Editing Alfred Russel Wallace (section)

== Other activities ==

<!--=== Poetry ===

Wallace included metrical verse such as his "A Description of Javíta" in his book ''Travels on the Amazon''.<ref>''Travels on the Amazon'' (1889 ed.), [https://archive.org/details/travelsonamazon00wall_0/page/176/mode/2up pp. 176–180]</ref>-->

=== Spiritualism<!--linked from 'Spiritualism (philosophy)'--> ===

Wallace was an enthusiast of [[phrenology]].{{sfn|Slotten|2004|pp=203–205}} Early in his career, he experimented with [[hypnosis]], then known as [[mesmerism]], managing to hypnotise some of his students in Leicester.{{sfn|Slotten|2004|pp=234–235}} When he began these experiments, the topic was very controversial: early experimenters, such as [[John Elliotson]], had been harshly criticised by the medical and scientific establishment.<ref name="Belief and Spiritualism">{{cite web |last=Smith |first=Charles H. |title=Alfred Russel Wallace: Evolution of an Evolutionist Chapter One. Belief and Spiritualism |url=http://www.wku.edu/~smithch/wallace/chsarw1.htm |publisher=The Alfred Russel Wallace Page hosted by [[Western Kentucky University]] |access-date=20 April 2007 |archive-date=18 February 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090218002120/http://www.wku.edu/~smithch/wallace/chsarw1.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> Wallace drew a connection between his experiences with mesmerism and spiritualism, arguing that one should not deny observations on "a priori grounds of absurdity or impossibility".<ref>{{cite web |last=Wallace |first=Alfred |title=Notes on the Growth of Opinion as to Obscure Psychical Phenomena During the Last Fifty Years |url=http://www.wku.edu/~smithch/wallace/S478.htm |publisher=[[Western Kentucky University]] |access-date=20 April 2007 |archive-date=18 February 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090218003415/http://www.wku.edu/~smithch/wallace/S478.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref>

[[File:Wallace Spirit Photograph.png|thumb|upright|[[Spirit photography|Spirit photograph]] taken by [[Frederick Hudson (photographer)|Frederick Hudson]] of Wallace and his late mother in 1882; he may have used [[Multiple exposure|double exposure]].|alt=a purported spirit photograph of Wallace and his late mother as if together]]

Wallace began investigating spiritualism in the summer of 1865, possibly at the urging of his older sister Fanny Sims.{{sfn|Slotten|2004|p=231}} After reviewing the literature and attempting to test what he witnessed at [[séance]]s, he came to believe in it. For the rest of his life, he remained convinced that at least some séance phenomena were genuine, despite accusations of fraud and evidence of trickery. One biographer suggested that the emotional shock when his first fiancée broke their engagement contributed to his receptiveness to spiritualism.{{sfn|Slotten|2004|p=236}} Other scholars have emphasised his desire to find scientific explanations for all phenomena.<ref name="Belief and Spiritualism"/>{{sfn|Shermer|2002|pp=199–201}} In 1874, Wallace visited the spirit photographer [[Frederick Hudson (photographer)|Frederick Hudson]]. He declared that a photograph of him with his deceased mother was genuine.{{sfn|Wallace|1875|pp=190–191}} Others reached a different conclusion: Hudson's photographs had previously been exposed as fraudulent in 1872.<ref>{{cite book |last=McCabe |first=Joseph |year=1920 |title=Spiritualism: A Popular History from 1847 |publisher=[[Dodd, Mead and Company]] |page=157 |oclc=2683858 }}</ref>

Wallace's public advocacy of spiritualism and his repeated defence of spiritualist mediums against allegations of fraud in the 1870s damaged his scientific reputation. In 1875 he published the evidence he believed proved his position in ''On Miracles and Modern Spiritualism''.{{sfn|Wallace|1875|p=v}} His attitude permanently strained his relationships with previously friendly scientists such as [[Henry Walter Bates|Henry Bates]], [[Thomas Huxley]], and even Darwin.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nhm.ac.uk/research-curation/scientific-resources/collections/library-collections/wallace-letters-online/index.html |title=Wallace Letters Online |last=Wallace |first=Alfred Russel |date=16 November 2010 |website=The Alfred Russel Wallace Correspondence Project}} See Wallace's letters dated 22 November and 1 December 1866 to Thomas Huxley, and Huxley's reply that he was not interested.</ref>{{sfn|Slotten|2004|pp=298–351}} Others, such as the physiologist [[William Benjamin Carpenter]] and zoologist [[E. Ray Lankester]] became publicly hostile to Wallace over the issue. Wallace was heavily criticised by the press; ''[[The Lancet]]'' was particularly harsh.{{sfn|Slotten|2004|pp=298–351}} When, in 1879, Darwin first tried to rally support among naturalists to get a civil pension awarded to Wallace, [[Joseph Dalton Hooker|Joseph Hooker]] responded that "Wallace has lost caste considerably, not only by his adhesion to Spiritualism, but by the fact of his having deliberately and against the whole voice of the committee of his section of the British Association, brought about a discussion on Spiritualism at one of its sectional meetings&nbsp;... This he is said to have done in an underhanded manner, and I well remember the indignation it gave rise to in the B.A. Council."{{sfn|Slotten|2004|pp=357–358}}{{sfn|Shermer|2002|p=274}} Hooker eventually relented and agreed to support the pension request.{{sfn|Slotten|2004|p=362}}

=== Flat Earth wager ===
{{see also|Bedford Level experiment}}

In 1870, a [[Flat Earth|flat-Earth]] proponent named John Hampden offered a £500 wager (roughly {{inflation|UK|500|1870|r=-3|fmt=eq|cursign=£}}{{inflation-fn|UK}}) in a magazine advertisement to anyone who could demonstrate a convex curvature in a body of water such as a river, canal, or lake. Wallace, intrigued by the challenge and short of money at the time, designed an experiment in which he set up two objects along a {{convert|6|mi|km|spell=in|adj=on|0}} stretch of canal. Both objects were at the same height above the water, and he mounted a telescope on a bridge at the same height above the water as well. When seen through the telescope, one object appeared higher than the other, showing the [[curvature of the Earth]]. The judge for the wager, the editor of ''Field'' magazine, declared Wallace the winner, but Hampden refused to accept the result. He sued Wallace and launched a campaign, which persisted for several years, of writing letters to various publications and to organisations of which Wallace was a member denouncing him as a swindler and a thief. Wallace won multiple libel suits against Hampden, but the resulting litigation cost Wallace more than the amount of the wager, and the controversy frustrated him for years.{{sfn|Shermer|2002|pp=258–261}}

=== Anti-vaccination campaign ===
[[File:Wallace anti vaccination league.jpg|alt=Alfred Russel Wallace 1896 National anti-vaccination League postcard|thumb|Alfred Russel Wallace 1896  [[National Anti-Vaccination League]] postcard]]
In the early 1880s, Wallace joined the debate over mandatory smallpox [[vaccination]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Johnson |first=Steven |authorlink=Steven Johnson (author) |title=Extra Life |publisher=[[Riverhead Books]] |year=2021 |isbn=978-0-525-53885-1 |edition=1st |pages=55}}</ref> Wallace originally saw the issue as a matter of personal liberty; but, after studying statistics provided by anti-vaccination activists, he began to question the efficacy of vaccination. At the time, the [[germ theory of disease]] was new and far from universally accepted. Moreover, no one knew enough about the human [[immune system]] to understand why vaccination worked. Wallace discovered instances where supporters of vaccination had used questionable, in a few cases completely false, statistics to support their arguments. Always suspicious of authority, Wallace suspected that physicians had a vested interest in promoting vaccination, and became convinced that reductions in the incidence of smallpox that had been attributed to vaccination were due to better hygiene and improvements in public sanitation.{{sfn|Slotten|2004|pp=422–436}}

Another factor in Wallace's thinking was his belief that, because of the action of natural selection, organisms were in a state of balance with their environment, and that everything in nature, served a useful purpose.{{sfn|Shermer|2002|pp= 215–216}} Wallace pointed out that vaccination, which at the time was often unsanitary, could be dangerous.{{sfn|Shermer|2002|pp= 215–216}}

In 1890, Wallace gave evidence to a [[Royal Commission]] investigating the controversy. It found errors in his testimony, including some questionable statistics. ''The Lancet'' averred that Wallace and other activists were being selective in their choice of statistics. The commission found that smallpox vaccination was effective and should remain compulsory, though they recommended some changes in procedures to improve safety, and that the penalties for people who refused to comply be made less severe. Years later, in 1898, Wallace wrote a pamphlet, ''Vaccination a Delusion; Its Penal Enforcement a Crime'', attacking the commission's findings. It, in turn, was attacked by ''The Lancet'', which stated that it repeated many of the same errors as his evidence given to the commission.{{sfn|Slotten|2004|pp=422–436}}