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The Ant and the Peacock by Helena Cronin, Cambridge University Press,
pp 490, £27.50/ $39.50

In The Ant and The Peacock, Helena Cronin claims that: ‘Darwinism is
amongst the most comprehensively successful achievements of the human intellect.’
It is intriguing that the co-discoverer of that theory described the origin
of human intellect as caused not by natural selection but by ‘an agency
analogous to that which first produced organic life’. Mention the name of
Alfred Russel Wallace in the same breath as that of Charles Darwin and most
would only recognise Darwin’s name.

Wallace was the co-discoverer with Darwin of the theory of evolution
by natural selection. Although the two arrived at the same theory independently
and were initially strict selectionists, Darwin moved away from selectionism,
prompting Wallace to say that he was ‘the advocate of pure Darwinism’. In
essence there were few differences between Wallace and Darwin, the most
important were the origin of human intellect, sexual selection through female
choice and the heredity of acquired characteristics.

Wallace never believed that his differences from Darwin were major,
and they certainly did not imply a divergence from natural selection. Critics
of Wallace described him as ‘more Darwinian than Darwin’. Wallace did not
disagree.

Cronin’s book examines two enigmas of the Darwin/Wallace theory: altruism,
where an individual benefits another at the risk of its own life or expense
of energy; and sexual selection that promotes the seemingly pointless development
of flamboyant characteristics, such as the peacock’s tail. She describes
the standpoints of the two, but this is not all that this book has to offer.

As well as the Victorian enigma of the altruistic ant and the flamboyant
peacock and its modern resolution, Cronin also provides a fascinating insight
into the setting of Darwinism in the 19th century. As a look at the history
and philosophy of Darwinism, it is a valuable reference that is accessible
to biologists and non-biologists alike, though somewhat cumbersome in its
approach for the non-scientist.

As a documentation of the development of Darwinism and its place in
present day scientific theory, it lacks detail except when dealing with
the topics of altruism and sexual selection. Although Cronin admits in her
epilogue that there are other difficulties in the complete acceptance of
Darwinism, for example, the development of human intellect and the relationship
between cultural and genetic evolution, the debate would have been more
interesting if she had considered some of these issues.

Other aspects of the development of the theory and the standpoints of
its two proponents would have widened the book’s appeal without making it
less interesting.

The publishers claim that the general reader will not be able to stop
turning the pages. I suspect that the reader will do this too quickly to
avoid the plethora of quotations, and so miss some fascinating insights
into the thoughts of the two most influential biologists of the 19th century.

James Williams is a science teacher at Shirley High School, Croydon
and a science writer.