Charles Darwin: The Concise Story of an Extraordinary Man

11. Alfred Russel Wallace and The Origin

[ 59 ] eLeven v฀ Alfred Russel Wallace and The Origin in 1855, LyeLL suggesteD that Darwin read a paper by an unknown naturalist, entitled “On the law which has regulated the introduction of new species.” The author was Alfred Russel Wallace. It showed some similarities to Darwin ’s own sketches about evolution and natural selection in 1842 and 1844, but Darwin did not recognize Wallace’s writings as a threat. Lyell thought otherwise and urged Charles to prepare a summary of his theory. So Charles set to work on his “big book,” which he was calling “Natural Selection.” Portions of the manuscript were read by Hooker, Huxley, and John Lubbock, Darwin’s friend, neighbor, and a member of Parliament. On 5 September 1857, Darwin sent a summary of the “big book” to Asa Gray, his American botanist friend at Harvard. In 1858, while recovering from malaria in the Malay Archipelago , Wallace read, as Darwin did eighteen years earlier, Malthus’ An Essay on the Principle of Population. Wallace reached the same conclusion as Darwin, namely, that natural selection was the factor controlling populations. Wallace wrote an essay, “On the Tendency of Varieties to Depart Indefinitely from the Original Type,” and sent it to Darwin. He asked Darwin to arrange for its publication if the ideas were sound. When he received Wallace’s essay on 18 June 1858, Darwin [ 60 ] was stunned. He had already written a quarter of a million words of his “big book,” which was expected to fill three volumes. Wallace’s ideas were identical to what he had been working on for twenty years. Darwin wrote to Lyell, saying “I never saw a more striking coincidence; if Wallace had my Ms sketch written out in 1842, he could not have made a better abstract!” The timing was very bad for Darwin, as two of his children were seriously ill. Henrietta was recovering from diphtheria , and Charles Waring (1856–1858), the youngest child, Alfred Russel Wallace, age twenty-five in 1848 (left) and age fifty-five in 1878 (right). He was a traveler and naturalist and a co-discover, with Darwin, of natural selection. Wallace collected natural history specimens in the Amazon (1848–52) and in the Malay Archipelago (1854– 62). He is best known for establishing biogeographical realms and for “Wallace’s Line,” separating the Asian realm (west) from the Australian realm (east). He was a frequent visitor to Down House. He was the first recipient of the Darwin Medal in 1890 and accepted appointment as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1905. (From Wallace [1905]) [ 6 1 ] Charles Darwin family tree. Squares represent males, circles females. Diamonds refer to males and females. Numeral within symbol signifies number of children. (Used with permission of P. V. Tobias and Transactions of the Royal Society of South Africa, the journal in which his 1972 article appeared.) [ 62 ] was mortally ill with scarlet fever and died a few days later. Emma was forty-eight when Charles Waring was born. He never learned to walk or talk, and he may have been a victim of Down syndrome. Darwin was desperate to decide whether or not it was ethical to publish before Wallace. The idea that his life’s work would be in vain was devastating, but he was so consumed with grief for his children that he was nearly paralyzed. He wrote to Hooker on 29 June: “I am quite prostrated and can do nothing but I send Wallace and my abstract of my letter to Asa Gray . . . [and] my sketch of 1844 . . . I really cannot bear to look at it. Do not waste much time. It is miserable in me to care at all about priority.” Lyell and Hooker were, of course, privy to Darwin’s work for the past twenty years on the idea of evolution by means of Charles Lyell (standing) and Joseph Dalton Hooker (right) advise Darwin regarding Wallace’s letter. (From a scene at Down House recreated by a Russian artist, variously referred to as Victor Eustaphieff or Evstafieff, for the centenary of The Origin.) [ 63 ] natural selection. They were determined to prevent Darwin from being scooped and persuaded him to prepare a paper that would be presented, along with Wallace’s paper, at a meeting of the Linnean Society. These two papers—“On the Tendency of Species to Form Varieties” and “On...