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.