Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T04:33:24.709Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Alfred Russel Wallace; some notes on the Welsh connection

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2009

R. Elwyn Hughes
R. Elwyn Hughes
Affiliation:
School of Pure and Applied Biology, University of Wales College of Cardiff, King Edward VII Avenue, Cardiff, Wales CF1 3XF, U.K.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Wallace became a full-time naturalist in 1848, the year when he and Bates set out on their journey to South America. Wallace was twenty-five at the time and over half of his life had been spent in various parts of Wales, the land of his birth. Commentators have tended to gloss over or ignore any formative influences from this early period of his life or even to dismiss them as non-existent. This is surprising as it was during the eight or so years in Wales leading up to 1848 that Wallace's interest in natural history emerged. ‘The importance of this early period in Wallace's life can scarcely be over-emphasized’ wrote Durant in his account of the development of the Wallace personality, but he omitted any specific reference to the significance of the early period in Wales. Those seeking a simple unitary cause for Wallace's conversion to natural history usually locate this in his visit to Leicester in 1844 and his meeting there with H. W. Bates. ‘The odyssey began … in 1844, in Leicester’ wrote Brooks, adding that ‘the more remote parts of … southern Wales had offered little reading material…’ This, and similar claims, are presumably founded primarily on Wallace's belief—expressed sixty years later—that it was at Leicester that he first familiarized himself with Malthus' Essay on the Principles of Population and Humboldt's Personal Narrative of Travels in South America. There is, however, evidence that Wallace was probably familiar with at least one of these books some time before his visit to Leicester and that it was during his period in southern Wales that his interest in natural history emerged and developed.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal for the History of Science , Volume 22 , Issue 4 , December 1989 , pp. 401 - 418
Copyright
Copyright © British Society for the History of Science 1989

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 McKinney, H.I., Wallace and Natural Selection, Yale University Press, 1972Google Scholar; Fichman, M., Alfred Russel Wallace, Boston, 1981.Google Scholar

2 Durant, J.R.. ‘Scientific Naturalism and Social Reform in the thought of Alfred Russel Wallace’ British Journal for the History of Science, (1979), 12, pp. 31–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

3 Brooks, J.L., Just before the Origin, New York, 1984, p. 1.Google Scholar

4 McKinney, H.L. op. cit. (1) pp. 4–7Google Scholar; Wallace, A.R.My Life, London, 1905, vol. i, p. 232.Google Scholar

5 Ibid, Wallace, pp. 20–29.

6 Bowen, I., (1914) ‘The great enclosures of common lands in Wales’, London, 1914Google Scholar; Wallace, , op. cit. (4), pp. 144–159.Google Scholar

7 Aspects of the role of the Mechanics Institutes in relation to nineteenth century science are discussed in Cardwell, D.S.L.The Organisation of Science in England, London, 1957Google Scholar; Inkster, I. and Morrell, J. (eds) Metropolis and Province, London, 1983Google Scholar; Cooter, R., The Cultural Meaning of Popular Science, Cambridge, 1984.Google Scholar

8 Reports in Hereford Journal 23 10 1839, 4 March 1840, 12 May 1841, 9 June 1841.Google Scholar

9 Wallace, A. in History of Kington by a Member of the Mechanics Institute (Richard Parry), Kington, 1845, pp. 66–70Google Scholar. This was first noted by Mr R.J. Jenkins in 1982 and described in the Proceedings of the Kington Historical Society the following year.

10 Ibid., p. 66.

11 Ibid., p. 64.

12 Ibid., p. 67.

13 Ibid., pp. 67–68.

14 Ibid., p. 68.

15 Ibid., p. 69.

16 Ibid., p. 70.

17 Powys County Council MSS R/QS/DE/7

Award of the Commissioners appointed by an Act for inclosing certain lands in the several parishes of … the county of Radnor. (Received: 4 September 1843) William Sayce was the surveyor responsible for presenting Wallace's data. James Watt, one of the ‘beneficeries’ of Wallace's survey was a descendant of James Watt mentioned by Wallace in his Kington essay. Wallace probably also provided the data for the ‘Rhayadr ar Gwy Tithe Apportionment Map, 1841’ (valuers: Morris Sayce and William Sayce).

18 Wallace, A.R., op. cit. (4) p. 151.Google Scholar

19 Wallace was later President of the Land Nationalisation Society and his advocacy of his case, as presented in his book Land Nationalisation (1882)Google Scholar would, in 1882, have been fully consistent with his socialism. Hogben, in 1918, was probably the first to comment on the probable influence of Wallace's early Enclosure work on his later ideas on land nationalisation (Hogben, L., Alfred Russel Wallace, London, 1918, pp. 19–20).Google Scholar

20 E.g. ‘Apportionment of Tithes in the Parish of Cadoxton-juxta-Neath 1841’ (Original copy at National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth).

21 ‘Map of the Hamlet of Lantwit Lower … 1846’, p. 2 ‘Now we Wallace, Alfred R. and Dodds, George, both of Neath … having been duly appointed valuers to apportion the total sum …’ (National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth)Google Scholar; Hunt's & Co Directory for … Glocester … Neath, London, 1849 p. 93Google Scholar, named ‘Wallace, Alfred R. & John, Lantwit’ amongst the eight Neath-based surveyors listed.

22 Brooks, J.L., op. cit. (3), pp. 64–68.Google Scholar

23 Wallace, A.R., op. cit. (4), p. 196.Google Scholar

24 Swansea Journal, 12 07 1843, p. 7Google Scholar. Amongst the twelve members of the Council present when the dis cussion was taken to entrust the work to ‘Mr Wallace’ were Charles Hayword and Isaac Redwood, two friends of ARW. The ‘Mr Wallace’ referred to in the report was presumably William Wallace, ARW's brother and the senior partner in the ‘firm’.

25 Ibid., 27 December 1843, p. 7.

26 Hunt's Directory, op. cit. (20).Google Scholar

27 Swansea Journal, 27 12 1843, p. 6.Google Scholar

28 Report on the 18th meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Swansea 1848 London, 1849Google Scholar. Appendix pp. 1–10.

29 The Cambrian, 2 07 1847.Google Scholar

30 Evans, Thomas, ‘The Mechanics Institutes of South Wales’ Ph.D. thesis, University of Sheffield, 1965, p. 104Google Scholar; The Cambrian, 10 20 1843.Google Scholar

31 The Cambrian, 13 05 1843, p. 3Google Scholar; Cardiff and Merthyr Guardian, 13 05 1843 p. 2.Google Scholar

32 Annual Report of the Council of the Royal Institution of South Wales, 1844–5, Swansea, 1845.Google Scholar

33 Swansea Journal, 27 12 1843, p. 6.Google Scholar

34 Cardiff and Merthyr Guardian, 5 09 1846, p. 3.Google Scholar

35 The Cambrian, 24 12 1841.Google Scholar

36 The Cambrian, 22 04 1842.Google Scholar

37 Annual Reports of the Council of the Royal Institution of South Wales, 1842–1847. Swansea.

38 The Cambrian, 8 10 1841Google Scholar. This was one of the earliest examples of the use of sodium nitrate as a fertilizer. Johnson pointed out in 1844 that ‘it is only very recently that any attempts have been made to employ this salt (sodium nitrate) as a fertilizer’ and he described an experiment from Norfolk in 1839 which would appear to have been similarly structured to the Neath one. (Johnson, C.W. (1844) ‘On Fertilizers’ Ridgeway, London, 2nd edn, p. 394).Google Scholar

39 Evans, Thomas, op. cit. (30) p. 374Google Scholar; The Cambrian 25 05 1849Google Scholar; Wallace, A.R. op. cit. (4) p. 246Google Scholar; Phillips, D.R.. ‘The history of the Vale of Neath’ Swansea, 1925, (published by the author) p. 180.Google Scholar

40 Hunt's & Go's Directory for Gloucester … Neath (07 1849) p. 96Google Scholar, where William Jevons (an uncle of W.S. Jevons, author of ‘The Principles of Science’ (1874))Google Scholar and Alfred Wallace are named as curators of the Museum of the Neath Philosophical and Literary Institute.

41 Davies, H. M., ‘The place of the Royal Institution of South Wales in the history of scientific and general education in the nineteenth century’ M. A. thesis, University of Wales, 1940, p. 43.Google Scholar

42 Wallace, A. R., op. cit. (4) p. 197.Google Scholar

43 Swansea Journal, 27 12 1843, p. 6.Google Scholar

44 Neath Library Catalogue (1842), Neath. The only copy I have located is held by the Royal Institution of South Wales, Swansea.

45 Wallace, A. R., op. cit. (4), p. 256.Google Scholar

46 Catalogue of the Library belonging to the Neath Philosophical and Antiquarian Society (Museum Library) Neath, 1852Google Scholar. Interestingly, the 1842 catalogue does not list a copy of Humboldt's ‘Cosmos’; this concords with Wallace's statement to Bates in his letter of 28 December 1845 ‘This work I have a great desire to read but feel I shall not have an opportunity at present’ (see note 54); the 1852 ‘Museum Library’ catalogue, listing books purchased after 1845, however, contains the ‘Cosmos’. Was Wallace, as curator of the Museum, instrumental in its purchase?

47 Hunt's & Co op. cit. (40) p. 96Google Scholar. The Librarian for the Institute is named as Margaret Jane Rees. No separate Museum Librarian is designated.

48 Wallace, A. R., op. cit. (4) p. 247.Google Scholar

49 Zoologist, (1847), 5, pp. 1676.Google Scholar

50 Soranus, , M.D., F.L.S. etc., (Thomas Williams), ‘The Science and Scientific Men of Wales: Lewis Weston Dillwyn Esq. of Swansea’ Tenby, 1855 p. 6.Google Scholar

51 B M Add MS 46435, letter from LWD to ARW, dated 25 January(?) 1848.

52 Dillwyn, L. W., ‘Materials for a Fauna and Flora of Swansea and Neighbourhood’ Swansea, 1848, pp. 24–26.Google Scholar

53 B M Add MS 46435, letter from LLID to ARW, dated 19 October 1863.

54 Ibid., letter from LLID to ARW, dated 9 September 1878: ‘I have pleasure in signing one of the two memorials which you sent me…’

55 Wallace, A. R., op. cit. (4) p. 256.Google Scholar

56 NLW MS 63280 p. 43; letter dated 4 May 1822 from LWD to an unidentified correspondent.

57 Cardiff and Merthyr Guardian 8 06 1844.Google Scholar

58 The Cambrian, 21 01 1848, p. 2Google Scholar. With the exception of Wallace, all those named were members of the British Association for the Advancement of Science; ‘Miss Wallace’ was Wallace's sister Fanny, who later married Thomas Sims of Neath.

59 Ibid., 26 January 1848, p. 2.

60 McKinney, H. L., ‘Wallace's earliest observations on evolution; 28 December 1845’ Isis, (1969), 60, pp. 370–373.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

61 Annual Report of the Swansea Literary and Scientific Society (1846) Swansea, 1846Google Scholar. The Annual Report in which Williams' lecture was recorded was dated ‘April 1846’; one may therefore assume that the lecture was probably delivered sometime in 1845.

62 E.g. Soranus, , op. cit. (50).Google Scholar

63 Thomas, P. H., ‘Medical Men of Glamorgan: Thomas Williams of Swansea, 1818–1865’ in ‘Glamorgan Historian’ (ed. Stewart Williams) n.d. 9, pp. 70–95.Google Scholar

64 Williams, T., ‘On the Laws of the Nervous Force’ Lancet, (1847), pp. 516–517.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

65 Williams, T., ‘A sketch of the relations which subsist between the three kingdoms of nature: the mineral, vegetable and animal.… with observations on the hygiene of Swansea’ Swansea and London, 1844.Google Scholar

66 Ibid., p. 21.

67 The Cambrian, 11 01 1845 p. 2Google Scholar; this type of argument will be familiar to readers of Chambers' Vestiges published the previous year.

68 The Cambrian, 10 04 1846 p. 2Google Scholar; Jenkins, a watchmaker of Wind Street, Swansea, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society in April 1842 (The Cambrian, 15 04 1842)Google Scholar; when the British Association visited Swansea in 1848 Williams presented a detailed Meteorological record assembled by him for the Swansea area between 1842 and 1848—the first published record of this type kept in Wales (Report of the 18th Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Swansea 1848, London, 1849).Google Scholar

69 The Cambrian, 17 04 1846 p. 2Google Scholar; the experiments of Crosse and Weekes were an important feature of Chambers' theory; it was claimed that they showed that a form of insect life could be produced from inorganic sources under the influence of an electric current ((Chambers, R.) Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation, 6th edn, London, 1847, pp. 187–189)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Ironically these experiments, despite their palpably false nature, bear a simple generic relationship to modern views on biogenesis and the biochemical origin of life.

70 Annual Reports of the Royal Institute of South Wales, Swansea, 1842, 1845.Google Scholar

71 The Cambrian, 9 01 1846, p. 2.Google Scholar

72 The Cambrian, 16 01 1846, p. 2.Google Scholar

73 Wallace, A. R., ‘The Origin of Human Races and the Antiquity of Man deduced from the theory of Natural Selection’ Journal of the Anthropological Society (1864), 2, pp. clix–clxxxviiGoogle Scholar; idem‘On the Progress of Civilisation in Northern Celebes’ Anthropological Review, 1864. pp. 332–334Google Scholar; ibid, Studies, Scientific and Social, London, 1900, pp. 461–496Google Scholar; Stepan, N. ‘The idea of Race in Science: Great Britain, 1800–1960’, London, 1982.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

74 Wallace, A. R., ‘Natural Selection and Tropical Nature’ London, 1891, p. 5.Google Scholar

75 Linnean Society, Wallace MSS letter dated 18 July 1905, ARW to William Mitter. (Wallace's emphasis.)

76 Wallace, A. R., op. cit. (4), pp. 269–275.Google Scholar

77 The Cambrian, 25 05 1849, p. 2.Google Scholar

78 Wallace, A. R. op. cit. (4), pp. 205–206.Google Scholar

79 BM Add MSS 46447 p. 196, letter dated 16 January 1913 from Sarah A. Jones to ARW.

80 Cardiff and Merthyr Guardian, 12 09 1846, p. 3.Google Scholar

81 Ibid., 2 May 1846, p. 3.

82 The Cambrian, 27 08 1841, p. 3.Google Scholar

83 Wallace commented in detail on these aspects in his autobiography (vol. i, pp. 167–169). It is difficult to decide exactly how extensive was his knowledge of Welsh. Apparently he could understand the language and made a point of attending Welsh services in churches and chapels. At both Brecon and Neath he lodged with Welsh-speaking families although, on his own admission, he never acquired spoken fluency in the language. He included illustrative portions of the Welsh Bible in his autobiography but a comparison with the manuscript version reveals some simple spelling errors that suggest that his familiarity with (or recollection of) spoken Welsh was greater than with the written word (Wallace, ‘My Life’ BM Add MS 42423 p. 271). It will be recalled that in later life Wallace displayed a similar interest in other vernacular tongues—in South America and, more particularly, in Malaya where he painstakingly collected vocabularies of fifty-seven distinct languages.

84 E.g. Wallace, A. R., op. cit. (4), pp. 216–222.Google Scholar

85 Wallace, A. R. ‘The Origin of Human Races’ Journal of the Anthropological Society, (1864) II, p. clxix.Google Scholar

86 McKinney, H. L., op. cit. (1), pp. 80–83Google Scholar; Wallace, A. R., op. cit. (4), pp. 206–222.Google Scholar

87 Smith, J. M., The theory of evolution, 3rd edn, Harmondsworth, 1975, p. 32.Google Scholar

88 Beer, G., ‘Darwin's reading and the fictions of development’ in ‘The Darwinian Heritage’ (ed. Kohn, D.), Princeton, U.S.A., 1985, pp. 543–558.Google Scholar