On Naval Timber and Arboriculture: With Critical Notes on Authors who Have Recently Treated the Subject of Planting is a book by Patrick Matthew published in 1831. It is noted for parts of its appendices in which Matthew discusses natural selection, 28 years prior to Charles Darwin's publication of On the Origin of Species.
Synopsis The book On Naval Timber and Arboriculture; with critical notes on authors who have recently treated the subject of planting by Patrick Matthew (1831) is not one long argument, but a jumble of issues. The book is divided into an Introduction followed by four different Parts and an Appendix consisting of Notes A to F that have been too long to be included as footnotes in the main text. That is, the main text has footnotes, but some of these refer to one of the notes A to F in the appendix. Parts I to IV are subdivided in various sections or chapters that sometimes also have roman numerals, so that Part I has sections I and II and Part VI has chapters I to VII.
The introduction A praise of war and the marine and how all that needs naval timber. Matthew also starts with a disagreement with the law of entail. Part I. – Structure of Vessels Part I is about planks (the skin) and timbers (the skeleton) of vessels. It details what wood is required for planks and timbers and how the trees should be treated, in order to yield the required wood. Part II. – British Forest Trees used as Naval Timber While Matthew stresses the variability among individuals within tree species, the main purpose of this part is to inform potential tree planters about the most suitable species or varieties for timber or plank production. Part III. – Miscellaneous Matter connected with Naval Timber This part begins with a chapter on Nurseries. Part IV. – Notices of Authors who treat of Arboriculture This is the longest part of the book, which also gained its own subtitle in: "On Naval Timber and Arboriculture; with critical notes on authors who have recently treated the subject of planting." In it Matthew reviews the treatises of earlier scholars on arboriculture.
Note A section trumpets the patriotism again. Note B starts with the idea of natural selection, but quickly drifts into a rant against the law of entail. Note C contains Matthews comments on races of humans, speculating about changes in races due to migration. Note D is a short note on psychological dispositions. Note E attacks the thinking behind shipping tax. Note F is on the mud deposition or alluvium on the east coast of Britain.
The biggest surprise comes after the end of the main text and after the end of the appendix containing this list of long endnotes, the end is still not reached. Instead, a horizontal line occurs, after which the text continues, without a heading or anything explaining what is to be expected. The appendix has an appendix! As a late addition, it could be called an addendum (pp. 381–388). This easily overlooked addendum is of course where Matthew combined the old ideas of natural selection and species transmutation in a hitherto unheard of way. The addendum is followed by a "Retrospective glance at our pages" (pp. 388–390) discussing the book's production, by a colophon (pp. 390–391) mentioning changes in the political scenery of Europe and the implications for the book's main topic of naval timber and rural affairs, and finally by an erratum. Unlike the endnotes, however, these various additions are not referred to anywhere in the main body of the book. The table of contents, however, lists the addendum and the retrospective glace as "Accommodation of organized life to circumstances, by diverging ramifications, ... 381" and "Retrospective glance at our pages, ... 388" respectively. These are not indented but aligned equal to the appendix Notes A to F, in the table of contents, showing that they are not sub-sections of Note F. The thematic break and the double horizontal line between Note F and the addendum at page 381 corroborate this.
There are other elements to the book which are intriguing and mysterious. They require careful analysis, to piece together a likely sequence of events that led to production of the final version. Luckily Matthew is quite informative and open about the events occurring simultaneous to his writing, and that he found them to be of such considerable importance that not only did they distract his attention so he completely forgot about his book sitting with the printers, but they also had consequence for the relevancy of some of his ideas already committed to the page. In response to certain events, Matthew clearly added sections, marked by his introductory statements, such as, "Since writing the above ...", "Since this volume went to press ...", "After the preceding parts of this volume had gone to press ...", etc. This post hoc approach has created a distinctive halting flow and discontinuity between sections.
Book structure The book is structured in an unorthodox way, as a result of the iterative process in assembling the content, and the reviews reflect this confusion. The gallery shows some of the features discussed later in the following sections on the book's structure. Featured are the two copies of Matthew (1831) held at the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh. The first is modern 3/4 leather bound, originally from the Adam Black stock (the Edinburgh publisher appears first), and the other in its original publisher's boards, part of the Longman et al., stock (London, first). The books occupy the same Satzspiegel (print space), but trimming has reduced the page spread of the modern bound copy. Dimensions from bottom page edge, mm A. distance to footnote printer's mark B. footer C. print space lower edge D. print space top edge E. page number upper right F. section title upper middle G. top page edge Black's 27 32 39 182 190 190 214 Longman's 32 36 43 187 194 194 223
Production In 1831, the publishers Adam Black in Edinburgh and Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green of London split shares on publishing Matthew's book, On Naval Timber and Arboriculture: With Critical Notes on Authors who Have Recently Treated the Subject of Planting. This was a decision made by the publishers (not by the author as has been asserted),Sutton, MR (2014) Nullius in Verba: Darwin's Greatest Secret. Thinker Media, Inc. (when question about the validity of the ebook, the editor dismissed intervention on the grounds that, "Dr Sutton's book was one of our best sellers". They confirmed that their publications were "not peer reviewed", "We are a publishing platform, not a publisher, operating under the US Law known as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) which gives us tremendous freedoms and legal protections, but it requires us to be 'completely hands off the content' and the authors. All work that is in compliance with our Participation Policy (PP) by an identity-verified author is published. ... I am very familiar with traditional peer-reviewed publishing. We are simply doing something different here". Bob Butler CEO Thinker Media, pers. comm. JF Derry 25-July 17). See also, refutation by Dagg (2018) and was common practise as a form of insurance when sales might be poor. The only known number of copies is single print run of 200.Tee, GJ. (1984) Patrick Matthew and Natural Selection. By W. J. Dempster. New Zealand Journal of History 18(1), 66–67. http://www.nzjh.auckland.ac.nz/document.php?wid=1157&action=null These were printed by Neill & Co., in their "old, cramped quarters at Old Fishmarket Close".A Reputation for Excellence Volume 1. Edinburgh. Scottish Printing Archival Trust (Sc: 012320), 1990 https://scottishprintarchive.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/vol-1-edinburgh.pdf Of the books that Neill & Co. printed for Adam Black, there is no mention of "On Naval Timber", nor Patrick Matthew, in their in-house history,Neill and Co., Ltd (1917) The Printing-House of Neill. Edinburgh: Paul's Work. https://archive.org/details/printinghouseofn00neiluoft the surviving inventory,NRAS (1963) Inventory Dep. 196: Neill & Company, Printers, Edinburgh. National Register of Archives (Scotland), February 1963. Current holding Manuscripts Division, National Library of Scotland https://www.nls.uk/catalogues/online/cnmi/inventories/dep196.pdf nor the memoirs of Adam Black, including a, "Chronological List of some of the Principal Books published by Adam Black, and A. & C. Black".
Body text Matthew's book discussed at length how best to grow suitable trees for the construction of the Royal Navy's warships. He considered the task to be of great importance, as the navy permitted the British race to advance. Matthew noted the long-term deleterious effect that culling only the trees of highest timber quality from forests had on the quality of timber.
The topic changed to Concerning our Marine, &c. for pages 130 to 137 of the book. Here Matthew promoted "a system of universal free trade", with the "absolute necessity of abolishing every monopoly and restriction of trade in Britain", particularly the "insane duty on the importation of naval timber and hemp." In Part IV of the book, pages 138 to 359, he wrote critical reviews assessing what other authors had published on tree cultivation.
The appendix was not the only part of the book subsequently augmented by extra material. The "Notices of Authors Who Treat of Arboriculture" also received an additional section (p. 309), "After the preceding parts of this volume had gone to press, we received a copy of Cruickshank's Practical Planter. We endeavour to give a short view of the contents". That short review added fifty pages, second only to the previous section in criticism of Sit Henry Steuart which required eighty pages.
Appendix In an Appendix, pages 363 to 391 of the book, Matthew discussed assorted topics: Note A was about the nautical basis of the British Empire: "It is only on the "Ocean" that "Universal Empire" is practicable – only by means of "Navigation" that all of the world can be subdued or retained under one dominion".
In Note B. On hereditary nobility and entail, he objected to feudal privilege perpetuated by entail under Scots law. Like other Radicals of the time and educational background, he drew on a concept of self-transforming ascent from below in transmutation of species to justify his political opposition to aristocratic control of society:
Matthew explains in his colophon relating to the circumstances for producing the book as published; the July Revolution of 1830 punctuated the period between the print run and the book's release at the end of the year ("Dating books published in December with the following year's date was actually very common in the nineteenth century. It made them seem 'new' for longer."information provided in 2017 by the Centre for the History of the Book, University of Edinburgh). The uprising in France affected him to the point of even forgetting he had a book in press!