WALLACE 



G127 



WALLACE 



tcctive coloration (which see), for the insect 

 tones in with the twig on which it rests and can 

 with difficulty be distinguished from it. This 



THE WALKING STICK 



It is difficult at all seasons to distinguish the 

 insect from the twig to which it clings. 



particular species is a greedy eater of leaves. 

 Walking sticks are related to the leaf insects of 

 East Indies (see LEAF INSECT). 



WALLACE, wol'ays, ALFRED RUSSEL (1823- 

 1913), a British naturalist and philosopher, who, 

 like Charles Darwin, but independently of him, 

 originated a theory of natural selection. He 

 was bora at Usk, in Monmouthshire. While 



ng as a land 

 surveyor in Wales 

 he became en- 

 grossed in the 

 study of botany; 

 also, in 1844-1845, 

 as English master 

 in the Collegiate 

 School at Leices- 

 ter, he began the 

 collection of 

 beetles and in- 

 sects in general. 

 In 1848 he ex- 

 plored the Ama- 

 zon River and five years later published his 

 accounts m Travels on the Amazon and Rio 

 Negro; then followed several years of explora- 

 tion and research in the Malay Archipelago. 



His investigations of the differences I 

 tribes he met made him a firm believer m 

 ition, and it was at this time Uri- 

 nated and forn ,s theory of natural 

 selection, the idea of the "survival of t li- 

 test" coming to him while he was reading 

 Mnlt bus's Essay on Population. He wrot. 

 essay On the Tendency of Varieties to Depart 

 Indefinitely from the Original Type, sent it to 

 Darwin, who immediately recognised it as an 

 almost unparalleled coincidence that tli 

 of the paper, a stranger to him, should have 



A 1.1'RED RUSSEL 

 WALLA' 



arrived at exactly the same conclusions as those 

 he had formulated in an article just ready for 

 publication. 



A collection of Wallace's essays, written at 

 this time, was published in 1871 under the title 

 Contributions to the Theory of Natural > 

 tion. Other important contributions to scien- 

 tific theory were Tropical Nature, Geographical 

 Distribution oj Animals and Island Life; in 

 these he emphasized the effect on animal life of 

 climatic and geologic changes and further sub- 

 stantiated his own theories of the causes of evo- 

 lution. Ten years later his Miracles and Mod- 

 ern Spiritualism appeared; the views therein 

 expressed have not been generally accepted. 

 During the later years of his life he turned to 

 sociology. He was made president of the Land 

 Nationalization Society, and in Land Nation- 

 alization urged the need for state ownership of 

 the soil. 



Among later works are his Autobiography, 

 Man's Place in the Universe and Social En- 

 vironment and Moral Progress. He received 

 the Royal medal in 1868, was president of th. 

 Entomological Society of London in 1870-1871, 

 enjoyed a moderate pension from the Govern- 

 ment during the last years of his life, and re- 

 ceived honorary degrees from both Oxford and 

 Dublin. His surest claim to permanent fame 

 rests on the discovery which made him at the 

 same time the rival and the intimate friend of 

 Darwin. A.MC c. 



Consult Marchant's Alfred Rusvtl Wallace. 

 Letters and Reminiscences. 



WALLACE, LEWIS (1827-1905), familiarly 

 known as LEW WALLACE, was an American nov- 

 elist and soldier, 

 born and edu- 

 cated at Brook- 

 villo, Ind. He 

 was studying law 

 in Indianapolis at 

 the outbreak of 

 t h r M i \ i can 

 War, during 

 which hi> MM 

 as lieutenant. At 

 tin close of the 

 struggle he pi 

 ticcd law, first at 

 Covington, Ind., 

 <><! '>'"< Craw- 

 fordsville, but 

 :UM:M abandoned his profession to take an 

 part in the War of Secession. He served 

 first as colonel of the Eleventh Indiana In- 



"LEW" WALLACE 



