Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 102, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 August 1903 — NEW THEORY IN SCIENCE. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

NEW THEORY IN SCIENCE.

Dr. Wallace, Noted Naturalist, Advances a Startling Idea. Dr. Alfred Russell Wallace, the noted English scientist, who recently celebrated his 80th birthday, put forth

a new idea on that occasion which surprised the scientific world almost as greatly as the • tremendous theory •of natural selection—the Darwinian theory—which Dr. Wallace and Charlek D a r w’l n discovered independently of each

other half a century ago. The famous old scientist’s new theory is that the earth is exactly at the center of the universe, and that the whole scheme of creation was evidently planned for the purpose of producing man. Some of the old theologians have always mantalned this, but Dr. Wallace arrived at the idea quite in-

dependency of theology. As was natural to suppose, many persons scouted hls idea. But he sticks te his. guns and asserts that he has not only been able to meet every argument that has been brought against him, but that he has found many new proofs of the truth of his discovery which he will be ready to lay before the world in a month or two. If the new doctrine should prove sound, It will throw a great flood of light on some of the dark problems of creation, and will probably be ranked in importance with the law of gravitation and the law of the survival of the fittest. Dr. Wallace, who is now, at the age of 80, setting forth on one of the greatest scientific battles of his life, has always been a tremendous worker. He began to earn a living at the age >f 25 as a land surveyor, but soon turned hls attention to natural history, setting forth to the Amazon on a scientific expedition, and going later to the Malay archipelago, where he was when he hit upon Darwin’s great Idea. He lectured In America 17 years ago, and has written many books that take high rank In scientific research.

DR. WALLACE.