Fires, shipwreck and malaria endured by naturalist who preceded Darwin's discoveries

Along with a parrot, Alfred Russel Wallace survived for 10 days in an open boat without food or water. The 200th anniversary of his birth is coming up on January 8

Welsh naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace (1823 - 1913). (Photo by London Stereoscopic Company/Getty Images)

Existentialist philosophers emphasise 'concrete' lived experience, whereas ‘essentialist’ ones seek to transcend the world of appearances. 

Naturalists, likewise, tend to be either ‘field-men’ or abstract theoreticians. Birdwatchers want direct encounters with Nature; the dry ruminations of ivory-tower scientists, with their ‘ifs buts and caveats’, bore them.