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References
Charles Darwin, The Autobiography of Charles Darwin, ed. Nora Barlow (New York: Norton, 1958), pp. 130–131.
Alfred R. Wallace, Alfred Russel Wallace: Letters and Reminiscences, ed. James Marchant (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1916), p. 110.
Alfred R. Wallace, Alfred Russel Wallace: Letters and Reminiscences, ed. James Marchant (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1916), p. 128. Doubting the sincerity of Darwin's offer, Kottler believes that “Darwin was concerned with another priority dispute with Wallace”. (Malcolm Kottler, “Wallace, The Origin of Man and Spiritualism”, Isis, 65 [1974], 145–192; quotation on p. 149.) But Kottler offers no evidence to support his disbelief in Darwin's sincerity. The priority in proposing the theory of natural selection was never disputed by either Darwin or Wallace, the entire matter being settled amicably to everyone's satisfaction.
Alfred R. Wallace, Alfred Russel Wallace: Letters and Reminiscences, ed. James Marchant (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1916), p. 126.
Alfred R. Wallace, Alfred Russel Wallace: Letters and Reminiscences, ed. James Marchant (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1916), p. 127.
John Green, The Death of Adam, Evolution and Its Impact on Western Thought (Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1959, p. 320), states that by this date “Darwin was pleased with Huxley's views on man, but was disturbed by those of Lyell and Wallace.”
Alfred R. Wallace, Alfred Russel Wallace: Letters and Reminiscences, ed. James Marchant (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1916), p. 127.
Alfred R. Wallace, “The Origin of Human Races and the Antiquity of Man deduced from the theory of Natural Selection,” J. Anthrop. Soc., 2 (1864), clxviii.
Wallace refused to comply with Hunt's request: “As to the term ‘inherent,’ I do not mean to withdraw it. I mean to maintain it as a very proper expression; and the answer I gave to that last question about a provident race, will almost answer for this, — that peculiarities produced gradually by natural seletion, or any other cause, become inherent.” Ibid., p. clxxxvi.
Ibid., p. clxxx. J. W. Burrow, Evolution and Society: A Study in Victorian Social Theory (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1966), p. 131, says: “The Anthropological Society was a by-product of the scientific excitement of the early ‘sixties... The findings of prehistoric archaeology, the proofs of the immense antiquity of man, were pretty generally accepted... but not so Darwin's theory, or even the theory of evolution itself. At least until Wallace joined, Darwin was mentioned seldom and patronizingly, as another evolutionist speculator. Huxley's account of man's place in nature was strongly disputed, and the Neanderthal skull held by Hunt to be that of an idiot.”
Wallace, “The Origin of Human Races,” p. clxx.
Alfred R. Wallace, Alfred Russel Wallace: Letters and Reminiscences, ed. James Marchant (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1916), pp. 128–129. Emphasis in original.
Ibid.
Alfred R. Wallace, Alfred Russel Wallace: Letters and Reminiscences, ed. James Marchant (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1916), p. 148.
Alfred R. Wallace, Alfred Russel Wallace: Letters and Reminiscences, ed. James Marchant (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1916), p. 150. Emphasis in original.
Charles Darwin, The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, ed. Francis Darwin (London: John Murray, 1888), III, 100.
Alfred R. Wallace, Alfred Russel Wallace: Letters and Reminiscences, ed. James Marchant (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1916), p. 190.
Darwin papers, vol. 133, item (14): A. R. Wallace, criticism of “Sir C. Lyell on Geological Climate and the Origin of Species,” Quart. Rev., 126 (1869), 359–394; quotation on pp. 391–392.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid., p. 394.
Ibid.
Alfred R. Wallace, Alfred Russel Wallace: Letters and Reminiscences, ed. James Marchant (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1916), p. 197.
Alfred R. Wallace, Alfred Russel Wallace: Letters and Reminiscences, ed. James Marchant (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1916), p. 199.
Alfred R. Wallace, Alfred Russel Wallace: Letters and Reminiscences, ed. James Marchant (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1916), p. 200.
Charles Darwin, The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, ed. Francis Darwin (London: John Murray, 1888), III, 117.
Charles Lyell, Life, Letters and Journals of Sir Charles Lyell, ed. Mrs. Lyell (London: John Murray, 1881), II, 442.
Ruse claims that Darwin by 1869 “had lost patience with Lyell” and had little sympathy for Lyell's religious misgivings. But Ruse goes on to state that Darwin was “downright appalled at Wallace.” (Michael Ruse, The Darwinian Revolution [Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979], p. 247.) Darwin was also somewhat displeased with Thomas Huxley during this period. Huxley, a steadfast champion of Darwin and his views, nevertheless wanted Darwin to provide direct evidence of transmutation of species. Hull states that “Darwin grew weary of telling people that he did not pretend to address direct evidence of one species changing into another. Among those who contributed most to Darwin's weariness was Huxley. Throughout their collaboration, Huxley steadfastly maintained that intersterility infallibly distinguished species and ‘until selective breeding is definitely proved to give rise to varieties intersterile with one another, the logical foundation of the theory of natural selection is incomplete.’ Darwin believed, on the other hand, that it was difficult ‘to make a marked line of separation between fertile and infertile crosses.’” Darwin's “weariness” with Huxley is not nearly so significant as the serious breach that had occurred between Darwin and Wallace over the subject of man. Darwin's Descent cannot be regarded as a response to the reservations of Lyell or Huxley. Both men, despite these reservations, became with the passage of time in the 1860s stronger supporters of Darwin and his position. (David Hull, Darwin and His Critics: The Reception of Darwin's Theory of Evolution by the Scientific Community [Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1973], p. 49.)
Alfred R. Wallace, A Narrative of Travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro (London: Reeve and Company, 1853).
McKinney says that Wallace was stimulated by reading Robert Chambers' Vestiges of Creation and became motivated to travel to the Amazon and investigate the species question. (H. Lewis McKinney, Wallace and Natural Selection [New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1972], pp. 9–13.
Alfred R. Wallace, “On the Tendency of Varieties to Depart Indefinitely from the Original Type,” J. Proc. Linn. Soc. (Zool.), 3 (1859), 57. Reprinted in Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace, Evolution by Natural Selection, foreword by Sir Gavin de Beer (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1958), pp. 268–279, and The Darwin-Wallace Celebration Held on Thursday 1st July, 1908 by the Linnean Society of London (London: Linnean Society, 1908), pp. 98–107.
Alfred R. Wallace, “The Origin of Human Races and the Antiquity of Man deduced from the theory of Natural Selection,”, J. Anthrop. Soc.2 (1864), pp. clxii-clxiii.
Ibid.
Ibid., p. clxix.
Ibid.
Discussing the origins of Wallace's socialism, phrenology, and spiritualism, Turner regards them as components of a school of thought called “physical puritanism,” popular with “amateurs who often tended toward political radicalism.” Physical puritanism had as its goal “the healing, cleansing and restoration of the animal man.” (Frank Miller Turner, Between Science and Religion: The Reaction to Scientific Naturalism in Late Victorian England [New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1974], p. 80). Young looked at the origins of phrenology and natural selection from an entirely different perspective. He maintained that both phrenology and natural selection relied on the “naturalistic method” of gathering evidence: “Logicaly it [natural selection] was in the same position as phrenology for most of the nineteenth century. It rested on naturalistic observations and a mass of anecdotes collected more or less systematically.” Young has overstated his position in placing phrenology on an equal footing with natural selection. The standards of evidence were much higher for evolutionary work, as Young observed, and also the meager evidence based on nonscientific happenings in support of phrenology is certainly not comparable to the enormous amount of data carefully compiled in support of natural selection by Darwin and others in many areas of study, such as anatomy, paleontology, and geology. (Robert M. Young, Mind, Brain and Adaptation in the Nineteenth Century: Cerebral Localization and Its Biological Context from Galt to Ferrier [Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1970], pp. 44–45.)
W. B. Northrop, “Alfred Russel Wallace”, Outlook, 105 (1913), 621.
Alfred R. Wallace, Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection (London: Macmillan, 1870), pp. 303–331.
Wallace, “The Origin of Human Races,”, p. clxxxvi.
Alfred R. Wallace, Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection (London: Macmillan, 1870), p. 331.
Young has suggested that “socialism and 19th century evolutionism were very uneasy bedfellows, and in the conflict between them Wallace chose socialism.” (Robert M. Young, “Non-Scientific Factors in the Darwinian Debate,” Actes XII Congrès Inter. Hist. Sci., 8 [1968], 221–226; quotation on p. 224.)
Alfred R. Wallace, Alfred Russel Wallace: Letters and Reminiscences, ed. James Marchant (New York: Harber and Borthers, 1916), pp. 391–392. Peel states that “the social ideals of [Spencer's] Social Statics which had seemed so radical for 1848, came to seem old fashioned in the climate of the new liberalism [in the 1880s]... he [Spencer] attacked socialism as the ‘New Toryism.’ ” J. D. Y. Peel, Herbert Spencer: The Evolution of a Sociologist (New York: Basic Books, 1971), p. 19.
Durant supports the view that Wallace never decided against scientific naturalism. (John Durant, “Scientific Naturalism and Social Reform,” Brit. J. Hist. Sci., 12 [1979], 31–58; esp. pp. 34, 36, 48–53.)
Smith suggests that Wallace believed socialism would establish a society that would permit the natural selection of the higher moral and intellectual qualities he cherishedm and this would allow human progress. However, Wallace arrived at these beliefs during the latter stages of his career (in the early 1900s) and it is not likely that he enjoyed such a clear vision of the value of socialism for the human race in 1869. (Roger Smith, Brit. J. Hist. Sci., 6 [1972], 177–199; quotation on p. 196.)
Kottler, “Wallace, The Orgin of Man,” p. 189. Emphasis in original.
Peter Vorzimmer, The Years of Controversy: The Origin of Species and Its Critics, 1859–1882 (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1970), p. 296.
Peter Vorzimmer, The Years of Controversy: The Origins of Species and Its Critics, 1859–1882 (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1970), p. 190.
Kottler, “Wallace, The Origin of Man,” p. 147.
Like Kottler, George maintained that spiritualism was the sole cause for the shift in Wallace's view and that this shift took place after 1865. She refers to Wallace's 1864 paper and states (without any supporting evidence) that Darwin was “pleased” with Wallace's views on man. Moreover, George ignores the modifications in Wallace's thinking about natural selection and man and fails to note or examine the comments made by the members of the Anthropological Society at the time Wallace delivered his paper. Surely Darwin could not be “pleased” with Wallace's new position. (Wilma George, Biologist Philosopher: A Study of the Life and Writings of Alfred Russel Wallace [London: Aberlard-Schuman, 1964], p. 71.)
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Schwartz, J.S. Darwin, Wallace, and the Descent of Man . J Hist Biol 17, 271–289 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00143735
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00143735