The author of the following review of my book Nullius in Verba: Darwin's Greatest Secret wishes for now to remain anonymous.
This book is for those who like intrigue and deception novels. In a story where context is key, there is something of interest for everyone, linguists, scientists, gardeners and the greater general public!
Premise: This book explores the bitter virtues of making a discovery, and the protection of it and its discoverer, over the issues of context surrounding the knowledge of it by a subsequent (in time) discoverer of the same discovery. This book, in part, charts a story of another who uncovered a wrong-doing before Sutton’s investigation began. And although due diligence was applied by the former investigator, and injustice and fallacies were exposed to the best of his ability, from the middle of the twentieth century to 2008 his published findings were soundly ‘stomped on’ by the scientific elite. But the story will not lie down and die. Sutton has courageously picked up and run with the baton and given life again to this story of abuse and he will be the one to preside over its dénouement.
A genuine and unique scientific discovery of such a magnitude as to change the course of scientific knowledge does not happen often and may only happen to an individual capable of making such a discovery once in his or her lifetime. This is the reason for the codification of the scientific rules and recording of the conventions of priority, described in Chapter 11, which define the credit given by other influential scientists to the person or group who made the discovery. And priority of discovery transcends the populist theory of context, or the times and influences under which he, she or they worked. Through careful use of excerpts from letters from verifiable sources, Sutton’s discourse tells the story behind one such contextual claim and the discrimination and unfairness of treatment for the original discoverer at the hands of his peer scientists.
The question is posed…Why defend such a scurrilous practice? And why does it still happen today?
Riveting in contextual and statistical evidence, Sutton’s book is a must-read for anyone in any field who suffers from injustice at the hands of their peers.
Nullius in Verba tells the story of the finding and further collation of an overwhelming quantity of incriminating facts and statistics, adding to the prior damning evidence already collated, to further dash the unjust claimant, the perpetrator, and by the power of the ‘World Wide Web’, gifted to us by the celebrated Tim Berners-Lee, along with one of its search engines, Google, expertly queried and questioned by the present author who devised his own techniques to exploit a research method that he has dubbed ‘Internet-Date-Detection or ID, to reveal many more incriminating facts, fallacies, myths and lies from published sources which have led to the debunking of a London-based priority claim. A full 28 years beforehand, Patrick Matthew had published, and gifted to us, his ground-breaking theory of ‘the natural process of selection’, in his book, On Naval Timber and Arboriculture.
Throughout the ebook, Sutton asks many questions about why Patrick Matthew has suffered anonymity through malicious myth-making by his peers during his lifetime, and those men of science who continue to refuse him satisfaction today.
Sutton skilfully sets the scene in context and in time when this myth was formulated by a crafty mind. He makes it very clear that there is absolutely no evidence for a conspiracy or associated theory for such a myth. Instead, he gives us an everyday and plausible explanation of taboo, political and scientific prejudice, religious intolerance, biased and immensely loyal friendship networks. Famous names of men of science of that time are intertwined with the one man whose name has become synonymous with another man’s discovery right up to the present day… London’s smog has become a pong.
The replicator of Matthew’s work is exposed through Sutton’s evidence supporting ‘beyond all reasonable doubt’ his claim in favour of Matthew, the originator.
Sutton documents his research method, Internet-Date-Detection, and sets forth the explanation that accounts for the sinking of the Matthew barque of knowledge. Sutton champions the story of a predecessor’s wake for Patrick Matthew’s ‘prior discovery’ proving that the perpetrator gave the originator the ‘mutually approved status of obscure curiosity’ (Sutton, 2014). But such ‘objets d’art’ have ways of revealing themselves as collectors’ items!
‘Level’ by ‘Level’ of a well-thought through schematic of attack, Sutton uncovers the systemic cover-up using the ‘first to second-publish’ hypothesis.
By caveat emptor, Sutton announces potential unreliability in his ID analysis. But by graduated change in coding, Sutton’s confidence in his method returns.
In a statement of prediction, Sutton warns that ‘All potential plagiarists need to be reminded that their reputations may be destroyed either while they live and/or after they die.’ Sutton invites you to enter a phase of educating the mind, that of ‘think for yourself’, like never before. And look for yourself in ways never before imaginable.
Dysology, a term invented by Sutton, describes the false understanding that a claim that the fault lies with the originator for his failure to convince another of his/her discovery, opens this up to others in the field and it, therefore, cannot be named plagiarism ‘to disseminate amid ‘myths and fallacies’, the baby, ‘an original thought’, as that other’s own.
Maybe Sutton hits on a valid point that global society was not ready for an explanation of our origination except, that is, when you – if you are a replicator - ‘forget’ to cite your sources!
Sutton uses the issue here as a reveille to decompose, by comparative framework, for the purpose of identification of primacy, historical literature, published and unpublished, the data, wherein an author first coins a phrase or word. He also plumbs the depths even further and deeper than before of the disgraceful use of networking for personal and social gain at the time of the subject of his e-book.
Sutton’s big analysis-reveal begins with the beginnings of this evidence-based story of a cover-up of a century and a half, packed with well-researched detail, he masterfully brings it to light for all the world to see, and fear, and remember when writing their own University papers, lest they be discovered also.
The late 1800s was a time when gentlemen still fought duels, outlawed by law, but where satisfaction was held by codes of honour; their rules of combat were agreed between the two adversaries in a meeting that took place prior to the event. The most recent discoveries in this new 21st century of ours, of sensational impact in this current story, indicate that for those men of science it was as if the perpetrator ‘had been missed off their inclusive meeting agendas’.
Sutton’s comparative framework discusses the idea of primacy for the issue of the development of the hypothesis which is here continued with most accurate revelations from letters written by the perpetrator’s contemporaries and subsequent science-field ‘prop forwards’: Grave warnings are issued.
The replicator chose a populist style as times they were a-changing in the late 19th Century. It was necessary to find a style of writing that would be accessible to all and in the perpetrator’s own hand it is written thus of a publication by a contemporary:
“The work, from its powerful and brilliant style, … immediately had a very wide circulation. In my opinion it has done excellent service in calling in this country attention to the subject, in removing prejudice, and in thus preparing the ground for the reception of analogous views.” (‘the perpetrator’, in Sutton, 2014).
Sutton adopts the populist style in ‘Nullius in Verba’, and swoops in with an incisive dart to the system of the scientists and symbolizes how a hypothesis is made by one and evidenced by others using the conquest of the populist-known “God particle” of recent times.
The growing circumstantial evidence was compelling prior to Sutton’s deft analysis using his Internet-Date-Detection method which has revealed so much more fact-based evidence to support his current call to action.
Sutton forcefully concludes that ‘letting scholars get away with publishing fallacies and myths signals to others the existence of topics where guardians of good scholarship might be less capable than elsewhere.’ (Sutton, 2014).
Setting the scene where the dreadful deed is begun, vastly increasing research compiled from the mid 1980s to 2008, Sutton’s own research and ID results are brought in line to expose a storyline which would befit a truly great comedy of errors. Sutton explains that ‘potential interest in truth does not trump current comfortable fascination with the subject matter it disproves.’ (Sutton, 2014). The scissors are snipping already at the rocks and papers of the once-revered, even through the smog of distortion.
So, Sutton’s subtle reminder in his ‘first to second-publish’ research is to show us one of the greatest scams of all which, through the adjunct of mutation, has been hailed as beckoning in a new era of understanding in the scientific field. Sutton has shown it up to be a mere ‘Placeholder’ in the ‘Hidden Text’ of a ‘Merge Field’ that returned ‘Error Messages’ that have not until now been fully detected.
Sutton skilfully sets the scene.
Still warming up for the grand reveal, Sutton, an educator and influencer himself, will perhaps appreciate the following commentary; a quoted letter from the era under the microscope states that one such book had been “written more for the poor working class of England rather than the scientific elite for it appealed to their desire to ‘evolve’ beyond their wretched economic circumstances.”
The quote reflects a changing society of the Industrial Revolution in Great Britain and a changed moral code (the recent ‘Liberté’ of France) which the scientific community seemed reluctant to accept. So, in producing the book under analysis, the author unwittingly or wittingly, supported the up-and-coming classes which would be unstoppable in this age of expansion not only travelling by the great network of Victorian railways, but also the minds of the great unread, which gave rise to the foundation of the Liberal Party (1859).
Despite the harsh criticism, books written in the populist style sold very well at this time, scoring an own-goal as the scientific elite had ruled the education of the underclasses by oppression, stifling them of knowledge. The government of the day showed great moral sensibility to the lower classes and, even though they were distrustful of them, tried to help improve their lifestyle: they committed to the Statute Book some knee-jerk reactions to civil unrest.
Liberal inclusion of hard-working industrialists from outside the social elite at this time reflects the Roman idea of gradual release from slavery and admission to elite circles to quell any riots borne of discontent.
Even more back-peddling by more recent chroniclers is uncovered by Sutton and so paves the way for the common (wo)man to understand there must come a time when the excuses made for the greatest scam should, must and furthermore will be expunged from their consciousness where, fetid and clammy, it has lain like a fungus of pathogenic intrusion. Sutton deftly lights the home fires with hope.
Sutton revisits often the Scientific Rules of Priority and does ‘ghostly’ battle with pistol and sword to explain their relevance to the scam. The perpetrator stands his ground and sees to it that everyone else involved does too, except cracks develop in letters and accounts of meetings that undergo further examination under Sutton’s critical eye.
He makes a swash-buckling attack on the myths and excuses that surround the perpetrator and so denies the perpetrator the continued pleasure from beyond the grave of the letter campaign so craftily thought-out and executed on those who were in too deep with him already to allow them to surface dry with wig intact. As Sutton intones, cowardice does not become this perpetrator who in fevered scripts lets out the secrets that previously were so carefully kept in.
Sutton shows how an organigram of mug shots can show that an ugly nepotism had taken place in the most highly respected associations of this land and that it continues on today.
This commentator calls, “Time, gentlemen, please. Come… let us divide up the face of the perpetrator of this myth from its attachments, its many masked warriors who through the century and a half have kept its memory safely in their hearts”. Sutton would call for restitution of the face of another that should always have adorned this true story.
Sutton draws to introspection when considering an original thought, that it may be the smallest element in a hypothesis, drawn up upon the influence of predecessors, but it is the catalyst that matures the hypothesis into the concreteness of a theory. Without the hypothesis and its catalytic converter there can be no evidence-based theory develop out of it.
Sutton warns that for a well-educated man of science, growing up in the Regency era of “low morals and high fashion” (David, 2014), where who you knew not what you knew was acceptable, you might have expected the opportunistic young perpetrator to be more aware of the French that he was employing to maintain the air of superiority so characteristic of that time. In one cited case, it was the collocation for Sutton, that was just one of the keys to the perpetrator’s undoing: ‘At the soi-disant science meeting,…’ [the so-called science meeting]. Maybe the scammer just had no respect for the men of science at all.
Sutton makes some observations on the creation of myths and legends ‘to fill the knowledge gaps.’ (Sutton, 2014) and he defines some very plausible reasons for this. But the creation of a supermyth about a mortal human being and contemporary scientist, just mystifies him and draws the reader in to contemplate on the ‘four bridges’ of deceit. Neither the originator’s international reputation at that time, new magazine headlines nor the addition of revealing strap-lines of reasoned argument could save this mortal from ultimate derision and eventual oblivion in the field of science. This mere mortal human being with the courage of his own conviction and following the accepted publishing codes of the day, found his efforts were all in vain. Even plastering his own name upon these subsections did not work out well for him for it was all to be thrown back upon him as inconsequential with a rhetorical question of just who would look in his book for a hypothesis anyway?
But, as Sutton makes clear, the originator did not lay down his pen believing it to be far mightier than the sword or any chastisement or derision he should suffer at the hands of other mere mortal human beings, his ‘groupies’, led in bleakness by the perpetrator’s black heart.
Some people, as Sutton asserts, have the ability to lead people to water and making force seem gentler, let them quaff back the juice of life itself though tainted. And the perpetrator had this very quality in his bleak and blackened heart. As Sutton makes clear, untruths led this perpetrator to the next step… that of despicable extortion which was used as a last resort to maintain ‘his groupies’’ thirst.
Sutton, being an influencer of quite some distinction, has to ask the question, did the perpetrator express in later years ‘remorse’ for the injustices of this publishing combat and thus brought back his ‘groupies’ into his fold? He leaves the reader to form his or her own opinion.
Sutton seeks contextual evidence and asks, ‘Who was this mere mortal who was so wronged and blackened?’ Sutton lays before us an honest man whose self-motivation and international reputation was ripped away from him and for what?... a lie, a myth by human hand created? Money, perhaps, to shore up a failing brand? Who really knows the warp and the weft of it? But as a man of an industrious family of long line, he simply could not keep up through the age of discontent that was to follow, because the originator simply died.
Fortunately, his bequest lives on in the form of the crushed fruit drink that is so popular today, as long, that is, that the pollinating insects do not die in a similar shamed way.
Sutton gives light to a number of predictions made by the originator and down-trodden mortal of this story and it is his firm wish that the reader may enjoy the knowledge once so brutally betrayed that is now restored to the world’s consciousness.
Not only was this mortal human being of scientific mind and integrity but also a snoeier from north of the border, skilled in the art of pruning, (as opposed to a snoek or schnook from down south, skilled in the art of disembowelling its catch), whose tender care and understanding of fruit trees as well as his contribution to engineering solutions represented in the standardization of production of construction materials motivated by the potential to save the lives of his fellow human beings are both of benefit to us today. And what of DNA or waterborne Cholera?
To say in different words what Sutton means, whether it be an electronic whiteboard and a colourful marker pen of today or a black/grey slate and stick of chalk of the 1800s, Sutton makes it very clear that as an advanced society, we owe a debt of gratitude and should therefore be proud now to chalk up his name and consign the imposter and perpetrator to behind the wardrobe for the misdeed of publishing his book without references or attributions to contributors.
Sutton often fills the textual elements with tables of inquiry into the veracity of the principle where more is said on the hypothesis of ‘first to be second-published’ and thereby the personal and social empowerment that comes with the claim of ‘genuine origination’ (Sutton, 2014).
Taking many examples of other false claimants, young and old, from history and the modern day, Sutton systematically ‘downgrades’ the imposters to the dregs where they should start life all over again, having learned humility and the arts of the unselfish gene pool.
‘You can’t keep a good man down’ should be the statement replacing ‘only the good die young’.
Close to his summation, Sutton deals with ‘Advancement’ in a broad sense and we are transported back to the pistol and sword rules of engagement of yesteryear. The one thing that maybe is in the favour of the perpetrator, is that he popularised a stolen hypothesis that would otherwise still, even today, be kept under wraps of Science and Associations for the unique delectation of the upper classes. But circumstantial evidence borne of guilt is in no century an excuse!
And Sutton should be reminded that a Rosetta Stone is most certainly better, but should not exclude faith in the diviner’s twig of in-spirit-ation, that sudden light-bulb moment.
The perpetrator’s ’15-minutes of fame’ will have run its course at last, after 155 years of scamming the nations around the world. Caveat: he who laughs last, laughs longest.
The cry should now be, ‘Je suis Patrick’ to the end of time itself.
Nullius in Verba: Darwin’s Greatest Secret, authored by the criminologist Dr Mike Sutton, is out now as an e-book for all the world to see and duly accords the victim, Patrick Matthew, the author of the book which had no precedent, ‘On Naval Timber and Arboriculture’, his rightful place in the SOLVING OF THE RIDDLE OF THE EXISTENCE OF MAN on this earth.
By "A commentator" (May 2015)
