The impact of A. R. Wallace's Sarawak Law paper reassessed

This article examines six main elements in the modern story of the impact of Alfred Russel Wallace's 1855 Sarawak Law paper, particularly in the many accounts of Charles Darwin's life and work. These elements are:1It was Wallace's first avowal of evolution.2Wallace laid out the theory of evolution minus only a “mechanism”.3Darwin failed to see how close Wallace was approaching.4Lyell did see how close Wallace was approaching.5Lyell urged Darwin to publish because of Wallace.6Darwin wrote to Wallace to warn him off his patch.Each of these are very frequently repeated as straightforward facts in the popular and scholarly literature. It is here argued that each of these is erroneous and that the role of the Sarawak Law paper in the historiography of Darwin and Wallace needs to be revised.