Alfred Russel Wallace
Wallace and Bates discussed the idea of an expedition to the Amazon. The plan was funded by sending specimens back to London, where an agent would sell them for a commission. Also, the travellers planned to to "gather facts towards solving the problem of the origin of species", as Wallace put it in a letter to Bates. The two friends, who were both by now experienced amateur entomologists, met in London to prepare themselves. They looked at South American plants and animals in the main collections.