Fleeming Jenkin

Fleeming Jenkin (1833 - 1885)

Jenkin was a prominent engineer at the University of Edinburgh, who among other accomplishments planned the laying of the first Trans-Atlantic telegraphic cable. His review of Darwin's "Origin of Species" in 1860, in which he argued that the accepted theory of blending inheritance meant that any favourable characters that arose in a population would be diluted out of existance over time. Darwin said that this argument against his theory troubled him more than any other.


Text material ©2018 by Steven M. Carr