Darwinism: An Exposition of the Theory of Natural Selection, with some of its Applications

by Alfred Russel Wallace

Alfred Russel Wallace (1823–1913) is regarded as the co-discoverer with Darwin of the theory of evolution. It was an essay which Wallace sent in 1858 to Darwin (whom he greatly admired and to whom he dedicated his most famous book, The Malay Archipelago) which impelled Darwin to publish an article on his own long-pondered theory simultaneously with that of Wallace. As a travelling naturalist and collector in the Far East and South America, Wallace already inclined towards the Lamarckian theory of transmutation of species, and his own researches convinced him of the reality of evolution. On the publication of On the Origin of Species, Wallace became one of its most prominent advocates, and Darwinism, published in 1889, supports the theory and counters many of the arguments put forward by scientists and others who opposed it.

Genres: Science, Evolution, Biology, Nonfiction

524 pages, Paperback

First published March 5, 1889

About the author

Alfred Russel Wallace, OM, FRS was a British naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist and biologist. He is best known for independently proposing a theory of natural selection which prompted Charles Darwin to publish his own theory.

Wallace did extensive fieldwork, first in the Amazon River basin and then in the Malay Archipelago, where he identified the Wallace Line that divides Indonesia into two distinct parts, one in which animals closely related to those of Australia are common, and one in which the species are largely of Asian origin. He was considered the 19th century's leading expert on the geographical distribution of animal species and is sometimes called the "father of biogeography". Wallace was one of the leading evolutionary thinkers of the 19th century and made a number of other contributions to the development of evolutionary theory besides being co-discoverer of natural selection. These included the concept of warning colouration in animals, and the Wallace effect, a hypothesis on how natural selection could contribute to speciation by encouraging the development of barriers against hybridization.

Wallace was strongly attracted to unconventional ideas. His advocacy of Spiritualism and his belief in a non-material origin for the higher mental faculties of humans strained his relationship with the scientific establishment, especially with other early proponents of evolution. In addition to his scientific work, he was a social activist who was critical of what he considered to be an unjust social and economic system in 19th-century Britain. His interest in biogeography resulted in his being one of the first prominent scientists to raise concerns over the environmental impact of human activity. Wallace was a prolific author who wrote on both scientific and social issues; his account of his adventures and observations during his explorations in Indonesia and Malaysia, The Malay Archipelago, was one of the most popular and influential journals of scientific exploration published during the 19th century.

Reviews

[Steven H · Rating 5 out of 5]

THE CO-DISCOVERER OF NATURAL SELECTION ANSWERS OBJECTIONS TO EVOLUTION

He wrote in the Preface of this 1889 book, “The present work treats the problem of the Origin of Species on the same general lines as were adopted by Darwin… While not attempting to deal… with the vast subject of evolution in general, an endeavor has been made to give such an account of the theory of Natural Selection as may enable any intelligent reader to … understand something of the power and range of his great principle. Darwin wrote for a generation which had not accepted evolution… He did his work so well that ‘descent with modification’ is now universally accepted as the order of nature in the organic world…” (Pg. v)

“It has always been considered a weakness in Darwin’s work that he based his theory, primarily, on the evidence of variation in domesticated animals and cultivated plants. I have endeavored to secure a firm foundation for the theory in the variation of organisms in a state of nature.” (Pg. vi) “Although I maintain… my differences from some of Darwin’s views, my whole work tends forcibly to illustrate the overwhelming importance of Natural Selection over all other agencies in the production of new species. I thus take up Darwin’s earlier position, from which he somewhat receded in the later editions… on account of criticism and objections which I have endeavored to show are unsound. Even in rejecting that phase of sexual selection depending on female choice, I insist on the greater efficacy of natural selection. This is pre-eminently the Darwinian doctrine, and I therefore claim for my book the position of being the advocate of pure Darwinism.” (Pg. vii-viii)

He begins Chapter 1, “The title of Mr. Darwin’s great work is: On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection and the Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life.’ In order to appreciate fully the aim and object of this work, and the change which it has effected not only in natural history but in many other sciences, it is necessary to form a clear conception of the meaning of the term ‘species,’ to know what was the general belief regarding them at the time when Mr. Darwin’s book first appeared, and to understand what he meant… by discovering their ‘origin.’” (Pg. 1)

He says of the ‘Struggle for Existence,’ “Even so thoughtful a writer as Professor [Thomas H.] Huxley … speaks of the myriads of generations of herbivorous animals which ‘have been tormented and devoured by carnivores’ … and ‘more or less enduring suffering’… Now there is, I think, good reason to believe that all this is greatly exaggerated; that the supposed ‘torments’ and ‘miseries’ of animals have little real existence… and that the amount of actual suffering caused by the struggle for existence among animals is altogether insignificant… we must remember that animals are entirely spared the pain we suffer in the anticipation of death---a pain far greater, in most cases, than the reality… This absence of pain is not peculiar to those seized by wild beasts, but is equally produced by any accident which produces a general shock to the system… When an animal is caught… it is very soon devoured, and thus the first shock is followed by an almost painless death. Neither do those which die of cold or hunger suffer much.” (Pg. 37-39)

He observes, “it was very natural that a belief in the fixity of species should prevail. It is… the common and widespread species which become the parents of new forms, and thus the non-variability of any number of rare or local species offers no difficulty whatever in the way of the theory of evolution.” (Pg. 81)
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He explains, “we cannot doubt that, in the long run, those survive which are best fitted … to escape the dangers that surround them. This ‘survival of the fittest’ is what Darwin termed ‘natural selection,’ because it leads to the same results in nature as are cultivated by man’s selection among domestic animals and cultivated plants… It prevents any possible deterioration in the organic world, and produces that appearance of exuberant life and enjoyment… that affords us so much pleasure…” (Pg. 103)

He notes, “Another objection … is that the chances are immensely against the right variation or combination of variations occurring just when required; and further, that no variation can be perpetuated that is not accompanied by several concomitant variations of dependent parts---greater length of a wing in a bird, for example, would be of little use if unaccompanied by increased volume or contractility of the muscles which move it. This objection seemed…very strong… so long as it was supposed that variations occur singly and at considerable intervals; but it ceases to have any weight now [that] we know that they occur simultaneously in various parts of the organism, and also in a large proportion of the individuals which make up the species.” (Pg. 127)

He considers the case of soles, turbots, and other flatfish: “The eyes of these fish are curiously distorted in order that both eyes may be on the upper side… But, as Mr. Darwin shows… the young of these fish are quite symmetrical, and during their growth exhibit to us the whole process of change… The most difficult case of all, that of the eye… is not unintelligible… For [Darwin] shows that there are , in several of the lower animals, rudiments of eyes… which may possibly serve to distinguish light from darkness, but nothing more. Then we have an optic nerve and pigment cells; then… the first rudiment of a lens. Many of the succeeding steps are lost… owing to the great advantage of each modification which gave increased distinctiveness of vision… every variation tending to more complete vision would be preserved till we reached the perfect eye of birds and mammals… the various … imperfections to which the eye is liable, may be looked upon as relicts of the imperfect condition from which the eye has been raised by variation and natural selection.” (Pg. 129-130)

He acknowledges, “Why in allied species, the development of accessory plumes has taken different forms, we are unable to say, except that it may be due to that individual variability which has served as the starting point for so much of what seems to us strange in form, or fantastic in color, both in the animal and vegetable world.” (Pg. 293)

He argues, “Admitting… the extreme imperfection of the geological record as a whole, it may be urged that certain limited portions of it are fairly complete---as, for example, the various Miocene deposits… What we require is a complete record of all the species that have existed since the two forms began to diverge from their common ancestor, and this the known imperfection of the record renders it almost impossible what we should ever obtain. All that we have a right to expect is that… the gaps that at first existed in the group shall become less wide and less numerous.” (Pg. 380-381)

He rejects the proposed inheritance of acquired characteristics: “any characters acquired by use or disuse, can have no effect whatever upon the race unless they are inherited; and that they are inherited… has not been proved. On the other hand… there is much reason for believing that such acquired characters are in their nature non-heritable.” (Pg. 434-435)

Somewhat ‘heretically’ (for a strict Darwinist), he states, “These distinct stages of progress from the inorganic world of matter and motion up to man, point clearly to an unseen universe---to a world of spirit, to which the world of matter is altogether subordinate. To this spiritual world we may refer the marvellously complex forms which we know as gravitation, cohesion, chemical force, radiant force, and electricity, without which the material universe could not exist for a moment in its present form, and perhaps not at all, since without these forces… it is doubtful whether matter itself could have any existence… those progressive manifestations of Life in the vegetable, the animal, and man… probably depend upon different degrees of spiritual influx.” (Pg. 476)

He continues, “Those who admit my interpretation of the evidence now adduced---strictly scientific evidence in its appeal to facts which are clearly what ought NOT to be on the materialistic theory---will be able to accept the spiritual nature of man, as not in any way inconsistent with the theory of evolution… They will also be relieved from the crushing mental burden imposed on those who---maintaining that we, in common with the rest of nature, are but products of the blind eternal forces of the universe… We have to contemplate a not very distant future in which all this glorious earth… shall be as if it had never existed… we, who accept the existence of a spiritual world, can look upon the universe as a grand consistent whole adapted in all the parts of the development of spiritual beings capable of indefinite life and perfectibility. To us, the whole purpose … was the development of the human spirit in association with the human body.” (Pg. 476-477)

This book will be of great interest to those studying the development of the theory (and defense) of evolution.

[Kamil Kazmierski · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ta książka to jakaś pomyłka. Nie dowiadujemy się w ogóle w jaki sposób Wallace wpłynął na Darwina; co Wallace sam sobie wymyślił niezależnie od/przed Darwinem. Dostajemy tylko wybór argumentów za darwinizmem - raczej mało potrzebnych współczesnemu odbiorcy, a na pewno o wiele mniej błyskotliwych niż te z 'O powstawaniu gatunków' Darwina. Na zgniły deser dostajemy spekulacje Wallace'a o świecie duchowym. Zgroza. Argumenty są na poziomie: "zdolności do matematyki i malarstwa nie mogły rozwinąć się na drodze doboru naturalnego ergo człowiek ma nieśmiertenlą duszę". Stracone pieniądze, stracony czas. Trudno powiedzieć jaki cel przyświecał wydawcy, ale raczej nie wyprowadzenie Wallace'a z tytułowego cienia.