Ronald Campbell Macfie


Ronald Campbell Macfie was a Scottish medical doctor, poet and science writer specialising in eugenics and 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. Macfie was also a panpsychist as he believed mind was to be found in all matter.

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 (4th edition 1931) 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:

Books published

  • The Romance of Medicine
  • The Romance of the Human Body
  • Sunshine and Health
  • ''The Theology of Evolution''