Alfred Russel Wallace: Letters and Reminiscences, Vol. 2 by James Marchant
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page 15 of 414 (03%)
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Some of the points, such for instance as the division of the sub-regions into which each greater division is separated, gave rise to considerable controversy. Wallace's final estimate of the work stands: "No one is more aware than myself of the defects of the work, a considerable portion of which are due to the fact that it was written a quarter of a century too soon--at a time when both zoological and palæontological discovery were advancing with great rapidity, while new and improved classifications of some of the great classes and orders were in constant progress. But though many of the details given in these volumes would now require alteration, there is no reason to believe that the great features of the work and general principles established by it will require any important modification."[4] About this time he wrote the article on "Acclimatisation" for the "Encyclopædia Britannica"; and another on "Distribution-Zoology" for the same work. As President of the Biological Section of the British Association he prepared an address for the meeting at Glasgow; wrote a number of articles and reviews, as well as his remarkable book on "Miracles and Modern Spiritualism." In 1878 he published "Tropical Nature," in which he gave a general sketch of the climate, vegetation, and animal life of the equatorial zone of the tropics from his own observations in both hemispheres. The chief novelty was, according to his own opinion, in the chapter on "climate," in which he endeavoured to show the exact causes which produce the difference between the uniform climate of the equatorial zone, and that of June and July in England. Although at that time _we_ receive actually more of the light and heat of the sun than does Java or Trinidad in December, yet these places have then a mean temperature very much higher than ours. It contained also a chapter on humming-birds, as illustrating the luxuriance of tropical |
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