Ronald Campbell Macfie
Encyclopedia
Ronald Campbell Macfie was a Scottish medical doctor, and science writer specialising in eugenics
and Darwinist selection, sometime Liberal Member of British Parliament mentioned in The Bookman Treasury of Living Poets (4th edition 1931) as a contributor to such works as Fairy Tales for Old and Young (1909), and The Golden Treasury of Scottish Poetry
(1940) Among his works are Man’s Record in the Rocks My Magazine May 1921 The Art of Keeping well Cassell & Co. 1918/The Vegetarian Society and Evolutionary Consequences of War (cited below)
Campbell Macfie suggested that that male war deaths (during World War I
) would create a surplus of fertile women, thus reducing the overall birthrate whilst the surviving men would select partners from a wide range of 'surplus' females according to eugenically (sexually) attractive characteristics. He averred that:
"Nature has wisely arranged that men should be attracted (to women) by characteristics that imply a superior capacity for motherhood... (thus)...every war will do something to set up evolutionary tendencies opposite to its own, brutal, truculent, anti-social spirit"
Eugenics
Eugenics is the "applied science or the bio-social movement which advocates the use of practices aimed at improving the genetic composition of a population", usually referring to human populations. The origins of the concept of eugenics began with certain interpretations of Mendelian inheritance,...
and Darwinist selection, sometime Liberal Member of British Parliament mentioned in The Bookman Treasury of Living Poets (4th edition 1931) as a contributor to such works as Fairy Tales for Old and Young (1909), and The Golden Treasury of Scottish Poetry
Golden Treasury of Scottish Poetry
The Golden Treasury of Scottish Poetry was edited by Hugh MacDiarmid, and published in 1940. From the introduction:The difference … between this anthology and all previous anthologies of Scottish poetry — is that some little effort has been made to present an "all-in view" of Scottish poetry...
(1940) Among his works are Man’s Record in the Rocks My Magazine May 1921 The Art of Keeping well Cassell & Co. 1918/The Vegetarian Society and Evolutionary Consequences of War (cited below)
Campbell Macfie suggested that that male war deaths (during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
) would create a surplus of fertile women, thus reducing the overall birthrate whilst the surviving men would select partners from a wide range of 'surplus' females according to eugenically (sexually) attractive characteristics. He averred that:
"Nature has wisely arranged that men should be attracted (to women) by characteristics that imply a superior capacity for motherhood... (thus)...every war will do something to set up evolutionary tendencies opposite to its own, brutal, truculent, anti-social spirit"