Natural history, a common heritage for Singapore

Exhibition at Botanic Gardens showcases the region's rich biodiversity
Chin See Chung, Straits Times 22 Aug 09;

THE profusion and diversity of life forms, geological features and the human cultures that they encountered in their travels were the keys that stimulated the intellectual processes of both Charles Darwin and his Victorian compatriot, Alfred Russel Wallace. They both searched for a mechanism to explain long-term organic change.

Darwin spent almost five years circumnavigating the globe, observing, documenting and thinking about his ideas on evolution. He explored coastal areas of both sides of South America, visited the Galapagos and crossed the Pacific landing at Tahiti, New Zealand and Australia before returning via the Indian and Atlantic oceans.

Wallace, on the other hand, spent four years in the Amazon, exploring, collecting and documenting. He unfortunately lost almost everything he collected in a fire while sailing back. He then spent eight years on a great number of islands in the Malay Archipelago, where he amassed a treasure trove of more than 125,000 natural history specimens.

Wallace and Darwin were greatly influenced by the intellectuals of the time and the growing momentum of scientific thought, seeking alternatives to the Church's thinking on the origin of life.

French biologist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, as early as 1809 in his Philosophie Zoologique, proposed a theory to explain natural change. Central to his thesis is that traits acquired during an individual's lifetime could be passed on to its offspring. Though since discredited, this was part of the growing body of thinking on the subject.

By 1840, a clear picture of the fossil record had emerged. There was indisputable evidence that there is a progression from the primitive invertebrates to the fish, reptiles and finally mammals, with many going extinct and others appearing. Creation in a single period, 'in the beginning', did not seem tenable.

Charles Lyell's three-volume book, Principles Of Geology (1830-1833), one of the most important scientific books of the 19th century, outlined the geological forces that shaped the Earth over vast periods of time. It challenged prevailing thinking that the Earth was shaped by supernatural events, such as Noah's flood.

In the anonymously published 1844 book, Vestiges Of The Natural History Of Creation, (actually by Robert Chambers), was the audacious suggestion that humans had emerged from lowly animals, albeit by divine design. While this book offended, it did not offer a biological mechanism for change.

Another influential book was An Essay On The Principle Of Population, by Reverend Thomas Malthus, first published anonymously in 1798. Malthus had postulated that population growth would always exceed the growth of food supply, leading to hunger, disease and a struggle for survival resulting in a situation that would limit population growth. Malthus' idea of 'struggle for survival' directly influenced both Wallace and Darwin. While it appeared to have directed Darwin's thinking towards the theory of natural selection, it was the trigger that crystallised Wallace's thoughts.

In February 1858, after four years of exploring the Malay Archipelago, Wallace was sick with malaria in the Maluku islands, east of Sulawesi, and was thinking about the ideas of Malthus. He suddenly linked this to a mechanism that would ensure long-term organic change.

This was the concept of 'variation and the survival of the fittest'. Individuals that are better adapted would have a better chance of surviving. This is the process of 'natural selection'. It was the fundamental process leading to the origin of new species.

Wallace immediately drafted a paper and wrote to Darwin with his ideas. Darwin had explored the same theories for 20 years and was writing a book on this subject but had not publicly presented his thoughts. He was advised to present Wallace's paper together with his own at the next meeting of the Linnaean Society, the world's oldest biological society, in London on July 1, 1858.

He was also forced to prepare his book for publication. This book that changed the world, On The Origin Of Species, was published in November 1859, 150 years ago.

The theory of natural selection remained controversial throughout the rest of the 19th century. It was only in the early 20th century, when Mendelian genetics was able to explain the inheritance of specific traits that rendered certain organisms 'fitter' and thus 'selected' to replace the unfit, that acceptance became widespread.

In 1869, Wallace published his book, The Malay Archipelago, one of the greatest natural history travel books of the 19th century. His travels gave birth to his ideas on the theory of evolution. And he made significant contributions to biogeography when he linked the geographical distribution of animals and plants to the regions' geological history.

While in Singapore, Wallace explored Bukit Timah and, in two months, caught 700 species of beetles. The incredible productivity of Bukit Timah is an illustration that we live in a region with one of the richest biodiversities in the world.

It is a diversity that the Botanic Gardens was designed to celebrate in all its manifestations.

This year we are holding special events to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Gardens, which shares the same anniversary with the publication of On The Origin Of Species, Darwin's 200th birth anniversary and the 140th anniversary of Wallace's book, The Malay Archipelago.

It is therefore apt that the Gardens has staged an exhibition on Wallace and Darwin. 'Two Minds One Theory' illustrates the region's rich biodiversity and the beauty of natural life, and tells the story of the theory of evolution, to generate awareness and interest in biodiversity and inspire an ethos for conservation.

Natural history unlocked the door to the evolutionary theory. In Singapore, the Raffles Museum, built in 1887, was the repository of some of these records. It was an institution of magnificent displays on zoology and ethnography and a centre of scholarship, especially before the World War II years.

The Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research houses one of the world's largest collections of South-east Asian species. The museum is located on the National University of Singapore campus. -- ST PHOTO: JOYCE FANG

It was one of the few institutions in Singapore protected when so much was destroyed during the war. The museum's collections were dismantled in 1969 and its collections dispersed. The single most outstanding exhibit was the skeleton of a blue whale which, if I remember correctly as a child, hung over the grand main staircase.

Exhibited since 1903, this national icon etched itself into the memories of generations of Singaporeans. Ms Lee Chor Lin, the director of the National Museum, wrote in 2007 that the memory of the whale lived on even for people born after the whale's departure from the museum.

Today, what remains is largely hidden in storage vaults awaiting permanent public airing.

Natural history, the organisms from the different evolutionary stages and the evolutionary processes are our common heritage. It is a heritage that children, with their imagination unfettered by cultural norms and artefacts, instinctively identify with. They would love to be let loose in such a museum in all its glory.

The writer is the director of Singapore Botanic Gardens

More about the exhibition at the Singapore Botanic Gardens;
and about the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research.