46 Robert A. Skipper, Jr.
Goodnight [1998; 2000]. Coyneet al.. develop a systematic critique of Wright’s
Shifting Balance Theory, arguing that it is theoretically problematic and that it
lacks empirical support. They conclude that the Fisherian perspective is prefer-
able. Wade and Goodnight counter some of Coyne et al.’s criticisms and argue
that there is ample room in the evolutionary domain for both the Fisherian and
Wrightian perspectives. ([Skipper, 2002] provides an analysis of the debate).
3 AT UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDONFisher would leave Rothamsted to take the Galton Chair of Eugenics at University
College, London in 1933. Karl Pearson, retiring the Chair, appointed Fisher and
Pearson’s son, Egon, to share the post. Fisher controlled the genetics section;
Pearson controlled the statistics section. Fisher had turned down Pearson’s offer
of chief statistician at Galton Laboratories for the position at Rothamsted in
- And by the time he took the Galton Professorship at University College, he
was thoroughly mired in controversy over the foundations of statistics with Karl
Pearson and his followers. Fisher’s revolutionary work in statistics came at around
the time that Pearson’s own work was showing weaknesses; unfriendly competition
catalyzed the controversy, and Pearson would take ill-feelings toward Fisher, who
had his own ill-feelings toward Pearson, to his grave.
Until 1934, Fisher remained active with the Eugenics Society. Indeed, Fisher
was involved in the society’s campaign, starting in 1929, for a law allowing vol-
untary sterilization on the basis of the claims of eugenics Fisher and others, such
as John Maynard Keynes, R. C. Punnett, and Charles Darwin’s son Horace Dar-
win, advocated. The draft legislation was soundly defeated in Parliament. Fisher
resigned from the Society in 1934, along with other members, due to the group’s
infighting over the ever-decreasing role of its scientific members.
In 1935, Fisher’sThe Design of Experimentsappeared and, likeStatistical Meth-
ods for Research Workers, would be expanded and reissued many times. These
two works, and Fisher’s (with Frank Yates) 1947Statistical Tables for Biological,
Agricultural, and Medical Researchrevolutionized agricultural research. Also in
1947, Fisher would found, with the geneticist Cyril Darlington, the journalHered-
ity. Its first volume would include a publication resulting from a collaboration
Fisher entered into with the ecological geneticist E. B. Ford on the evolution of
the Scarlet Tiger moth,Panaxia dominula. This publication, “The Spread of a
Gene in Natural Conditions in a Colony of the Moth,Panaxia dominula,” bears
mentioning for several reasons. The first is that the paper describes a field study
aimed at discrediting Wright’s view that random genetic drift is an important
evolutionary factor. As such, it is part and parcel of the controversy between the
two. Second, the paper articulates one of the earliest uses of the capture-release
protocol for exploring changes in gene frequency in a population. Third, the paper
is a cornerstone of the Oxford School of Ecological Genetics founded by Ford. And
finally, the 1947 paper is important is because it is the longest-running purported
demonstration, at six decades, of natural selection occurring in the wild.