CHAPTER III 
THE THEORY OF NATURAL SELECTION 
In 1813 a communication was read before the Royal 
Society by Dr. W. C. Wells upon the differentiation 
which exists between certain races of mankind. In 
Dr. Wells’s paper this differentiation was explained 
from the facts that, since no two individuals are alike, 
some would be better fitted than others to resist the 
diseases proper to a particular country, and would 
consequently tend to survive, whilst their less fortunate 
neighbours would perish in greater numbers. Wells 
supposed the dark races of mankind to be better 
adapted to warm climates than white races are, and 
he thus applied to the particular case of the human 
species the true Darwinian principle of a gradual 
evolution through the survival of the fittest. 
A similar view was applied to the origin of species 
in general by Patrick Matthews in a book on naval 
timber and arboriculture published in 1831. 
Both these works were unknown to Darwin at the 
time of the first publication of the ‘ Origin of Species,’ 
and it is quite unnecessary to point out that their 
existence does not in the least prejudice the value or 
originality of that great work. Their interest at the 
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