The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-11-28
ALFRED RUSSELL WALLACE
Death Of Great Scientist-CO-
 Discoverer Of Darwinism
His Work On the Theory or Natural Selection-SOciO- logical And EFPsychics''
 Interests.

Alfred Russell Wallace, the eminent British scientist who died recently at London in his 91st year, shared with Darwin the distinction of discover1ng the theory of natural selection. He was also an authority on the land question and was a strong advocate Of land standardization.
 Alfred Russell Wallace was born of Scotch descent at Ush in Monmouth shire, England, January 8, 1920. He attended school but a short time and while he was there found his tasks irksome and the antiQuated methods of instruction of small service to him. After leaving school he assisted an elder brother in his work as Q. land surveyor and architect. When he was IT years old and was living in South Wales he began to take an in- terest in botany and to form a collec- taught English in the Collegiate school at Leicester, making there the ac- quaintance of H. W. Bates, an ento- mo1ogist. Wallace promptly added beetle collecting to his interests and in 1848 made an exploring and col 1ecting expedition with Bates to the Amazon river. The two naturalists separated in about a. year, and each wrote an account of his travels and observations. Wallace's book, "Trav- els on the Amazon and Rio Negro. published in 1853, attracted favor able attention and fairly launched him on his career as @ scientist of author ity.
 On his way balk to England after four years in the South American wilderness, the ship on which he sail- ed was wrecked. His experience and the consequent determination of his plans for the immediate future he has do1o
 sHThe voyage home was destined to bring about a crisis in my life, for was Shipwrecked, and lost the whole of my collection. This event was one of the first things that led me to en- certain what many people think is a superstition, and that is that nisfor- tunes are often sent for our good. The vessel by which I sailed from South America. caught fire, and the passen- gers and crew had to take to open boats. thus saw the results of two years of labor destroyed. We were glad to escape with our lives, though we were in terrible plight, for we were in open boats on the broad Att lantic for 10 days and nights before we were picked up. At length a passing vessel came along and res cued uz, when we found that we were about a thousand miles from the Der muda islands. The vessel was bound for England, and we were conveyed there, but not before we had had some exciting experiences. for she leaked badly and the weather was horrible.
 After what vowed. like Robinson Crusoe, that would never go to sea again but, after a time, also like that hero, I wanted to be off again ' thought to myself that it was no use going out again to South America as Bates was there. determined. there
 
 country. made inquiries, and I found that from the point of view of the naturalist the richest and least known, and at the same time the easiest to get about in, was that re- zion round about the Malay archipe1- ago, including Java, Sumatra, Borneo, and New Gupinea- Accordingly. set forth and spent IF of the best years of my life in that part of the world, where gathered a very large number of beautiful natural history specimens. While visiting the sew eral islands, I became immensely in- terested in the problem of the diatri- button of the different forms of life, owing to my having noted the fact that those forms differed greatly in the various places. was absolutely alone during the greater part of my time, and that was a good thing, for what the student wants is solitude.''
 Before this proposed Journel, how ever, he spent a year and a, half in England, publishing, besides the book referred to above. another on the Palm Trees of the Amazon. He ex- p1ored, observed and collected in the Malay archipelago from 1854 to 1869, and 1t was during these travels that he became convinced of the truth Of evolution and originated the theory of natural selection, which Charles Darwin had previously hit upon. but concerning which nothing had been published In 1855, while at Sara say on tsTyhe law which has regu1at- ed the introduction of new species stating the law in these words: Every species has come into existence CO., incident both in time and space with a pre- existing, closely allied species.' It was about three years later-in Feb, ruary, 1555-whi1e he was i'll of fe- yer at Ternate, in the Moluccas, that the stDarwinian theory of natural se- lection came to him, like an inspira.- ton. Not waiting for a. cessation of his fever, he wrote out his ideas and sent his paper to Darwin, whom he had not then met.
 Darwin had previously conided to fellow-scientists the progress of his development of the same theory, and they had urged him to publish 1t. lest som cone else should do it nrsr To one of these scientists, Sir Charles Lyell. Darwin wrote. upon receiving Wallace's letter:
 Your words have come true with vengeance-that should be foresta1l- ed. -. never saw a more striking coincidence; if Wallace had had my manuscript sketch written out in 1S42, he could not have made a. bet ter short abstract Even his terms now stand as heads of my chapters. :. So all my originality, whatever it may amount to will be smashed, though my book if it will ever have any value will not be deteriorated, as all the labor consists in the application of the theory"
 The Two Views Read Together.
 o- +1,a odx,io. of T,1a11 e..