Alfred Russel Wallace
an outline biography
Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913) was born in Usk,
Monmouthshire (now part of Gwent), Wales.
He travelled and collected plant samples in the Amazon basin
in association with Henry Walter Bates (1842-52) and was
similarly employed the Malay Archipelago and the Spice Islands
(1854-62).
Wallace theorised on the basis of his findings and was
influenced in this theorising by Thomas Malthus' Essay on
Population. The outcome of Wallace's ruminations was that he
went on to propound a theory of the evolutionary origin of
species by natural selection.
It was a memoir sent to by Wallace to the influential expert
naturalist Charles Darwin in 1858 that prompted Darwin to make
public his own theorisings about the evolution of species.
Alfred Russel Wallace had, prior to this time, been in intermittent intellectual contact with
Charles Darwin - and had also supplied biological specimens to Darwin. He now decided to
try interest Darwin in what he thought to be the important insights, of which he expressed the hope
that "the idea would be as new", that had occured to him in
relation to the development of new species.
And so it was that Wallace sent a memoir about this
evolutionary theory to the influential expert
naturalist Charles Darwin, arrived in Darwin's hands in June 1858. In a covering letter Wallace asked that Darwin forward the memoir to a famous scientist, Sir Charles Lyell,
if Darwin thought the content merited his attention.
Darwin's own theorisings on evolution had largely taken their
final form some fifteen years previously but he had been most
hesitant about making them public largely because he thought they would prove
extremely controversial; not least by inherently calling into question Biblical accounts of creation
in an society that, at that time, still generally accepted Christian teachings!!!
Darwin had even prepared a 230 page abstact sketch of his theory in 1844 - but this had lain in
storage under a stairway in Darwin's home in a securely sealed packet, labelled 'only to be opened in the
event of my death'. Darwin had also prepared a letter asking his wife to arrange publication, with the
aid of some of his scientific friends, after his death. He had also sought to make sufficient funds
available for that purpose!
Darwin promply sent the manuscript he had received from Alfred Russel Wallace to Sir Charles Lyell; with his own covering letter of
18th June 1858 that included the following sentences:-
I never saw a more striking coincidence. if Wallace had my manuscript sketch written out in 1842 he could not have
made a better short abstract! Even his terms now stand as Heads of my Chapters.
Please return me the manuscript which he does not say he wishes me to publish; but I shall of course at once write
& offer to send to any Journal. So all my originality, whatever it may amount to, will be smashed. Though my Book,
if it will ever have any value, will not be deteriorated; as all the labour consists in the application of the theory.
I hope you will approve of Wallace’s sketch, that I may tell him what you say.
Several days later Darwin again wrote to Sir Charles Lyell:-
As I had not intended to publish my sketch, can I do so honourably, because Wallace has sent me an outline of
his doctrine? I would far rather burn my whole book than that he or any other man should think that I
behaved in a paltry spirit. Do you not think that that his having sent me this
sketch ties my hands? I do not in least believe that that he originated his views from anything
which I wrote to him.
In the event, Darwin, in consultation with Sir
Charles Lyell and Sir Joseph Hooker, agreed that there should be
a public joint presentation of his own and Wallace's potentially
dramatically controversial views.
Neither Wallace nor Charles Darwin were present at the
historic meeting of the Linnaean Society in July 1858 when papers
attributable to each were brought to the attention of the wider
scientific public. Wallace's paper was presented under the title
"On the Tendency of Varieties to Depart Indefinitely from the
Original Type."
Alfred Russel Wallace was several weeks letter-delivery time away in
the Moluccas and efforts were made by Darwin, Lyell and Hooker to keep him informed
of developments in London in relation to his sending his manuscript to Charles Darwin.
On October 6, 1858, Wallace wrote in a fairly magnanamous spirit to Hooker:-
My dear Sir
I beg leave to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of July last, sent me by Mr. Darwin, & informing me
of the steps you had taken with reference to a paper I had communicated to that gentleman. Allow me in
the first place sincerely to thank yourself & Sir Charles Lyell for your kind offices on this occasion,
& to assure you of the gratification afforded me both by the course you have pursued, & the favourable
opinions of my essay which you have so kindly expressed. I cannot but consider myself a favoured
party in this matter, because it has hitherto been too much the practice in cases of this sort to
impute all the merit to the first discoverer of a new fact or new theory, & little or none
to any other party who may, quite independently, have arrived at the same result a few years or a
few hours later.
I also look upon it as a most fortunate circumstance that I had a short time ago commenced a correspondence
with Mr. Darwin on the subject of “Varieties,” since it has led to the earlier publication of a portion
of his researches & has secured to him a claim of priority which an independent publication either by
myself or some other party might have injuriously effected;—for it is evident that the time has now
arrived when these and similar views will be promulgated & must be fairly discussed.
It would have caused me much pain & regret had Mr. Darwin’s excess of generosity led him to make public my paper unaccompanied by his own much earlier & I doubt not much more complete views on the same subject, & I must again thank you for the course you have adopted, which while strictly just to both parties, is so favourable to myself.
Following on from Wallace's initial approach Darwin, besides
preparing a paper that was read to the Linnean Society, made
efforts to draw his notes together into a work intended for
publication. That work was prepared and published under the title
The Origin of Species in 1859.
Wallace contributed greatly to the scientific foundations of
zoogeography, including his proposal, based on his observations
in the Malay Archipelago, for the evolutionary distinction
between the fauna of Australia and Asia (Wallace's line).
Wallace's Line is located between the Islands of Borneo and
Sulawesi (Celebes) in the Malay Archipelago.
Alfred Russel Wallace' works include Malay Archipelago
(1869), Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection
(1870), The Geographical Distribution of Animals (1876),
and Man's Place in the Universe (1903).
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