A mathematical theory of Natural and Artificial Selection. Part IV.
J. B. S. Haldane · 2022
In such organisms as annual plants, in which successive generations do not overlap, the composition of the n + 1th generation can be calculated from that of the nth, and the resulting finite difference equation investigated. Where generations overlap we may obtain a similar relation between the compositions of the population at times t and t’, but the finite difference equation is now represented by an integral equation. This fact was first pointed out in 1910 by Mr H. T. J. Norton of Trinity College. At a much later date I arrived at the same conclusion, and Mr Norton showed me his results in 1922, stating that he would publish them shortly. He has been prevented from doing so by illness, and, although I believe that all the results here given were reached by me independently, there can be no question that Mr Norton had obtained many of them previously, and had treated the problem rigorously, which I have not done.