The theory we now know simply as ‘evolution’ was first presented to the scientific world one and a half centuries ago, on 1 July 1858, when the work of two men, Alfred Russel Wallace and Charles Robert Darwin (1809–82), was jointly read at the Linnean Society. While Charles Darwin has rightly taken his place in history as one of the greatest scientists of all time, Alfred Russel Wallace has been largely forgotten outside of the scientific community. However, Wallace was a prolific researcher and writer with interests in a wide range of topics, from medicine to economics.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
RabyP. Alfred Russel Wallace: A Life. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2002
2.
ShermerM. In Darwin's Shadow: The Life and Science of Alfred Russel Wallace. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002
3.
4.
QuammenD. The Reluctant Mr Darwin. New York: WW Norton and Co, Inc., 2006
5.
NesseRM. Is depression an adaptation?Archives of General Psychiatry2000;57:14–20
6.
NesseRM. How is Darwinian medicine useful?Western Journal of Medicine2001;174:358–60
7.
NesseRM. Evolutionary biology: a basic science for psychiatry. World Psychiatry2002;1:1
8.
StevensA, PriceJ. Evolutionary Psychiatry: A New Beginning. 2nd edn. London: Routledge, 2000
9.
GardinerB, MilnerR, MorrisM. Survival of the Fittest; celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Darwin-Wallace theory of evolution. The Linnean Special Issue no. 9. The Linnean Society, London, 2008
