A. R. Wallace Memorial Fund & G. W. Beccaloni

Transcription

1 A. R. Wallace Memorial Fund & G. W. Beccaloni

2 THE NATURALIST WHO GOT AHEAD OF DARWIN ALFRED RUSSEL WALLACE, DISCOVERER OF THE ROLE OF NATURAL SELECTION IN THE EVOLUTION OF SPECIES Xavier Bellés A SLOW YET EXTREMELY REFLECTIVE WRITER We have to admit that had it not been for Alfred Russel Wallace ( ), Darwin may never have published On the Origin of Species. Retired in his house in Downe, near London, Darwin had been puzzling over the problem of the formation of species since he came back from his voyage aboard the Beagle, more than twenty years earlier. His observations clearly indicated that species evolved, transformed into new species, yet he was unsure of the mechanisms underlying such transformations. Darwin was a slow, reflective writer, who shied away from hypothesising without reams of supporting evidence. He also knew his ideas on the origin of species in general, and on mankind in particular, would arouse controversy in Victorian society, and he did not want to add more fuel to the fire. However, in 1842 he wrote a 37-page draft (the famous Sketch), hurriedly and in pencil, with unfinished sentences, an irregular structure and a lot of corrections and crossingouts. Here, we can find the first ideas on the evolution of species and the possible mechanisms governing it. Then two years later, in 1844, he wrote a 189-page manuscript, a lot tidier and more careful, gathering his conclusions at that moment, and it bears some resemblance with what would later be On the Origin of Species (De Beer, 1958). It is fair to say that the manuscript (known by Darwinians as the Essay) served as a kind of insurance in case he did not finish the final version, «the big book» to which he aspired, the one he wrote ever so slowly. It is moving to see the long letter concerning the Essay that Darwin sent Emma, his wife, on 5 July 1844, in which he writes: «I therefore «WHEN DARWIN RECEIVED THE TERNATE ESSAY, HE BECAME SERIOUSLY CONCERNED ABOUT PRIORITY» write this, in case of my sudden death, as my most solemn & last request, which I am sure you will consider the same as if legally entered in my will, that you will devote 400 to its publication & further will yourself, or through Hensleigh, take trouble in promoting it». Apart from being touching, the letter states much about the conceptual and «strategic» importance he attributed to the Essay at the time. WALLACE: THE FIRST WARNING One of Darwin s best friends was Charles Lyell, geologist and one of the most influential naturalists in England at the time, who insisted that Darwin should write his final theory once and for all, even if he did not have all the answers. A key event transpired in 1855 when Lyell read a work published by an obscure naturalist, Alfred Russel Wallace, who was in the Malay Archipelago at the time collecting animals and plants. The name of the work was On the Law which Has Regulated the Introduction of New Species, and it was based on observation suggesting that «Every species has come into existence coincident both in space and time with a pre-existing closely allied species». In this work, known as the Sarawak document, he highlighted the importance of extinction and modified offspring divergence as key elements in the process of species transmutation through time. Lyell clearly saw that Wallace was precipitously entering the field that had occupied Darwin for more than twenty years, and warned his friend (Davies, 2013). Darwin read the document, but gave it no importance, writing in the margins: «Nothing very new [ ]; it seems all creation with him [ ]; his law hold good; he puts On the left, Alfred Russel Wallace, in Singapore in 1862, before returning to the UK after spending eight years in the Malay Archipelago. MÈTODE 7

3 Natural History Museum, London Wallace kept Darwin s letters and notes with special care. This envelope, from around 1902, held eight letters he had received from Darwin when in the Malay Archipelago. Wallace s writing shows that he never recovered the original Ternate manuscript he sent to Darwin, nor did he see the galley proofs before its publication in the third volume of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society in the facts in striking point of view», maybe because Wallace profusely used the term «creation» instead of «transmutation», which was the word in use at the time to talk about the formation of species. Darwin ascribed no importance to Wallace s work, but due to Lyell s persistence, he resumed the writing of his book. THE TERNATE ESSAY ARRIVES In early June 1858, Darwin received a manuscript and a letter from Wallace, sent from the small island of Ternate, in the Malay Archipelago. The manuscript bore the suggestive name: On the Tendency of Varieties to Depart Indefi nitely from the Original Type, and proposed certain variability to exist between the individuals of the same species. It also suggested that the variations that better adapted to the environment would have greater chances of surviving and breeding, and would separate from the original species until turning into another, different, one. In short, it was a theory that explained the origin of species by natural selection. In the letter accompanying the manuscript, Wallace asked Darwin Xavier Bellés Male (below) and female Trogonoptera brookiana (Wallace, 1855) (Lepidoptera, Papilionidae), butterfly discovered by Wallace in Borneo and named in honour of British Raj of Sarawak, James Brooke. Wallace s description placed it within the genus Ornithoptera, having a wingspan of 15 to 17 cm, it is largely black in colour but with fluorescent green spots and is considered one of the most beautiful butterflies in the world. The specimens in the photograph are from Cameron Highlands, Malaysia. 8 MÈTODE

4 to show it to Lyell as he wished to know his opinion on the matter before publishing it. Darwin was stunned as the Ternate essay contained the formal development of his own ideas on the origin of species, which had been taking shape since he came back from his voyage on the Beagle. He himself stated that the manuscript was a good summary of the work he had been doing for the last twenty years. BUT WHO WAS WALLACE? Alfred Russel Wallace was born on 8 January 1823 in Usk, southeast Wales, to a middle-class family with limited resources. When he was twelve, he left school to go to London to work as a carpenter with his brother John. A year later, he started working with another brother, William, first as a clock-maker in training, then as a topographer and field supervisor for the railway. The job taught him to draw maps and design buildings, providing instruction in mechanics, forestry techniques and many other skills that would prove valuable in the following years. He spent seven years on the railway, in close contact with nature, and conceivably developed an interest in natural history then. In 1842, he read the book Treatise on Geography and Classifi cation of Animals, by W. Swainson, which introduced him to biogeography. Wallace admitted later that reading the book sparked his scientific inclination. In 1844 he moved to Leicester to teach drawing and cartography. In Leicester library he read An Essay on the Principle of Population, by Malthus, and met Henry Walter Bates, a keen entomologist who introduced him to the world of beetles and butterflies. A year later, on the death of his brother William, he took over his land supervision business, despite which it closed shortly afterwards. The following year, 1845, he engaged in important readings, like the work of R. Chambers Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation, which turned him, in his own words, into an «evolutionist», Lyell s Principles of Geology or Darwin s Voyage of the Beagle. In 1847 he travelled to Paris with his sister Fanny and visited the great zoological collections of the Jardin des Plantes. When he came back, he visited the British Museum, and decided to devote his life to natural history. He spoke to Bates, and they agreed to head for Amazonia, sponsored by Samuel Stevens, who offered to sell the animals and plants they found to museums and private collections. On 26 April 1848, they set sail from Liverpool and headed for Brazil, and on 26 May they arrived to Pará, currently Belém. Wallace spent four hard but informative years in the Amazon, which he narrated in his book A Narrative of Travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro. But the journey was cut short when the ship bringing him home was shipwrecked in the middle of the Atlantic, and his collections and diaries were lost. The experience was so arduous that upon his arrival in London he vowed never to undertake a similar task again. Two years later, however, he embarked on a ship for the Malay Archipelago, where he stayed for eight years. During that time, he discovered an amazing number of species unknown to science and gathered an enormous volume of data about the «WITHOUT FURTHER EVIDENCE IT IS INAPPROPRIATE TO CHARGE DARWIN WITH COPYING WALLACE» distribution of animals and plants (McKinney, 1972; Raby, 2001; Wallace, 1905). It was there that the idea of the mechanism of natural selection dawned upon him, and he sent Darwin the famous Ternate essay. THE MEETING OF THE LINNEAN SOCIETY When Darwin received the Ternate essay, he became seriously concerned about priority, and asked for advice, first from Lyell and then from the botanist Joseph Hooker, another highly influential individual. Lyell and Hooker contrived a plan whereby Wallace s work could be released without leaving any room for doubt that Darwin had already been mulling over similar ideas for many years. In just twelve days they organised a joint reading of Darwin and Wallace s works at the Linnean Society of London, during a science session on 1 July The order of presentation was meticulously planned to give Darwin clear priority. A small introductory note by Lyell and Hooker preceded the readings: the first, a summary of the famous Essay Darwin had written in 1844; then, a letter sent by Darwin to the North- American naturalist Asa Gray in 1857, in which he commented on the principle of divergence between variations of the same species; and finally the Ternate MÈTODE 9

5 A. R. Wallace Memorial Fund & G. W. Beccaloni 10 MÈTODE

6 essay sent by Wallace (Raby, 2001). Neither of the authors attended the session: Darwin was at the funeral of his son Charles Waring, who had died three days earlier; and Wallace was in New Guinea. The session came and went without a fuss, reviewed only by Samuel Houghton, of Trinity College Dublin, who summed it up by saying «all that [was] new in there was false, and what was true was old». A poor review to describe one of the most sensational discoveries in science history: the mechanism that governs evolution of the living world. A discovery both Darwin and Wallace had made independently. A CONTROVERSY OVER THE DATE One particularly controversial issue is the date on which the letter and manuscript left Ternate, and the date of arrival at Darwin s home in Downe. It is well known that Wallace wrote the essay towards the end of February 1858, after a serious attack of malaria. In different retrospective texts, Wallace states that he wrote the document a couple of days after the disease and sent it to Darwin «with the next mail, one or two days later» (Wallace, 1905). With the same mail, which left Ternate on 9 March 1858, there was a letter to the brother of his friend Henry Bates, who lived in Leicester. As we already said, Darwin, edgy on account of the Ternate essay, wrote a letter to Lyell asking for advice on the matter. Darwin s letter is dated 18 June, and he said he received the essay that same day. The controversy starts here, because we know for sure that the letter Wallace sent to Bates brother left Ternate on 9 March, reached London on 2 June and Leicester the day after. Thus the one sent to Darwin should have arrived in London then, and a day later to Down House as some historians maintain, namely McKinney (1972), Brackman (1980) and Davies (2008). The polemic was revived recently with van Wyhe and Rookmaaker s hypothesis (2012) (also van Wyhe, 2013), which postulates that Wallace s letter would not have left Ternate on 9 March, but with the next mail, on 5 April, so it would have arrived in Downe on 18 June. However, the hypothesis is A. R. Wallace Memorial Fund & G. W. Beccaloni «FOR THE REST OF HIS LIFE, ALFRED WALLACE WOULD BE DARWIN S MOST FERVENT SUPPORTER» Wallace s study at his last residence at the Old Orchard, Broadstone (Dorset), where he lived from Christmas 1902 until his death in November His study is similar in many ways to Darwin s at Down House, which has been restored with most of the original furniture and is open to the public (Downe, Kent). considered unlikely for several reasons, particularly the irregular deliveries and mail transport systems of the time, and also because of Wallace s repeated claim that he sent the essay soon after he wrote it in late February (Davies, 2013; Smith, 2013). If Wallace s letter and essay had reached Darwin on 3 June, why did he not contact Lyell until 18 June? It is a difficult question to answer, but Wallace s supporters find it highly significant that between 3 June and 15 June Darwin added to the big book he was writing 66 pages on divergence, so commented upon in the Ternate essay (Brooks, 1984). Could Darwin have received the manuscript before the date he stated in his letter to Lyell, and did he borrow ideas from it concerning divergence during this time? It is possible, but seems far-fetched considering Darwin s moral rectitude. Almost certainly Darwin took inspiration from Wallace s notions, for instance the ones in the Sarawak document albeit later. It is true, however, that thanks to Wallace he included important information such as the geographical distribution of animals and plants. What does seem evident is that Alfred Wallace, around After Darwin s death in 1882 he was treated as an «old hero», Darwin s alter ego, and received numerous honours which he accepted reluctantly and with resignation. When in 1892 he was simultaneously awarded medals by the Royal Geographical Society and the Linnean Society he complained to his daughter: «Is it not awful? Two medals I have received and two speeches I have to pronounce, give them due thanks and tell them politely that I am grateful, but I am also a little bored!». Above all, Wallace was still the shy and sensitive person he always had been. MÈTODE 11

7 A. R. Wallace Memorial Fund & G. W. Beccaloni Alfred Wallace s funeral. He remained active into his nineties, becoming progressively weaker in the last months of his life. He died in his sleep at his home in Broadstone (Dorset) shortly after 9 am on 7 November Some of his friends and followers proposed he should be buried in Westminster Abbey, near Darwin. But Wallace s wife, Annie, had him buried in Broadstone public cemetery, following her husband s wishes. the Ternate essay was the trigger for Darwin to finally establish a programme to publish his ideas; however, without further evidence it is inappropriate to charge Darwin with copying Wallace, as Davies (2008) does when he claims the ideas in the Ternate essay were plagiarised by Darwin, and asserts that the issue is «a deliberate and iniquitous case of intellectual theft, deceptions and falsehood committed by Darwin». No doubt Wallace, who always showed the uttermost respect and unconditional affection for Darwin, would not like to hear these words. WALLACE, MORE DARWINIAN THAN DARWIN HIMSELF Whatever the case may be, Lyell and Hooker s staging registered Wallace s merit, yet clearly favoured Darwin. The following year, under Lyell s insistence, Darwin would publish On the Origin of Species, the work that would establish him as the father of evolution by natural selection. Meanwhile, Wallace, who remained in Ternate, received two letters from Hooker and Darwin in the autumn of 1858, describing the procedure through which his works had been published together with Darwin s in the Linnean Society. In October of the same year Wallace wrote «WALLACE DISTANCED HIMSELF FROM DARWIN SCIENTIFICALLY, ESSENTIALLY BECAUSE HE STARTED EXPRESSING THEOLOGICAL IDEAS ABOUT NATURE» to his mother, Mary, proudly telling her that they had placed him at the same level as Darwin, stating «This assures me the acquaintance and assistance of these eminent men on my return home». For the rest of his life, Alfred Wallace would be Darwin s most fervent supporter, more Darwinian than Darwin himself. In spite of everything, it is true that Wallace distanced himself from Darwin scientifically, essentially because he started expressing theological ideas about nature, especially concerning man s evolution, suggesting it was guided by a higher intelligence and governed by laws superior to natural selection. In a letter sent in January 1870, Darwin reprimanded him («You write like a metamorphosed (in retrograde direction) naturalist, and you the author of the best paper that ever appeared in the Anthropological Review! Eheu! Eheu! Eheu!»), but they always maintained respectful and friendly terms (Raby, 2001). Wallaced died at the age of 90, and during the fifty years after the joint presentation at the Linnean Society he published many books, among which the excellent travelogue The Malay Archipelago, 1869, stands out thanks to its popular reception; as well as The Geographical Distribution of Animals, given its impact on the scientific community. The latter places him as the father of biogeography, in particular his identification of the border between the Eastern and Australian faunal region, the so-called Wallace line, which crosses the Malay Archipelago crossing between the islands of Bali and Lombok. Or numerous essays, the most important of which were collected in the books Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection (1870), Tropical Nature and Other Essays (1878) or Darwinism (1889). Apart from these important scientific works, he devoted a lot of time to defending the study of spiritualism, to political issues from a somewhat particular socialist view, and to other social issues, such as his rejection of vaccination campaigns. All of this earned him an ambiguous reputation and brought confrontation with scientists. All in all, clearly his scientific achievements far outweighed his sorties onto those slippery slopes, and he received a lot of perfectly-deserved honours. For instance, the Royal Society Medal in 1868, the Darwin Medal in 1890, the Royal Geographical Society s Founder s Medal in 1892, the Linnean Society s Gold Medal in MÈTODE

8 and the Copley Medal in In 1893 he was chosen Royal Society member, and in 1908 the Linnean Society established the Darwin-Wallace Medal, to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of their 1858 presentation (the first was naturally awarded to Wallace). It should also be noted that the British government granted him an allowance of 200 pounds a year in 1881, promoted by Darwin with the support of Hooker (Raby, 2001). The letter Darwin sent to Wallace on 7 January 1881 to tell him about it is very touching, he wrote «I hope that it will give you some satisfaction to see that not only every scientific man to whom I applied, but that also our Government appreciated your lifelong scientific labour». When Wallace died on 7 November 1913, at his home in Broadstone, Dorset, some of his friends suggested he should be buried in Westminster Abbey. However, his wife Annie had him buried in the small cemetery at Broadstone, as set out in his last will. In 1915, a commission of prominent British scientists suggested placing a plaque to commemorate Wallace in the Abbey, near Darwin s tomb. The plaque was finally inaugurated on 1 November The two fathers of the mechanism of natural selection were reunited, albeit symbolically. REFERENCES BRACKMAN, A. C., A Delicate Arrangement: the Strange Case of Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace. Times Books. New York. BROOKS, J. L., Just Before the Origin: Alfred Russel Wallace s Theory of Evolution. Columbia University Press. New York. DAVIES, R., The Darwin Conspiracy: Origins of a Scientifi c Crime. Golden Squarebooks. London. DAVIES, R., «How Charles Darwin Received Wallace s Ternate Paper 15 Days Earlier than He Claimed: a Comment on Van Wyhe and Rookmaaker». Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 105: DAVIES, R., «1 July 1858: What Wallace Knew; What Lyell Thought He Knew; What Both He and Hooker Took on Trust; and What Charles Darwin Never Told Them». Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 109: DE BEER, G., Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace: Evolution by Natural Selection. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. MCKINNEY, H. L., Wallace and Natural Selection. Yale University Press. New Haven, CT. RABY, P., Alfred Russel Wallace: a Life. Chatto & Windus. London. SMITH, Ch. H., «A Further Look at the 1858 Wallace Darwin Mail Delivery Question». Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 108: WALLACE, A. R., My Life: a Record of Events and Opinions. 2 vols. Chapman & Hall, London. WYHE, J. VAN, and K. ROOKMAAKER, «A New Theory to Explain the Receipt of Wallace s Ternate Essay by Darwin in 1858». Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 105: WYHE, J. VAN, Dispelling the Darkness: Voyage in the Malay Archipelago and the Discovery of Evolution by Wallace and Darwin. World Scientific. Singapore. Xavier Bellés. Director of the Institute of Evolutionary Biology CSIC-UPF, Barcelona (Spain). MÈTODE 13