In Darwin’s Shadow. The Life and Science of Alfred Russel Wallace

432 Pages·2002·5.3 MB·English

by  Michael Shermer

IN
D ’
ARWIN S
S
HADOW
THE LIFE AND SCIENCE OF
ALFRED RUSSEL WALLACE
A Biographical Study
on the
Psychology of History
Michael Shermer
3
2002
1
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Shermer,Michael.
InDarwin’sshadow:thelifeandscienceof
AlfredRusselWallace/MichaelShermer.
p.cm. Includesbibliographicalreferences.
ISBN0-19-514830-4
1. Wallace,AlfredRussel,1823–1913.
2. Naturalist—England—Biography.
3. Naturalselection. I. Title.
QH31.W2S442002 508'.092—dc21 [B] 2001055721
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To
Kimberly
With unencumbered love and unmitigated gratitude for fifteen years
(plus one honeymoon) spent in fifteen archives reading through 1,500 letters,
750 articles, and 22 books; her deep insight into the complex psychology
of the human condition provided both historical and personal
enlightenment. She has made me whole.
CONTENTS
List of Illustrations ix
Preface: Genesis and Revelation xiii
Prologue. The Psychology of Biography 3
1. Uncertain Beginnings 33
2. The Evolution of a Naturalist 56
3. Breaching the Walls of the Species Citadel 77
4. The Mystery of Mysteries Solved 108
5. A Gentlemanly Arrangement 128
6. Scientific Heresy and Ideological Murder 151
7. A Scientist Among the Spiritualists 175
8. Heretical Thoughts 202
9. Heretical Culture 225
10. Heretic Personality 250
11. The Last Great Victorian 271
12. The Life of Wallace and the Nature of History 298
Epilogue. Psychobiography and the Science of History 311
Notes 329
Appendix I: Wallace Archival Sources 343
Appendix II: Wallace’s Published Works 351
Bibliography 391
Index 403
vii
ILLUSTRATIONS
P-1. The Historical Matrix Model. 8
P-2. Wallace’s twenty-two books classified by subject. 16
P-3. Wallace’s 747 papers classified by subject. 17
P-4. Wallace’s personality profile. 26
1-1. The birthplace of Alfred Russel Wallace, Kensington Cottage, Usk. 35
1-2. Mary Anne Wallace (ne´e Greenell), Alfred’s mother; ThomasVere
Wallace, Alfred’s father. 35
1-3. The grammar school at Hertford, the place of Alfred’s only formal
education. 37
2-1. A daguerreotype from 1848 of Alfred Russel Wallace at age twenty-
five. 58
2-2. Henry Walter Bates,Wallace’s traveling companion for the first part of the
Amazon expedition. 59
2-3. The Rio Negro, mapped by the Royal Geographical Society based on Wal-
lace’s observations. 63
2-4. Series of hand sketches by Wallace, labeled as: “Some of My Original
Sketches on the Amazon.” 69–71
3-1. Alfred RusselWallace in 1853 at age thirty. 78
3-2. Charles Darwin in 1854 at age forty-five. 79
3-3. Wallace in his late twenties or early thirties, with his mother, Mary Anne,
and sister Frances. 80
3-4. Wallace playing chess with his sister shortly after his return from the
Amazon. 81
ix
x / Illustrations
3-5. “The true picture of the Lamia” from Edward Topsell’s 1607 The Historie
of Four-Footed Beastes, and the plant mandragora from the
1485 German Herbarius. 95
3-6. A new breed of artist-naturalist:Fuchs’s 1542 De historia stirpium. 96
3-7. Carolus Linnaeus, Georges Buffon, and John Ray’s Wisdom of God. 98
4-1. A map of the southern part of the Malay Archipelago. 110
4-2. Wallace’s map of the Aru Islands; butterflies Ornithoptera poseidon and
Ornithoptera priamus 111
4-3. Wallace’s temporary home in the Aru Islands. 113
4-4. Wallace’s Line. 123
4-5. The python incident. 125
4-6. Wallace’s wax seal and portable sextant from the Malay Archipelago
expedition. 126
5.1. The envelope of Wallace’s letter to Frederick Bates. 130
5.2. Joseph Hooker and Charles Lyell. 131
5.3. The Linnean Society of London meeting room as it presently looks with
the original furniture. 131
5-4. Alfred Wallace’s letter to Joseph Hooker, October 6, 1858. 138
6-1. Alfred RusselWallace in 1862 at age thirty-nine. 152
6-2. Alfred RusselWallace in 1869 at age forty-six, holding a copy of
The Malay Archipelago. 154
6-3. Annie Wallace (ne´e Mitten), daughter of the botanistWilliam Mitten. 157
7-1. Frontispiece of Wallace’s Scientific Aspects of the Supernatural. 185
7-2. Diagram in Wallace’s hand from his unpublished American journal. 187
7-3. The British zoologist Edwin Ray Lankester testifies in the celebrated 1876
trial of Henry Slade. 188
7-4. Slade’s slates. 195
8-1. Wallace’s letter to Francis Galton, December 1, 1893. 217
9-1. William Paley. 228
9-2. The universe in 1903. 232
9-3. Alfred RusselWallace in 1878 at age fifty-five. 240
9-4. Herbert Spencer. 241
9-5. Wallace’s proposal for a joint residential estate, May 15, 1901. 248
Illustrations / xi
10-1. Wallace challenges the flat-earthers, March 5, 1870, at the
Old Bedford Canal. 260
10-2. Two postcards from flat-earther John Hampden libeling Wallace. 262
10-3. Wallace’s letter about the flat-earther John Hampden, May 17, 1871. 264
11-1. Wallace’s home at Nutwood Cottage, Godalming, 1881. 272
11-2. Charles Darwin in 1882 at age seventy-three in the final year
of his life. 275
11-3. Wallace’s 1886 American tour. Garden of the Gods and Pike’s Peak. 277
11-4. Alfred RusselWallace at age seventy-nine. 288
11-5. Wallace in communion with nature (top) and with grandchild
(bottom). 289
11-6. The Darwin–Wallace Medal presented to Wallace in 1908. 293
11-7. Wallace in his garden at Broadstone, next to a fully blooming king’s-
spear plant in 1905. 295
11-8. Wallace in his greenhouse, tending his plants. 296
11-9. Alfred RusselWallace in 1913 at age ninety, in the final year
of his life. 297
E-1. Receptivity to evolutionary theory by birth order and social class. 325
E-2. Birth-order trends in science related to religious and political implications
of the revolution. 326
A-1. Top: The grandsons of Alfred Russel Wallace. Bottom: The author with
John Wallace. 345
PREFACE
GENESIS AND REVELATION
The assignment sounded forbidding. The final project for the colloquial sem-
inar in philosophy appeared in my hands three weeks before the end of the
spring semester, 1973. Though it was straightforward enough, selecting the
dozen most influential individuals in history and defending the choices was
a task this college sophomore found at once both onerous andintriguing.The
professordidnotreallyexpectcollegestudentstocomeupwithtwelvenames
and defend them, did he? He did.
This pedagogical tool was to cajole us into thinking about who really mat-
tered in history. Only one name appeared on every student’s list—Charles
Darwin. The name was on the professor’s list as well, who published a book
based on the seminar entitled Upon the Shoulders of Giants, which opened
withthesewords:“Thebuildersoftheworldmaybedividedintotwoclasses,
those who construct with stone and mortar and those who build with ideas.
Thisbookisconcernedwiththelatter,asmallgroupofgiants...uponwhose
shoulders we stand, and it is their concepts that have produced the major
intellectual revolutions of history.”1 In the chapter on Darwin, there was an
ever-so-brief mention of the “co-discoverer of evolution,” the man who
“forced Darwin’s hand,” and the naturalist whom “Darwin offered to help
with publication”—Alfred Russel Wallace. It was to be the first exposure to
the individual who would later occupy my full-time attention.
On one level this book began with that seminar, if in hindsight we look
backtotheoriginsofaneventinthecontingenciesofthepastthatconstructed
later necessities—the conjuncture of past events that compelled a certain
course of action. As one of the themes of this book deals with the interplay
of contingency and necessity in the development ofWallace’s thought within
his culture, the same analysis might be made in constructing the past of the
historical work itself. Beginnings, of course, do have a subjective element to
them when reconstructed by later observers (since history is contiguous), but
xiii
xiv / Preface
certain events and people stand out above most others, and Richard Hardison
and his seminar must be considered as the genesis of this work. He instilled
a sense of intellectual curiosity that would later be manifested in a driving
pursuit to better understand who lurked within the shadow of Darwin. Other
contingenciesabound.Itookacourseinevolutioninmyfirststintofgraduate
training from Professor Bayard Brattstrom, whose passion for overarching
theory coupled to attention to detail taught me a healthy balance between the
general and the specific that is reflected (I hope) in my analysis of Wallace.
I was hit with the importance of evolutionary theory when, following Bratts-
trom’s course, I came across the geneticist Theodosius Dobzhansky’s obser-
vation that “Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light ofevolution.”
Professor Meg White helped me understand the nuances and intricacies of
animal behavior and its evolution. At Glendale College, biologists Tom Rike,
Greg Forbes, and Ron Harlan trusted that my knowledge would catch up to
my passion for the field, and for nearly a decade I taught the course in evo-
lutionary theory, which then mutated into a course in the history of evolu-
tionary thought at Occidental College. Professor Earl Livingood, the finest
storyteller I have ever had the pleasure of hearing, made history come alive
and helped me understand that psychological insights also pertain to those
who lived before.To JayStuartSnelsonIowemygratitudefordemonstrating
the importance of semantic precision in the construction of a scientific anal-
ysis. And to Richard Milner I am indebted for his contribution of a number
of important photographs and illustrations that appear within this biography,
as well as for the primary documents on the Slade spiritualism trial in which
Wallace was involved, and, finally, for so many interesting and important
insights into Wallace, Darwin, and their contemporaries.
As to this work specifically, I owe allegiance to my mentors at Claremont
Graduate School: James Rogers, who helped me get my mind around the
ever-expanding Darwin industry; Richard Olson, who introduced me to and
then shaped my thinking about the interface of science and culture; Michael
Roth, who showed me the proper balance between theoryandpractice;Harry
Liebersohn, who convinced me there is history outside thehistoryofscience;
and Mario DiGregorio, whose historical vision is sharper than most. All of
them made important contributions to this work, bothstructurallyandseman-
tically, such that whateverusefulnessitmayhaveisowedagooddealtotheir
patience in carefully reading the original manuscript. Since that time—ten
years ago to the month that I graduated with my Ph.D.—Wallace archivist
CharlesSmithhasbeenexceptionallyreceptivetomynumerousqueriesabout
Wallace, and was good enough to read parts of the finished manuscript. I
acknowledge as well the historians of science who served as expert ratersfor
my assessment of Wallace’s personality: Janet Browne, Gina Douglas, Mi-
Genesis and Revelation / xv
chael Ghiselin, David Hull, John Marsden, Richard Milner, James Moore,
Charles Smith, and Frank Sulloway. To the many archivists at the various
sources of Wallace material in England I acknowledge their contributions in
Appendix I: Wallace Archival Sources.
As always, I thank Skeptic magazine Art Director Pat Linse for her im-
portant contributions in preparing the illustrations, graphs, and charts for this
and my other works, as well as for her insights into the nature of science.
Special thanks go to my agents Katinka Matson and John Brockman, and to
my editor Kirk Jensen, who helped me find the right balance between bio-
graphical narrative and analysis.
As I have done in my previous books, I wish to acknowledge the debt of
gratitude owed to Skeptic magazine’sboardmembers:RichardAbanes,David
Alexander, the late Steve Allen, Arthur Benjamin, Roger Bingham,Napoleon
Chagnon,K.C.Cole,JaredDiamond,ClaytonJ.Drees,MarkEdward,George
Fischbeck, Greg Forbes, Stephen Jay Gould, John Gribbin, SteveHarris,Wil-
liam Jarvis, Penn Jillette, Lawrence Krauss, Gerald Larue, Jeffrey Lehman,
William McComas, John Mosley, Richard Olson, Donald Prothero, James
Randi, Vincent Sarich, Eugenie Scott, Nancy Segal, Elie Shneour, Jay Stuart
Snelson, Julia Sweeney, Carol Tavris, Teller, and StuartVyse.And thanksfor
the institutional support for the Skeptics Society at the California Institute of
TechnologygoestoDanKevles,SusanDavis,ChrisHarcourt,JerryPine,and
Kip Thorn. Larry Mantle, Ilsa Setziol, Jackie Oclaray, Julia Posie, and Linda
Othenin-Girard at KPCC 89.3 FM radio in Pasadena have been good friends
and valuable supportersforpromotingscienceandcriticalthinkingontheair.
Thanks to Linda Urban at Vroman’s bookstore in Pasadena for her contri-
butions to skepticism; to Robert Zeps and Gerry Ohrstrom, who has played
an important role in professionalizing skepticism and critical thinking, andto
Bruce Mazet, who has been a good friend to the skeptics and has influenced
the movement in myriad unacknowledged ways. Finally, special thanks go to
thosewhohelpateverylevelofourorganization:YolandaAnderson,Stephen
Asma,JaimeBotero,JasonBowes,JeanPaulBuquet,AdamCaldwell,Bonnie
Callahan, Tim Callahan, Cliff Caplan, Randy Cassingham, Shoshana Cohen,
John Coulter, Brad Davies, Janet Dreyer, Bob Friedhoffer, Jerry Friedman,
Gene Friedman, Nick Gerlich, Sheila Gibson, Michael Gilmore, Tyson Gil-
more, Andrew Harter, Laurie Johanson, Terry Kirker, Diane Knudtson, Joe
Lee, Bernard Leikind, Betty McCollister, Liam McDaid, Tom McDonough,
Sara Meric, Tom McIver, Frank Miele, Dave Patton, Brian Siano, Tanja
Sterrmann, and Harry Ziel.
CharlesDarwinonceremarkedthathalfhis(geological)thoughtshadcome
out of Charles Lyell’s brain. With regard to scientific history and psychobi-
ography I cannot find a better parallel acknowledgment than to thank Frank