Alfred Russel Wallace, 200 Years

British naturalist-explorer-geographer-anthropologist-biologist-illustrator Alfred Russel Wallace was born January 8, 1823, 200 years ago. I read quite a bit about him for some of my poetry books. Wallace did extensive exploration and mapping in the Amazon in 1848-1852, followed by eight years of exploration and study in Malaysia, the Indonesian islands, and New Guinea (1854-1862). He discovered thousands of species previously unknown to science. Wallace ascertained the line where the flora and fauna of Asia differs from those of Australasia. While sick with a fever in the islands, he had a flash of insight concerning natural selection as the vehicle of biological development. He realized and developed this idea independently of Charles Darwin. Darwin established priority and took the lion's share of controversy, while supporting Wallace and his work. Wallace's book, "The Malay Archipelago," was published in 1869 and became a classic, influencing many scientists and also writer Joseph Conrad and others. Wallace wrote other works of biogeography and also a few works about social justice. Not a religious person, Wallace--in his 1903 book "Worlds of Life"--developed a non-theistic idea of intelligent design that has points of similarity with religious ideas of creation and providence. He even wrote a short book, "Is Mars Habitable?" where he argued (contrary to astronomer Percival Lowell) that Mars cannot sustain life.