Darwin and Wallace.—In 1858 we come to the crowning event in the rise of evolutionary thought, when Alfred Russel Wallace sent a communication to Mr. Darwin, begging him to look it over and give him his opinion of it. Darwin, who had been working upon his theory for more than twenty years, patiently gathering facts and testing the same by experiment, was greatly surprised to find that Mr. Wallace had independently hit upon the same principle of explaining the formation of species. In his generosity, he was at first disposed to withdraw from the field and publish the essay of Wallace without saying anything about his own work. He decided, however, to abide by the decision of two of his friends, to whom he had submitted the matter, and the result was that the paper of Wallace, accompanied by earlier communications of Darwin, were laid before the Linnæan Society of London. This was such an important event in the history of science that its consideration is extended by quoting the following letter:
"London, June 30th, 1858.
"My Dear Sir: The accompanying papers, which we have the honor of communicating to the Linnæan Society, and which all relate to the same subject; viz., the laws which affect the production of varieties, races, and species, contain the results of the investigations of two indefatigable naturalists, Mr. Charles Darwin and Mr. Alfred Wallace.
"These gentlemen having, independently and unknown to one another, conceived the same very ingenious theory to account for the appearance and perpetuation of varieties and of specific forms on our planet, may both fairly claim the merit of being original thinkers in this important line of inquiry; but neither of them having published his views, though Mr. Darwin has for many years past been repeatedly urged by us to do so, and both authors having now unreservedly placed their papers in our hands, we think it would best promote the interests of science that a selection from them should be laid before the Linnæan Society.
"Taken in the order of their dates, they consist of:
"1. Extracts from a MS. work on species, by Mr. Darwin, which was sketched in 1839 and copied in 1844, when the copy was read by Dr. Hooker, and its contents afterward communicated to Sir Charles Lyell. The first part is devoted to The Variation of Organic Beings under Domestication and in their Natural State; and the second chapter of that part, from which we propose to read to the Society the extracts referred to, is headed On the Variation of Organic Beings in a State of Nature; on the Natural Means of Selection; on the Comparison of Domestic Races and True Species.
"2. An abstract of a private letter addressed to Professor Asa Gray, of Boston, U.S., in October, 1857, by Mr. Darwin, in which he repeats his views, and which shows that these remained unaltered from 1839 to 1857.
"3. An essay by Mr. Wallace, entitled On the Tendency of Varieties to Depart Indefinitely from the Original Type. This was written at Ternate in February, 1858, for the perusal of his friend and correspondent, Mr. Darwin, and sent to him with the expressed wish that it should be forwarded to Sir Charles Lyell, if Mr. Darwin thought it sufficiently novel and interesting. So highly did Mr. Darwin appreciate the value of the views therein set forth that he proposed, in a letter to Sir Charles Lyell, to obtain Mr. Wallace's consent to allow the essay to be published as soon as possible. Of this step we highly approved, provided Mr. Darwin did not withhold from the public, as he was strongly inclined to do (in favor of Mr. Wallace), the memoir which he had himself written on the same subject, and which, as before stated, one of us had perused in 1844, and the contents of which we had both of us been privy to for many years.
"On representing this to Mr. Darwin, he gave us permission to make what use we thought proper of his memoir, etc.; and in adopting our present course, of presenting it to the Linnæan Society, we have explained to him that we are not solely considering the relative claims to priority of himself and his friend, but the interests of science generally; for we feel it to be desirable that views founded on a wide deduction from facts, and matured by years of reflecting, should constitute at once a goal from which others may start; and that, while the scientific world is waiting for the appearance of Mr. Darwin's complete work, some of the leading results of his labours, as well as those of his able correspondent, should together be laid before the public.
"We have the honour to be yours very obediently,