hundred years in November 1913, the famous explorer and naturalist, Alfred Wallace, the grand old age of ninety years died - now his legacy is slowly returning to the public, as they relate to recognition of his theories in the shade the field of evolutionary gains. Apart from Tintin, of course, Wallace is my favorite Explorer and for eight years between 1854 to 1862, he conducted research and collected samples in the Malay Archipelago - the area now Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia known. By chance, my favorite comedian Bill Bailey recently the fascinating documentation Bill Bailey jungle hero in two parts, on Wallace theories that have been developed in Indonesia; Bailey makes some extraordinary and well-supported claims that are shaking up the establishment
I was surprised Bill Bailey speaks Indonesian to see -. Called to orang lucu (funny guy) to the Sultan of Ternate, as he presents a gift box of French cookies on this volcanic island, where Wallace was. However, Bailey has a long relationship with Indonesia, which he has researched for 15 years - he married his wife on the island of Banda. As Bailey Wallace followed routes through Borneo, Sulawesi and the Spice Islands, he pulled his copy of Wallace's book of The Malay Archipelago explained and some of the theories - including the Wallace Line - a boundary between two very zoological different regions in the archipelago. But as Bailey reached the Spice Islands, the documentary revelations started to intensify
We all know that Charles Darwin developed the theory of evolution by natural selection, but what we know of Wallace -. The co-author of this theory? In fact, Wallace was the first to compile the theory in writing together, which he sent innocent in a letter to Charles Darwin; the letter was published in 1858 without Wallace knowledge in addition to a paper by Darwin. In the introduction to their joint breakthrough this article, Charles Lyell wrote: "These gentlemen have, independently and unknown to each other conceived the same very ingenious theory for ... perpetuation of varieties to be considered." Instead it directly to a dispatch magazine for publication, had poor Wallace sent unknowingly to a rival. "He was robbed," said Bailey.
haswritten Despite Wallace initial fame and 22 books and over 0 scientific papers, over time his name is like steam evaporates. But thanks to Bailey efforts, a portrait of Wallace was at the Natural History Museum next to a statue of Darwin and the ceremony was erected attended by Sir David Attenborough. There is also to invite all Wallace letters on an online database so that researchers discover more about this heroic scientists an ongoing project at the museum.
Wallace commitment to research and its endurance through rainforest in an era of head -hunters, bad drugs and tropical diseases was quite admirable. Sometimes he prospered after enough samples to get to support its research, but there were also times of scarcity and deprivation. He was a modest man with financial difficulties - an outsider in the elite scientific circles of the time - perhaps it quickens to be a socialist and in The Malay Archipelago he criticized the "social barbarism" of industrial Britain through its history ,
Fascinated, I was recently in one of the villages on Gam Island in Raja Ampat, where Wallace was in 1860, where a Papuan friend of mine lived with his family , The locals knew of Wallace Activities nearby Cendrawasih (Bird Paradise) sample collector and his cousin offered me to take deep into the forest-garden on the hill of limestone, where the Red Bird-of-Paradise ( Wallace collected) often visited. We left before dawn so as not to disturb the birds, and burst after an hour's walk of the sun over the sea, when we reached the point at which the birds "played" before disappearing into the woods lining. Our guide pointed to the dark leaves upwards - we could see a male red feathers from branch to branch hop, and his corkscrew tail wires. It must have been an exciting look for Wallace, who had fought more than two birds-of-paradise to get back on the island Waigeo. In a time before film and photography, the sampling is crucial for scientific research and so
wasmoved Wallace Bessir (now Yenbeser) on Gam island where "eight or ten" of men, experts in the field were of ensnaring and preserving birds.
When we returned to the village, my friend's wife had cooked fresh fish with rice over a wood fire. Drinking water was drawn from a and cooked. Puppy sniffed our feet, as we enjoyed the lime sambal and a monitor lizard shot across the nearby beach in the direction of a coconut tree. But as we enjoyed our meal, I thought of Wallace, the fight to eat on the island: "The vegetables and fruits are ranged in the plantations around us not for the needs of residents, and were almost always ... collected before they were ripe, it was very rare we could buy a small fish;. chickens there were no patterns, and were reduced to hard pigeons and cockatoos to live with our rice and sago, and sometimes we could not get this "as his deteriorating health, he was forced to feed - .. finally finding some wild tomatoes, pumpkins and ferns [1945009[
His book the Malay archipelago is also a fascinating image of people in Indonesia nineteenth century, and Wallace spoke lovingly of the "honest" villagers Bessir that housed him in a stilted hut next to a white sand - ". none of us in our accommodation grumbled" a "house dwarfs, only eight feet square" he cleaned six weeks with his crew and remained in and
It is interesting to see how he perceived before this magical archipelago over a hundred years. Even in places like Ternate and Raja Ampat, the locals still cherish their links with Wallace, but hopefully it will be recognized over Indonesia and scientific circles and reach a wider audience around the world. So, in this centenary year of his death, I raise a glass to the great naturalist Wallace and hope that his theories and adventures to come to inspire future generations.
Learn more
Wallace, Alfred Russell, (1869) Malay Archipelago, Macmillan: London
The AR Wallace Correspondence Project: http://wallaceletters.info/
Bill Bailey two-part documentary: Bill Bailey jungle hero, Wallace in Borneo and Wallace in the spice Islands
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