Ronald Campbell Macfie


Ronald Campbell Macfie was a Scottish medical doctor, poet and science writer specialising in eugenics and evolution.

Biography

He was a Scottish physician and writer. He had qualified in medicine in Aberdeen in 1897 and specialised in the treatment of tuberculosis.
He was also a Liberal Member of British Parliament mentioned in The Bookman Treasury of Living Poets as a contributor to such works as Fairy Tales for Old and Young, and The Golden Treasury of Scottish Poetry . Among his works are "Man’s Record in the Rocks" The Art of Keeping Well Cassell & Co. 1918/The Vegetarian Society and Evolutionary Consequences of War.
Campbell Macfie suggested that male war deaths 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 attractive characteristics. He averred that:

Evolution

Macfie was a critic of Darwinism and developed his own non-Darwinian evolution theory which was a form of neovitalism. He believed that chance played no role in evolution and that evolution was directed; he discussed these views in his book Heredity, Evolution, and Vitalism. Macfie was also a panpsychist as he believed mind was to be found in all matter. MacFie had dedicated one of his books and a poem to the naturalist J. Arthur Thomson in honor of his efforts to promote a neovitalist biology.

Books published