Francis Polkinghorne Pascoe facts for kids
Francis Polkinghorne Pascoe (born September 1, 1813 – died June 20, 1893) was an English scientist who loved studying insects, especially beetles. Scientists who study insects are called entomologists.
About His Life
Francis Pascoe was born in Penzance, a town in Cornwall, England. He trained to be a surgeon at St. Bartholomew's Hospital in London. After his training, he became a surgeon in the Royal Navy. He traveled to many places, including Australia, the West Indies, and the Mediterranean Sea.
Later, he married a woman named Mary Glasson from Cornwall. They settled in a place called Trewhiddle, near St Austell. His wife's property there was known for producing china clay.
In 1851, his wife passed away. Francis Pascoe then moved to London. He spent his time studying natural history, focusing mainly on insects. He went on trips to Europe, North Africa, and the Lower Amazons to collect insects. However, he often worked on insects that other people had collected.
He wrote about and described many new species that were found by famous collectors like Alfred Russel Wallace. Wallace was known for his work in the Malay Archipelago. Pascoe also studied insects collected by Robert Templeton and other dedicated collectors.
Francis Pascoe became a member of important science groups. In 1854, he joined the Entomological Society. He was even its president from 1864 to 1865. He was also a member of the Société Entomologique de France and other societies in Belgium and Stettin. In 1852, he became a member of the Linnean Society.
His collection of about 2,500 "type" specimens (the first examples of a species) are now kept at the Natural History Museum in London.
His Ideas on Evolution
Francis Pascoe believed that evolution happened, meaning that living things change over time. However, he did not agree with the idea of natural selection. Natural selection is the idea that living things with traits that help them survive and reproduce are more likely to pass on those traits.
In 1890, Pascoe wrote a book called The Darwinian Theory of the Origin of Species. In this book, he strongly disagreed with natural selection. The science journal Nature published a long review of his book. The reviewer, Raphael Meldola, did not agree with Pascoe's criticisms. But Meldola said that Pascoe's book should be taken seriously because Pascoe was a respected entomologist.
Main Books He Wrote
- 1884 Notes on Natural Selection and the Origin of Species.
- 1885 List of British Vertebrate Animals.
- 1890 The Darwinian Theory of the Origin of Species.
