A. R. Wallace Memorial Fund & G. W. Beccaloni 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 write this, in case of my sudden death, as my most solemn & last request, which I am sure you will We have to admit that had it not been for Alfred consider the same as if legally entered in my will, Russel Wallace (1823-1913), Darwin may never that you will devote 400£ to its publication & further have published On the Origin of Species. Retired will yourself, or through Hensleigh, take trouble in in his house in Downe, near London, Darwin had promoting it». Apart from being touching, the letter been puzzling over the problem of the formation of states much about the conceptual and «strategic» species since he came back from his voyage aboard importance he attributed to the Essay at the time. the Beagle, more than twenty years earlier. His observations clearly indicated that species evolved, ■ WALLACE: THE FIRST WARNING transformed into new species, yet he was unsure of the mechanisms underlying such transformations. Darwin One of Darwin’s best friends was Charles Lyell, was a slow, refl ective writer, who shied away from geologist and one of the most infl uential naturalists hypothesising without reams of supporting evidence. in England at the time, who insisted that Darwin He also knew his ideas on the origin of species in should write his fi nal theory once and for all, even general, and on mankind in particular, would arouse if he did not have all the answers. A key event controversy in Victorian society, transpired in 1855 when Lyell and he did not want to add more read a work published by an fuel to the fi re. «WHEN DARWIN RECEIVED obscure naturalist, Alfred However, in 1842 he wrote THE TERNATE ESSAY, Russel Wallace, who was in a 37-page draft (the famous the Malay Archipelago at the HE BECAME SERIOUSLY Sketch), hurriedly and in pencil, time collecting and with unfi nished sentences, an CONCERNED ABOUT plants. The name of the work irregular structure and a lot PRIORITY» was On the Law which Has of corrections and crossing- Regulated the Introduction of outs. Here, we can fi nd the fi rst New Species, and it was based on ideas on the evolution of species and the possible observation suggesting that «Every species has come mechanisms governing it. Then two years later, in into existence coincident both in space and time with 1844, he wrote a 189-page manuscript, a lot tidier a pre-existing closely allied species». In this work, and more careful, gathering his conclusions at that known as the Sarawak document, he highlighted the moment, and it bears some resemblance with what importance of extinction and modifi ed offspring would later be On the Origin of Species (De Beer, – divergence – as key elements in the process of 1958). It is fair to say that the manuscript (known species transmutation through time. Lyell clearly saw by Darwinians as the Essay) served as a kind of that Wallace was precipitously entering the fi eld that insurance in case he did not fi nish the fi nal version, had occupied Darwin for more than twenty years, «the big book» to which he aspired, the one he wrote and warned his friend (Davies, 2013). Darwin read ever so slowly. It is moving to see the long letter the document, but gave it no importance, writing in concerning the Essay that Darwin sent Emma, his the margins: «Nothing very new […]; it seems all wife, on 5 July 1844, in which he writes: «I therefore 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 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 1858. 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 Xavier Bellés between the individuals of the same species. It also suggested that the variations that better adapted Male (below) and female brookiana (Wallace, to the environment would have greater chances of 1855) (, Papilionidae), butterfl y discovered by Wallace surviving and breeding, and would separate from the in and named in honour of British Raj of Sarawak, original species until turning into another, different, James Brooke. Wallace’s description placed it within the genus Ornithoptera, having a wingspan of 15 to 17 cm, it is largely black in one. In short, it was a theory that explained the colour but with fl uorescent green spots and is considered one of origin of species by natural selection. In the letter the most beautiful butterfl ies in the world. The specimens in the accompanying the manuscript, Wallace asked Darwin photograph are from Cameron Highlands, .

8 MÈTODE to show it to Lyell as he wished to know his opinion to head for Amazonia, sponsored by Samuel Stevens, on the matter before publishing who offered to sell the animals and plants they found it. Darwin was stunned as the to museums and private collections. On 26 April Ternate essay contained the 1848, they set sail from Liverpool and headed for formal development of his own Brazil, and on 26 May they arrived to Pará, currently ideas on the origin of species, Belém. Wallace spent four hard but informative years which had been taking shape since in the Amazon, which he narrated in his book A he came back from his voyage on Narrative of Travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro. the Beagle. He himself stated that the But the journey was cut short when the ship bringing manuscript was a good summary of him home was shipwrecked in the middle of the the work he had been doing for the last Atlantic, and his collections and diaries were lost. twenty years. 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 ■ BUT WHO WAS WALLACE? a ship for the Malay Archipelago, where he stayed Alfred Russel Wallace was born on 8 January for eight years. During that time, he discovered an 1823 in Usk, southeast Wales, to a middle-class amazing number of species unknown to science family with limited resources. When he was twelve, and gathered an enormous volume of data about the 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, fi rst as a clock-maker in training, then as a topographer and fi eld supervisor «WITHOUT FURTHER EVIDENCE IT IS for the railway. The job taught him to draw maps and INAPPROPRIATE TO CHARGE DARWIN design buildings, providing instruction in mechanics, WITH COPYING WALLACE» forestry techniques and many other skills that would prove valuable in the following years. He spent seven years on the railway, in close contact distribution of animals and plants (McKinney, 1972; with nature, and conceivably Raby, 2001; Wallace, 1905). It was there that the idea developed an interest in natural of the mechanism of natural selection dawned upon history then. In 1842, he read the him, and he sent Darwin the famous Ternate essay. book Treatise on Geography and Classifi cation of Animals, by W. Swainson, ■ THE MEETING OF THE LINNEAN SOCIETY which introduced him to biogeography. Wallace admitted later that reading the book When Darwin received the Ternate essay, he became sparked his scientifi c inclination. In 1844 he moved seriously concerned about priority, and asked for to Leicester to teach drawing and cartography. In advice, fi rst from Lyell and then from the botanist Leicester library he read An Essay on the Principle Joseph Hooker, another highly infl uential individual. of Population, by Malthus, and met Henry Walter Lyell and Hooker contrived a plan whereby Wallace’s Bates, a keen entomologist who introduced him to the work could be released without leaving any room world of beetles and butterfl ies. A year later, on the for doubt that Darwin had already been mulling death of his brother William, he took over his land over similar ideas for many years. In just twelve supervision business, despite which it closed shortly days they organised a joint reading of Darwin and afterwards. The following year, 1845, he engaged in Wallace’s works at the Linnean Society of London, important readings, like the work of R. Chambers during a science session on 1 July 1858. The order Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation, which of presentation was meticulously planned to give turned him, in his own words, into an «evolutionist», Darwin clear priority. A small introductory note by Lyell’s Principles of Geology or Darwin’s Voyage of Lyell and Hooker preceded the readings: the fi rst, a the Beagle. In 1847 he travelled to Paris with his sister summary of the famous Essay Darwin had written Fanny and visited the great zoological collections of in 1844; then, a letter sent by Darwin to the North- the Jardin des Plantes. When he came back, he visited American naturalist Asa Gray in 1857, in which he the British Museum, and decided to devote his life to commented on the principle of divergence between natural history. He spoke to Bates, and they agreed variations of the same species; and fi nally the Ternate

MÈTODE 9 A. R. Wallace Memorial Fund & G. W. Beccaloni 1 MÈTODE 10 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 A. R. Wallace Memorial Fund & G. Beccaloni W. which the letter and manuscript left Ternate, and the Wallace’s study at his last residence at the Old Orchard, Broadstone (Dorset), where he lived from Christmas 1902 until date of arrival at Darwin’s home in Downe. It is well his death in November 1913. His study is similar in many ways to known that Wallace wrote the essay towards the end Darwin’s at Down House, which has been restored with most of of February 1858, after a serious attack of malaria. the original furniture and is open to the public (Downe, Kent). In different retrospective texts, Wallace states that he wrote the document a couple of days after the disease considered unlikely for several reasons, particularly and sent it to Darwin «with the next mail, one or two the irregular deliveries and mail transport systems days later» (Wallace, 1905). With the same mail, of the time, and also because of Wallace’s repeated which left Ternate on 9 March 1858, there was a letter claim that he sent the essay soon after he wrote it to the brother of his friend Henry in late February (Davies, 2013; Bates, who lived in Leicester. As Smith, 2013). If Wallace’s we already said, Darwin, edgy «FOR THE REST OF HIS LIFE, letter and essay had reached on account of the Ternate essay, ALFRED WALLACE WOULD Darwin on 3 June, why did he wrote a letter to Lyell asking for not contact Lyell until 18 June? BE DARWIN’S MOST FERVENT advice on the matter. Darwin’s It is a diffi cult question to letter is dated 18 June, and he SUPPORTER» answer, but Wallace’s supporters said he received the essay that fi nd it highly signifi cant that same day. between 3 June and 15 June The controversy starts here, because we know for Darwin added to the big book he was writing 66 sure that the letter Wallace sent to Bates’ brother left pages on divergence, so commented upon in the Ternate on 9 March, reached London on 2 June and Ternate essay (Brooks, 1984). Could Darwin have Leicester the day after. Thus the one sent to Darwin received the manuscript before the date he stated in should have arrived in London then, and a day later his letter to Lyell, and did he borrow ideas from it to Down House as some historians maintain, namely concerning divergence during this time? It is possible, McKinney (1972), Brackman (1980) and Davies but seems far-fetched considering Darwin’s moral (2008). The polemic was revived recently with van rectitude. Almost certainly Darwin took inspiration Wyhe and Rookmaaker’s hypothesis (2012) (also van from Wallace’s notions, for instance the ones in the Wyhe, 2013), which postulates that Wallace’s letter Sarawak document – albeit later. It is true, however, would not have left Ternate on 9 March, but with that thanks to Wallace he included important the next mail, on 5 April, so it would have arrived information such as the geographical distribution of in Downe on 18 June. However, the hypothesis is animals and plants. What does seem evident is that

Alfred Wallace, around 1895. 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 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 scientifi cally, 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

A. R. Wallace Memorial Fund & G. Beccaloni W. reprimanded him («You write like a metamorphosed Alfred Wallace’s funeral. He remained active into his nineties, (in retrograde direction) naturalist, and you the becoming progressively weaker in the last months of his life. He author of the best paper that ever appeared in the died in his sleep at his home in Broadstone (Dorset) shortly after Anthropological Review! Eheu! Eheu! Eheu!»), but 9 am on 7 November 1913. Some of his friends and followers they always maintained respectful and friendly terms proposed he should be buried in Westminster Abbey, near Darwin. But Wallace’s wife, Annie, had him buried in Broadstone public (Raby, 2001). cemetery, following her husband’s wishes. Wallaced died at the age of 90, and during the fi fty years after the joint presentation at the Linnean Society he the Ternate essay was the trigger «WALLACE DISTANCED published many books, among for Darwin to fi nally establish which the excellent travelogue HIMSELF FROM DARWIN a programme to publish his The Malay Archipelago, 1869, ideas; however, without further SCIENTIFICALLY, stands out thanks to its popular evidence it is inappropriate to ESSENTIALLY BECAUSE reception; as well as The charge Darwin with copying HE STARTED EXPRESSING Geographical Distribution of Wallace, as Davies (2008) does THEOLOGICAL IDEAS ABOUT Animals, given its impact on when he claims the ideas in the the scientifi c community. The Ternate essay were plagiarised NATURE» latter places him as the father by Darwin, and asserts that of biogeography, in particular the issue is «a deliberate and his identifi cation of the border iniquitous case of intellectual theft, deceptions and between the Eastern and Australian faunal region, falsehood committed by Darwin». No doubt Wallace, the so-called Wallace line, which crosses the Malay who always showed the uttermost respect and Archipelago crossing between the islands of Bali and unconditional affection for Darwin, would not like to Lombok. Or numerous essays, the most important hear these words. of which were collected in the books Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection (1870), Tropical Nature and Other Essays (1878) or Darwinism ■ WALLACE, MORE DARWINIAN THAN DARWIN (1889). Apart from these important scientifi c works, HIMSELF he devoted a lot of time to defending the study of Whatever the case may be, Lyell and Hooker’s staging spiritualism, to political issues from a somewhat registered Wallace’s merit, yet clearly favoured particular socialist view, and to other social issues, Darwin. The following year, under Lyell’s insistence, such as his rejection of vaccination campaigns. All of Darwin would publish On the Origin of Species, this earned him an ambiguous reputation and brought the work that would establish him as the father of confrontation with scientists. All in all, clearly his evolution by natural selection. Meanwhile, Wallace, scientifi c achievements far outweighed his sorties who remained in Ternate, received two letters from onto those slippery slopes, and he received a lot of Hooker and Darwin in the autumn of 1858, describing perfectly-deserved honours. For instance, the Royal the procedure through which his works had been Society Medal in 1868, the Darwin Medal in 1890, published together with Darwin’s in the Linnean the Royal Geographical Society’s Founder’s Medal Society. In October of the same year Wallace wrote in 1892, the Linnean Society’s Gold Medal in 1892

12 MÈTODE and the Copley Medal in 1908. In 1893 he was chosen Royal Society member, and in 1908 the Linnean Society established the Darwin-Wallace Medal, to commemorate the fi ftieth anniversary of their 1858 presentation (the fi rst 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 scientifi c man to whom I applied, but that also our Government appreciated your lifelong scientifi c 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 fi nally inaugurated on 1 November 1915. The two fathers of the mechanism of natural selection were reunited, albeit symbolically.

REFERENCES BRACKMAN, A. C., 1980. A Delicate Arrangement: the Strange Case of Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace. Times Books. New York. BROOKS, J. L., 1984. Just Before the Origin: Alfred Russel Wallace’s Theory of Evolution. Columbia University Press. New York. DAVI ES, R., 2008. The Darwin Conspiracy: Origins of a Scientifi c Crime. Golden Squarebooks. London. DAVI ES, R., 2012. «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: 472-477. DAVI ES, R., 2013. «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: 725-736. DE BEER, G., 1958. Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace: Evolution by Natural Selection. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. MCKINNEY, H. L., 1972. Wallace and Natural Selection. Yale University Press. New Haven, CT. RABY, P., 2001. Alfred Russel Wallace: a Life. Chatto & Windus. London. SMITH, Ch. H., 2013. «A Further Look at the 1858 Wallace – Darwin Mail Delivery Question». Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 108: 715-718. WALLACE, A. R., 1905. My Life: a Record of Events and Opinions. 2 vols. Chapman & Hall, London. WYHE, J. VA N, and K. ROOKMAAKER, 2012. «A New Theory to Explain the Receipt of Wallace’s Ternate Essay by Darwin in 1858». Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 105: 249-252. WYHE, J. VA N, 2013. Dispelling the Darkness: Voyage in the Malay Archipelago and the Discovery of Evolution by Wallace and Darwin. World Scientifi c. Singapore.

Xavier Bellés. Director of the Institute of Evolutionary Biology CSIC-UPF, Barcelona (Spain).

MÈTODE 13