some room for doubt in his original letter (“apparently no other naturalist…”). By the time the “Historical Sketch” came out a year later, no-one had declared themselves, and so the doubt was removed (“it remained unnoticed”). Thus, I continue to assert that there is a plausible, innocent interpretation of what Darwin wrote."

POSTSCRIPT (6th January 2016): Loudon Naturalist Blindness has a neuroscience psychological explanation known as blindsight  Read the facts, providing you are able to actually see them, here.