Chapter 17 master trick

That fall, many glanced at Wallace's article written in Sarawak and published in London, but most readers merely skimmed it lightly.The article states: The Galapagos Islands contain a small number of peculiar flora and fauna that are found only there, and most of them can be found in South America with closely related species.This phenomenon, clearly unfolding before our eyes, has not hitherto been even speculatively explained.This is a polite way of saying that Darwin, who became famous for describing the flora and fauna of the Galapagos Islands, obviously failed to appreciate the importance of it.

At that time, in 1855, Darwin was mainly known for his Journal of Researches, an account of the Beagle expedition.Despite the vulgar full title, this book is an excellent travelogue.During the five-year voyage of the Beagle, the stay in the Galapagos Islands was just a short break, but Darwin's graceful writing made these islands vivid and became one of the most popular diaries. In addition to his vivid records, the large number of samples Darwin brought back from the Galapagos Islands, such as bird skins, reptiles soaked in embalming solutions, insects and various plants, kept various experts and heroes busy for several years.

In 1845, a parity revised edition of the journal was published, with some added descriptions of the fauna of the Galapagos Islands, based on the results of studies of the samples brought back by experts and scholars during that period. Darwin wrote: These The natural history of the islands is truly curious and deserves careful attention.Most of the life in the archipelago is a grotesque creation unique to its creator, and sometimes even the inhabitants vary from island to island.Yet these strange creations of creators, though separated from America by an ocean five or six hundred miles wide, are all quite closely related to the native species of America.Darwin praised the archipelago as a small world unto itself, in which he was careful to suggest that we seemed to be brought to the brink of a great fact, a mystery of how the first new species appeared on Earth.

Most biologists would set their sights on a piece of turf in front of them, but Darwin set his sights on the remote Galapagos Islands.It is a pity that he only put forward limited and ambiguous comments on the meaning contained in the creatures on the island.Therefore, when he read Wallace's views on the Galapagos phenomenon: so far he has not even given a speculative explanation, he must have sympathy, and he really hit the nail on the head! Who can solve the riddle of all mysteries? Twenty years later, Darwin still hasn't explained how to solve the mystery of the myriad.His tome on evolution still hangs in mid-air.Back then, Wallace, the collector and seller of sun beetles, a self-taught unknown who had never attended a semester at Cambridge or Oxford, recklessly and menacingly set out to find out for himself.

The Galapagos Islands are a group of very old volcanoes, which, Wallace writes, though never seen, were never connected to the mainland, as they are now.Many learned people in the Victorian era had read Darwin's diary, but few read the Galapagos chapter as intensively as Wallace.Wallace continued in his article on Sarawak: It is believed that like other new islands, the Galapagos Islands had the first settlers through the action of wind and waves.After a long enough period of isolation, the original migratory species are gradually extinct, and only some modified prototypes survive. These so-called modified primitive types are endemic species that Darwin once reported, such as turtles, finches, mockingbirds, iguanas, etc.Among them, a group of finches with close relatives on the island is the best endorsement of Wallace's law.Wallace was citing Darwin's material and boldly proposing a concept that Darwin himself would not have dared to mention: that in the natural process of evolution, new species emerge as a result of isolation and the multiplication of time.Wallace did not elaborate further on what forces set this process underway, but Sarawak Wen made it clear that he was working on it.

Around this time, correspondence began between Wallace and Darwin. In his first letter, Wallace hoped for a long-distance conversation about the whimsical notion he implied in his essay.Although he was a shy young man, he was not too shy to ask famous people for advice. The first letter was lost, Darwin received it, but did not keep it.At present, we only know that the date of sending the letter is October 10, 1856, and the place of sending the letter is Celebes Island, where Wallace was staying at that time. Seven months later, Darwin finally wrote back: from your letter and the article published in the annual report more than a year ago, I clearly see that we have very similar ideas and tend to a similar conclusion to a certain extent .Darwin also said that the fact that two scientists agreed so much on a law was unusual.

Apparently, Darwin had reread Wallace's article more carefully by then, and he no longer mistook it for a copy of the Creationist opinion.In fact, what Wallace understood was close to the mystery of the Mystery, which made Darwin very worried! In a letter that sounded a little jealous and a little self-pitying, Darwin told Wallace this way: Ever since I began to write down in my first notebook how and in what ways species and their varieties interacted with each other, Differently, it will be twenty years this summer.Now I am preparing to publish it, but I find that the subject is really huge.Although I have completed many chapters, I am afraid I will not be able to finish them all and print them in two years.The passage mildly asserts his ownership of an idea without revealing exactly what plaster is being sold in the gourd.As if to imply: with just a little patience, I'll soon solve the scientific mystery that haunts us both.

Two paragraphs later, Darwin wrote again: Due to the limitation of space, it is indeed impossible for me to express my views on the question of how and why the variation of species proceeds in a state of nature, but I have gradually developed a clear and specific idea.As for whether it is correct, others have their own opinions. As far as Darwin was concerned, it might have been clear and specific, but neither Darwin nor Wallace nor anyone else could say whether it was right or wrong until Darwin had condescended to lift the veil from it. If Darwin had no intention of sharing his insight, why did he write back to Wallace in the end?Oh, maybe it's because Darwin was a gentleman, never tired of writing back and forth, as long as he received letters from fellow scientists, even if he was an unknown junior, he would habitually reply?

In fact, there are other intentions behind the letter.Darwin wrote: I do not know how long you intend to remain in the Malay Archipelago.There is no doubt that your trip will be quite fruitful.I hope to have some benefit from what you have done in your travels before mine comes out.If Wallace thinks at this time that his book will take several years to be published, then he may provide some information to Darwin. At this time, what Darwin is most interested in, Wallace believes should be the distribution of species on marine islands .