(19th century Hong Kong) Darwin (1809~1882), a British biologist, is the author of a great book and a genius who put forward the theory of evolution.He was thirty-one when he sailed around the world on the naval survey ship Beagle under Captain Fitz-Lewis.It was this voyage that gave Darwin the idea of ​​the theory of evolution. However, not the beginning of the theory of evolution. Lamarck (1744~1829) of France had a profound influence on Darwin. Erasmus, Darwin's grandfather, can also be regarded as a pioneer of the theory of evolution. He published books on the theory of evolution earlier than Lamarck.However, the powerful Christianity at that time believed that life was created by God and regarded it as an eternal truth.Due to the direct opposition to this worldview, what awaited the evolutionists at that time was an extremely cruel fate——

Lamarck was determined to stick to his own ideas, blinded by fierce criticism, impoverished, and supported by his two daughters for a living in his later years; Professor Robert Grant of the University of London was expelled from the University and died in poverty simply because he publicly supported Lamarck; Robert Chambers published "The Remains" anonymously in 1844 in favor of the theory of evolution, and the citizens of London did not spare him; Even Darwin's grandfather, Erasmus, was considered a dangerous figure whose writings were shelved by his descendants. … After his voyages on the Beagle, the idea of ​​evolution became more and more perfect in Darwin's mind.

In 1844, he completed the draft of the book, and in 1854 began to write the text.All this was done in secret, because in his heart, he did not yet have the courage to publish his theory publicly.As Darwin wrote in a letter to a friend, promulgating the theory of evolution is "like committing suicide." It was an event that forced him to decide to publish. In June 1858, a paper arrived in Darwin's hands from the far southern islands. The paper was entitled "On the Tendency of Varieties to Infinitely Deviate from the Prototype" by Alfred R. Wallace (1823-1913).He was doing research in biology and zoogeography in the Malay Archipelago.After browsing the paper, Darwin was astonished and fell into a panic-this paper was surprisingly similar to the paper he wrote in secret!Of course, Wallace could not have known that Darwin was secretly writing about evolution.

The chance encounter of seeing Wallace's paper changed Darwin's fortunes, and he immediately interrupted writing, hastily added his own paper to Wallace's, and published it jointly at the Linnean Society in London.Then the following year, unable to wait until it was finally finished, it was published. Darwin once regarded publishing the theory of evolution as a suicidal act, and the reason why he was determined to take the above-mentioned actions was that he did not want this historic discovery to be taken away by Wallace.At this point, Darwin also failed to escape the cliché of scientists.

In the end, Darwin became the darling of history.Although Wallace finished his dissertation before Darwin, history has hidden his name in the shadow of Darwin and glory. If Wallace hadn't sent the paper to Darwin, perhaps history would have been drastically rewritten.At least, it will no longer be Darwin's own theory, but will become a manual to prove Wallace's theory.The honor of making a historic discovery will be placed on Wallace's head, and Darwin will have to condescend to the status of Fahrenheit's supporters. Wallace himself, who missed an important opportunity, took a well-meaning stance on the "cooperative" paper with Darwin and its subsequent publication.He honestly attributed to Darwin the theory that natural selection brought about the evolution of species discovered by the two together, and even gave the name "Darwinism" together.

Putting aside mortal vanity, such an attitude is even more bizarre for a scientist who has made a name for himself by his invention or discovery.Not only that, this Alfred Wallace himself is a figure full of mysteries. Wallace, a British biologist and evolutionist, was born in Memesshire.When he was young, he was engaged in land surveying and construction. After becoming a teacher, he met the entomologist Bates and followed the latter to collect creatures in the Amazon basin.Later, he traveled to the Maluku Islands to conduct research in biology and zoogeography.It was also at this time that Wallace wrote his essay "On the Tendency of Varieties to Infinitely Deviate from the Original".

After entering his later years, for some reason, Wallace became obsessed with the study of soul art and superpowers. Since then, he was banned by the society, and there are very few records about him. "Hong Kong Mermaid Records" is a strange book that is said to be Wallace's posthumous work.It actually recorded in detail the story of Wallace's encounter with the so-called mermaid in Hong Kong. What were the expressions of the London citizens at that time when they got this strange book?This scene is actually not difficult to imagine—although Wallace was treated coldly by the world, Wallace was an outstanding scholar after all, and what he published after a long silence turned out to be "mermaid"!There are even photos of mermaids in the book, but they look no different from composite photos of fictional creatures such as unicorns and centaurs that were popular at the time.Naturally, the book was regarded as a work of madness, and its absurdity made everyone laugh.

If you look in a dictionary of names, "Alfred R. Wallace" is easy to look up.However, it is difficult for you to find records about "Hong Kong Mermaid Record". The following is a summary of "Hong Kong Mermaid Records": In 1884, a local fisherman caught a mermaid and sold it to an acrobatic troupe at a high price. Soon, the legend of the mermaid spread in Hong Kong and reached Wallace's ears. The acrobatic troupe originally had a program called "Mermaid Dance in the Water", in which girls wrapped their lower bodies around mermaid-like tails and covered their bulging breasts with shells in a glass fish tank, performing old-fashioned acrobatics.Wallace also knew that, so when his friend and industrialist Hai Zhouquan invited him to watch it, he was not at all interested.Later, he couldn't stand the warm invitation of his friends, so he came to the small tent of the acrobatic troupe with hesitation.

The mermaid's dance was exactly as expected by Wallace. "That's the way it is," he reassured Zhouquan. But the vigorous Zhou Quan couldn't accept it. He scolded the gatekeeper at the exit: "Give me back the money!". The gatekeeper sneered: "With such a small entrance fee, how can you see a real fish?" Then, he whispered to the Wallaces: "The 'real thing' is very dangerous. In the big wooden barrel behind It is under strict surveillance. If you want to see it, how about I show you?" Common trick!It is purely for the purpose of defrauding high visiting fees from guests.Wallace can see this at a glance-he has been tricked into seeing so-called "snake women" in the past like this.

He was just a teenager at the time, staying in Hong Kong with his parents.His father often took him to watch performances in the tent of the acrobatic troupe, where there were seductive signs with half-naked snake girls painted on them.The sign frightened Wallace, but he couldn't escape the temptation.Every time his father took him past the signboard, he would never enter it, and Wallace didn't have the courage to point to the signboard of naked women and beg his father to see it. Finally one day, he came to the acrobatic troupe alone. The sign says that Snake Girl is the offspring of a snake mating with a human and was found in a bamboo forest in Sichuan Province.But in fact, it was just a naked girl without two arms and one leg, scales were scribbled all over her body, and she was rolling back and forth on the mat, making an extremely poor "performance".Moreover, teenage girls are not born deformed.Wallace remembered that the teenage girl had been in other shows, doing tightrope walkers or something.Probably because she fell off the wire and couldn't be used anymore, so she was cut off with an arm and a leg, and was forced to change her career to become Snake.This kind of disgusting thing is actually commonplace in the acrobatic tents around Kowloon.

"How? That's an absolutely authentic mermaid caught in the South China Sea!" The concierge's persuasion was earnest. "I don't want to see your kind of stuff!" Zhou Quan sternly refused.It was Wallace who advised him: Since he came here on purpose, why not visit it before going back? Wallace recounted the situation in this way: "Perhaps I had heard the mermaid's song then. The song called out to me, as if to say, 'Help me'. I thought of the girl who was forced to play the snake girl. Incredibly, her face was vividly restored. In my mind now, the appearance I saw in my youth has not changed at all..." So, Wallace and the others were led by the gatekeeper to a small tent that was suspiciously obscene.At this time, a guest rushed out of the tent, shouting loudly while running: "Amazing! It's a real guy!".He begged the porter to let him see it again, and the porter offered him a high price, so he gave up and went back. No matter how you look at this scene, it looks like a play!Zhou Quan couldn't help frowning and muttering, "That must be a 'teacher'." In the small tent, the light was dim, and there was a large wooden barrel buried in the ground in front of him. The bucket is covered with a lid, so you can't see what's inside, you can only hear the sound of "plopping, bubbling" water. An old man with a long beard sat next to the barrel and asked the two for a tour fee. "We'll talk about it after we've seen it." Zhou Quan disagreed to pay first, but the old man insisted on it.As a result, Wallace paid for both. After the old man got the money, a smile appeared on his face immediately, and he muttered indistinctly. "What?" Wallace asked. The old man ignored him at all and just kept talking.Listen carefully, it is a traditional ballad: "In the Nordic legend, the siren seduced Odysseus with singing..." The old man hummed in Cantonese with a peculiar tone, and refused to stop for a long time.Zhou Quan got impatient with the wait: "Hey! Old man, stop singing that song, let us watch it quickly!" The old man ended the song in dissatisfaction, and reached out to lift the cover. Wallace tensed up. "Is it okay?" The old man said, and opened the lid of the bucket.Oil flowers floated on the black water surface, swaying gently. "Come on, come closer!" "Isn't it dangerous?" "It's all right. Mermaids are dangerous when they sing, and dead if they hear it. But this mermaid's throat is broken and he can't sing anymore. It's all right, all right." Wallace and Chau looked into the barrel. Inside the barrel was a coiled-up creature that looked like a salamander.From above, it can be seen as a fish, or as an amphibian or sea beast.However, its arms are exceptionally long.Black hair grew on his head. "is that true?" Zhou Quan couldn't help but grab Wallace's sleeve. Although he couldn't immediately tell whether the mermaid he saw was a mermaid, but what Wallace could be sure of was that it was by no means a substitute played by a human like the Snake Lady.But maybe it was tying a man's arms to a fish's skin—these guys in the circus could do things like cutting off a child's arm and attaching it to a fish. "If it's fake, it must be a surgical operation performed by a highly skilled famous doctor." Zhou Quan whispered. In any case, although the two arms that looked like human arms moved slowly, they were indeed moving with their own will.Wallace also saw at a glance that from a medical point of view, such an operation could not be done. ——So, what exactly is this creature? Wallace leaned over the barrel to get a better look.The old man's cane stopped him.He turned his head, and the old man let him go away a little, and then he plunged the cane into the water and circled around the fish's body.So the fish began to turn its body around the crutch. Although it was only for a moment, the two of them still saw the mermaid's face clearly. Wallace and Zhou Quan froze there. "Is it true?" Zhou Quan asked, holding Wallace's sleeve tightly. Wallace didn't dare to nod in agreement, but the head of the mermaid he saw was indeed a human face, and it was a female face. "Okay, it's time." The old man closed the lid. Wallace immediately bargained and looked at it again at four times the previous price.Then he was allowed to touch and observe it with his own hands at forty times the price. There was no doubt anymore - Wallace decided that this could not be a man-made fake at all, but a real real fish.So, later Wallace prepared a huge sum of thousands of times to buy the mermaid, and took it home for a thorough observation. The scientific name of the mermaid is "Waterman (Homer? Yake Aleus)", which is Wallace's own name.According to Wallace's detailed identification, it is an extremely human-like species. "This kind of creature has superior intelligence, which is incomparable to chimpanzees or orangutans, and it is even difficult to separate them from humans..." He bragged about the intelligence of mermaids in the book. Wallace discovered the merman was pregnant one day, and a few months later actually gave birth to a baby female merman.It is said that the daughter of the mermaid can understand human language because she has been in contact with human society since she was born, and there is no obstacle to living on land (Wallace has records that the mother of the little mermaid can only survive if she lives on land. hours). Wallace has an assistant named Hai Zhouhua, the son of Hai Zhouquan, who specializes in feeding mermaids.As the little mermaid grows up day by day, Hai Zhouhua's love for the little mermaid grows day by day, and he burns physically and mentally because of love.What is even more unbelievable is that Hai Zhouquan actually saw through his son's mind and married his son to the mermaid. There is a photo from the wedding day. Hai Zhouhua stood between Wallace, Hai Zhouquan and their young brothers. The woman next to her was wearing a cheongsam, holding a bouquet of flowers and wearing a tower-shaped ornament on her head.This kind of dress was probably a popular bridal dress in Hong Kong at that time, but through the hem of the cheongsam, you can see the unique fins of mermaids. What is even more surprising is that it is said that the two actually have children. Around the time of this legendary marriage, Wallace orchestrated an experiment using a mermaid.His real interest is whether there are other wild merfolk, and where the merman habitat is, that is the focus of his attention. Wallace analyzed the mermaid's muscle tissue and found that its muscle has a particularly remarkable oxygen metabolism effect.This means that a mermaid is a creature that travels around the ocean. Wallace also planned another experiment to investigate which oceans the mermaids traveled around.Of course, the radio transmitter is a tracking and investigation tool that is only available today, and there was no such high technology a hundred years ago.What Wallace came up with was actually a primitive method-that is, tie a rope to the mermaid and release it into the ocean.In this way, plankton and seaweed will get entangled on the rope when the mermaid swims around in the sea.Then recover these plankton and seaweed for classification and analysis, then you can figure out what route and which sea areas the mermaid travels around.But this method also has a problem, that is how to "recycle" the released mermaid.The little mermaid is used here. The little mermaid's name is "Scale Girl".Linnv has supernatural powers. For example, she can predict rain, and when a fire breaks out nearby, she can scream "Fire!" while staying at home, which surprised everyone.However, according to Wallace, there is no need to be surprised by these special functions, "At the root of the mermaid's nostrils, there is an organ that is very sensitive to water vapor in the atmosphere, so that the mermaid can perceive the atmosphere caused by rain or fire." Variety,." Perhaps it is the function of this organ. No matter where the scale girl lives, she can always find her mother.And Wallace is using this function as a sensor. However, the cruel experiment of using the little mermaid to track the mother and then catch the mermaid ended in failure.Because of this, Wallace lost the precious mermaid sample, and the scale girl who was supposed to act as a sensor also doubted the experiment because of this, and closed her mind ever since. "Hong Kong Mermaid" finally ended according to Wallace's wishful thinking. "Mermaids are originally species that live in the ocean, and it is appropriate to return to the ocean. However, if readers who have read this book find a mermaid, please untie the rope tied to the mermaid and mail it to me I sincerely hope that you are a conscientious gentleman who can secretly release her into the sea, instead of selling the mermaid to a filthy acrobatic troupe just because you want to make a small profit." Probably because no one believed Wallace's whims, no one really blamed him for his cruel experiments on the merman. The records of the child between Haizhouhua and Linnv are also not exhaustive, only the record of pregnancy is left. "1898, scales, pregnancy." If it was born smoothly and is still alive, this mermaid should be over a hundred years old now, and according to Japanese legends, mermaids live long. Wallace's historic work on the distribution of species has survived to this day.The existing boundary line between Australia and East Asia - the Wallace Line is named after him.In addition, Wallace and Darwin also disagreed on many aspects of the theory of evolution.For example, with regard to the human brain, Wallace believed that it could not be the result of natural selection, but that "some kind of higher intelligence established the direction for the process of human evolution", and therefore disagreed with Darwin.That is to say, the evolution of apes into humans is not the result of natural selection, but in the process of evolution, certain dramatic factors played a decisive role. In addition, on the issue of vaccination, Wallace also sang a different tune, believing that inoculating certain components of animals into the human body is a blasphemy against humanity. On questions like these, Wallace failed to surpass Darwin.While he handed over the achievements of the great discovery of the theory of evolution to Darwin, he also doomed him to withdraw from the stage of history. Wallace died at the age of ninety in 1913, the year that "Hong Kong Mermaid Records" was published.