Henry Freke

Henry Freke (1813-1888) was an Irish physician and early evolutionary writer.

Freke proposed an evolutionary theory in 1851 and more fully in a book for 1861.[1] He took a B. A. at Trinity in 1840, his M. B. in 1845 and his M.D. in 1855. He worked as a physician in various hospitals in Dublin and worked at the first Irish lunatic asylum founded by Jonathan Swift.[1]

His early writings in the Dublin Quarterly Journal of Medical Science experimented with evolutionary ideas such as all organisms descending from a single germ.[1] He is credited for developing the concept of negative entropy.[1]

Freke argued to have published on evolution before Charles Darwin. In 1851 he wrote a pamphlet that claimed animals and plants had evolved from a single filament. He sent a copy of the pamphlet to Darwin who described the writing style as "ill-written" and "beyond my scope".[2][3] However, in the Historical Sketch for the 6th Edition of Darwin's On the Origin of Species, Freke is listed an as early evolution proponent.[1]

On page 83 of his On the Origin of Species by Means of Organic Affinity (1861), Freke developed a theory of pangenesis.[4]

Publications

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Blackith, Robert E. (1980). Henry Freke: An Early Dublin Evolutionist. Irish Naturalists' Journal. Vol. 20, No. 3, pp. 104-106
  2. ↑ Browne, Janet. (2003). Charles Darwin, Volume 2. Pimlico. p. 109. ISBN 0-7126-6837-3
  3. ↑ Stott, Rebecca. (2012). Darwin's Ghosts: In Search of the First Evolutionists. Bloomsbury. p. 12. ISBN 978-1-4088-3101-4
  4. ↑ Macalister, Alexander. (1870). Reviews and Bibliographical Notices. In Dublin Quarterly Journal of Medical Science, Volume 50. Fannin and Company. p. 131
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