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WALLACE, ALFRED RUSSEL (1823— )

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Originally appearing in Volume V28, Page 276 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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WALLACE, See also:ALFRED RUSSEL (1823— ) , See also:British naturalist, was See also:born at See also:Usk, in See also:Monmouthshire, on the 8th of See also:January 1823. After leaving school he assisted an See also:elder See also:brother in his See also:work as a See also:land surveyor and architect, visiting various parts of See also:England and See also:Wales. Living in See also:South Wales, about 184o he began to take an See also:interest in See also:botany, and began the formation of a See also:herbarium. In 1847 he took his first See also:journey out of England, spending a See also:week in See also:Paris with his brother and See also:sister. In 1844—1845, while an See also:English See also:master in the Collegiate School at See also:Leicester, he made the acquaintance of H. W. See also:Bates, through whose See also:influence he became a See also:beetle See also:collector, and with whom he started in 1848 on an expedition to the See also:Amazon. In about a See also:year the two naturalists separated, and each wrote an See also:account of his travels and observations. Wallace's Travels on the Amazon and Rio See also:Negro was published in 1853, a year in which he went for a fortnight's walking tour in See also:Switzerland with an old school-See also:fellow. On his voyage See also:home from South See also:America the See also:ship was burnt and all his collections Iost, except those which he had despatched beforehand. After spending a year and a See also:half in England, during which See also:time, besides his See also:book on the Amazon, he published a small See also:volume on the See also:Palm Trees of the Amazon, he started for the See also:Malay See also:Archipelago, exploring, observing and See also:collecting from 1854 to 1862. He visited See also:Sumatra, See also:Java, See also:Borneo, See also:Celebes, the See also:Moluccas, See also:Timor, New See also:Guinea and the Aru and Ke Islands.

His deeply interesting narrative, The Malay Archipelago, appeared in 1869, and he also published many important papers through the See also:

London scientific See also:societies. The See also:chief parts of his vast See also:insect collections became the See also:property of the See also:late W. W. Saunders, but subsequently some of the most important See also:groups passed into the See also:Hope Collection of the university of See also:Oxford and the British Museum. He discovered that the Malay Archipelago was divided into a western See also:group of islands, which in their zoological See also:affinities are See also:Oriental, and an eastern, which are Australian. The Oriental Borneo and See also:Bali are respectively divided from Celebes and See also:Lombok by a narrow See also:belt of See also:sea known as Wallace's See also:Line," on the opposite sides of which the indigenous See also:mammalia are as widely divergent as in any two parts of the See also:world. Wallace became convinced of the truth of See also:evolution, and originated the theory of natural selection during these travels. In See also:February 1855, staying at See also:Sarawak, in Borneo, he wrote an See also:essay " On the See also:Law which has regulated the Introduction of New See also:Species " (See also:Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., 1855, p. 184). He states the law as follows: " Every species has come into existence coincident both in time and space with a pre-existing closely allied species." He justly claims that such a law connected and-explained a vast number of See also:independent facts.

It was, in fact, a cautious statement of a belief in evolution, and for three years from the time that he wrote the essay he tells us that " the question of how changes of species could have been brought about was rarely out of my mind." Finally, in February 1858; when he was lying muffled in blankets in the See also:

cold See also:fit of a severe attack of intermittent See also:fever at See also:Ternate, in the Moluccas, he began to think of See also:Malthus's Essay on See also:Population, and, to use his own words, " there suddenly flashed upon me the See also:idea of the survival of the fittest." The theory was thought out during the See also:rest of the See also:ague fit, drafted the same evening, written out in full in the two succeeding evenings, and sent to See also:Darwin by the next See also:post. See also:Dar-win in England at once recognized his own theory in the See also:manuscript essay sent by the See also:young and almost unknown naturalist in the tropics, then a stranger to him. " I never saw a more striking coincidence," he wrote to See also:Lyell on the very See also:day, on the 18th of See also:June, when he received the See also:paper: " if Wallace had my MS. See also:sketch written out in 1842, he could not have made a better See also:short abstract! Even his terms now stand as heads of my chapters." Under the See also:advice of See also:Sir See also:Charles Lyell and Sir See also:Joseph See also:Hooker, the essay was read, together with an abstract of Darwin's own views, as a See also:joint paper at the Linnean Society on the 1st of See also:July 1858. The See also:title of Wallace's See also:section was " On the Tendency of Varieties to depart indefinitely from the See also:Original Type." The " struggle for existence," the See also:rate of multiplication of animals, and the dependence of their See also:average See also:numbers upon See also:food See also:supply are very clearly demonstrated, and the following conclusion was reached: " Those that prolong their existence can only be the most perfect in See also:health and vigour; .. . the weakest and least perfectly organized must always succumb." The difference between See also:Lamarck's theory and natural selection is very clearly pointed out. " The powerful retractile talons of the See also:falcon and the See also:cat tribes have not been produced or increased by the volition of those animals; but among the different varieties which occurred in the earlier and less highly organized forms of these groups, those always survived longest which had the greatest facilities for seizing their See also:prey. Neither did the See also:giraffe acquire its See also:long See also:neck by desiring to reach the foliage of more lofty shrubs, and constantly stretching its neck for the purpose, but because any varieties which occurred among its antitypes with a longer neck than usual at once secured a fresh range of pasture over the same ground as their shorter-necked companions, and on the first scarcity of food were thereby enabled to outlive them." With such clear statements as these in the paper of the 1st of July 1858, it is remarkable that even well-known naturalists should have failed to comprehend the difference between Lamarck's and the Darwin-Wallace theory. Wallace also alluded to the resemblance of animals, and more especially of See also:insects, to their surroundings, and points out that " those races having See also:colours best adapted to concealment from their enemies would inevitably survive the longest." In 1871 Wallace's two essays, written at Sarawak and Ternate, were published with others as a volume, Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection. Probably, next to the Origin of Species, no single work has done so much to promote clear understanding of natural selection and confidence in its truth; for in addition to these two historic essays, there are others in which the new theory is applied to the See also:interpretation of certain classes of facts. Thus one treats of " See also:Mimicry " in animals, another on " See also:Instinct," another on " Birds' Nests." Each of these served as an example of what might be achieved in the See also:light of the new See also:doctrine, which, taught in this way and in an admirably lucid See also:style, was easily absorbed by many who See also:sound the more See also:complete exposition in the Origin very hard to absorb. In this work, and in many of his subsequent publications, Wallace differs from Darwin on certain points.

Thus the two concluding essays contend that See also:

man has not, like the other animals, been produced by the unaided operation of natural selection, but that other forces have also been in operation. We here see the influence of his convictions on the subject of " See also:spiritualism." More recently he expressed his dissatisfaction with the See also:hypothesis of " sexual selection " by which Darwin sought to explain the conspicuous characters which are displayed during the courtship of animals. The expression of his See also:opinion on both these points of divergence from Darwin will be found in Darwinism (1889), a most valuable and lucid exposition of natural selection, as suited to the later See also:period at which it appeared as the Essays were to the ealier. Darwin died some years before the controversy upon the possibility of the hereditary transmission of acquired characters arose over the writings of See also:Weismann, but Wallace has freely accepted the See also:general results of the See also:German zoologist's teaching, and in Darwinism has presented a complete theory of the causes of evolution unmixed with any trace of Lamarck's use or disuse of See also:inheritance, or See also:Buffon's hereditary effect of the See also:direct influence of surroundings. Tropical Nature and other Essays appeared in 1878, since republished combined with the 1871 Essays, of which it formed the natural continuation. One of the greatest of his publications was the See also:Geographical See also:Distribution of Animals (1876), a monumental work, which every student will maintain fully justifies its author's hope that it may See also:bear " a similar relation to the See also:eleventh and twelfth chapters of the Origin of Species as Mr Darwin's Animals and See also:Plants under Domestication bears to the first." See also:Island See also:Life, which may be regarded as a valuable supplement to the last-named work, appeared in 1880. Turning to his other writings, Wallace published Miracles and See also:Modern Spiritualism in 1881. Here is given an account of the reasons which induced him to accept beliefs which are shared by so small a proportion of scientific men. These reasons are purely experimental, and in no way connected with See also:Christianity, for he had long before given up all belief in revealed See also:religion. In 1882 he published Land Nationalization, in which he argued the See also:necessity of See also:state ownership of land, a principle which he had originated long before the See also:appearance of See also:Henry See also:George's work. In See also:Forty-five Years of See also:Registration See also:Statistics (1885) he maintained that See also:vaccination is useless and dangerous. Wallace also published an account of what he held to be the greatest discoveries as well as the failures of the 19th See also:century, The Wonderful Century (1899).

His later See also:

works include Studies, Scientific and Social (190o), Man's See also:Place in the Universe (1903) and his Autobiography (1905). Possessed of a bold and intensely original mind, his activities radiated in many directions, apparently rather attracted than repelled by the unpopularity of a subject. A non-theological See also:Athanasius contra mundum, he has the truest missionary spirit, an intense faith which would seek to move the mountains of apathy and active opposition. Whatever may be the future See also:history of his other views, he will always be remembered as an originator of a principle more See also:illuminating than any which has appeared since the days of See also:Newton, as one of its two discoverers whose scientific rivalry was only the beginning of a warm and unbroken friendship. Wallace was married in 1866 to the eldest daughter of the botanist, Mr See also:William See also:Mitten, of Hurstpierpoint, See also:Sussex. In 1871 he built a See also:house at Grays, See also:Essex, in an old See also:chalk-See also:pit, and after living there four years, moved successively to See also:Dorking (two years) and See also:Croydon (three years). In 188o he built a cottage at See also:Godalming near the See also:Charterhouse school, and See also:grew nearly r000 species of plants in the See also:garden which he made. In 1889 he moved to See also:Dorsetshire. After his return to England in 1862 Wallace visited the See also:continent, especially Switzerland, for rest and See also:change (1866, 1896) and the study of botany and glacial phenomena (See also:August 1895). He also visited See also:Spa, in See also:Belgium, about 187o, and in See also:October 1887 went for a lecturing tour in the See also:United States. Ile delivered a course of six See also:Lowell lectures in See also:Boston, and visited New See also:York, New Haven, See also:Baltimore, &c., spending the See also:winter at See also:Washington. The following See also:March he went to See also:Canada and See also:Niagara, and then made his way westwards.

He saw the See also:

Yosemite Valley, the Big Trees, and botanized in the Sierra See also:Nevada and at See also:Gray's See also:Peak. In July he returned to See also:Liverpool by way of See also:Chicago and the St See also:Lawrence. The first Darwin See also:medal of the Royal Society was awarded to A. R. Wallace in 189o, and he had received the Royal medal in 1868. A See also:pension was awarded him by Mr See also:Gladstone at the beginning of 1881. He received the degree of D.C.L. from Oxford in 1889, and of LL.D. from the university of See also:Dublin in 1882. He was See also:president of the Entomological Society of London in 1870-1871. Apart from Wallace's own Autobiography, a See also:good See also:deal of useful See also:information is given in the See also:biographical introduction to Wallace's Narrative of Travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro by the editor, Mr G. T. Bettany.

End of Article: WALLACE, ALFRED RUSSEL (1823— )

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