Alfred Russel Wallace 



nature; and others on the colours of animals and of 

 plants, and on various biological problems/ 



'' Island Life '" (published 1880) was begun in 1877, and 

 occupied the greater part of the next three years. This 

 had been suggested by certain necessary limitations in the 

 writing of '' The Geographical Distribution of Animals." 

 It is a fascinating account of the relations of islands to 

 continents, of their unwritten records of the distribution 

 of plant and animal life in the morning time of the earth, 

 of the causes and results of the glacial period, and of the 

 manner of reckoning the age of the world from geological 

 data. It also included several new features of natural 

 science, and still retains an important place in scientific 

 literature. No better summary can be given than that by 

 the author himself : 



In my ''Geographical Distribution of Animals" I had, 

 in the first place, dealt with the larger groups, coming 

 down to families and genera, but taking no account of the 

 various problems raised by the distribution of particular 

 species. In the next place, I had taken little account of 

 the various islands of the globe, excepting as forming sub- 

 regions or parts of sub-regions. But I had long seen the 

 great interest and importance of these, and especially of 

 Darwin's great discovery of the two classes into which they 

 are naturally divided — oceanic and continental islands. I 

 had already given lectures on this subject, and had become 

 aware of the great interest attaching to them, and the great 

 light they threw upon the means of dispersal of animals and 

 plants, as well as upon the past changes, both physical and 

 biological, of the earth's surface. In the third place, the 



1 See " My Life," pp. 98-9. 



• Dr. Henry Forbes in a note to the Editor writes : " In his ' Island Life ' 

 Wallace extended his philosophical observations to a wider field, and it is in 

 philosophical biology that Wallace's name must stand pre-eminent for all time." 

 " In our own science of biology," say Profs. Gcddcs and Thomson in a recent 

 work, " we may recall the ' Grand Old Men,' surely second to none in history — 

 Darwin, Wallace, and Hooker," 



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