Open AccessVI. Mathematical contributions to the theory of evolution. —VI. Genetic (reproductive) selection: Inheritance of fertility in man, and of fecundity in thoroughbred racehorses
Publication year - 1899
Publication title -
philosophical transactions of the royal society of london. series a, containing papers of a mathematical or physical character
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2053-9258
pISSN - 0264-3952
DOI - 10.1098/rsta.1899.0006
Subject(s) - fecundity , fertility , selection (genetic algorithm) , inheritance (genetic algorithm) , character (mathematics) , biology , evolutionary biology , constant (computer programming) , statistics , demography , genealogy , mathematical economics , econometrics , mathematics , genetics , population , computer science , sociology , history , artificial intelligence , geometry , gene , programming language
I understand by afactor ofevolution any source of progressive change in the constants—mean values, variabilities, correlations—which suffice to define an organ or character, or the interrelations of a group of organs or characters, at any stage in any form of life. To demonstrate the existence of such a factor we require to show more than the plausibility of its effectiveness, we need that a numerical measure of the changes in the organic constants shall be obtained from actual statistical data. These data must be of sufficient extent to render the numerical determinations large as compared with their probable errors. In a “Note on Reproductive Selection,” published in the ‘Roy. Soc. Proc.,’ vol. 59, p. 301, I have pointed out that if fertility be inherited or if it be correlated with any inherited character—those who are thoroughly conversant with the theory of correlation will recognise that these two things are not the same—then we have a source of progressive change, a vera causa of evolution. I then termed this factor of evolutionReproductive Selection . As the term lias been objected to, I have adoptedGenetic Selection as an alternative. I mean by this term the influence of different grades of reproductivity in producing change in the predominant type.