"select for" + "trait" or "characteristic"

[Joel S. Berson]

Trying "trait" + "select for" within the 19th century yields about
640 Ghits.  I looked at all between 1850 and 1869, but not thoroughly
elsewhere in the century.

1)  1866 [Perhaps.]

The ratepaying-qualification is a valuable test -- a test which tends
to separate the more worth of the working classes from the less
worthy.  Nay more, it tends to select for enfranchisement, those who
have the moral and intellectual qualities especially required for
judicious political conduct.

Herbert Spencer, Essays: moral, political and aesthetic, (New York;
Appleton, 1866).  Page 381-382.

[The "selection" here is not genetic, but it is "for" a
characteristic.  Spencer certainly was associated with the notion of
evolution.  This was my only find in the 1850 -- 1869 period.]

2)  1898  [Hereditary.  (One would hope for something earlier.)]

Among the very small races are plenty that feather out quickly, but
with the heavy breeds this trait is one to cultivate and select for.

The Poultry Herald manual: a guide to successful poultry keeping,
1898.  Page 88.
-----

Someone might try "characteristic" + "select for" in the 19th
century, which yields about 2,200 Ghits.  But not I.

-----
The evolution, so to speak, that I sense is from "select [animals or
plants] for" some purpose or desired characteristic, to "select for"
the characteristic itself.

Joel








At 11/25/2011 09:48 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>Dig it: OED has no def. for this universally used Darwinian phrase.
>I've always found it to be rather opaque: why are biological
>characteristics selected "for" instead of "selected" or "selected for
>preservation"?  Whenever I read it, I feel I'm missing something
>crucial and subtle.
>
>A cursory GB search for ["select for" + evolution] seems to turn up no
>19th C. exx.
>
>JL
>
>--
>"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
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