A Thoroughly Victorian Naturalist

kw: book reviews, nonfiction, biographies, naturalists, evolution

Imagine, if you will, that after nearly sixteen years of research and study, after groping for a synthesis of his studies of earthworms and domestic fowl, after ruminating over his observations of the ecology of the pampas and the finches of the Galapagos Islands, after beginning to prepare a final outline of a great, multi-volume survey of his theory of evolutionary biology, Charles Darwin had one day been presented with a monograph describing natural selection, newly printed, describing every facet of the mechanism that drives evolutionary change, a mechanism he had elaborated on in detail in his outline.

This nearly happened! Though scientists in the Victorian era were generally no more or less venial and credit-hungry than those of today, there were two, at least, who behaved with nobility and commendable restraint, when it happened that they both deduced the same hypothesis. While Alfred Russel Wallace could have published his monograph—he was already a much-published and celebrated naturalist—he decided to send a copy of the manuscript to Darwin for review. Darwin was in a quandary!

The story of his handling of this delicate situation, with the help of some wiser, or at least bolder, friends, is told in numerous books, including the recent biography of Wallace, The Heretic in Darwin’s Court: The Life of Alfred Russel Wallace, by Ross A. Slotten. A mainly friendly relationship between Wallace and Darwin ensued, which lasted until Darwin’s death, and which was recalled by Wallace with much fondness near the end of his own life in 1909.

The publication of Darwin’s and Wallace’s first papers on the theory of natural selection, presented simultaneously to the Linnean Society, marked a turning point in the lives of both men. But, while it was the beginning of ever-increasing celebrity for Darwin, it led to a rougher road for Wallace. He rode the crest for a time, but when he later began to investigate Spiritualism, becoming quite an apostle for the “new religion,” he lost favor and influence, and fell into a couple decades of eclipse. His passionate embrace of the anti-vaccination cause, and later of many “thoroughly unpopular” movements, made him far from a favorite of the drawing room. Only in his eighties did he become a “national treasure,” and gain the recognition for his earlier work on an appropriate scale.

Today he is remembered less for supplying the prod to Darwin to publish “a sketch” of his theory in The Origin of Species (short title), and more for Wallacea. This region in Indonesia began as Wallace’s Line, an apparent biological boundary between Asian faunas to the west and Australian faunas to the east. It originally ran from the strait between Bali and Lombok, north between Borneo and Celebes. Later investigations showed that there is a region of gradual decline in one fauna as another takes over, rather than the sharp line that Wallace posited. Today Wallace’s Line delineates the first appearance of a great number of Australian species and the last appearance of several important Asian ones, while to the east, Weber’s and Lyddeker’s Lines mark the last appearance of all key Asian avian and mammalian species.

The amount of material is massive. It is undoubtedly less so than Wallace’s own autobiography My Life, but it took me a good while to read. I employed a stratagem I use when I find a book to be, however interesting, quite a long slog: I read this at work during breaks while reading other books at home, mainly bedtime. Thus the prior two posts are for books I completed while making my way through Heretic. Slotten is a good writer, or I’d have not finished. Wallace’s life is a fascinating window into the Victorian world at the height of its colonial power. Regardless of the privations Wallace, Bates (of Batesian mimicry fame), Spruce and others endured, they were greatly lessened by the pervasive influence of British civilization to all but the most remote corners of the world. Author Slotten’s masterwork is a fascinating window into the lives of Wallace, Darwin, and other naturalists of the time.