My article 'On Knowledge Contamination' (Sutton 2016) reveals who really did read Matthew's book and the original ideas on natural selection in it before 1858 and their relationships to Darwin and Wallace, their friends and influencers and influencer's influencers - as opposed to the myths started by Darwin that no naturalists/no one whatsoever did so before Matthew brought his work to Darwin's attention in 1860.
We know that in 1832, the naturalist John Loudon reviewed Matthew's (1831) book: Loudon, J. C. (1832) Matthew Patrick On Naval Timber and Arboriculture with Critical Notes on Authors who have recently treated the Subject of Planting. In the Gardener’s Magazine and Register of Rural & Domestic Improvements, Vol 8 (1832), pp. 702-3:
"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."
One very important
point overlooked in my article is that Darwin's notebook of publications read, which contains an alphabetical list of books read by Darwin between 1838 and 1858, records that he may well have recorded in his own hand that he intended to read the 1832 edition of the Gardener's Chronicle.
In his
notebook of books to read Darwin wrote in 1842 - in the same year he completed his first private essay on natural selection that he should read Vol 8 of the Gardener's Magazine. That volume contained
Loudon's (1832) review of Matthew's book.
Darwin wrote: "
March 12th Gardener’s Magaz. Vol 7th. & 8th. vol."
However, whilst this main volume ordering ran throughout the series, it must be added that each decade had a sub-order of volumes that began at vol 1 all over again. So we can see that volume VIII of 1832 is displayed as such:
We cannot know, but Darwin might have meant (though if he did he did not write it) that he wanted to read volumes 7 and 8 of the new 1840's decade - written as "new series". We can see how vol VIII of the new decade - "new series" - is displayed in 1842.
The fact Darwin made his notebook entry in 1842 and that Vol. 8 of the new decade was in that same year is highly suggestive that Darwin meant vol VIII of 1842.
Darwin's lies after 1860 - when Matthew's first letter to the Gardener's Chronicle
informed him of Loudon's review - and his complete lack of curiosity
regarding the conveyance
of that fact, and of the fact - conveyed in Matthew's second letter to the Gardener's Chronicle - that another naturalist had read his original
ideas and feared pillory punishment
were he to teach them, should be weighed in light of the fact that before his Origin of Species (Darwin 1859)
was completed, Darwin - apparently - did own Vol. 8 of 1832. And owned it from 1838 - the year he opened his first private notebook on evolution). I've not established the veracity of this (if its true, it's not easily verifiable online) but Andrew Norman ( 2013) p. 173 writes with great exactness and certainty that Darwin owned these. Note however, that he tells us very clearly is only what is inside the front cover of Volume 7, of 1831 when (as his writing clearly shows he knows) Loudon's review is in Volume 8 of 1832:
'Volumes 2-13 (1827-37) of Gardener's Magazine (i.e. including the 1832 number which contained the review of Matthew's book) were also to be found in Darwin's personal library. However inside the front board of volume seven (for 1831), are to be found the initials of Robert Waring Darwin, Charles Darwin's father. Clearly, therefore, these volumes (which include those for 1831-36 when Darwin was sea on HMS Beagle) were acquired by Robert for his library at the Mount in Shrewsbury, and Darwin presumably acquired them only after his father's Death in November 1838.'
NOTE If the initials RWD are not inside vol 8 of 1832 in Darwin's personal library (accepting for now the veracity Andrew Norman's confident published account that the volume is there - because I cannot detect it being their from any online accounts for the publications in Darwin's Library) that most certainly would not "clearly" mean that that one particular volume was acquired from his father's library. All that we would know however, is that at some time before his death Darwin owned a copy of the all important vol. 8 of the 1832 Gardener's Magazine, containing Loudon's most telling review. The most telling question I have at the moment is to ask why Andrew Norman does not tell us what is or is not inside the front board - and elsewhere - on Vol 8 (1832) if it is actually in Darwin's personal library collection. If it is there then the
Darwin Library project has not yet scanned it and has not listed it. If it is there, it is essential - in the interests of the veracious history of scientific discovery - that the entire volume, and in particular Loudon's review, is scrutinised for any annotations by Darwin or anyone else.
Further Dysology attached to this story
At the time of writing a website of The University of South Carolina has confused the Gardener's Chronicle with the Gardener's Magazine
They write:
And Who Was Patrick Mathew?
Shortly before Darwin set out on his voyage with the Beagle, this book by an otherwise unknown Scottish orchardman and Chartist, Patrick Mathew (1790-1874), anticipated by nearly thirty years the theory we know as natural selection. As Darwin later asserted, he could hardly be expected to know of Mathew’s work, when it had appeared as an appendix to a book on a different subject (but Mathew’s book was reviewed in the Gardener’s Chronicle, and Darwin did get old copies of that forwarded to him on his voyage . . .).
