Alfred Russel Wallace

(1823-1913)
“A prisoner of scientific parentheses, as in, "the theory of evolution by
natural selection proposed by Charles Darwin (and also by Alfred Russel
Wallace).”’

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 Childhood
 Born in Usk, a small town in Wales.

 Eighth of nine children of Thomas and Mary Anne Wallace.

 Father- earned a law degree; never practiced as an attorney.

 Family fell on hard times early in Wallace’s life.

 1836: Wallace forced to withdraw from grammar school at age

13; sent to London to live with older brother, John.
 Surveying (1837-1843)
• After a few months in London, Wallace left to become an apprentice
under his oldest brother, William.

• Trained to become a surveyor.

• Learned trades such as map-making, geometry, and trigonometry.

• Learned to be a very keen observer of his surroundings.

• Became fond of the outdoors, particularly in botany and geology.

• Let go by his brother after a period of financial difficulties.

 Collegiate School at Leicester
(1843-1845)
• Applied for a teaching position and was hired.

• Taught drafting, surveying, English, and arithmetic.

• Reads Malthus’ “An Essay on the Principle of Population”

• Met Henry Walter Bates, a young naturalist.

• Bates introduced the practice of collecting specimens to Wallace.

• After reading about the travels of other accomplished naturalists

such as Charles Darwin, Wallace and Bates decided to travel to the
Amazon.
Collegiate School at Leicester

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 Exploration of the Amazon
(1848-1852)
• Wallace primary goal in the Amazon was to collect specimens.

• Interested in studying “biological evolution”, an idea introduced by

Robert Chambers in “The Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation”

• Aside from collecting, Wallace took notes on the regions geography,

wildlife, and even the inhabitants and their languages.

• On his way back to England, Wallace’s boat caught fire and sank;
taking with it the majority of Wallace’s work in the Amazon.

• Wallace and his crew rescued by a passing cargo ship. Journey across
the Atlantic took nearly three months.
 Back in England
• Despite losing most of his specimens and notes from his travels,
Wallace was able to publish two books upon his return to
England.

• “Palm Trees of the Amazon and Their Uses”

• A study on the plant life in the Amazon.

• “A Narrative of Travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro”

• An account of Wallace’s four years in South America

• Correspondence with Charles Darwin.

 Travel in the East Indies
(1854-1862)
• Malay Archipelago: modern day Malaysia and Indonesia

• Traveled almost 14,000 miles on a number of expeditions in the

region; visited every island in the archipelago at least once.

• Collected over 125,000 specimens, including around a

thousand that had never been discovered before.

• “Rhacophorus nigropalmatus”- Wallace’s flying-frog

• “The Malay Archipelago” (1869): dedicated to Darwin.

 Wallace’s Flying Frog

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www.itsnature.org/.../wallaces-frog/
 Discoveries
• Founder of biogeography
• Recognized the six great biogeographical regions on Earth.
• “Wallace Line”: imaginary line separating Asia and Australia

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 Natural Selection
• Makes a connection between Malthus’ ideas on population
growth and evolution.

• “Survival of the fittest”: most fit organisms survive and pass their
genes onto future generations.

• “On the Tendencies of Varieties to Depart Indefinitely from the

Original Type” (1858): sent to Darwin

• Lyell and Hooker present Wallace’s essay along with some of

Darwin’s writings at the Linnaen Society on July 1, 1858.
 Darwin vs. Wallace
• Darwin- “Natural Selection”
• Wallace- “Survival of the Fittest”, “Adaptation”

• Darwin considered sexual selection as a separate phenomenon;

Wallace believed it was a form of natural selection.

• Darwin believed in the inheritance of acquired traits

• Wallace rejected Lamarck’s idea

• Darwin stressed that competition was the cause of natural

selection.
• Wallace emphasized that environmental pressures forced
species to adapt to their surroundings.
 Spiritualism
• Wallace became a spiritualist in the late 1860’s.

• Human’s “higher attributes” could not have resulted

from natural selection.

• Ideas were strongly rejected by Darwin, but were

endorsed by Darwin’s good friend Charles Lyell.

• Wallace’s scientific reputation was destroyed by his

association with Spiritualism.
 Social Activism
• Exposed to the ideas of social reformers such as Robert Owen and Thomas
Paine while living in London early in his life.

• Social comments in “The Malay Archipelago” drew the attention of notable

economists/socialists such as John Stuart Mill.

• Supported labor movements: argued for overtime pay

• Supporter of women’s suffrage and a paper money system

• Argued against militarism and imperialism

• Anti-vaccination campaign

• Endorsed Socialism
 Publications
• Over 750 publications; 22 full-length books

• “The Malay Archipelago” (1869)

• “Darwinism” (1889)
- Defense of natural selection
- Gave priority on the subject to Darwin
- “Wallace effect”: natural selection against hybrids creating two
reproductively isolated populations; speciation

• “Remarks on the Rev. S. Haughton’s Paper on the Bee’s Cell,

and on the Origin of Species”: defense of Origin of Species
 More Publications
• “The Geographical Distribution of Animals” (1876)
• “Island Life” (1880)
• “Tropical Nature, and Other Essays” (1878)
• “My Life” (1905)

• “On the Law Which Has Regulated the Introduction of New

Species” (1855)
• “On the Physical Geography of the Malay Archipelago” (1863)
• “The Origin of Human Races and the Antiquity of Men Deduced
from the Theory of “Natural Selection”” (1864)
 Legacy
• Greatest explorer-naturalist of the 19th century.

• Co-founder of natural selection

• Founder of biogeography

• Darwin-Wallace Medal: handed out by Linnean Society every 50 years,

beginning in 1908. Recently announced that it would be awarded
annually.

• Overshadowed by Darwin because of Darwin’s social status; Wallace’s

modesty and unpopular social and religious views also played a role.
 References
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Russel_Wallace

• http://www.wku.edu/~smithch/index1.htm

• http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Alfred_Russel_Wallace

• http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/0_0_0/history_16

• http://www.ecologyasia.com/verts/amphibians/wallace
%27s_flying_frog.htm

• http://www.ucl.ac.uk/taxome/jim/Mim/leicester/
collegiate_sch4.html