Abstract
THE name of Alfred Russel Wallace is rightly held in honour as that of one who with few advantages of birth or education made for himself a distinguished position as naturalist and traveller, and who, besides adding largely to the acquaintance of scientific men with certain regions previously little known, and making extensive collections of their fauna, achieved independently the discovery of natural selection, the most illuminating principle ever enunciated in the history of biological study. It is obvious that the life of such a man cannot be treated adequately in a small book of sixty-four pages, and Mr. Hogben's volume does not pretend to be more than a sketch. In view, however, of his necessary limits, it is to be regretted that the author has not observed a better proportion in the selection of facts to be recorded. Details of Wallace's early life are interesting in their bearing on his later development, but we could have spared the account of the arrangement of desks and fireplaces in the grammar school at Hertford if Mr. Hogben had given us in its place a few more particulars of the exploration of the Amazon and of the Malayan islands. On the subject of geographical distribution the tone of the book is scarcely fair; and on p. 47, besides some careless punctuation, there is a distinct error of fact. With such amiable weaknesses as anti-vaccination and spiritualism we are not concerned, but we greatly miss a more extended account of the work that really made Wallace's reputation.
Alfred Russel Wallace: The Story of a Great Discoverer.
L. T.
Hogben
By. (Pioneers of Progress: Men of Science.) Pp. 64. (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1918.) Price 2s. net.
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D., F. Alfred Russel Wallace: The Story of a Great Discoverer . Nature 102, 346 (1919). https://doi.org/10.1038/102346b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/102346b0