lia
JAMKS K.MOFFITT
03
LINN. soc. 1908. PL. 1
/.
THE
DARWIN-WALLACE CELEBRATION
HELD ON
THURSDAY, IST JULY, 1908,
BY THE
LINNEAN SOCIETY OF LONDON.
LONDON:
PRINTED FOR THE LIXXEAX SOCIETY,
BURLINGTON HOUSE, PICCADILLY, W.
1908.
CONTENTS.
PAG*
Introduction v
Special Meeting , 1
Dinner 62
Reception 65
Minutes of General Meeting, 1st July, 1858 81
Reprint of papers by C. DARWIN and A. R. WALLACE ... 87
Selections from Malthus's Essay on Population 109
Portraits of Medallists 119
Index 135
PLATES.
PLATE 1. C. E. DARWIN, F.K.S., F.L.S. (Frontispiece.')
2. The Darwin-Wallace Medal, modelled by Frank
Bowcher. (Facing page 3.)
3. Address from the Royal Academy of Science,
Stockholm. (Facing page 48.)
4. Dr. A. R. WALLACE, O.M., F.R.S., F.L.S.
5. Sir J. D. HOOKER, O.M., G.C.S.I., F.R.S., F.L.S.
6. Prof. E. H. HAECKEL, F.M.L.S.
7. Prof. A. WEISMANN, F.M.L.S.
8. Prof. E. STRASBURGER, F.M.L.S.
9. Dr. F. GALTON, F.R.S.
10. Sir E. RAY LANKESTER, K.C.B., F.R.S., F.L.S.
ERE AT A.
Page vii col. 2, line 24, read " T. G. Hill."
„ viii „ 1, „ 32, read" I. ttichards."
„ ., 2, „ 7, delete "V. A. Smith."
,, 13, line 8, for " Celebes " read " Moluccan."
„ 19, „ 21, /'or "genial works " read " works of genius.
„ 56, ,, 15, for " Byrne " read " Burne."
03, col. 1, a/fer line 31, insert " Mrs. Prain *."
„ 85, line 30, for " abstract " read " extract."
„ 137, „ 26, for " Byrne" rtad '• Burne."
INTRODUCTION.
THE death of the eminent botanist ROBERT BROWN on the
10th June, 1858, deprived the Linnean Society of a Vice-
President and Councillor. Out of respect to its former
President the subsequent meeting on the 17th June separated
after formal business only had been transacted.
The vacancy thus caused had, by the Bye-Laws then in
force, to be filled up within three calendar months, and the
Council decided to call a Special General Meeting for this
purpose, on the 1st July, 1858, rather than to bring the
Fellows together again in September. The papers which
had been set for being read on the 17th June, but abandoned,
were again placed on the agenda.
As narrated by Sir Joseph Hooker on pp. 12-16 of the
succeeding account of the Celebration, opportunity was
taken to bring forward the papers by Mr. DARWIN and
Dr. WALLACE, which are here reprinted from the Journal of
the Society, thus introducing these novel views, in advance
of the ' Origin of Species.'
The first indication of public interest in the fiftieth
anniversary of the reading of the Darwin- Wallace papers,
VI
Introduction.
was shown by a half-column article in the ' Tribune ' news-
paper of 20th February, 1907, entitled "A Scientific
Jubilee : Projected celebration of Darwin's discovery."
The next step was taken by the Council on 16th January,
1908, appointing a Committee of the Officers with Profs.
Poulton and F. W. Oliver, to consider the best means of
celebrating the event ; this Committee, with some additional
members, sat at frequent intervals during the period of
preparation.
The draft programme having been approved, invitations
were sent to the Fellows, Foreign Members and Associates,
certain distinguished naturalists, every University in the
United Kingdom, and Societies publishing on subjects of
biology. It was also decided to widen the invitation
so as to include the Royal Swedish Academy of Science,
the relations between Sweden and the Linnean Society
being especially close.
The Meeting-room of the Society being wholly insufficient
for the expected audience, an endeavour was made to secure
the use of the theatre of the Civil Service Commission
in Burlington Gardens, but the date prevented its use ;
ultimately the President and Council of the Institution of
Civil Engineers, Great George Street, were so obliging
as to put their admirable theatre at the disposal of the
Society.
In response to an appeal for pecuniary help to defray
the unusual expenditure required for the Celebration, the
following Fellows contributed the sum of £239 12s. Od. in
aid, the balance being borne by the corporate funds of
the Society : —
Introduction.
Prof. R. J. Anderson.
Dr. Tempest Anderson.
E. A. N. Arber.
T. H. Archer-Hind.
R. Assheton.
The Lord Avebury.
A. "W. G. Bagshawe
C. Bailey.
J. G. Baker.
Prof. I. B. Balfour.
R. M. Barrington.
Dr. H. C. Bastian.
Col. Beddome.
W. H. Beeby.
Dr. Margaret Benson.
Miss E. M. Berridge.
S. H. Bickham.
Prof. Y. H. Blackmail.
J. L. J. Bonhote.
L. A. Boodle.
Prof. G. C. Bourne.
Prof. F. 0. Bower.
E. A. Bowles.
Dr. R. Braithwaite.
Prof. T. W. Bridge.
E. R. Burdon.
F. M. Burton.
H. Bury.
Dr. S. E. Chandler.
G. Christy.
W. Miller Christy.
Sir Frank Crisp.
Dr. F. Darwin.
Dr. A. E. Davies.
Prof. A. Dendy.
Prof. Denny.
J. R. Drummond.
Dr. B. Dyer.
R. Elmhirst.
Rev. Dr. G. H. A. Elrington,
O.P.
Prof. J. B. Farmer.
D. Finlayson.
Rev. H. P. FitzGerald.
Dr. G. H. Fowler.
Dr. Helen Fraser.
W. G. Freeman.
Dr. F. E. Fritsch.
Rt. Hon. Sir E. Fry.
J. S. Gamble.
F. A. Gardiner.
J. Stanley Gardiner.
Rev. J. Gerard, S.J.
Miss L. S. Gibbs.
Dr. F. D. Godman.
Prof. P. Groom.
R. W. T. Giinther.
H. H. Haines.
F. J. Hanbury.
Dr. G. Henderson.
Rev. G. Henslow.
Prof. W. A. Herdman,
A. W. Hill.
Prof. J. P. Hill.
F. G. Hill.
Prof. W. Hillhouse.
E. W. B. Holt.
Sir J. D. Hooker, O.M.,
G.C.S.I.
J. Hopkinson.
W. H. Hudleston.
C. C. Hurst.
Dr. B. Daydon Jackson.
H. Jones.
A. W. Kappel.
Prof. F. Keeble.
W. F. Kirby.
H. R. Knipe.
Sir E. Ray Lankester, K.C.B.
Dr. J. R. Leeson.
A. Lister.
Miss G. Lister.
viii
Introduction.
J. J. Lister.
J. J. MacAndrew.
C. F. TJ. Meek.
Dr. J. W. S. Meiklejohn.
J. Cosmo Melvill.
H. T. Mennell.
L. C. Miall.
A. D. Michael.
R. M. Middleton.
Rev. C. H. Middleton-Wake.
H. W. Monckton.
H. W. Monington.
F. Morey.
C. A. Newman.
C. S. Nicholson.
A. W. Oke.
Prof. D. Oliver.
Prof. F. W. Oliver.
Dr. J. Oliver.
J. Parkin.
A. H. Pawson.
The Lord Peckover of
Wisbech.
Miss D. F. M. Pertz.
R. I. Pocock.
Prof. M. C. Potter.
Prof. E. B. Poulton.
Lt.-Col. D. Prain, C.I.E.
C. Reid.
J. R. Reid, C.I.E.
Dr. A. B. Rendle.
J. Richards.
Miss E. Sargant.
E. Saunders.
Miss E. R. Saunders.
G. S. Saunders.
Dr. D. H. Scott.
Prof. A. C. Seward.
A. E. Shipley.
W. A. Shoolbred.
Miss S. M. Silver.
M. B. Slater.
Miss A. L. Smith.
E. A. Smith.
Rev. F. C. Smith.
Dr. W. Somerville.
G. B. Sowerby.
T. A. Sprague.
Dr. Otto Stapf .
A. E. B. Steams.
Mrs. Stebbing.
Rev. T. R. R. Stebbing.
A. W. Sutton.
Rev. A. Thornley.
J. S. Turner.
R. Yallentin.
Prof. S. H. Vines.
H. W. T. Wager.
A. O. Walker.
Prof. R. Wallace.
A. W. Waters.
A. Watson.
W. M. Webb.
Prof. F. E. Weiss.
W. P. Westell.
Miss E. Whitley.
Miss E. A. Willmott.
Dr. A. Smith Woodward.
B. B. Woodward.
Prof. E. P. Wright.
Prof. R. H. Yapp.
Lt.-Col. J. W. Yerbury.
A. P. Young.
LIMEAN SOCIETY OF LONDON.
DARWIN-WALLACE CELEBRATION.
1st JULY, 1908.
A SPECIAL MEETING of the Society was held in the Theatre
of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Great George Street,
at 2.30 P.M. on Wednesday, July 1st, 1908, to celebrate the
Fiftieth Anniversary of the joint communication made by
CHARLES DARWIN and ALFRED RUSSEL WALLACE to the
Society, "On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties;
an<l on the Perpetuation of Varieties and Species by Natural
Means of Selection."
The President of the Society, Dr. DUKINFIELD H. SCOTT,
presided, and representatives of many scientific Societies
and Universities were present. The Danish and Swedish
Ministers were also present, and a representative of the
German Embassy. The following members of the Darwin
family also attended : Mr. William Darwin, Sir George
and Lady Darwin, Dr. Francis Darwin, Major Leonard
Darwin, and Mr. Horace Darwin ; Mrs. Vaughan Williams,
a niece of Charles Darwin, was also present.
The PRESIDENT, in welcoming the delegates and guests,
said : —
We are met together to-day to celebrate what is without
doubt the greatest event in the history of our Society
since its foundation. Nor is it easy to conceive the
2 Darwin- Wallace Celebration.
possibility in the future of any second revolution of Biological
thought so momentous as that which was started 50 years
ago by the reading of the joint papers of Mr. Darwin and
Dr. Wallace, '; On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties;
and on the Perpetuation of Varieties and Species by Natural
Means of Selection," communicated to our Society by Sir
Charles Lyell and by Sir Joseph Hooker, whom we have the
happiness of seeing with us to-day.
The papers, it will be remembered, consist of an extract
from Mr. Darwin's then unpublished work on Species, for
which he had been preparing during the previous 20 years,
of an abstract of a letter from him to Asa Gray, the famous
American Botanist, and of Dr. Wallace's paper, which he
had sent to Mr. Darwin, " On the Tendency of Varieties to
depart indefinitely from the Original Type."
In Mr. Darwin's contributions, the now classic terms
" Natural Means of Selection " and " Natural Selection " are
used for the first time. In Dr. Wallace's essay the same idea
is expressed with equal clearness, as for example in the words
" If any species should produce a variety having slightly
increased powers of preserving existence, that variety must
inevitably in time acquire a superiority in numbers." With
both authors the key to evolution is at the same time the key
to adaptation, the great characteristic by which living things
are distinguished. Darwin and Wallace not only freed us
from the dogma of Special Creation, a dogma which we now
find it difficult to conceive of as once seriously held " Nee
deus intersit, nisi dignus vindice nodus," — they afforded a
natural explanation of the marvellous indications of Design
which had been the great strength of the old doctrine, and
themselves, with their disciples, added tenfold to the evidences
of adaptation. In like manner, if we are to see further
advance now or in the future, any new development of the
doctrine of evolution must be prepared to face, fairly and
squarely, the facts of adaptation.
I am proud to welcome, in the name of the Linnean
Society, the illustrious gathering which has assembled to
commemorate an event, so unpretentious in its circumstances,
so profound in its significance. The presence among us of
LINN. Soc. 1908. PL.
I
DARWIN-WALLACE MEDAL.
1st July, 1908.
Darwin- Wallace Celebration. 3
Dr. Wallace, one of the two creators of the theory, and of
'Sir Joseph Hooker, who brought it into the world, is in itself
-enough to render our meeting memorable, and to ensure its
success. Among the other Medallists to whom we render due
honour to-day, while we regret the absence of Prof. Haeckel
and Prof. Weismann, those valiant champions of evolution,
we rejoice to have with us Prof. Strasburger, representing
in our own day the great school of Hofmeister, who, by his
•unequalled morphological researches in the field of Botany,
made ready the way for the ' Origin of Species.'
The two great schools of evolution in this country, the
School of Genetics (to use the modern term) and that of
Morphology, are represented by their distinguished leaders,
Dr. Galton and Sir Ray Laukester.
The President then read the following telegram received
that morning from Prof. Engler, F.M.L.S. : —
" STEGLITZ, Isten Juli, 1908.
" LINNEAN SOCIETY, Burlington [House], London, "W.
" Zur heutigen Feier der Erinnerung an die hervorra-
_genden Verdienste von Darwin imd Wallace sendet seine
herzlichen Glueckwuensche — A. ENGLER, Berlin."
We have a long programme before us, and I think it would
be best that we should now proceed at once to what is the main
business of our meeting, the presentation of the medals to
those distinguished gentlemen whom we are asking to receive
them.
The presentation of the Darwin- Wallace Medals was then
proceeded with, the first to come forward, at the request of
the President, being Dr. Alfred Russel Wallace, F.R.S.,
F.L.S., who was received with great enthusiasm. In pre-
senting the gold medal the President said : —
Dr. ALFRED RUSSEL WALLACE, We rejoice that we are
so happy as to have with us to-day the survivor of the
two great naturalists whose crowning work we are here to
commemorate.
Your brilliant work, in Natural History and Geography,
4 Darwin- Wallace Celebration.
and as one of the founders of the Theory of Evolution
by Natural Selection, is universally honoured and has often
received public recognition, as in the awards of the Darwin
and Royal Medals of the Royal Society, and of our own
Medal in 1892.
To-day, in asking you to accept the first Darwin- Wallace
Medal, we are offering you of your own, for it is you, equally
with your great colleague, who created the occasion which
we celebrate.
There is nothing in the history of Science more delightful
or more noble than the story of the relations between your-
self and Mr. Darwin, as told in the correspondence now so
fully published, — the story of a generous rivalry in which
each discoverer strives to exalt the claims of the other. We
know that Mr. Darwin wrote :
April 6, 1859.—" You cannot tell how much I admire your
spirit in the manner in which you have taken all that was-
done about publishing our papers. I had actually written a
letter to you stating that I would not publish anything before
vou had published." Then came the letters of Hooker and
Lyell, leading to the publication of the joint papers which
they communicated.
You, on your side, always gave the credit to him, and
underestimated your own position as the co-discoverer. I
need only refer to your calling your great exposition of the
joint Theory, " Darwinism/' as the typical example of your
generous emphasising of the claims of your illustrious fellow-
worker.
It was a remarkable and momentous coincidence that both
you and he should have independently arrived at the idea of
Natural Selection after reading Malthus's book, and a most
happy inspiration that you should have selected Mr. Darwin
as the Naturalist to whom to communicate your discovery.
That theory, in spite of changes in the scientific fashion of
the moment, you have always unflinchingly maintained, and
still uphold as unshaken by all attacks.
Like Mr. Darwin, you, if I may say so, are above all a
Naturalist, a student and lover of living animals and plants —
Darwin- Wallace Celebration. 5
as shown in later years by your enthusiasm and success in
gardening. It is to such men, those who have learnt the
ways of Nature, as Nature really is in the open, to whom
your doctrine of Natural Selection specially appeals, and
therein lies its great and lasting strength.
Finally, you must allow me to allude to the generous
interest which you have always shown, and continue to show,
in the careers of younger men who are endeavouring to
follow in your footsteps.
I ask you, Dr. Wallace, to accept this medal, struck in
your honour and in that of the great \vork inaugurated
•50 years ago by Mr. Darwin and yourself.
Dr. A. R. WALLACE replied : —
Mr. President, — I beg to thank the Council of the
Linnean Society for the very great honour they have done
me, in coupling my name with that of Charles Darwin on the
celebration of this anniversary, and for the still greater and
more exceptional honour, of perpetuating my features with
those of my illustrious forerunner, upon the Medal you have
now awarded me.
With your permission I propose to make a few remarks
both as to the actual relations between Darwin and myself
prior to July 1858, and also to some peculiarities of our re-
spective life-histories which brought about those relations, and
which will, I hope, be both novel and of some general interest.
Since the death of Darwin in 1882, I have found myself in
the somewhat unusual position of receiving credit and praise
from popular writers under a complete misapprehension of
what my share in Darwin's work really amounted to. It has
been stated (not unfrequently) in the daily and weekly press,
that Darwin and myself discovered "natural selection"
simultaneously, while a more daring few have declared that
I was the first to discover it, and that I gave way to Darwin !
In order to avoid further errors of this kind (which this
Celebration may possibly encourage), I think it will be well
±o give the actual tacts as simply and clearly as possible.
The one fact that connects me with Darwin, and which, I
6 Daruin- Wallace Celebration.
am happy to say, has never been doubted, is that the idea of
what is now termed " natural selection " or " survival of the
fittest," together with its far-reaching consequences, occurred
to us independently, and was first jointly announced before
this Society fifty years ago.
But, what is often forgotten by the press and the public, is,.
that the idea occurred to Darwin in October 1838, nearly
twenty years earlier than to myself' (in February 1858) ; and
that during the whole of that twenty years he had been
laboriously collecting evidence from the vast mass of literature
of Biology, of Horticulture, and of Agriculture ; as well as-
himself carrying out ingenious experiments and original
observations, the extent of which is indicated by the range of
subjects discussed in his ' Origin of Species/ and especially
in that wonderful store-house of knowledge — his 'Animals
and Plants under Domestication/ almost the whole materials
for which works had been collected, and to a large extent
systematised, during that twenty years.
So far back as 1844, at a time when I had hardly thought
of any serious study of nature, Darwin had written an outline
of his views, which he communicated to his friends Sir Charles
Lyell and Dr. (now Sir Joseph) Hooker. The former strongly
urged him to publish an abstract of his theory as soon as
possible, lest some other person might precede him — but he
always refused till he had got together the whole of tho
materials for his intended great work. Then, at last, Ly ell's,
prediction was fulfilled, and, without any apparent warning,,
my letter, with the enclosed Essay, came upon him, like a
thunderbolt from a cloudless sky ! This forced him to what
he considered a premature publicity, and his two friends
undertook to have our two papers read before this Society.
How different from this long study and preparation — this
philosophic caution — this determination not to make known
his fruitful conception till he could back it up by over-
whelming proofs — was my own conduct. The idea came to
me, as it had come to Darwin, in a sadden flash of insight :
it was thought out in a few hours — was written down with
such a sketch of its various applications and developments as,
Darwin. Wallace Celebration. 7
occurred to me at the moment, — then copied on thin letter-
paper and sent off to Darwin — all within one week. I was
then (as often since) the "young man in a hurry" : he, the
painstaking and patient student, seeking ever the full demon-
stration of the truth that he had discovered, rather than to
achieve immediate personal fame.
Such being the actual facts of the case, I should have had
no cause for complaint if the respective shares of Darwin and
myself in regard to the elucidation of nature's method of
organic development had been thenceforth estimated as being,
roughly, proportional to the time we had each bestowed upon
it when it was thus first given to the world — that is to say,
as 20 years is to one week. For, he had already made it his
own. If the persuasion of his friends had prevailed with
him, and he had published his theory, after 10 years' — 15 years'
— or even 18 years' elaboration of it — I should have had no
part in it whatever, and he would have been at once recog-
nised, and should be ever recognised, as the sole and undisputed
discoverer and patient investigator of the great law of
" Natural Selection " in all its far-reaching consequences.
It was really a singular piece of good luck that gave to me
any share whatever in the discovery. During the first half
of the 19th Century (and even earlier) many great biological
thinkers and workers had been pondering over the problem
and had even suggested ingenious but inadequate solutions.
Some of these men were among the greatest intellects of our
time, yet, till Darwin, all had failed ; and it was only
Darwin's extreme desire to perfect his work that allowed me
to come in, as a very bad second, in the truly Olympian race
in which all philosophical biologists, from Buff on and
Erasmus Darwin to Richard Owen and Robert Chambers,
were more or less actively engaged.
And this brings me to the very interesting question : Why
did so many of the greatest intellects fail, while Darwin and
myself hit upon the solution of this problem — a solution
which this Celebration proves to have been (and still to be) a
satisfying one to a large number of those best able to form a
judgment on its merits ? As I have found what seems to me
8 Darwin- Wallace Celebration.
a good and precise answer to this question, and one which is
of somo psychological interest, I will, with your permission,
briefly state what it is.
On a careful consideration, we find a curious series of
correspondences, both in mind and in environment, which led
Darwin and myself, alone among our contemporaries, to reach
identically the same theory.
First (and most important, as I believe), in early life both
Darwin and myself became ardent beetle-hunters. Now
there is certainly no group of organisms that so impresses
the collector by the almost infinite number of its specific
forms, the endless modifications of structure, shape, colour,
and surface-markings that distinguish them from each other,
and their innumerable adaptations to diverse environments.
These interesting features are exhibited almost as strikingly
in temperate as in tropical regions, our own comparatively
limited island-fauna possessing more than 3000 species of
this one order of insects.
Again, both Darwin and myself had, what he terms " the
mere passion of collecting," — not that of studying the minutiae
of structure, either internal or external. I should describe
it rather as an intense interest in the mere variety of living
things — the variety that catches the eye of the observer even
among those which are very much alike, but which are soon
found to differ in several distinct characters.
Now it is this superficial and almost child-like interest in
the outward forms of living things, which, though often
despised as unscientific, happened to be the only one which
would lead us towards a solution of the problem of species.
For nature herself distinguishes her species by just such
characters — often exclusively so, always in some degree —
very small changes in outline, or in the proportions of ap-
pendages, as give a quite distinct and recognisable fades to
each, often aided by slight peculiarities in motions or habits ;
while in a large number of cases differences of surface-
texture, of colour, or in the details of the same general
scheme of colour-pattern or of shading, give an unmistakable
individuality to closely allied species.
Darwin- Wallace Celebration. 9
It is the constant search for and detection of these often
unexpected differences between very similar creatures, that
gives such an intellectual charm and fascination to the mere
collection of these insects ; and when, as in the case of
Darwin and myself, the collectors were of a speculative turn
of mind, they were constantly led to think upon the " why "
and the "how" of all this wonderful variety in nature — this
overwhelming, and, at first sight, purposeless wealth of
specific forms among the very humblest forms of life.
Then, a little later (and with both of us almost accident ally)
we became travellers, collectors, and observers, in some of the
richest and most interesting portions of the earth ; and we
thus had forced upon our attention all the strange phenomena
of local and geographical distribution, with the numerous
problems to which they give rise. Thenceforward our in-
terest in the great mystery of Iww species came into existence
was intensified, and — again to use Darwin's expression —
•" haunted " us.
Finally, both Darwin and myself, at the critical period
when our minds were freshly stored with a considerable body
•of personal observation and reflection bearing upon the
problem to be solved, had our attention directed to the system
of positive checks as expounded by Malthus in his ' Principles
of Population/ The effect of this was analogous to that of
friction upon the specially-prepared match, producing that
flash of insight which led us immediately to the simple but
universal law of the " survival of the fittest," as the long-
sought effective cause of the continuous modification and
adaptation of living things.
It is an unimportant:detail that Darwin read this book two
years after his return from his voyage, while I had read it
before I went abroad, and it was a sudden recollection of its
teachings that caused the solution to flash upon me. I attach
much importance, however, to the large amount of solitude
we both enjoyed during our travels, which, at the most
impressionable period of our lives, gave us ample time for
reflection on the phenomena we were daily observing.
This view, of the combination of certain mental faculties
10 Darwin- Wallace Celebration.
and external conditions that led Darwin and myself to an
identical conception, also serves to explain why none of our
precursors or contemporaries hit upon what is really so very
simple a solution of the great problem. Such evolutionists
as Robert Chambers, Herbert Spencer, and Huxley, though
of great intellect, wide knowledge, and immense power of
work, had none of them the special turn of mind that makes
the collector and the species-man, while they all— as well as
the equally great thinker on similar lines, Sir Charles Lyell—
became in early life immersed in different lines of research
which engaged their chief attention.
Neither did the actual precursors of Darwin in the state-
ment of the principle — Wells, Matthews or Prichard — possess
any adequate knowledge of the class of facts above referred
to, or sufficient antecedent interest in the problem itself,
which were both needed in order to perceive the application
of the principle to the mode of development of the varied
forms of life.
And now, to recur to my own position, I may be allowed
to make a final remark. I have long since come to see that
no one deserves either praise or blame for the ideas that come
to him, but only for the actions resulting therefrom. Ideas
and beliefs are certainly not voluntary acts. They come to
us — we hardly know how or whence, and once they have got
possession of us we cannot reject or change them at will. It
is for the common good that the promulgation of ideas should
be free — uninfluenced by either praise or blame, reward or
punishment.
But the actions which result from our ideas may properly
be so treated, because it is only by patient thought and work,,
that new ideas, if good and true, become adopted and utilised ;
while, if untrue or if not adequately presented to the world,
they are rejected or forgotten.
I therefore accept the crowning honour you have conferred
on me to-day, not for the happy chance through which I
became an independent originator of the doctrine of " sur-
vival of the fittest," but, as a too liberal recognition by you
of the moderate amount of time and work I have given to-
Darwin- Wallace Celebration. 1L
explain and elucidate the theory, to point out some novel
applications of it, and (I hope I may add) for my attempts to
extend those applications, even in directions which somewhat
diverged from those accepted by my honoured friend and
teacher — Charles Darwin.
THE PKESIDENT : Before going on to present the next
medal I should like to call the attention of the meeting to
these specimens of Berleris Darwinii which Sir Joseph
Hooker has kindly presented to us, a plant discovered by
Charles Darwin himself in South America, and named, in
his honour, by Sir Joseph's father, Sir William Hooker.
Sir Joseph Hooker, in coming forward to receive the
medal presented to him, was also received with great
enthusiasm.
In making the presentation the President said : —
Sir JOSEPH HOOKER, It is with profound pleasure and
affection that we welcome to-day one of whom Mr. Darwin,
50 years ago, wrote as " our best British Botanist, and
perhaps the best in the world/' words which have only gained
in force in the half-century that has elapsed since they were
written.
But on this occasion our minds dwell, not so much on your
unrivalled work as a leader of botanical science, as on your
close and unique relation to the Darwinian theory. It was
you to whom Mr. Darwin, in January 1844, first com-
municated his views on the question of the ' Origin of
Species,' when he used those famous words, " I am almost
convinced .... that species are not (it is like confessing^,
murder) immutable ! "
When fearing, in 1854, that his health might not permit
him to complete his work, it was you whom he chose (to
quote his own words) as " by far the best man to edit my
species volume." You were, indeed, his most intimate friend
during the growth of the ' Origin of Species/ as well as in
later years; your acute criticism and vast knowledge were
at every point of essential service in the development and
verification of the theory.
12 Darwin- Wallace Celebration.
It is to your wise and just action in conjunction with his
other close friend, Sir Charles Lyell, that we owe the publi-
cation of the joint papers which form the glory of our Society,
and the production of which we are commemorating to-day.
Your early appreciation and unswerving support of a
doctrine too often misunderstood, did more than any other
circumstance to ensure a fair hearing among true men of
Science for the theory of the Origin of Species by means
of Natural Selection, leading ultimately to its general
acceptance.
The incalculable benefit that your constant friendship,
advice, and alliance were to Mr. Darwin himself, is summed
up in his own words, used in 1864, " You have represented
for many years the whole great public to me/'
Of all men living it is to you more than to any other that
the great generalisation of Darwin and Wallace owes its
triumph, and as a symbol of the Society's appreciation of the
invaluable service which you rendered, in this way as in
many others, to Biology, I ask you to accept the Darwin-
Wallace Medal.
Sir JOSEPH HOOKER said : — I have been honoured by
receiving from the Council of our Society a request that I
would take up a little of your time and attention with a brief
address. No theme or subject was vouchsafed to me by the
Council, but, having gratefully accepted the honour, I was
bound to find one for myself. It soon dawned upon me that
the object sought by my selection might have been that,
•considering the intimate terms upon which Mr. Darwin
extended to me his friendship, I could from my memory con-
tribute to the knowledge of some important event in his
career. It having been intimated to me that this was in a
measure true, I have selected as such an event one germane
to this Celebration and also engraven on my memory, namely,
the considerations which determined Mr. Darwin to assent to
the course which Sir Charles Lyell and I had suggested to him,
that of our presenting to the Society, in one communication,
his own and Mr. Wallace's theories on the effect of variation
Darwin- Wallace Celebration. 13
and the struggle for existence on the evolution of species (see
Jour. Linn. Soc. iii. (1859) pp. 45-61).
You have all read Francis Darwin's fascinating work as-
Editor of his father's ' Life and Letters,' where you will
find (Vol. ii. p. 116) a letter addressed, on the 18th June,.
1858, to Sir Charles Lyell by Mr. Darwin, who states that he
had on that day received a communication from Mr. Wallace
written from the Celebes Islands requesting that it might be
sent to him (Sir Charles).
In a covering letter Mr. Darwin pointed out that the en-
closure contained a sketch of a theory of Natural Selection
as depending on the struggle for existence so identical with
one he himself entertained and fully described in MS. in 1842,.
that he never saw a more striking coincidence : had Mr.
Wallace seen his sketch he could not have made a better short
abstract, even his terms standing " as heads of my chapters."
He goes on to say that he would at once write to Mr. Wallace
offering to send his MS. to any journal ; and concludes : " So
my originality is smashed, though my book (the forthcoming
' Origin of Species'), if it will have any value will not be-
deteriorated, as all know the labour consists in the application
o£ the theory."
After writing to Sir Charles Lyell, Mr. Darwin informed
me of Mr. Wallace's letter and its enclosure, in a similar
strain, only more explicitly announcing his resolve to abandon
all claim to priority for his own sketch.. I could not but
protest against such a course, no doubt reminding him that
I had read it, and that Sir Charles knew its contents, some
years before the arrival of Mr. Wallace's letter ; and that our
withholding our knowledge of its priority would be unjusti-
fiable. I further suggested the simultaneous publication of
the two, and offered — should he agree to such a compromise —
to write to Mr. Wallace fully informing him of the motives
of the course adopted.
In answer, Mr. Darwin thanked me warmly for my offer to
explain all to Mr. Wallace, and in a later letter he informed
me that he was disposed to look favourably on my suggested
compromise, but that before making up his mind he desired
14
Darwin- Wallace Celebration.
a second opinion as to whether he could honourably claim
priority, and that he proposed applying to Sir Charles Lyell
for this. I need not say that this was a relief to me, knowing
as I did what Sir Charles's answer must be.
At Vol. ii. pp. 117, 118 o£ the 'Life and Letters/ Mr.
Darwin's application to Sir Charles Lyell is given, dated
June 26th, with a postscript dated June 27th. In it he re-
quests that the answer shall be sent to me to be forwarded to
himself. I have no recollection o£ receiving the answer,
which is not to be found either in Darwin's or my own corre-
spondence ; it was no doubt satisfactory.
Further action was now left in the hands of Sir Charles
and myself, we all agreeing that, whatever action was taken,
the result should be offered for publication to the Linnean
Society.
On the 29th June Mr. Darwin wrote to me in acute distress,
being himself very ill, and scarlet fever raging in his family,
to which an infant son had succumbed on the previous day,
and a daughter was ill with diphtheria. He acknowledged
the receipt of letters from me, adding, " I cannot think now
of the subject, but soon will: you shall hear as soon as I can
think " ; and on the night of the same day he writes again,
telling me that he is quite prostrated and can do nothing but
send certain papers for which I had asked as essential for com-
pleting the prefatory statement to the communication to the
Linnean Society of his and Wallace's Essays. This was only
48 hours before the reading of the Paper laid before the
Society by Sir Charles and myself on July the 1st. It may
be interesting to recall that the last ordinary meeting of the
session of this Society is held in the middle of June. The
occasion of the meeting on the 1st July was exceptional, and
was due to the death of the eminent botanist, Robert Brown.
As a mark of respect to that great Past President, the
ordinary meeting of June the 17th was adjourned, and a
special meeting called in order to elect a successor to the
vacancy on the Council, caused by his decease, George
Bentham being nominated in his place. The usual election
of council and officers had taken place at the Anniversary
Darwin- Wallace Celebration. 15
Meeting only a month before ; and, oddly enough, for the
first time among the new members of that body was Charles
Darwin. Other Papers were also read at the special meeting
on the 1st of July, but it will not have escaped your notice
that the whole correspondence relating to the two Papers on
the evolution of species was subsequent to the 17th of June ;
indeed, the joint letter from Sir Charles Lyell and myself
communicating them to the Society was only written on
June the 30th.
Thus the death of Robert Brown was the direct cause of the
'Theory of the Origin of Species being given to the world at
least four months earlier than would otherwise have been the
The communications were read, as was the custom in those
•days, by the Secretary to the Society. Mr. Darwin himself,
•owing to his own illness and distress, could not be present.
Sir Charles Lyell and myself said a few words to emphasise
the importance of the subject ; but, as recorded in the ' Life
and Letters ' (Vol. ii. p. 126), although intense interest was
•excited, no discussion took place : " the subject was too
novel and too ominous for the old school to enter the lists
'before armouring."
It cannot fail to be noticed that all these inter-communi-
cations between Mr. Darwin, Sir Charles Lyell, and myself
'were conducted by correspondence, no two of us having met
in the interval between June the 18th and July the 1st, when I
met Lyell at the evening meeting of the Linnean Society; and
no fourth individual had any cognisance of our proceedings.
It must also be noted that for the detailed history given above
there is no documentary evidence beyond what Francis Darwin
has produced in the ' Life and Letters/ There are no letters
from Lyell relating to it, not even answers to Mr. Darwin's
of the 18th, 25th, and 26th June ; and Sir Leonard Lyell
has at my request very kindly but vainly searched his
Uncle's correspondence for any relating to this subject beyond
the two above mentioned. There are none of my letters to
•either Lyell or Darwin, nor other evidence of their having
texisted beyond the latter's acknowledgment of the receipt of
16 Darwin- Wallace Celebration.
some of them ; and, most surprising of all, Mr. Wallace's
letter and its enclosure have disappeared. Such is my
recollection of the day the 50th Anniversary of which we
are now celebrating, and of the fortnight that immediately
preceded it.
It remains for me to ask your forgiveness for intruding
upon your time and attention with the half-century old, real
or fancied memories of a nonagenarian as contributions to
the history of the most notable event in the Annals of Biology
that had followed the appearance in 1735 of the ' Systema
Naturae ' of Linnseus.
THE PRESIDENT : We much regret that our distinguished
Foreign Member and Linnean Medallist, Professor HAECKEL,
is prevented by his academic duties from being present
to-day, but Herr von Bethmann-Hollweg, of the German
Embassy, has kindly attended to receive the medal on his
behalf.
Prof. Haeckel, a personal friend of Mr. Darwin's, who paid
more than one visit to him at Down, has been the great
apostle of the Darwin-Wallace theory in Germany. His
advocacy of the doctrine of Evolution in his Monograph of
the Radiolaria (1862), first brought it before the attention of
German men of Science ; his enthusiastic and gallant
advocacy ever since has chiefly contributed to its success in
that country.
Mr. Darwin, in 1873, wrote to Prof. Haeckel, " You will do
a wonderful amount of good in spreading the doctrine of
Evolution, supporting it as you do, by so many original
observations."
A brilliant writer and investigator, author of a number of
classical Zoological Monographs, Prof. Haeckel has become
especially distinguished for his writings on Phylogeny, above
all the great 'Generelle Morphologic,' and for his popular
works, such as the ' Schopfungsgeschichte,' which have
exercised a great and wide influence on the present
generation.
The stimulating vigour of his style roused a keen and
general interest in evolution in the early days of Darwinism.
Darwin-Wallace Celebration. 17
His phylogenetic pedigrees have played a useful and im-
portant part as aids to the imagination and as familiarising
the mind with the idea of Descent, at a time when the
evolutionary conception was still obscure. They are intended
rather as artistic endeavours to picture what happened in the
past than as dogmatic statements of historical sequences.
Haeckel, so distinguished in the laboratory, has, like
Darwin, Wallace and Hooker, a strongly developed Naturalist
side, shown by his scientific travels, in the Canaries, Ceylon,
and elsewhere. He, too, is a thorough Darwinian, who has
remained loyal to the principle of Natural Selection.
A man of world-wide reputation, the leader on the
Continent of the ' Old Guard ' of evolutionary Biologists,
Prof. Haeckel is one whom our Society delights to honour,
and I ask you to transmit to him the Darwin- Wallace Medal,
as a testimony of our admiration and respect.
I will go on at once to present the medal awarded to
Professor AUGUST WEISMANN.
Like his countryman Prof. Haeckel, Prof. Weismann is
unfortunately unable to leave his University at this season of
the year, and those, especially, who have had the pleasure of
meeting him on former visits, will regret his absence to-day.
Prof. Weismann has played a brilliant part in the develop-
ment of Darwinian theory, and is indeed the protagonist
of that theory in its purest form, retaining all that was the
peculiar property of Darwin and Wallace and eliminating
the traces of Lamarckism which still survived.
It is not for me, on this occasion, to enter into his special
researches in Zoology : of the many original investigations
for which he is distinguished, that on the origin of the germ-
cells in Hydrozoa is peculiarly noteworthy, as having led up
to his great doctrine of the Continuity of the Germ-plasm as
the foundation of a Theory of Heredity. This doctrine, in-
volving the conclusion that all inherited variations must be
congenital, and that consequently there can be no hereditary
transmission of characters acquired during the life of the
individual, aroused the deepest interest, and that not only in
scientific circles. It has produced a lasting effect on Biology,
18 Darwin-Wallace Celebration.
and however much modified, Weismann's doctrine forms the
basis of modern views of heredity.
The lucidity and beauty of his style has helped to render
Prof. Weisrnann the effective champion of all that is most
characteristic in the teaching of Darwin and Wallace, while
his profound knowledge of cytology enabled him to base his
theory of heredity on a firmer foundation of fact than had
been possible in the case of previous speculations.
Prof. Weismann's works, many of them so admirably
translated into English, have met with universal appreciation
in this country. I well remember my own keen enjoyment
in reading his essays, such as ' The Duration of Life,' ' On
Life and Death,' on Continuity, and on the Theory of
Natural Selection. The work of this brilliant investigator
and writer has been of immense service to evolutionary
Biology ; and, apart from all matters of controversy, the
stimulating influence of his writings has had a wonderful
effect in advancing the subject.
There is no one to whom the award of this medal could be
more appropriate.
Herr DIETRICH VON BETHMANN-HOLLWEG : I thank you,
Sir, on behalf of Professor Haeckel and Professor Weismann
for the great honour your Society has conferred upon them.
THE PRESIDENT : I should like to mention that we have a
communication from Professor Haeckel which I am sure
you would wish to hear read, and I will therefore ask
Professor Dendy to read it.
ADDRESS communicated to the Afternoon Meeting
of the Linnean Society on the 1st July, 1908, l>y
Prof. ERNST HAECKEL (Jena).
THE formal celebration of the first of July by the Linnean
Society, the fiftieth anniversary of the day on which the
joint essay by Charles Darwin and Alfred' Wallace : " On
the Tendency of Species to form Varieties ; and on the Per-
petuation of Varieties and Species by Natural Means of
Darwin- Wallace Celebration. 19
Selection/' was read before the Society, \vas certainly-justified
by its incomparable importance, which the Darwinian theory
has acquired for all branches of human science in the last
fifty years, and by the deep reform of human thought effected
by the scientific discovery of the true human origin.
The German University of Jena belongs to those places of
scientific work, in which the universal signification of the
Darwinian theories was immediately received and practically
•employed in a long series of splendid works of celebrated
naturalists. In a few weeks (at the end of this month, on
the 30th or 31st July) the University of Jena will celebrate
the 350th anniversary of its foundation. On this memorable
occasion, I intend to dedicate to our Academy the new
Phyletic Museum, founded by me on the first of January 1907.
The building which is just completed of this first Museum of
Phyletic Science will not only be an historical and biological
collection of all the different materials belonging to the
science of evolution, as well ontogeny as phylogeny, but it
will be a true temple of Darwinism, a perpetual monument of
all those highest philosophical conceptions for which we are
indebted to the genial works of Charles Darwin and his
grandfather Erasmus, of Alfred Wallace and Joseph Hooker,
of Charles Lyell and Thomas Huxley — of their predecessors
in France, Jean Lamarck and Geoffrey St. Hilaire, and in
Germany, Wolfgang Goethe and Reinhold Treviranus. The
portraits and biographies of these eminent champions of evolu-
tionary sciences, and of their numerous leading followers will
be collected in the Phyletic Archiv and Library, which form
a remarkable part of my Phyletic Museum. Another part of
the same will be dedicated to the actual, comparative and
experimental study of the separate branches of the Darwinian
theory. A special anthropological part of the Phyletic
Museum will contain all those important documents of
human origin, which have been treated by me in the ' Anthro-
pogenie/ and to which I was conducted by Darwin's classical
work : ' The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to
Sex/ and by Huxley's excellent lectures on ' Man's Place
in Nature.' Numerous objects, books, and illustrations will
explain this most important branch of Darwinism.
c2
20 Darwin-Wallace Celebration.
Among all the splendid progress of science in the cele-
brated 19th century, the contribution of the development
theory by Charles Darwin, in my sincere opinion, is by far
the most important, and all future history of human culture
will celebrate the 1st July 1858 as the monumental day on
which the foundation of his fame was fixed.
EKNST HAECKEL.
The following letter expresses Prof. Weismann's views on
the subject : —
Freiburg i. Br.
19 April, 1908.
Linnean Society of London.
SIR,
Ich habe die Einladung erhalten, welche !Sie die
Giite hatten, mir zu senden im Auftrag der Linnean Society
of London. Es ist ein schoner Gredenktag, den Sie am
1 Juli feiern wollen und ich wiirde mich freuen, an demselben
Theil zu nehmen. Leider aber ist mir unmoglich, um diese
Zeit nach London zu kommen.
Ich bitte Sie deshalb, der Linnean Society meinen ver-
bindlichsten Dank fiir ihre Einladung zu sagen; ich werde
in Gredanken den wtirmsten Antheil an der Feier eines
Tages nehmen, den fiir die Wissenschaft von so grosser und
bleibender Bedeutung gewesen ist.
Ich habe die Eh re zu sein,
Ihr sehr ergebner,
AUGUST WEISMANN,
Prof. Zooloyie.
The President, in presenting the medal to Prof. EDUAKD
STRASBURGER, said : —
This is not the first time that our Society has done
itself the honour to recognise, in a special manner, your
high position in Biological Science. Three years ago the
Linnean Medal was awarded to you. for your work as a
great botanical histologist and morphologist ; to-day we
desire to mark our appreciation of your achievements from
Darwin- Wallace Celebration. 21
another point oii view, as a contributor to the study of
evolution. It is a great gratification to us all that on this
-occasion you are able to be present, and to me, in particular,
that the pleasant duty has fallen to me of making this
presentation, in the name of the Society, to one whom I not
only admire as a great leader of our Science, but may
venture to regard as a personal friend.
In a number of directions your work has a clear relation
to the doctrine which Darwin and Wallace first placed on
a scientific basis.
Your morphological researches, from the early work on
Azolla onwards, have always been guided by the evolutionary
idea. I think it is in your great book ' Die Conif'eren und
•die Gnetaceen,' that you specially speak of the inspiration
which you received from the ideas of Charles Darwin.
Developmental investigations, such as we owe to you above
.all other living botanists, have a direct bearing, as you have
always recognised, on questions of Descent.
In a still higher degree the modern science of Cytology,
of which, on the botanical side, you are the founder,
has the closest relations with the study of heredity, of
which it promises to reveal the material basis, and thus
-contributes to just that part of evolutionary theory which is
the most progressive at the present day.
But there is another aspect of your work which more
especially appeals to the followers of Darwin and Wallace.
To a Darwinian, as it seems to me, all structure is essentially
and originally an adaptation ; broadly speaking, there is
no structure without function, no morphology without
physiology. One of the greatest evils in Biology, in spite
of Darwinian influence, is the separation of these two
aspects of the same facts. Now it is a great characteristic
of your work on the anatomy of plants that you have always
studied the morphology and physiology of the tissues side
by side. Your monumental work ' Die Leitungbahnen '
affords perhaps the greatest example we have of an extensive
investigation in which equal regard has been paid to
structure and function, and equally striking results attained
22 Darwin- Wallace Celebration.
in both directions. It is on such linos that research will
be pursued when the principles of Darwin and "Wallace are
laid to heart by the investigator.
I feel it an equal honour and pleasure to hand you the
Darwin-Wallace Medal.
Prof.EDUARD STRASBURGEB,F.M.lt.S.,F.M.L.S.,replied :—
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen,
In my youth, in the best period of my development,
the Darwinian ideas had begun their triumphant course
throughout the cultivated world. I had the good fortune
to study at Jena and with a master ten years older than
myself, who professed with enthusiasm the new ideas on
evolution. This master was Ernst Haeckel, towards whom,
with youthful expansiveness, I soon felt myself attracted.
For nothing is more contagious than enthusiasm ; and this
was transmitted to me, not only in the lecture room, but
also during the distant wanderings through the poetical
Saal- Valley, in which I often had the advantage of
accompanying him. Both being touched in a high degree
by the beauties of nature, we became impressed amidst
those charming surroundings. When the day was waning,
we sat down on the side of a slope, high above the valley,
awaiting the sunset and the purple glow of the twilight
on the opposite mountains. The beautifully-formed, barren
heights stood out clearly against the blue sky ; in wide
bends the limpid river wound through the deep green
meadows and groves, and the silhouette of the venerable
old town of Jena ross high in the distance, still clad in its
medieval garment. This led Ernst Haeckel to comparisons-
with the valley of the Arno, the fascinating Florentine
landscape, that had impressed him so deeply, and these
descriptions awakened boundless yearning towards Italy,
then still unknown to me. We used to start homeward in
an elevated frame of mind, and Ernst Haeckel would enlarge
on the universal importance of those great notions on
development, which emanated from Charles Darwin and
laid my mind under their spell.
Darwin- Wallace Celebration. 23
Since then many decades have gone by, and yet those
impressions of my youth live on in my memory, as vivid
as on the first day ; for they have decided the course and
object of my life's work. I turn back to them with longing,
with that self-same longing which Goethe so powerfully
expressed in his Introduction to Faust, where he recalls
the time of joyous growth when every bud a marvel
promised :
" . . . . that time of pleasures
While yet in joyous growth I sang —
When, like a fount, the crowding measures
Uninterrupted gushed and sprang !
The bright mist veiled the world before me,
In opening buds a marvel woke,
As I the thousand blossoms broke,
Which every valley ricbly bore me ! "
(Bayard Taylors translation.)
The seed I received at Jena sprang up early. I took the
path of phylogenetic speculation and have pursued it
faithfully.
The amount of experience which Charles Darwin had
gathered during his voyage round the world, the widely
spread knowledge which his critical mind was able to sort
and combine towards large views, the deep comprehension
with which he penetrated the history of former ages, that
was the soil on which gre\v his gigantic work, ' On the
Origin of Species by means of Natural Selection.' With the
indefatigable labour of acute sagacity, he was able to draw
the substance of his proofs even from the remotest sources :
out of works which had received until then no scientific
utilisation, out of periodicals consulted only by practical
animal and plant breeders.
As a matter of course, the sum of knowledge existing
at the time drew final limits even to the genius of a Darwin.
New facts have been added since then, by which his theories
are completed, amplified, also corrected. But however far
94 Darwin- Wallace Celebration.
science may progress, time will never erase the traces o£
Charles Darwin's investigations.
When Darwin believed he had erred, he never hesitated
to admit it. Here again he showed the mettle of really
great men, whose intellectual wealth easily supports a loss,
whereas indigent minds cling anxiously to their presumed
property.
Only of few intellectual lights can it be said, as of Charles
Darwin, that, even where he was mistaken, he paved the
path that leads to truth.
The development of biological science received through
Darwin's work an impulse such as rarely emanates from
a single investigator. He showed Biology the way it has
since then trodden.
I also trace back to Darwinian impulse the line and aim
of my own work. I therefore pronounce the name of
Charles Darwin with profound respect and gratitude.
When I was young the investigations and the thought
of Alfred Russel Wallace also brought me a great stimulus.
Through his ' Malay Archipelago/ a new world of scientific
knowledge was unfolded before me. On this occasion, I
feel it equally my duty to proclaim it with gratitude.
And now let me also express my thanks to you, Mr.
President, and to the Fellows of the venerable Linnean
Society, for the great distinction you have bestowed upon me.
The medal you have conferred on me, bears the portraits of
Charles Darwin and of Alfred Russel Wallace : it is an
honour which fills me with legitimate pride that my
scientific labour should thereby be brought into contact
with the efforts of those great Pioneers of Biology.
The President then addressed Dr. FKANCIS G-ALTON.
He said : —
Evolution, as understood by Darwin and Wallace,
depends upon three factors, Heredity, Variation, and Natural
Selection. In the study of the first of these factors,
Heredity, the work of the present day is characterised by
the application of exact methods, whether on biometrical or
Darwin- Wallace Celebration. 25
Mendelian lines. It was you, Dr. Galton, who first showed
the way by which exact measurement could be applied to
the problems of evolution and heredity, and indicated that
their laws must be susceptible of proof. You have pointed
out a new method, and the possibility of a more logical
treatment of evolutionary questions. By establishing such
principles as that of " Recession to Mediocrity " you have
added new laws to evolution, and under the name of
" Cessation of Selection " you have suggested an explanation
of degeneration following disuse, anticipating that afterwards
independently proposed and elaborated by Weismann, and
called by him Panmixia.
The ingenuity of your methods, your energy and enthusiasm
in applying them, and your constant interest in the work
of others, and readiness to help them, have made you a
great power in the advancement of evolutionary studies ;
a power which has only been strengthened by your
characteristic open-mindedness and willingness to accept
new views.
You have shown, throughout the wide range of your
work, that exactness of method is consistent with the charm
of style ; and we may recall the words of your cousin
Mr. Darwin, in speaking of your famous book on Hereditary
Genius, " I do not think I ever, in all my life, read anything
more interesting or original."
The new departure which you inaugurated in the study
of Evolution, has been previously recognised by the award
of the Darwin Medal of the Royal Society. We desire
to add our own recognition of the originality and importance
of your work by asking you to receive the Medal which
commemorates the united discoveries of Darwin and Wallace.
Dr. FKANCIS GALTON, F.R.S. : I thank you for your
kind remarks, Sir. You have to listen to-day to many
speakers, and I have little new to say, little indeed that
would not be a repetition, but I may say that this occasi on
has called forth vividly my recollection of the feelings of
gratitude that I had towards the originators of the then
26 Darwin-Wallace Celebration.
new doctrine which burst the enthraldom of the intellect
which the advocates of the argument from design had woven
around us. It gave a sense of freedom to all the people who
were thinking of these matters, and that sense of freedom
was very real and very vivid at the time. If a future
Auguste Comte arises who makes a calendar in which the
days are devoted to the memory of those who have been
the beneficent intellects of mankind, I feel sure that this
(Jay, the 1st of July, will not be the least brilliant.
Sir E. RAY LANKESTEK, K.C.B., F.R.S., F.L.S., was the
next and last recipient of the medal : the President
said : —
Your work as a great original investigator in Comparative
Anatomy, Embryology, and Palaeontology, and as the
author of many standard works in Zoology and philosophical
Biology has been inspired throughout by the Evolution
idea, of which you are one of the most brilliant exponents.
Among your own contributions to the theory, I should
like to refer to your treatment of the subject of Degeneration,
or Reduction, a phase of Evolution of which the importance
becomes more manifest with every investigation. Your
statement that "The hypothesis of Degeneration will be
found to render most valuable service in pointing out the
true relationships of animals " holds good just as fully for
plants. I am convinced that there is still too much
reluctance, at least on the botanical side, to make use of
this hypothesis, and that reduction has probably played a
far larger part in evolution than is yet realised.
Your conception of homoplastic modification, leading to
similar organisation in distinct lines of descent, has proved
no less fertile, and the importance which you have attached
to the study of Bionomics, to use your own term, anticipated
the great development which the investigation of the con-
ditions of life has since shown, under Prof. Warming's name
of Ecology.
Your more popular works have spread the knowledge of
E volution beyond the limits of scientific circles ; my own
Dancin-Wallace Celebration. 27
predilections load me to refer especially to jour charming-
book on Extinct Animals, which brings home to every
intelligent mind, as no other book does, the historic evidence
of Evolution.
You have ever shown yourself a true Biologist, whose
interests have always extended to plants as well as to animals,
and whom on many occasions botanists have welcomed as
a helpful friend and ally.
In the controversies inseparable from the advancement
of a great principle, you have always been the vigorous and
consistent advocate of Darwinism in the strict sense, and
like Weismann in Germany, you, in England, have striven to
uphold and to develope, on the lines of Darwin and Wallace,
the doctrine of the Origin of Species by means of Variation
and Natural Selection.
On all these grounds, and on many others, did time allow
me to state them, I have great pleasure in handing you the
Darwin-Wallace Medal.
Sir RAY LANKESTER, K.C.B., F.R.S., F.L.S., replied :—
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is a great and stirring occasion on which we are here
assembled to-day. There are those among us who remember
well the first of July fifty years ago, when Sir Charles Lyell
and Dr. Joseph Hooker communicated to a meeting of the
Linnean Society the independently thought out views of
Charles Darwin and Alfred liussel Wallace as to the origin
of species. Never was there a more beautiful example of
modesty, of unselfish admiration for another's work, of loyal
determination that the other should receive the full merit of
his independent labours and thought, than was shown by
Charles Darwin on that occasion.
Subsequently, throughout all their arduous work and
varied publications upon the great doctrine which they on
that day unfolded to humanity — as an absolutely new and
untried engine of thought — the same complete absence of
rivalry characterised these high-minded Englishmen, even
9g Darwin-Wallace Celebration.
when in some outcomes of their doctrine they were not in
perfect agreement.
It is a delightful thing for us all to see here still among us,
still working and writing, one of those two whose achieve-
ment of fifty years ago we celebrate— Dr. Alfred Russel
"Wallace. And it is no less a cause of happiness that
we shold have with us the great botanist and traveller —
Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker ; older than Wallace by some
years, yet still full of strength and wisdom. We all know
how greatly Sir Joseph Hooker's investigations and writings
on the Flora of the Southern Hemisphere contributed to the
development of Darwin's views and arguments, and how he
was almost daily in correspondence with Darwin during the
latter half of the past century.
My own personal recollection does not extend to the great
day in July, 1858, but when the ' Origin of Species ' was
published in the following year, and the controversy and
criticism which it excited burst upon us, the battle became a
part of my daily life.
I mention this because I think I am able to say that great
as was the interest excited by the new doctrine in the
scientific world, and wild and angry as was the opposition to
it in some quarters, few, if any, who took part in the scenes
attending the birth and earlier reception of Darwin's ' Origin
of Species/ had a pre-vision of the enormous and all-
important influence which that doctrine was destined to
exercise upon every line of human thought.
When the * Origin of Species ' appeared there were many
men alive who had witnessed the opposition to the geological
doctrine of " uniformity " put forward by Charles Lyell, who
was soon to accept the Darwin- Wallace Theory, and was
regarded by Darwin himself as a sort of elder brother in
science — the man of all others whose adherence he desired.
Lyell had been denounced and persecuted socially for his
geological teaching, but the storm had passed, the uni-
formitarian geology had been accepted without causing a
revolution. Most scientific men thought that the same
general acquiescence would follow the denunciations hurled
Darwin- Wallace Celebration. 29
against Darwinism ; but there was one who, more clearly than
others, saw the immense consequences of the establishment, by
means of the Darwin-Wallace Theory of Natural Selection, of
the general doctrine of evolution of organic beings, and of
the derivation of man himself from an animal ancestry. This
was the great and beloved teacher, the unequalled orator,
the brilliant essayist, the unconquerable champion and
literary swordsman — Thomas Henry Huxley.
Huxley had been a merciless opponent of the doctrine of
evolution as expounded by Lamarck and by Robert Chambers.
They had (he pointed out) failed to discover any mechanical
conditions from the operation of which organic evolution
must ensue. But the Darwin- Wallace principle of survival of
the fittest in the struggle for existence satisfied Huxley's
requirement. He became the convinced advocate of the
new doctrine, though I think it is true that he clung to a
little heresy of his own as to the occurrence of evolution by
saltatory variation, and also to another as to the efficacy of
the physiological test known as " fertile cross-breeding," as
a, means of discriminating true from simulative species. It
was Huxley who, in admirable popular addresses, brought
the new doctrine before the minds of intelligent laymen,
and especially emphasised its application to the origin and
ancestry of mankind. When the Progressive members of
the Austrian Parliament shouted in a stormy debate that
they were " Fur Darwin ! " the significance of the new con-
ception of the nature of living things, including man, became
evident, and it was recognised that " Darwinism " must in
the future guide statesmen and politicians as well as men of
science. It is in its application to the problems of human
society that there still remains an enormous field of work and
discovery for the Darwin-Wallace doctrine.
The science of heredity, of fecundity and sterility, of
variation and adaptation, has to be far more completely
studied and developed in its application to man and to human
aggregates than it yet has been ; at the same time a true
psychology has to be arrived at and made, together with
a knowledge of heredity, the basis of education, of the
30 J)arwin- Wallace Celebration.
government, and of the prosperity of the modern state.
How far we are from any satisfactory progress in this
direction, the words and the actions of political leaders of all
parties at this moment fully demonstrate.
The effect of the Darwin- Wallace doctrine in stimulating
the investigation of the structure of recent and fossil plants
and animals, and of the embryology or growth from the
egg of all living things, in order to arrive at a knowledge
of their ancestry and genealogical relationships, was quite
remarkable. That class of study overshadowed the more
difficult experimental work as to variation and heredity
which was carried on by Mr. Darwin himself and some of
his followers.
The attempt to construct a genealogy of the animal king-
dom was boldly entered on by Ernst Haeckel, of Jena, whom
you have this day honoured by association with Wallace,
Hooker, and Galton in the award of the medal commemora-
tive of this great occasion. The philosophic character of
Haeckel's writings, and the complete adoption by him of the
doctrine of descent as the guiding principle of zoological
investigation, gave a special value and influence to his work,
which is fitly recognised to-day. He \vas the first to apply
the newly accepted doctrine to all branches of morphology
and to systematic zoology and botany — and did so with the
convincing power of a wonderful range of knowledge and
unbounded enthusiasm. The new doctrine led me into the
study of the growth from the egg of various forms of animal
life in the search for evidence of genetic affinities and diver-
gences, and to the re-examination of the structure of various
animals by aid of the new light of the theory of descent, and
the improved methods of microscopical research of those
<lays. The two foremost of my friends and companions in
this work— Frank M. Balfour and Henry N. Moseley— were
taken from us prematurely, but not before they had made
splendid contributions to the understanding and alignment
of animal forms on the new basis prepared by Darwin and
Wallace. I gratefully acknowledge, in the association of my
name to-day with that of the great veterans of our science,
Darwin- Wallace Celebration. 31
to whom the Linnean Society has awarded the Darwin-
Wallace Medal, the recognition of the labours of my dear
friends who are gone, and of our pupils whom it is my
privilege and high honour to represent. I also feel that in
admitting me to this great honour — the greatest which life
has brought to me — you must have regarded me as in some
measure a surviving link with that champion of Darwinism,
the incomparable Huxley, to whose teaching and friendship
I owe so much.
At the present moment there is less enthusiasm than
there was in the pursuit of morphology. Perhaps this
is due to the fact that much of the work which lay ready
to hand and easy to accomplish has been done. But in the
special branch of study wThich Wallace himself set going
— the inquiry into the local variations, races, and species
of insects as evidence of descent with modification, and
of the mechanisms by which that modification is brought
about — there is still great work in progress, still an abundant
field to be reaped. In this country the discoveries of
Wallace, Bates, and R. Trimen are being extended by many
workers, chief among whom are Edward Poulton, Hope Pro-
fessor in the University of Oxford, and the group of students
which he has gathered around him. It is natural that the
gradual and steady growth of the results of such inquiries
should attract less general attention than some of the efforts
to establish a new line of attack upon the problems of Varia-
tion and Heredity. Naturally enough, many have been
ambitious to make such new departures, and have met with
varying successes.
Several able observers and experimenters have set them-
selves the task of improving, if possible, the theoretical
structure raised by Darwin and Wallace. One of the earliest
of these was Dr. George Romanes, whose views on physiolo-
gical selection and on instinct were communicated by him to
this Society, but have not successfully held the field. Later
we have had the doctrine of mutation advocated on a some-
what unsatisfactory basis of fact by Professor de Vries, and
the resuscitation and development of the observations and
32 J)arwin-Wallace Celebration.
conclusions of the Abbe Mendel on pre-potency. These have
all been the outcome of earnest and serious work, and have led
and are leading to more complete knowledge of the facts of
heredity and variation. But I venture to express the opinion
that they have, none of them, resulted in any serious modifica-
tion of the great doctrine submitted to the Linnean Society
on July 1st, 1858, by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel
Wallace. Not only do the main lines of the theory of Darwin
and Wallace remain unchanged, but the more it is challenged
by new suggestions and new hypotheses ihe more brilliantly
does the novelty, the importance, and the permanent value of
the work of those great men to-day commemorated by us,
shine forth as the one great and epoch-making effort of
human thought on this subject.
THE PRESIDENT : A number of Universities and Schools
have kindly sent representatives to this meeting. As our
time is limited and it is impossible to have the pleasure of
hearing speeches from all these delegates, we have asked
Dr. Francis Darwin and Sir William Thiselton-Dyer to
speak for them.
Dr. FRANCIS DARWIN, F.R.S., F.L.S. : I beg leave to
thank you, Mr. President, in the names of the Universities
and Schools which are here represented, for giving us the
opportunity of sharing in the memorable ceremonies of
to-day. The University of Cambridge, which I have the
honour to represent, is glad to be associated with other
bodies devoted to the advancement of learning on such an
occasion as this, when a signal honour is paid to one of her
greatest sons. We are also proud to be allowed to pay our
persona] homage to the survivor of those great twin brethren
of July 1st, Mr. Wallace. In spite of what he has said
this afternoon — or perhaps almost in consequence of it — I
cannot help thinking that not the smallest of his merits is
to have taught the world once and for all how the search
after scientific truth may be informed and glorified by the
spirit of chivalry. We, the representatives of the Schools
and Universities, are also proud to be present when the
Darwin- Wallace Celebration. 33
distinguished medallists are decorated. These men, who
were personal friends or disciples of Charles Darwin, we
delight to see honoured ; and if I may venture to mention
one name amongst the medallists after Mr. Wallace, I should
like to say what deep satisfaction it gives to men of science,
both those who are present and those who all over the world
will learn the fact to-morrow — to see that Sir Joseph Hooker
has been able to be present and to address us this day.
It is customary to speak of Charles Darwin as a son of
Cambridge University, but in duty bound I must begin by
claiming him as a son of Christ's College. I think it would
be interesting to consider for a moment what these two
institutions, Christ's College and the University, did for him.
As regards the College, it provided him with a home,
wholesome and cheerful, for three years. How much he
learned at Christ's College appears a little doubtful, and
from some stray references in the ' Life and Letters } to the
senior tutor and the College lecturers, I do not think it
would be a profitable enquiry to try and make out how much
he was taught by the College. But one thing he did learn
there, and that was to love that College which many a
man before and after him has loved — and that, I think you
will agree with me, is worth learning.
Then as to what the University did. The University
began by insisting upon his relearning Greek, which in the
free and congenial atmosphere of Edinburgh University he
had forgotten even down to the greater part of the alphabet.
I am sorry to say that the method of degrading an ancient
and beautiful language into an instrument of torture for
science students still reigns at Cambridge. Then his
University made him learn Paley and Euclid, and in these
authors — now partially extinct — he found some edification.
If it was to Edinburgh University that he owed his intro-
duction to the paths of research, which I gladly acknowledge,
it is nevertheless to Cambridge that he owed the best thing
that any University can give to any student, I mean a teacher
fit for him. In Professor Henslow he had such a man — •
34 Darwin- Wallace Celebration.
a man of a very remarkable combination of qualities, a
man of serenity, with the fire of enthusiasm within him,
a man with a stern sense of duty, and of the most lovable
and charming manner. It is not wonderful then that a
man so gifted should have had so great an influence upon
him. Professor Henslow did not make any great discoveries
in science, but he discovered one thing, namely, the fact
that Charles Darwin had a mind worthy of cultivation.
That was a fact that somehow or other escaped the notice
of Dr. Robert Darwin, and also I am afraid of some other
people at Shrewsbury. We all know that Henslow did
much to form that mind and did much to give him the
chance of his lifetime in the Beagle voyage ; and Charles
Darwin never forgot the debt of gratitude that he owed
to Henslow, whom he used to speak of as his " dear
old master." But 1 am afraid that he was somewhat
ungrateful, or that he forgot the debt of gratitude he also
owed to the University that gave him that master. He
ought to have remembered, being a Cambridge man, the
motto, Qui facit per alium facit per se. On the strength of
that motto I think Cambridge may claim the glory of having
trained Charles Darwin.
I wish to say a few words in my private capacity, as to
my father's relations with this Society. I think the Linnean
was the only Society except the Geological for which he had
a personal feeling. He had of course that loyalty and
respect for the Royal Society which all her Fellows feel.
But with the Linnean there was a closer bond. It is a
melancholy fact that he only sent one paper to the Royal
Society for publication, while the volumes of the Linnean
Society are full of some of his very best work, such things
as the papers on Orchids, on Dimorphic Plants, Climbing-
Plants, and so on. It was in the course of this long series
of publications that the mutually pleasant relationship with
this Society grew up, which was to my father a source of
real satisfaction.
Finally, I beg leave, in the name of the assembled
Darwin- Wallace Celebration. 35
Universities and Schools, to offer our respectful congratu-
lations to the Linnean Society on this great occasion, and
especially, Mr. President, to congratulate you on the just
pride you must feel in occupying an historic chair on a
memorable day.
Sir WILLIAM THISELTON-DYER, K.C.M.G., F.R.S., F.L.S. :
Mr. President, the Universities for which I have the
honour to speak include the most ancient in our country as
well as the youngest. But they are all animated with a
common sympathy in this celebration, and the reason is not
far to seek. It is the happy fortune of Universities to stand
withdrawn from the stress of ordinary life. They are the
depositories, in some sort indeed the guardians, of what is
most significant in the ideas of each successive time. They
can trace the relations of those ideas with the past ; they can
apply them fruitfully to the problems of the present ; they
can conjecture their possible development in the future.
Fifty years ago this Society was privileged to be the
recipient of communications which contained as Helmholtz
has said "an essentially new creative thought." It would be
difficult to specify any field of academic study which it has
not influenced more or less, though perhaps in some cases
scarcely consciously. The presence of the representatives
for whom I speak, is a recognition of the profound change
which has been brought about in our outlook on the natural
world. Of the full measure of that change we are even now
not fully sensible. The end is not yet.
Dr. "Wallace, with that splendid modesty of which we have
had a further proof to-day, has claimed for Darwin that he is
" the Newton of Natural History." Their graves lie side by
side at Westminster and the comparison is just. It is the
singular fortune of an illustrious University that of two of
its sons, one should have introduced a rational order into the
inorganic and the other into the organic world. Each great
generalisation is in fact the complement of the other, and
who can say that the future may not have in store for us
D2
3g Darwin-Wallace Celebration.
some greater generalisation which may include them both.*
There is this in common between them, that each is based on
a fundamental assumption which it accepts from experience
and leaves unexplained. Newton started from gravitation
as Darwin did from variation. And if the latter is less
obvious than the former, its recognition is at least as old as
Lucretius.
Dr. Francis Darwin has told us that apart from the
ordinary influences of University life, the mere routine of
academic study did little if anything for his father. Dr.
Wallace is one whom many Universities have delighted to
honour, yet has been the alumnus of none. Those, however,
are mistaken who think that the instruction of students is
the sole purpose of a University. Its true function, as I
have said, lies far deeper. Both Darwin and Wallace owed
to Cambridge the first impulse to their thoughts. For both
have told us in almost identical terms that they found it in
Malthus. A fellow of a Cambridge College whose life was
uneventful, his " Essay on Population " was received with a
storm of execration. Yet we now know that it simply
* [NOTE] — Since this was written the remarkable Obituary Notice of
Lord Kelvin prepared for the Koyal Society by Professor Larmor has
come into my hands. He contrasts the work of Lord Kelvin with that
of Darwin and Wallace. The first " established the cardinal principle of
inanimate cosmic evolution, as effected through the degradation of energy,
which determines the fate of worlds, and is the complement of the
principle of evolution in organic life which came to light at about the
same time " (p. Ixxv). It is certainly a striking circumstance that almost
simultaneously the study of inanimate and animate nature should have
been revolutionised by the discovery of a new controlling principle in
each. In another passage Professor Larmor points out that between
them " there is something in common ; the automatic evolution towards
improved adaptation, in this case with no limit or equilibrium yet in
sight, is attained at the cost of compensating dissipation, namely the
destruction of the individuals that happen to be ill-adapted, even though
in other respects superior" (p. xxxvi). I may hazard an even closer
«nalogy. Animate nature by selective action escapes the final equilibrium
which is ' death.' Inanimate nature would equally escape it if Maxwell's
* Sorting demons' were available.
Darwin-Wallace Celebration. 37
embodied the fundamental principle of the "Struggle for
Existence," which everywhere stares us in the face. There
Malthus stopped : it required " the flash of inspiration,"
which has been spoken of to-day, to see that the necessary
consequence was the " Survival of the fittest."
The thought of each age is the foundation of that which
follows. Darwin was an admirer of Paley, a member of his
own College. He swept in the whole of Paley's teleology,
simply dispensing with its supernatural explanation. John
Ray, another distinguished son of Cambridge, and perhaps
the greatest naturalist of his time, took the first step towards
a natural classification of plants. We now know that what
he and those who followed him were unconsciously striving
after was the principle of descent which Darwin established.
Fifty years ago, Darwin and Wallace revealed two things
to us. They gave the world a rational explanation of the
evolution of living forms by descent. Of this it had long been
expectant but could not find the " how." Natural selection
was " the new creative thought." We now recognise it as an
influence, inevitable and inexorable, which pervades us like
gravitation. As Professor Karl Pearson has said, it is
" something we run up against at once, almost as soon as we
examine a mortality table." For the analysis of such a table
shows " a selective death-rate." It is the continuous adjust-
ment of the organism to its surroundings, in the widest
meaning of the words, as a condition of its existence. Its
operation makes for complexity, for it is irreversible and
builds on what has preceded. Yet it is not identical
with progress, for, as Huxley pointed out, that " which
survives in the struggle for existence may be, and often is,
the ethically worst." But whether it makes for perfection
or degeneration, natural selection, slowly and unobserved, is
incessantly at work moulding the face of organic nature.
38 Darwin- Wallace Celebration.
The following representatives of Universities, Colleges,
and Schools, were then received by the President, many of
the representatives presenting Addresses. The first three
were the College and Schools connected with the early
training of Darwin and Wallace, namely :
CHRIST'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE (Dr. Peile, F.B.A., Master).
SHREWSBURY SCHOOL (Mr. C. J. Baker, Chief Science
Master).
HERTFORD GRAMMAR SCHOOL (Mr. G. W. Kinman
Head-Master).
Then came the following Universities and Colleges :
THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD (Dr. T. H. Warren, Vice-
Chancellor of the University).
„ „ (Prof. E. B. Poulton, F.R.S.,
F.L.S.).
(Dr. A. H. Church).
THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE (Dr. Francis Darwin,
F.E.S., F.L.S., handed in the following letter
under seal of the University) : —
Kegistxy of the
University of Cambridge.
29th May, 1908.
To
THE PRESIDENT of the LINNEAN SOCIETY OF LONDON.
SIR,
I have the honour to inform you that the Senate of
this University at a Congregation held in the Senate House
on Thursday, 14th May, 1908, appointed :
FRANCIS DARWIN, Master of Arts, of Christ's College,
to represent the University at a meeting convened by the
Linnean Society of London to be held in July 1908, in
Darwin- Wallace Celebration. 39
celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the reading of the
joint Essay by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace,
" On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties ; and on the
Perpetuation of Varieties and Species by Natural Means
of Selection."
I have the honour to be, Sir,
Your obedient Servant,
(Signed) JOHN WILLIS CLARK,
Registrar?/ of the University.
THE UNIVERSITY OF ST. ANDREWS (Prof. P. R, Scott
Lang, M.A., B.Sc.),
with the following address : —
THE UNIVERSITY or ST. ANDREWS appreciates highly the
honour of being invited by the Linnean Society of London
to join with it in celebrating the jubilee of the reading of
the joint essay by Charles Robert Darwin and Alfred
Russel Wallace, " On the Tendency of Species to form
Varieties ; and on the Perpetuation of Varieties and Species
by Natural Means of Selection."
During the fifty years that have since elapsed the views
promulgated on that day have given a vast impulse to the
study of Natural History, both by observation and experi-
ment, with a corresponding advance in the knowledge of
Biology. Nor has their influence been confined to this
science ; it may be said to have largely affected the methods
and the spirit of investigation in many, if not in all,
Departments of Study.
It is an additional ground for congratulation that one of
the illustrious heroes of that day is still with us, and it is
our hope that he may long be spared to behold the wonderful
development of the ideas to which he gave birth, and has
been himself so great a contributor.
We are pleased to think that in the course of its long
40 Darwin-Wallace Celebration.
history this University has not altogether failed to contribute
to the advancement of the Sciences more directly connected
with this joyous occasion. We call to mind that one of
our Students, Sir Andrew Balfour, after studying Natural
History and Medicine at St. Andrews two hundred and
fifty years ago, was later in his life the Founder, at
Edinburgh, of the first Botanic Garden in Scotland, where
in a short time he had in cultivation, from seeds obtained
from Blois, Paris, and elsewhere, more than one thousand
species. This is now represented there by the celebrated
Royal Botanic Gardens in which the great Darwin doubtless
studied. In the sister science of Zoology, St. Andrews,
alone of all the Scottish, or even the English Universities, is
equipped in its Gatty Marine Laboratory with unrivalled
facilities for the study of marine fauna. Nor can we forget
that the " Vestiges of Creation." the principal forerunner
and poineer of the views of Darwin and Wallace, was
written in St. Andrews by one of her most distinguished
citizens.
We earnestly trust that this occasion, great and memorable
as it is in the history of the Linnean Society, will be but
the beginning of a new era of advancement and usefulness.
(Signed) JAMES DONALDSON.
(Principal and Vice-CJiancellor of tJie University.}
The University, St. Andrews, June 1908.
THE UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW (Prof. John Graham Kerr,
M.A., F.L.S.).
THE UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN (Lieut.-Col. Pram, C.I.E.
F.R.S.. F.L.S.)
presented the following address : —
Darwin- Wallace Celebration. 41
To the PRESIDENT AND COUNCIL of the LINNEAN SOCIETY OF
LONDON on the occasion of the 50th Anniversary of the
memorable Meeting of 1st July, 1858.
THE UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN, in accepting the invitation
of the Council of the Linnean Society of London to send a
delegate to the Jubilee Meeting on the first of July, desires
to convey, through its representative Lieut.-Col. David
Pram, C.I.E., M.B., LL.D., F.R.S., its cordial felicitations,
and to express its sympathetic interest in the historical
commemoration of the Meeting of July 1st, 1858, when
Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace read their ever
memorable joint essay. In the University of Aberdeen, as
in every other seat of learning and research throughout the
world, the influence of that Meeting has been for half a
century a stimulus to interpretation and investigation in
many different fields, and it is with gratitude that the
University desires to share in commemorating what must
always be regarded as one of the greatest days in the
history of science. The University joins in congratulating
Darwin's magnanimous colleague Alfred Russel Wallace —
the doyen of Biologists, — the Nestor of the Naturalists'
Camp, — that he has lived to see the 50th Anniversary of the
great achievement in which he shared ; and in congratulating
the Linnean Society on the part that it has played in
furthering the progress of biological science and evolutionist
interpretation.
(Signed) JOHN MARSHALL LANG, C.V.O.,
D.D., LL.D.,
23rd June, 1908. Principal of the University of Aberdeen.
THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH (Prof. I. B. Balfour,
F.R.S., F.L.S.)
presented the following address : —
42 Darwin- Wallace Celebration.
To THE LINNEAN SOCIETY OF LONDON.
1st July, 1908.
THE Senatus Academicus of the UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH
joins heartily with the Linnean Society of London in
celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the communication to
the Society, and thus to the world, of the conception arrived
at independently by the two master minds of Darwin and
Wallace — of the influence of " Natural Selection " on the
" Perpetuation of Varieties and Species."
The concept was no ordinary contribution to the inter-
pretation of the orderly advance of the organic universe.
Under the dominating genius and untiring experimental
research of Darwin the truth of Natural Selection as one
of the powerful factors in evolution was established and
remains to us ; but this fact is not the measure of the
value of the first idea and after demonstration. There was
here the germ of a revolution in human thought, and the
debt we owe to Darwin and Wallace is that their thought
and work, more particularly the thought and work o£
Darwin, have brought about within the period the close
of which is fitly marked to-day, our emancipation from the
trammels of scholasticism and the recognition of evolution
previously unheeded — as the normal process in the world
organic and inorganic. The cordiality with which the
Senatus Academicus supports the Linnean Society on this
occasion is enhanced by the circumstance that Charles
Darwin was an alumnus of the University of Edinburgh.
(Signed) W. TURNER, Principal.
(Signed) L. J. GRANT, Sec. Sen. Acad.
THE UNIVERSITY OF DUBLIN, TRINITY COLLEGE (Prof. H.
H. Dixon, D.Sc., F.R.S.).
The General Secretary explained that Prof. H. H. Dixon,
who was to have represented the University of Dublin, had
Darwin- Wallace Celebration. 43
arrived in London, but was too unwell to be present; the
Address, however, had been forwarded for presentation, as
follows : —
ADDRESS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF DUBLIN
TO
THE LINNEAN SOCIETY OF LONDON.
THE UNIVERSITY OF DUBLIN accept gladly the invitation
of the Linnean Society of London to participate in the
celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of
the epoch-making work of Darwin and Wallace.
The fearless speculations of these Thinkers, controlled by
laborious investigations, have inaugurated a new era in
Biological Thought ; and the Linnean Society, by the
publication of their work, and by its uniform action in
fostering the spirit which animated their researches, has
contributed largely to the mental development of mankind.
The University of Dublin desires to avail itself of this
occasion to congratulate the Linnean Society on the work it
has already achieved, and to express the earnest hope that
the Society may long continue to discharge its great
functions, and that it may have the privilege of making
known to the world the researches of Darwins that are
to be.
(Signed) ROSSE,
Chancellor.
THE UNIVERSITY OF DURHAM (Prof. M. C. Potter, F.L.S.).
THE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON (Sir W. T. Thiselton-Dyer,
K.C.M.G., F.R.S., F.L.S.),
with the following address : —
44 Darwin-Wallace Celebration.
TO
THE PRESIDENT AND COUNCIL
OF
THE L1NNEAN SOCIETY OF LONDON.
GENTLEMEN,
I am directed by the Senate of the UNIVERSITY OF
LONDON to convey to the Linnean Society of London their
congratulations on the 50th anniversary of the day upon
which Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace com-
municated to the Society the results of their investigations
on the Origin of Species of Animals and Plants. As it
recedes into the past, the far-reaching importance of the
event which the Society is celebrating becomes more and
more manifest. The doctrine of Evolution has touched
every branch of human thought and has influenced the
course both of intellectual advance and of material progress.
Amongst the distinguished naturalists who are members
of the Linnean Society many Graduates of the University
are to be found. United to the Society, not only by these
bonds of common membership but also by the common
desire to advance the cause of learning and to enrich the
stores of human knowledge, the Senate rejoice to join with
you in the celebration of this historic day.
(Signed) ARTHUR W. RUCKER,
July 1st, 1908. Principal. T
THE UNIVERSITY or MANCHESTER (Prof. F. E. Weiss, D.Sc.,
F.L.S.),
with the following address : —
THE VICTORIA UNIVERSITY
OF MANCHESTER.
THE UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER begs to offer to the Linnean
Society of London its congratulations on the occasion of the
anniversary of the joint presentation to that Society of
the papers of Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace,
setting forth their theories of the Origin of Species.
Darwin- Wallace Celebration. 45
These new views first enunciated at the meeting of the
Liimean Society have not only transformed and stimulated
the study of the Biological Sciences but have revolutionised
every sphere of thought.
Whilst congratulating the Linnean Society on so dis-
tinguished an event in its annals, the Manchester University
wishes to express its hope for the continuance of the signal
successful labours of the Linnean Society in encouraging and
promoting the study of Biological Science.
THE UNIVERSITY OF WALES (Prof. R. W. Phillips, D.Sc.,
F.L.S.).
THE UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM (The Vice-Chancellor,
Sir Oliver Lodge, F.R.S.).
THE UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL (Prof. Herdman, D.Sc.,
F.R.S., F.L.S.),
with the following address : —
ADDRESS
FROM
THE UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL
TO
THE LINNEAN SOCIETY OF LONDON
ON THE OCCASION OF
THE DARWIN-WALLACE CELEBRATION,
July 1st, 1908.
A YEAR ago the Linnean Society took part with other
similar Scientific Societies throughout the civilised world
in celebrating the 200th anniversary of the birth of the
distinguished Swede CARL VON LINNE, who may be said
to have laid the foundations of modern Botany and Zoology.
This year the Society asks others to join with her in rejoicing
at the Jubilee of a still greater event in the history of
Science — the birth of a movement which has revolutionised
Biology, and has extended far into other fields of thought.
46 Darwin- Wallace Celebration.
If the work of Linneus, in 1758, introduced order and
method into the classification of living nature, the Darwinian
theory of Natural Selection, exactly a century later, gave
rational explanation of the order, and grouped the Linnean
facts into a consistent Scheme of Evolution.
There has probably been no more inspiring idea in the
history of Natural Science than that contained in the joint
essay by Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace read before
the Linnean Society on July 1st, 1858 ; and all who under-
stand and honour Science will wish to rejoice with the
Society that made known to the world the work that has
since become the foundation of Darwinism.
The University of Liverpool is post-Darwinian in history
and evolutionary in development. In association with other
more venerable and more renowned, but not more appreciative
bodies, scientific and educational, this University desires
to congratulate the Linnean Society upon the present
Darwin- Wallace Celebration, to thank the Society for the
leading part it has played during one hundred and twenty
years in advancing knowledge and in proclaiming the
discoveries of science, and to express the hope that the
present Jubilee may be of historic importance as marking
the beginning of new service and success.
(Signed) E. K. MUSPRATT,
President.
(Signed) A. W. W. DALE,
Vice- Chancellor.
THE UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS (Prof. V. H. Blackman, D.Sc.,
F.L.S.).
THE UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD (Prof. Denny, F.L.S.).
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, NOTTINGHAM (Prof. J. W.Carr, F.L.S.).
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, BRISTOL (Prof. C. Lloyd Morgan,
F.B.S.),
with the following address : —
Danoin- Wallace Celebration. 47
FROM THE
COUNCIL AND SENATE
OP
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, BRISTOL,
TO
THE LINNEAN SOCIETY OF LONDON
ON THE OCCASION OP
THE DARWIN- WALL ACE CELEBRATION,
July 1st, 1908.
THE Council and Senate of UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, BRISTOL,
beg to offer to the Linnean Society their sincere con-
gratulations on the Fiftieth Anniversary of the presentation
of the paper on Natural Selection by Charles Darwin
and Alfred Russel Wallace. They desire also to assure
Dr. Wallace of their deep sense of the value of his splendid
work in the cause of Science.
The communication of the joint paper with its attendant
circumstances and consequent results marks an epoch in
the history of thought and is in many ways a matter
of far-reaching human interest. The Darwin-Wallace
Celebration commemorates not only a great intellectual
achievement, but also one of the best examples of modesty
and magnanimity of men of true genius.
For upwards of a century the Linnean Society has
exercised a wide and beneficent influence on the Advance-
ment of Science. The Council and Senate confidently
anticipate that the Society will long continue to carry on
its work with distinction and success.
(Signed) LEWIS FRY,
(Chairman of Council).
(Signed) C. LLOYD MORGAN,
(JPrindpaV).
48 Darwin-Wallace Celebration.
THE PRESIDENT : We have a considerable number of
Academies and Societies who have done us the honour to
send representatives, and we shall have to proceed in the
same manner in their case as in that of the Universities, and
ask two representatives to be kind enough to speak on behalf
of the whole number, Professor Lonnberg and Sir Archibald
Geikie.
Professor EINAR LONNBERG said : —
Mr. President,
My gracious Sovereign, H.R.M. King Gustaf of
Sweden, has kindly ordered me to bring to the Linnean
Society his hearty greetings and sincere felicitations on this
occasion, when you celebrate the memory of one of the most
important events in the history of Science.
Mr. President,
Next you will kindly allow me to tender to you
the address which the Royal Swedish Academy of Science
has resolved to present to you. It reads : —
To THE LINNEAN SOCIETY or LONDON.
The Academy founded by Linnseus sends the
heartiest greetings to the distinguished Society which
bears his name, and congratulates the Linnean Society
on this day of honour when it celebrates the fiftieth
anniversary of the commemorable day on which the
keys to one of the golden gates which leads to
the temple of Natural Sciences overshadowing the
fountain of Truth, were presented to this Society by
Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace.
On behalf of the Royal Swedish Academy of
(Signed) B. HASSELBERG.
[President.]
(Signed) CHR. AURIVILLIUS.
[General Secretary."]
When I stand here before you. I dare to say, I am not
only speaking by the order of my King, and as a Member
LINN. Soc- 19O8- PL. 3
TO
THE LINNEAN SOCIETY
OP LONDON.
«r
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l§e fjeorhtat greetmga to tt^e btehnguiaf^*
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Darwin-Wallace Celebration. 49
of the Royal Swedish Academy of Science, but as a
representative of the whole Swedish Nation, and I want
to express our gratitude towards British Science and British
men of Science for everything we have obtained from you
during a most friendly intercourse for centuries.
It is generally conceded that the Swedes, Linnaeus and
Artedi, by their classification according to logical principles
and their firm nomenclature, have founded the modern
Natural Science. Both, however, most willingly admitted
that they had learned much from their British predecessors
" nobilissimum Willughbejum " and " clarissimum Rajum."
Both Artedi and Linnaeus, who inaugurated the new era,
had also the opportunity of personally visiting Great Britain,
and they not only widened their knowledge here, but at
the same time they received a very congenial welcome from
the great British scientists of those days, men such as Sloane
(then President of the Royal Society), Dillenius the renowned
Professor at Oxford, and many others. Artedi had not words
strong enough to praise " nobilissimam gentem Anglicam "
with which he had spent some of the happiest days of his
short life. And when Linnaeus left Great Britain he
returned to his great British Mecsenas, Clifford, who not
only most munificently assisted Linnaeus, but also made
science for ever indebted to him by resuming and offering
for publication the unfortunate Artedi's extremely valuable
manuscripts.
To this distinguished Society the Swedish nation most
especially owes its gratitude for the pious care with which
it has kept the collections, books, and manuscripts of Linnseus,
which, when they by the power of circumstances were carried
from Sweden, could not have fallen in better hands, as
everybody readily admits.
This friendly traffic between Great Britain and Sweden,
began in the dawn of Natural Science, continued by the
scholars of Linnaeus — one of whom, Solander, remained
in this country — has been kept up ever since, to which,
no doubt, some of the present scientists can testify. I hope
this has been to mutual benefit, although, naturally enough,
E
50 Darwin-Wallace Celebration.
the mighty can do more than the weak, the rich give more
than the one o£ smaller means.
The greatest and most valuable gift which British Science
has given, not only to the Swedish nation but to the world,
is, however, the one which is celebrated to-day.
Great thinkers and naturalists have repeatedly expressed
their ideas concerning the evolution of the organic world.
Erasmus Darwin spoke about a gradual transformation and
adaptation to surroundings. Still more powerful was
Lamarck's genial theory about the influence of use and non-
use of the organs. Other scientists have expressed different
opinions ; but first by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel
Wallace was the theory of evolution firmly founded, and on
this foundation a mighty structure erected. Since Linnseus
about a century earlier presented to an admiring world
his * Systema Naturae,' no naturalist has spoken more
powerfully to his contemporaries than these two authors.
But while ' Systema Naturae ' inspired a till then unknown
zeal in the study of nature, the theory of evolution extended
its enlivening influence to the dominions of ail human
sciences. For this theory has not only effected a new
development of the natural sciences, but it has given better
and truer methods of research to other sciences as well,
and thus invigorated them to a new and better life.
As by the great genius of Darwin and Wallace evolution
has proved to be not only a doctrine but a fact — even if
different opinions may be held about its ways and means,
and even if some of their followers have shot beyond the
mark — the whole educated world is willing to pay its homage
on this day.
I fear that no word in praise of Darwin could be said
which has not been repeatedly uttered before (even to-day
much has been said and will be said by worthier men than
the present speaker). It would, however, be gratifying to
me if I could, by reciting a small incident, prove to this
distinguished audience in how high esteem this great genius
has been and is held in my own country. Some twenty
years ago, when the question arose about erecting a memorial
Darwin- Wallace Celebration. 51
monument to Darwin, the honour was admitted to Sweden
as well as to other civilised countries, to partake in the
subscription for this aim. Leading Swedish scientists then
sent out a circular in which the public was informed about
the intention of the subscription and reminded how " the
extensive knowledge, the depth of penetration, the in-
corruptible love of truth, the humble courage which make
themselves felt in all Darwin's works, have everywhere won
for him the highest esteem, and tar and near in the different
fields of science called forth zealous workers inflamed by
his spirit . . . . " The result of this subscription, I am proud
to say, was that although Great Britain naturally enough was
far ahead, among all others the small Swedish nation was
the second.
The same spirit still rules among us, and it is therefore
with deepfelt gratitude that we offer our humble homage
on this day.
THE PRESIDENT : I am sure we shall wish to acknowledge
with a deep sense of the honour done to us, the very gracious
words of the King of Sweden which he has transmitted quite
unexpectedly to the Society on this occasion. I also think
we feel that some special expression of our thanks is due to
Professor Lonnberg, not only for what he has said himself,
but for the beautiful medal of Linn»3us he has just presented
to us.
Sir ARCHIBALD GEIKIE, K.O.B., representing the Royal
Society, said : —
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen,
At this late hour, with so much still before us, I
feel sure I shall best consult the comfort and convenience of
the audience by being brief. I represent the Royal Society,
and I also am asked to speak on behalf of the various other
learned Societies and scientific Institutions of the country
which are here represented. I am sure that I express the
hearty sympathy of every delegate here. We rejoice that
the Linnean Society has had the happy inspiration to hold
this jubilee to-day. It will meet with a warm response
52 Darwin-Wallace Celebration.
in every Society in this country and abroad where natural
science is cultivated. With regard to Charles Darwin's
connection with scientific Societies, we have heard that he
had a very great respect for the Royal Society, but that he
found perhaps an even more congenial home in the Linnean
and the Geological. I can speak for the Geological. We
treasure amongst our great classics in the volumes of our
1 Transactions ' and ' Proceedings ' some of the early papers
of Darwin which mark an epoch both in his scientific
researches and in the development of geological science.
In treasuring these memoirs, we look back with peculiar
gratification on the surroundings in which their author was
then placed. He was for some time our Secretary, and we
have references, in his own handwriting, to the active part
he took in our Work. With regard to Dr. Wallace, the
Geological Society has less to say because he has lived most
of his life as a working naturalist, and his suggestive contri-
butions to geological science have been published elsewhere.
But we admire his genius and not less his chivalrous,
modest disinterestedness, and after the revelation he has
given us of his character to-day we shall not only admire
but love him. The time of appraising the relative merits
of these two men has long since passed. We rejoice that
they were both connected together in the launching of the
great doctrine of natural selection on the same day, and
we rejoice still more that one of them is present with us
here to be a witness of the enthusiasm and veneration with
which his name is received. I remember well when the
two conjoint papers' first came out. I can recall the
shiver that ran through the frames of the orthodox geologists
and biologists of the time. I remember the heart-searchings
and misgivings with which the new doctrine was received,
and the long time that elapsed before many of us under-
took to investigate and apply the new doctrine. There was
plenty of carping and fault-finding, but very little serious
reflection or study. Travelling in Germany some years after
the appearance of the ' Origin of Species ' I was astonished
to find there that, while men in this country were discussing
Darwin- Wallace Celebration. 53
whether or not Darwin's views could be accepted, Darwinism
had already been established as the starting point of many
branches of science. I found, moreover, that not only did
the Darwinian doctrine pervade the scientific world, but
that it had also entered into the political world. A few years
after the disaster at Koniggratz, I was told at Vienna, that
when the Austrian Parliament, at that great crisis in the fate
of the empire, met to consider what steps should be taken
for the re-consolidation of the Monarchy, a very distinguished
member of the Upper House began a famous speech by the
remark, " The first thing we have to consider is : Is Charles
Darwin right or is he not ? " — and upon the Tightness of
Darwin's theory it was gravely proposed to reconstruct the
Austrian Monarchy. Times have changed since then. We
in this country are now quite abreast of other countries in
our recognition of the enormous extent to which Darwinism
and the theory of evolution have pervaded all branches of
human thought. And yet, great as that permeation has
been, we are evidently only at the beginning of the appli-
cations of the theory.
I must bring my brief remarks to a close by again
assuring, you, Sir, as President, and the Fellows of the
Linnean Society, that you have the heartfelt sympathy of all
the learned Societies and Institutions of this country, who
desire to rejoice with you in the happy thought that prompted
you to celebrate this great jubilee.
The following representatives were then received in
succession by the President : —
THE SOCIETY OF ANTIQUAKIES (The Lord Avebury, P.O.,
F.U.S., F.L.S.),
with the appended address : —
29th June, 1908.
THE President and Council of the SOCIETY OF ANTIQUAKIES
of London desire to convey to the President and Council
of the Linnean Society their fraternal greetings on the
54 Daruin- Wallace Celebration.
auspicious occasion of the special meeting to commemorate
the fiftieth anniversary of the reading of the joint essay, " On
the Tendency of Species to form Varieties, and on the
Perpetuation' of Varieties and Species by natural means of
Selection," by the late Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel
Wallace, who is still happily with us.
The inspiration which that essay gave to the students
of natural science has since extended to almost every domain
of human knowledge, and is felt by those who devote
themselves to the study of Antiquity and the history of
former times. The Society of Antiquaries, therefore, desires
to associate itself with those bodies which are more directly
concerned with the study of natural history in congratulations
on an event to which the scientific advances of fifty years
are largely due.
(Signed) CHARLES HERCULES READE,
President.
THE ROYAL IRISH ACADEMY (Dr. R. F. Scharff, F.L.S.).
THE MANCHESTER LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY
(Mr. C. Bailey, M.Sc., F.L.S.).
THE ROYAL SOCIETY or EDINBURGH (Prof. D'Arcy Thompson,.
C.B., F.L.S.)
presented the following address : —
THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF EDINBUHGH,
30th June, 1908.
THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH sends Greetings to the
Linnean Society of London on this the happy occasion of
the Darwin-Wallace Anniversary Celebration.
Founded in the name of the Great Founder of Systematic
Botany and Zoology, and giving equal heed to these twin
Natural Sciences, it was meet and fitting that the Liunean
Society should inaugurate the birth of a new Philosophy
of Nature.
Honoured for the honour that she paid to this new
Darwin-Wallace Celebration. 55
learning, distinguished by the zeal with which she has
promulgated and advanced it, may the Linnean Society
accept from the Royal Society of Edinburgh these present
fraternal congratulations, and these our best wishes for her
lasting honour and prosperity.
In the name of the Royal Society of Edinburgh,
(Signed) D'ARCY W. THOMPSON,
Delegate.
THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON (Mr. W.H.Hudleston,
F.R.S., F.L.S.).
THE CAMBRIDGE PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY (Dr. S. F. Harmer,
F.R.S.).
THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY (The President, Mr. H. F.
Newall, F.R.S.).
THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY (Mr. G. A. Boulenger, F.R.S.).
THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION (The President, Sir David Gill,
K.C.B., F.R.S.).
THE ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON (The President,
Mr. C. 0. Waterhouse).
THE ROYAL MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY (The President, The
Lord Avebury)
presented an address as follows : —
ROYAL MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY,
20 Hanover Square, London, W.,
July 1st, 1908.
THE ROYAL MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY in the presence of its
President, the Lord Avebury, desires to be associated with
other Scientific bodies in the congratulations on the event
the Linnean Society is now celebrating in commemoration
of the 50th anniversary of the reading of the joint essay
by Charles Robert Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace, On
the Tendency of Species to form Varieties, and on the
Perpetuation o£ Varieties and Species by Natural Selection.
The publication of that Essay gave an immense stimulus
56 Darwin- Wallace Celebration.
to the study o£ Biology, and marks an epoch in the progress
of that Science.
The Royal Microscopical Society desires to convey its
hearty good wishes for the prosperity of the Linnean Society
and hopes it may long flourish to the great advantage of
Biology and the progress of Science generally.
(Signed) AVEBUEY.
THE CHEMICAL SOCIETY (Dr. Horace T. Brown, F.R.S.,
F.L.S.).
Mr. A. E. Shipley, F.R.S., F.L.S., representative of the
MARINE BIOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION, unfortunately was unable
to arrive at the Meeting in time to take part, being detained
by his duties as Examiner at the University of Liverpool.
And
THE MALACOLOUICAL SOCIETY (Mr. R. H. Byrne, F.Z.S.).
THE BRITISH ACADEMY (Sir E. Maunde Thompson, K.C.B.,
President) presented the following address : —
AT a Meeting of the Council of the British Academy held
on the 27th of May, the President, Sir Edward Maunde
Thompson, K.C.B., was appointed to represent the Academy
at the Darwin- Wallace Celebration of the Linnean Society of
London.
The President of the British Academy has the honour to
express to the Linnean Society the heartiest good wishes and
sympathetic congratulations of the British Academy on this
auspicious occasion.
(Signed) E. MAUNDE THOMPSON,
President of
1st July, 1908. The British Academy.
THE PRESIDENT: It now remains for us to have the
pleasure of hearing the address which Lord Avebury is good
enough to give us.
The Rt. Hon. LORD AVEBURY, P.C., then delivered the
following Address : —
Darwin- Wallace Celebration. 57
I DEEM it a high honour, as it is also a great pleasure,
for me to be invited to take any part in this auspicious
ceremony, which is so interesting to all lovers of Science,
and especially of Natural History.
After the speeches which we have just heard from such
eminent representatives of the Science as Wallace, Hooker,
Galton, Strasburger and Lankester, I am disposd to think that
my Address might be taken as read ; and at any rate it would
be a work of supererogation, and almost an act of impertinence,
for me to address you on the scientific aspect of the occasion,
and on the memorable paper by Mr. Darwin and Mr. Wallace
the reading of which we have met to celebrate. I presume
I have been asked to speak because, with the exception of
Sir Joseph Hooker, I have been more personally associated
with our illustrious Countryman than any one else now living.
I first heard his name in 1842 — 66 years ago, when my father
returned one evening from the city, and said he had a great
piece of good news for me ; Mr. Darwin was coming to live
close to us at Down, which he has rendered so famous.
Darwin chose Down (happily for us) for the " extreme
quietness and rusticity of the place." Huxley has described
it as " a solitary hamlet." It is at an elevation of 600 feet,
on the uplands as its name denotes. There is a local saying
about Down and the next village Cudham, which is quite a
large parish, that "Down is the last village in the world, and
Cudham is the first one out of it. There never yet has been
a lawyer or a doctor or a clergyman or a gentleman or a
well, in the parish of Cudham." And yet the Church is only
16 miles from London Bridge !
In Down Mr. Darwin was much loved. He took an active
part in parish work. Our then clergyman was a wise and
sensible man. He and Mr. Darwin, though they thought so
differently, always worked together, and were firm friends.
Mr.. Darwin was no doubt something of a puzzle to the
villagers, though he was not, like his grandfather, looked
on as a Necromancer. One of his friends once asked
Mr. Darwin's gardener about his master's health, and how he
had been lately. " Oh ! ", he said, " my poor master has
58 Darwin- Wallace Celebration.
been very sadly. I often wish he had something to do. He
moons about in the garden, and I have seen him stand doing
nothing before a flower for ten minutes at a time. If he only
had something to do I really believe he would be better."
The Joint Memoir is the work which we have met to-day
specially to commemorate, but the other labours of our
illustrious countrymen fully justify the highest honours which
any country could confer.
When Mr. Darwin received the Copley Medal, Sir C. Lyell
was one of the speakers at the Royal Society dinner. One
sentence in LyelFs speech impressed me so much that
though it was fifty years ago I still have it ringing in my
ears. He said : " When I was a young man propounding
what seemed revolutionary ideas in Geology, I complained
on one occasion to Mr. Darwin that the leaders in Science
adhered so tenaciously to the old views : and Mr. Darwin
replied, ' Well, let this be a lesson to you, and when you in
your turn are old, remember that you keep your mind open
to receive the new ideas which will assuredly come.' " " This,"
said Sir Charles Lyell, " I have taken to heart, but little did
I think that Darwin himself would start the revolutionary
ideas as to which I was to keep an open mind."
It is difficult for the present generation to realise the
astonishment and indignation with which principles pro-
mulgated in the Joint Memoir and in the ' Origin of Species,'
by which it was succeeded, were received. As Huxley
remarked years ago, it seemed even then like a dream !
"I do not," said Huxley, " call to mind among the Biologists
more than Asa Gray, who fought the battle so splendidly in
the United States ; Hooker, who was no less vigorous here ;
Sir John Lubbock and myself. Wallace was far away in
the Malay Archipelago."
Huxley and Hooker were Darwin's two towers of strength
in this country.
Mr. Darwin himself made (March 1860) the following
classified list of those who agreed with him ; I omit those who
only did so partially : —
Geologists.
Zoologists and
Paleontologists.
Physiologists.
Lyell.
Huxley.
Carpenter.
Earn say.
Lubbock.
Jukes.
Searles Wood.
Rogers.
Darwin-Wallace Celebration. 59
Botanists.
Hooker.
Watson.
Thwaites.
And of this short list it is remarkable that, after fifty years,
three are here to-day.
Authority then was mainly on one side, but truth was on
the other : and when authority and truth differ, in the long
run truth will prevail over authority.
It is, however, only fair to remember that on Naturalists
generally the new theory burst with startling abruptness like
a " bolt from the blue." Lyell, Hooker, Huxley and I, on
the contrary, had been in constant communication with
Darwin, and had had time to consider and weigh the
argument.
Yet really it seems wonderful now that great Naturalists
should have taken so long to make up their minds. As
Huxley said, he had puzzled over the question and found no
answer, but when the ' Origin ' appeared he reproached
himself " with dulness for being perplexed by such an enquiry.
My reflection, when I first made myself master of the central
idea of the ; Origin ' was, ' How extremely stupid not to
have thought of that ! ' "
A few years, however, brought conviction, and writing in
1878 Mr. Darwin was able to say that there was almost
complete unanimity among Naturalists about the truth of
evolution.
As regards the Joint Memoir and the ' Origin of Species/ no
doubt the attacks of Theologians were mainly due to the
belief, still widely entertained, that Evolution was incom-
patible with religion. Darwin, himself, never held this
view. In his speech on the 22nd June at the Pan-Anglican
Synod, Mr. Balfour, while expressing the opinion that the
argument from design, " though I should hesitate to say it was
worthless, had lost much of its old efficacy in the stress of
recent biological discoveries," was of the same opinion.
60 Darwin- Wallace Celebration.
In looking at the theory of Evolution, we have to ask not
is it desirable, but is it true.
But if Evolution has no bearing on Theology, as regards
conduct it is eminently encouraging, and the general outcome
of Evolution appears to be — as Darwin himself pointed out —
that those Communities which include the greatest numbers
of the most sympathetic members will flourish best.
In these and other points of view, Science, and even those
branches which seem to have the least practical application,
are of inestimable importance.
Mr. Balfour, in the speech to which I have already
referred, paid a generous tribute to Science — though, as
President of the Sociological Society, I must demur to his
exclusion of Sociology — saying that : " More than to the
work of statesmen or to the elaboration of social systems, or
to the study of Sociology, I look to Science more than any-
thing else as the great ameliorator of the human lot in the
future."
With that we here shall agree. Well, indeed, would it be
for the world if the fellow-feeling which exists between men of
Science to whatever nation they belong could be extended to
other sections of our European Communities, and if the nations
of Europe and their rulers would diminish, we cannot hope
that they would abandon, their enormous military and naval
expenditure, and spend a small part of the saving in the en-
couragement of scientific experiment and research. We pay
dearly, indeed, for the hatred, jealousy and suspicions which
disgrace our so-called civilisation.
The amount of work done by Darwin and Wallace was
marvellous, and in Darwin's case all the more so as it was
accomplished in spite of very bad health and daily suffering.
It would have been impossible, but for the wise and loving
care which watched over him from the time of his marriage ;
and every one who enjoyed the inestimable privilege of Mr.
Darwin's friendship, will always look back on Mrs. Darwin
also with gratitude and affection, not only for all she did for
him, but for many acts of kindness to them.
Darwin, himself, was not only a great man and a great
Darwin-Wallace Celebration. 61
intellect ; he was also — which is after all even more — a lovable
and a good man, genuine, simple, generous and sympathetic.
Of few of our other greatest men can this be said.
Newton was a gigantic intellect. Of Shakespeare we know
too little ; of Bacon perhaps too much. Cromwell lived in
times too disturbed.
But Darwin's life is all before us. I suppose he had his
faults, but what were they ? I knew him well, but I do not
know. He was modesty itself ; a true friend, a devoted son,
husband, and father. Few men have been more violently
attacked, more bitterly criticised, than Darwin and Wallace.
That they felt all this keenly we know, but they were never
goaded into anger or recrimination. They bore it with
patience and dignity. They answered none of the attacks,
they lived them down.
Mr. Darwin's reply to critics is contained in the memorable
words with which he closes his great work :
" There is a grandeur in this view of life, with its several
powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator into
a few forms or into one ; and that whilst this planet has gone
cycling on, according to the fixed laws of gravity, from so
simple a beginning, endless forms most beautiful and most
wonderful have been, and are being evolved."
All over the world to-day Naturalists, and many who are
not Naturalists, are with us in spirit, united in doing honour
to our illustrious countrymen — Charles Darwin and to Alfred
Russel Wallace, whom we have still the pleasure to see
amongst us.
THE PRESIDENT : My final duty this afternoon is the very
pleasant one of asking you to return a warm vote of thanks
to Lord Avebury for the Address, all too short, that he has
just given us. It was felt that we could not let an occasion
like this pass by without hearing something from him,
because we all know that after Sir Joseph Hooker it is
Lord Avebury especially, of all men now living, who was most
closely associated with Darwin, and whose work was not
only directly inspired by Darwin but was also carried on
'€2 Darwin- Wallace Celebration.
in the first instance under his personal influence. Those
of us who have read the ' Life and Letters ' and the letters
subsequently published, know what Mr. Darwin himself
thought of Lord Avebury as a naturalist. He was much
pleased at his conversion to the theory, and wrote as
early as April 6, 1859 : " My neighbour, and an excellent
naturalist, John Lubbock, is an enthusiastic convert."
Nothing could have been more interesting or touching than
the beautiful words in which Lord Avebury has sketched the
character of Darwin as he knew it, and no one knew it at
closer quarters than he. I will ask you to return your thanks
to Lord Avebury.
The motion was carried with acclamation.
THE PEESIDENT i That concludes our business.
A DINNER given by the Fellows to the Medallists and
Foreign Guests, was held at the Princes' Restaurant, at
0.30 P.M., Dr. D. H. Scott, F.R.S., President, in the Chair.
The following were present : —
The Lord Avebury. Mr. G. A. Boulenger.*
The Lady Avebury.* Prof. G. C. Bourne.
Sir George Darwin.* Dr. A. Chevalier.*
Lady Darwin * Miss E. Crocker.
Sir E. Ray Lankester, K.C.B. Mr. A. D. Darbishire.*
Sir Daniel Morris, K.C.M.G. Mr. O. V. Darbishire.*
Sir Frank Crisp. Dr. Francis Darwin.
Lady Crisp. Mr. W. E. Darwin.*
Sir Oliver Lodge.* prof . Dendy.
Prof. Strasburger, F.M.L.S.* Mrs. Dendy *
Dr. Galton, F.R.S.* prof. Denny.
Prof. Warming, F.M.L.S.* Mrs. Denny*
Prof. Hubrecht, F.M.L.S.* Mr. F. V. Dickins.*
Prof. E. Lonnberg.* Mr. H. Druce.
Mr. E. A. N. Arber. Ilev. E. A. Eaton.*
Dr. Margaret Benson. Mr. W. Fawcett
Prof. V. H. Blackinan. Kev. H. P. Fitzgerald.
Mr. L. A. Boodle. Mrs. Fitzgerald*
Darwin- Wallace Celebration.
63
Mr. D. T. Gwynne-Vaughan.
Dr. Harmer.*
Prof. W. A. Herdman.
Prof. J. P. Hill.
Dr. W. E. Hoyle .«
Dr. Daydon Jackson.
Prof. Judd *
Mrs. Judd*
Mr. A. W. Kappel.
Prof. J. G. Kerr.
Dr. Kidston.*
Prof. Scott Lang*
Dr. Longstaff.*
Mr. Lydekker.*
Mr. S. Maitland.*
Mrs. S. Maitland.*
Prof. Meldola.*
Prof. Minchin *
Mr. H. W. Monckton.
Mrs. Muff.
Mr. C. S. Nicholson.
Dr. J. Oliver.
Prof. Osier.*
Mr. Pawson.
Mrs. Pawson.*
Mr. H. Phipps*
Mr. K. I. Pocock.
Mrs. Pocock.*
Prof. E. B, Poulton.
Mr. E. P. Poulton *
Lt.-Col. Prain.
Dr. A. B. Rendle.
Miss Ricardo.*
Miss Sargant.
Miss E. R. Saunders.
Mr. G. S. Saunders.
Dr. D. H. Scott.
Mrs. D. II. Scott.
Prof. Seward.
Mr. A. E. Shipley.
Prof. Sollas.*
Dr. Stapf.
Mrs. Stehbing.
Rev. T. R. R. Stehbing.
Mr. J. Steel *
Dr. J. J. H. Teall*
Mrs. Teall *
Miss E. N. Thomas.*
Mr. Vallentin.
Mrs. Vallentin.*
Dr. T. H. Warren.*
Prof. Weiss.
Dr. A. Smith Woodward.
Mrs. A. Smith Woodward *
An asterisk is appended to each
guest, official or private.
Prof. I. B. Balfour,
Dr. G. H. Fowler,
Mr. Nicholson jr., and
Mr. A. W. Sutton,
who had accepted invitations, were
prevented from being present.
programme
OF THE
PROCEEDINGS AT THE RECEPTION
by the PRESIDENT and COUNCIL
IN THE
ROOMS OF THE SOCIETY
at BTJRIL.IlSrGr.rOlSr HOTJSE,
on WEDNESDAY, 1st JULY, 1908,
at 9.O p.m.
The PRESIDENT and Mrs. SCOTT received the Guests
in the Library on the First Floor.
Darwin-Wallace Celebration. 67
Objects exhibited in the Library.
ADDRESSES from Universities, Academies, Societies and other
corporate bodies, presented at the Afternoon Meeting.
PORTRAIT of DARWIN from a photograph by his son, from which
the Darwin-medal portrait was principally modelled. Recent
photographs of Dr. A. R. WALLACE, and an older one on which
the medal- portrait was based.
Plaster casts from the dies of the medal, by Mr. F. Bowcher.
EAST TABLE.
Flowers of natural hybrid Odontoglossums with their
parents ; some of these hybrids have been proved
experimentally.
Exhibited (by permission of the Director, Royal Botanic Gardens
Kew) by R. ALLEN ROLFE, A.L.S.
1. Odontoglossum crispum, Lincll., from Pacho, showing wide range
of variation, with numerous blotched varieties (so-called) from
the Pacho and Yelez districts.
2. Odontoglossum crispum var. Lehmanni, from Popayan, showing
small range of variation.
3. Species with which 0. crispum grows intermixed in the Pacho
and Velez districts.
O. gloriosum, Linden & Eeichb. f., in Pacho and Velez districts.
O. Lindleyanum, Reichb. f. & Warsc., in Pacho and Velez districts.
O. luteopurpureum, Lindl., in Pacho district.
O. Hunnewellianum, Eolfe, in Velez district (only).
O. triumphans, Reichb. f., in Velez district.
F2
68 Darwin-Wallace Celebration.
4. Natural hybrids between 0. crispum and other species which
grow with it.
O. Andersonianum (crispum Xffloriosuni).
O. Coradinei* (crispum xLindlcyanum).
O. WHckeanum * (crispum X luteopurpureum).
O. Adrians* (crispum X HwnneweUianum) .
0. harvenytense* (crispum xtriumphans).
* The asterisk indicates that these four have also been raised artificially
in gardens.
5. Other hybrids from the same district.
O. Mulits (gloriosumXluteopurpureuni).
O. acuminatissimum (LindleyanumXluteopurpurewri).
O. prcevisum (gloriosumxLindleyanuni).
O. Hudsoni (gloriosumx Hunneicellianuni).
6. Artificial hybrids of 0. crispum with species which grow in-
different regions.
O. armainvillierense (0. crispumxnobile).
O. crispo-Harryanum (O. crispumxlfarryanum}.
O. Lambeauianum (O. crispumy. Rolf eat).
O. Thompsonianum (O, crispumXJEdtoardii).
Odontioda Bradshawiana (O. crispumX Cochlloda Noetdiand).
7. Living plants and flowers of the species : —
O. crispum. Pacho and Velez.
O. Lindleyanum. Pacho and Velez.
O. luteopurpureum. Pacho.
O. Hunnewellianum. Velez.
0. triumphant. Velez and Ocana.
O. nobile, Ileichb. f. Ocana.
with the hybrids : —
O. harvengtense (loochristiense) ; O. WHckeanum ; 0. Adriance ;
O. armainvillierense.
Mr. E. ALLEN EOLFE, A.L.S., has since supplied the following
statement : —
Odontoglossum crispum is a very popular garden Orchid which
has been cultivated for upwards of forty years, and during the latter
part of that time has been imported in enormous quantities. It is a
Darwin- Wallace Celebration. 69
native of Colombia, and grows in at least three distinct districts, at
an altitude of about 7,500 to 8,800 feet, and in a fairly temperate
climate. It grows more or less in company with several other
species, with some of which it hybridises.
For many years it was imported from what is known as the Pacho
district, on the Eastern Cordillera, in which it was originally
discovered, by Hartweg, and with it three other species and a
number of curious intermediate forms, some of which have been
regarded as varieties of it and others as natural hybrids. The three
other species mentioned are 0. gloriosttm, 0. luteopurpureum, and
0. Lindleyamim, with all of which it hybridises ; and it is an
interesting fact that all the six possible combinations between the
four species known to grow together have now been recognised
They may be enumerated as follows : —
0. crlspum x 0. gloriosum= 0. Andersonianum.
0. crispum x 0. luteopurpureum = 0. Wilckeanum.
0. crispum x 0. Lindleyanum = 0. Coradinei.
0. gloriosum x 0. luteopurpureum = 0. Mulus.
0. luteopurpureum x 0. Lindleyanum = 0. (tsuminatissimum.
0. gloriosum x 0. Lindleyanum = 0. prcevisum.
The first four of these hybrids are remarkably variable, and
certain forms which have been referred to them are difficult to
separate from others which are referred to 0. crispum, which is also
very variable in this district. So numerous are these intermediate
forms, and so perplexing their affinities, that the species have been
spoken of as " confluent in series." It is now clear that this is due
to the further intercrossing of the hybrids with the parent species,
as is explained later.
A second district for Odontoglossum crispum was discovered by the
late Consul Lehmann, on the Central Cordillera, near Popayan,
some 200 miles distant from the original locality, where it occurs
in a quite distinct form, which was described by Reichenbach as
0. crispum var. Lehmanni. The flowers are smaller, with narrower
segments, and the inflorescence branched. Here the species
shows little variation, and no natural hybrids are certainly
known to occur, while it is significant that there is a complete
absence of those richly blotched and spotted forms which are
found in the Pacho district, and which are so highly prized by
70 Darwin- Wallace Celebration.
connoisseurs. In fact the form found in this district is not popular
in cultivation.
Still later 0. crispum was found in another district, on the Eastern
Cordillera, about 100 miles north of Pacho, known as the Velez
district, which is separated from the Pacho district by an intervening
area in which the altitude and climate are totally unsuitable for
0. crispum. In this Yelez district two additional species occur in
company with 0. crispum, namely, 0. Hunnewellianum, abundantly,
and 0. triumphans, in a somewhat limited area, while 0. luteo-
purpureum is believed to be absent from the greater part of the
district. Here we get two additional natural hybrids, namely : —
0. crisptim X 0. Hunnewellianum = 0. Adriatic?.
0. crispum X 0. triumphans = 0. harvengtense (loochristiense).
The first-named is common and remarkably variable, and its
presence in an importation of 0. crispum affords an infallible clue
to the locality. Both have been raised artificially, so that there is
not a shadow of doubt about their origin. Here also 0. crispum is
extremely variable, and there is a type of variation which is not
found in the Pacho district, namely that approaching the natural
hybrid 0. Adriance, the cause of which is now apparent. The
secondary hybrid from 0. crispum and 0. Adrians has been raised
• rtificially, and is again fairly intermediate between them, while it
can also be matched among wild plants which have been referred to
0. crispum. This secondary hybrid is known under the name of
Odontoglossum Fascinator, and the fact that it exists as a wild
plant is significant. 0. crispum has also been intercrossed with its
hybrid 0. Andersonicnmm, resulting in 0. Steivartianum, and with
0. Coradinei, yielding 0. Crispodinei, both secondary hybrids which
can be fairly matched among wild plants.
These facts afford a clue to the origin of the so-called " blotched
crispums." It is seen that it is where 0. crispum grows in company
with other normally blotched species that these so-called " blotched
crispums " occur, and that they are absent from localities where the
species grows by itself ; also that similarly blotched forms can be
raised artificially by crossing 0. crispum with its own hybrids, and
the inference naturally follows that the said forms are not simple
varieties of 0. crispum, but natural hybrids of mixed parentage,
which owe their origin to insect agency, where the parent species
Darwin- Wallace Celebration. 71
happen to grow intermixed. Approximately parallel cases are now
known among artificial hybrids of 0. crispiim with species which
grow in different localities, particularly with 0. Harryanum. All
these hybrids are completely fertile.
Thus we have evidence that 0. crispum grows naturally with five
other species, with all of which it hybridises, and that the resulting
primary hybrids again cross with the original species, yielding
secondary hybrids, some of which are not distinguishable from what
have usually been considered as spotted forms of 0. crispum. All
this has long been suspected, and now the details are being filled in
by cultural experiments. It is believed that the process extends
much further, for the agencies by which these puzzling intermediate
forms have arisen have been in existence for ages. For a long time
their origin was a matter of inference, after comparison with the
original species; but recent experiments, while confirming these
inferences, have carried the matter further, and revealed a new
complication, in the existence of what is known as " reversion."
In the case of secondary hybrids, at least, seedlings out of the
same capsule often show a remarkable polymorphism, and some of
them so closely resemble the original species that in the absence of a
knowledge of their origin they would be referred to them. A
single example may be mentioned. Some time ago M. Peeters, of
Brussels, crossed the natural hybrid 0. Adriance with a blotched
form of 0. crispum, and from the resulting capsule raised a large
batch of seedlings, which have now flowered. During a recent visit
to Brussels I had the good fortune to see them, and I was astonished
at the range of variation, which seemed almost incredible. There
were forms with white, light yellow, and deep yellow ground-colour,
with the greatest possible amount of variation in the size of the
flowers, and in the size, number, arrangement, and colour of the spots.
Without a knowledge of their origin some would have been referred
to 0. Adriance and others to spotted foims of 0. crispum, and yet
all are technically forms of 0. Fascinator, which had previously
been raised.
Hybrid Odontoglossums are not by any means confined to the
regions just mentioned. 0. triumphcms and 0. gloriosum extend
into the Ocana district, where they cross, giving 0. Leeanum, and
here the former with 0. nobile yields 0. excellens (whose parentage
has been proved), and the latter with 0. nobile produces 0.
72 Darwin- Wallace Celebration.
which has several synonyms. 0. triumphans also grows with
0. blandum, the two producing 0. Cookeanum ; and 0. Lindleyanum
extends into the Yaramal district, and crossing with 0. Harryanum
yields 0. Watticmum (whose parentage has also been proved
experimentally). Other hybrids occur in the Ocaria district, some
in Ecuador, and some in Mexico. Our knowledge of them depends
largely upon the popularity of the species as garden plants, and the
frequency with which they are imported, for they almost invariably
appear accidentally among importations of the parent species, and
their presence is not detected until they flower. Our knowledge of
0. crispum is almost entirely due to its popularity as a garden plant,
and to the enormous quantities in which it has been imported, and
to the same popularity is due the successful efforts to i-aise it and
the allied forms from hybrid seed. Without such popularity our
knowledge of the facts adduced would have been practically nil.
These facts, it is believed, could be paralleled in the genera Salix,
Rosa, Rubus, and various others, if their history could be investigated
in the same way. Again, it may be remarked that natural hybrids
are known in many other Orchid genera, and are common in a few,
and in some cases they have been described as species, in others as
varieties of one of the parents. The facts are well known in a large
number of cases, and in a few the parentage has been proved
experimentally. The subject is worthy of increased attention, for
crossing increases variability, and variation is the material on which
natural selection works. Many hybrids are completely fertile, and
spontaneous hybrids often possess such distinctive features as to
have been described as new species or as varieties of one or the
other parent. Their permanence is a matter for further study and
experiment. Crossing may lead to or hasten the appearance of
distinct races, for there are many races of "florist's flowers" and
other garden plants which are known to be of mixed origin. Thus
hybridisation is a question of great biological importance, and one to
be taken into consideration in discussing the very origin of species,
indeed it is probably of more importance than has yet been
realised.
Darwin- Wallace Celebration. 73
CENTRE TABLE.
Problems of Evolution illustrated by Insects from the
Hope Collections in the Oxford University Museum.
i. Mimicry in New World Papilionidce.
Exhibited by the HOPE PROFESSOR OF ZOOLOGY
and Mr. J. C. MOULTON.
The existence of superficial resemblances between the American
Papilios was pointed out by H. W. Bates in 1860 (Trans. Ent. Soc.
"Ser. II. vol. v. p. 335), and by A. R. Wallace in 1864 (Trans. Linn.
Soc., vol. xxv. p. 10).
These interesting examples of mimicry could, however, only be
adequately appreciated when the classification of the sub-family
Papilionidce had been put on a solid foundation by E. Haase
(Bibliotheca Zoologica, Stuttgart, Bd. iii. Heft 8, 1891-3) following
the lines suggested by Horsfield in 1857 (Cat. Lep. Ins. Mus. E. I.
Comp.). A full and detailed treatment of the subject has now
been rendered possible as a result of Rothschild and Jordan's
masterly revision (Nov. Zool. xiii. 1906, p. 411).
A. The Transition between species of Butterflies usually considered
to be distinct.
(1) Three forms of the genus Catopsitia, viz., C. crocalc Cram.,
C. pomona Fabr., and C. catilla Cram., were originally described as
distinct species, and are still usually so considered. The exhibit
shows that a perfect gradation exists between the typical forms of
C. crocale on the one hand and of C. catilla on the other, C. pomona
occupying an intermediate position between the two.
(2) A similar transitional series connects two species of Mylothri*,
always hitherto treated as distinct, viz., M. Moris Fabr. and M.
agathina Cram. .
Sexual Dimorphism in Butterflies, associated with special pro-
tection for the Female.
Attention has been drawn by Dr. A. R. Wallace to tho fact that
in cases where the sexes differ in aspect, the female is usually the
74 Darwin- Wallace Celebration.
better protected of the two. This protection against insect-eating:
enemies may be effected (1) by a general dulness or darkness of
coloration, tending to concealment ; or (2) by a cryptic resemblance
to some inanimate object, such as a dead leaf; or, finally, (3) by
mimicry of some distasteful insect, often belonging to a widely
ditierent group.
Examples of all these methods are shown, and the fact is illustrated
that the males may in some cases take no share in the means of
defence adopted by the females, while in other cases they enjoy a
similar provision against attack, but in a lower degree.
Exhibited by Dr. F. A. DIXEY.
iii. A series of Melanilis leda, Linn., taken at Ourepipe, Mauritius,
March to December, 1905, arranged in the order of capture.
The variability of the Underside of the Butterfly is shown as
well as the effect of season : in the wet season ocelli are usually
more marked, in the dry season the underside is usually more
leaf-like.
Exhibited by Col. N. MANDERS, R.A.M.C.
iv. Scents in Butterflies.
(a) Agreeable scents, presumably attractive, usually confined
to the male.
(b) Disagreeable scents, presumably repulsive, usually common
to both sexes, but often more pronounced in the female. This
group includes many species known to be distasteful to insecti-
vorous animals.
[The flowers, or other objects, to which the scents have been
compared were indicated in redJ]
Exhibited by Dr. DIXEY and Dr. G. B. LONGSTAFF.
v. The apparent " two heads " of the Lyccenidce.
Many Blues and Hairstreaks rest with the head downwards,,
but the peculiar structure and marking of the hind-wings give
the appearance of a head with antennae at the tail end of the
Butterfly. This doubtless often deceives their enemies, accord-
ingly many Lycaenids are captured which bear evidence of
having escaped with their lives by the loss of their "false-
heads."
Darwin- Wallace Celebration. 75
vi. Butterflies concealed when at rest by their surroundings or their
attitudes.
(a) Conspicuous white or yellow Butterflies seeking yellow
leaves to rest upon.
(b) The general effect of common natural backgrounds in more
or less aiding concealment.
(c) Special rest attitudes aiding concealment.
vii. Special adaptations in Tettigides (a group of Grasshoppers).
(a) The pronotum developed into a leaf-like appendage greatly
aiding the concealment of the insect.
(6) The hind- tibia and tarsus modified to make an oar for
swimming under water.
viii. Indian species of Conopidce (Flies) closely imitating Eumenidce
and VespidfK (Wasps) on which their larvae are probably parasitic.
The specimens were taken together about nearly dried-up springs
at Matheran, Western Ghats.
ix. An insular fauna compared with that of the mainland.
Many Jamaican butterflies differ slightly in colour from their
nearest South American representatives ; they are usually
brighter in tint, with more fulvous and less black.
Exhibited by Dr. G. B. LOXGSTAFF.
WEST TABLE.
CASE 1. Personal relics and a selection of manuscripts in the
handwriting of CARL VON LINXE. Amongst them are his
Lapland Journal, his Autobiography, an early sketch of the
flora of his native place, a walking-stick, etc.
76 Darwin-Wallace Celebration.
CASE 2. Contains the commission to CARL VON LINNE to explore
Lapland, and the various passports issued to him on his
journey. The other side of the case has part of the manuscript
of the ' Supplementum plantarum,' the state of which shows its
growth by interpolation.
CASE 3. Contains the Recommendation Certificates of CHARLES
ROBERT DARWIN, of his grandfather Dr. ERASMUS DARWIN, and
of Dr. ALFRED RUSSEL WALLACE.
(Certificate in the handwriting of Dr. J. E. SMITH, P.L.S.}
ERASMUS DARWIN, M.D., F.R.S., of Derby, author of a poem
entitled The Botanic Garden and of several other works,
being desirous of becoming a Fellow of the Linnean Society,
we the underwritten believing him highly worthy of that
honour, recommend him to be elected accordingly.
July 17 : 1792. J. DRYANDER.
SAML GOODENOUGH.
(Written Certificate.}
CHARLES DARWIN, Esquire, M.A., F.R.S., G.S., etc. etc., of
Down, Farnborough, Kent, a gentleman much attached to
the study of Natural History, being desirous of becoming a
Fellow of the Linnean Society, we the undersigned, do of our
personal knowledge recommend him, as deserving that
honour, and likely to prove a useful and valuable member.
THOMAS BELL, Pres.
SYLVANUS HANLEY.
Jos. D. HOOKER.
EDWARD FORBES.
ROBERT BROWN.
J. S. HENSLOW.
JOHN J. BENNETT.
ADAM WHITE.
Proposed, Dec. 20th, 1853.
Ballot, March 7th, 18-54.
Elected, J. J. B.
Darwin- Wallace Celebration. 77
(On the Printed Form of Recommendation.}
ALFRED RUSSELL (sic) WALLACE, Esq., of Holly House,
Barking, Essex,
a gentleman attached to the study of Natural History,
especially
Entomology, and well known for his travels and researches
in Natural History in South America and in the Eastern
Archipelago,
being desirous of becoming a Fellow of the Linnean
Society of London, we whose names are underwritten, beg
leave to recommend him to that Honour.
GEORGE BENTHAM.
H. T. STAINTON.
Jos. D. HOOKER.
ALFRED W. BENNETT.
SAMUEL STEVENS.
ALBERT MILLER.
"W. H. HOLDSWORTH.
ALFRED NEWTON.
W. H. FLOWER.
J. W. DUNNING.
G. R. GRAY.
EDWARD SHEPPARD.
This Certificate was read at a General Meeting of the Society on.
the 2nd day of November, 1871.
The Ballot will take place on the 18th day of January, 1872.
Elected, Rd. K.
78
Dandn- Wallace Celebration.
In the MEETING ROOM, on the ground floor, two short Lantern
Demonstrations were given during the evening.
At 9.30. Prof. A. C. SEWARD, F.R.S., F.L.S.
-THE JURASSIC VEGETATION OF THE WORLD:
A STUDY IN PLANT-MIGRATION."
THE Lecturer dealt with the geographical distribution of Jurassic
plants, calling special attention to the general uniformity in the
floras which occur in almost all parts of the world.
He emphasised the importance of bearing in mind the opinions
expressed by Darwin and by Hooker in regard to the Imperfection
of the Geological Record and quoted Huxley's words on the impossi-
bility of demonstrating absolute synchronism of strata.
A brief account was given of the Jurassic vegetation as represented
by specimens obtained from the Inferior Oolite rocks of the Yorkshire
coast, attention being called to the apparent absence of Flowering
plants. The wide distribution of floras classed as Jurassic was
illustrated by maps and by drawings of specimens collected in widely
separated regions. Araucarites, some genera of Cycads, the Maiden-
hair tree, Matonidium, Cladophlebis, and other Jurassic types were
described. Special attention was called to the important discovery
made a few years ago by Prof. Andersson, of the Swedish Antarctic
expedition, of Jurassic plants in Louis Philippe Land (lat. 63° 15' S.) :
through the kindness of Prof. ISTathorst and Prof. Andersson the
Lecturer was able to show some illustrations, not yet published, of
these Antarctic plants which are now being described by Prof.
Nathorst.
In conclusion reference was made to the question of means of
dispersal possessed by members of the Jurassic Floras.
Darwin- Wallace Celebration. 79
At 10.15. Dr. A. SMITH WOODWARD, F.R.S., V.P.L.S.
"THE EVOLUTION OF MAMMALS IN SOUTH AMERICA."
THE subject of the Evolution of South American Mammals is
appropriate on the present occasion, because Darwin was one of
the pioneers in the discovery of fossil mammalian remains in the
Argentine pampas. During the ' Beagle ' expedition he found the
first evidence of the extinct ground-sloths, Mylodon and Scelido-
.therium, and of the strange large hoofed-animal Toxodon. Since
Darwin's time, our knowledge of these great quadrupeds and their
•contemporaries has been remarkably extended; and within the
last 20 years their ancestry has been partially revealed by discoveries
in older Tertiary formations to the south in Patagonia. The problem
of the evolution of South American marnmal-life has thus become
understood, and can now be clearly stated. Like all other achieve-
ments in the study of fossils, it still remains a problem ; but there
is at least some satisfaction in having discovered the general nature
•of the phenomena which have to be explained.
According to our present knowledge, it appears that all the modern
groups of mammals have come into existence since the Cretaceous
period, namely, during Tertiary times. There is good reason to
believe that at the end of the Cretaceous period small mammals of
•essentially the same kind were distributed over all the large land-
-areas. These mammals were carnivorous or mixed-feeders, with a
comparatively small brain ; and in every respect they may well have
been the direct ancestors of all the mammals of later times. Portions
•of jaws and a few limb-bones of such mammals have been found to
the north of Patagonia, showing that they lived in South America
.as elsewhere. It is thus evident that the mammal-life of South
America began its career in the same way as that of the more
•extensive continents in the northern hemisphere. As proved by the
geology of the Panama region, however, it so happened that South
America was completely separated from the northern lands during
the earlier half of the Tertiary period, when the main part of the
evolution of the mammals occurred. Their development on this
•southern land was therefore independent of that on other continents ;
and the result was the production of several groups peculiar to
South America, some of them remarkable mimics of groups that
occur elsewhere. Most of these mammals became extinct when a
gQ Darwin- Wallace Celebration.
land-connection with North America permitted the immigration of
dogs, large cats, bears, llamas, deer, peccaries, tapirs, horses, masto-
dons, and other northern mammals— for none of these originated in
South America. Only the sloths, armadillos, anteaters, rodents,
monkeys, and certain small marsupials withstood the invasion and"
survived until the present day.
The land-area of the South American region when the early
Tertiary mammals arose, may perhaps have been more extensive
than it is now. It may even have formed part of a great Antarctic
continent, which included also Australia. The discovery of the large
extinct horned tortoise, Miolania, both in Queensland and in
Patagonia, is supposed to favour this hypothesis; and there are
other discoveries which admit of interpretation in the same way.
The Edentata are clearly shown by fossils to have originated in
South America, and they can be traced upwards from small ancestors
to the gigantic ground-sloths and armadillos, which seem to have
become extinct just before European man reached the continent.
They wandered into the warm regions of North America as soon as
the land-bridge of Panama was established, but they are probably not
connected in any way with the so-called Edentata of the Old World.
Strange Ungulates (Toxodontia, Typotheria, and Litopterna), which
in some respects resemble Rodents, can also be traced through the
rocks from small beginnings to gigantic representatives (e. g. Toxodon
and Macrauchenia) which lived just before the race died out. Some
of the Litopterna were one-toed, and were curious mimics of the
horses of the northern hemisphere. Rodents were always numerous,
and some of them became as large as cattle when the great ground-
sloths nourished. Most interesting are the associated Carnivores,
whose skeletons are so closely similar to those of the existing Thy-
lacines of Tasmania, that they are often regarded as true Marsupials
genetically connected with the Australasian forms. These animals
became extinct when the dogs, cats, and bears invaded South
America from the north. Monkeys seem to have originated early
and changed little with the lapse of time.
During recent years the most active students of the extinct South
American mammals have been Dr. Florentine Ameghino of Buenos
Aires, Prof. W. B. Scott and his colleagues in Princeton (U.S.A.),
and the veteran Prof. Albert Gaudry of Paris. Their writings may
be consulted for an exact account of our present knowledge of the
subject.
MINUTES
or THE
SPECIAL GENERAL MEETING
HELD ON
THTJ11SDAT, IST JULY, 1858.
Darwin- Wallace Celebration. 83
SPECIAL MEETING.
JULY 1st, 1858.
Present, —
THOMAS BELL, Esq., President, in the Chair.
Sir Charles Lyell.
Mr. Syme.
Dr. Hooker.
Mr. Currey.
Mr. Benkliam.
Dr. Baird.
Mr. Ward.
Dr. Fitton.
Mr. Camplin.
Mr. Stevens.
Mr. Howard.
Dr. Carpenter.
Mr. Dyster.
Mr. Oliver.
Dr. Seeinann.
Mr. Henfrey.
Mr. Pratt.
Mr. W. Hawkins.
Mr. Salter.
Dr. Burchell.
Dr. Macdonald.
Mr. Buckton.
Mr. Archer.
Mr. W. Buckton.
Mr. Ball.
Mr. Black, Assoc.
[Dr. C. Collingwood.]
etc. etc.
Visitors.
Introduced l>y
Dr. Baly.
Dr. Melville.
Mr. Dyster.
Mr. Ward.
The minutes of the last meeting were read.
The following donations were received and thanks were
ordered for them, viz. : —
Memoires de la Societe Boye des Sciences de Liege, tomes
lle et 13e. Presented by the Society.
Proceedings uf the Royal Society, vol. 9, No. 31. Pre-
sented by the Society.
Journal of the Society of Arts, Nos. 291-2. Presented
by the Society.
Abstracts of the Proceedings of the Geological Society,
No. 18. Presented by the Society.
G 2
84 Darwin-Wallace Celebration.
Nos. 103-4 (4th series) of the Philosophical Magazine and
No. 7 (3rd series) of the Annals of Natural History. Both
presented by Richard Taylor, Esq., F.L.S.
Nos. 2161-2 of the Literary Gazette. Presented by Lovell
Reeve, Esq., F.L.S.
Original Drawings of Tasmanian Orchidese, by William
Archer, Esq., F.L.S. Presented by Mr. Archer.
Handbook of the British Flora, by George Bentham, Esq.,
F.L.S. Presented by the Author.
Part 9 of the Grasses of Great Britain. Presented by
J. E. Sovverby, Esq.
Examination of Pavon's collection of Peruvian Barks
contained in the British Museum. Presented by the Author,
J. E. Howard, Esq., F.L.S.
Flora Melitensis. Presented by the Author, Dr. J.
C. Grech Delicata.
Specimens of Highgate Resin. Presented by J. W.
Wetherall, Esq.
The meeting having been specially summoned for the
election of a Member of Council in place of Robert Brown,
Esq., V.P., deceased, the President opened the business of
the day, and the members present proceeded to ballot.
The Ballot having closed, the President appointed
Dr. Seemann, Mr. Archer, and Mr. Heward to be Scrutineers,
to examine the Lists and report the result ; and the Votes
having been counted, and reported to the President, he
declared George Bentham, Esq., to be elected a Member of
Council for the ensuing year.
The President nominated George Bentham, Esq., to be a
Vice-President in the place of Robert Brown, Esq., for the
ensuing year.
It was moved by Sir Charles Lyell, seconded by
Mr. Bennett, and carried unanimously :
"That this Meeting desires most emphatically to
record its deep sense of the eminent services rendered
Darwin-Wallace Celebration. 85
by the late Robert Brown, Esq., both to the Linnean
Society and to Botanical Science, by the entire devotion
of a long life and of talents of the highest order to the
promotion of the great objects for which the Society
was formed.
" That it looks back with heartfelt satisfaction to the
long period of sixty years, during which Mr. Brown was
connected with the Society, as an Associate, as Librarian,
as a Fellow, as a Vice-President, and as President, and
is profoundly sensible of the honour which the Society
has derived from this long and intimate connexion with
so great a Master in Botanical Science.
" That while thus recording its high appreciation of
the eminent talents of this great man, and of their suc-
cessful application to the pursuit of Natural Science,
this Meeting cannot refrain from also paying a just
tribute to the simple-hearted benevolence of disposition,
the high moral purity of mind, and the unswerving
rectitude of judgment, which formed the most striking
distinctions of his individual character.
" That influenced by these various considerations,
this Meeting deeply deplores the loss which the Linnean
Society and Natural Science have sustained by the
death of so distinguished, and at the same time, so
estimable, a man/'
Read 1st, a letter from Sir Charles Lyell, F.L.S., and
Dr. Hooker, F.L.S., addressed to the Secretary, as intro-
ductory to the following Papers, on the laws which affect the
production of varieties, races, and species, viz. :
An abstract from a MS. work on species, by Charles
Darwin, Esq., F.R.S. & L.S., sketched in 1839 and
copied in 1844.
An abstract of a letter addressed by Mr. Darwin to
Prof. Asa Gray of Boston, U.S., in Oct. 1857.
An essay on the tendency of varieties to depart inde-
finitely from the original type ; by A. R. Wallace, Esq.
86 Darwin- Wallace Celebration.
Read 2ndly : " Notes on the organization of Pharonis
Hippocrepis" by F. D. Dyster, M.D., F.L.S.
3rdly: " Observations on Ammocoetus" by Saml.
Highley, Esq., communicated by Professor Bell,
Pres. L.S.
4thly : " On Hanbur'ia, a new genus of Cucurbitacese/'
by Berthold Seemann, Esq., M.D., F.L.S.
Sthly : A MS. Memoir, by the late Prof. Pavon,
entitled "Nueva Qainologia," with observations by
J. E. Howard, Esq., F.L.S.
6thly : Two letters on " the Vegetation of Angola " by
Dr. F. Welwitsch ; addressed to W. W. Saunders,
Esq., V.P.L.S.
(Signed) THOMAS BELL.
(President.)
REPRINT
OF THE PAPERS BY
CHAELES DARWIN and ALFRED RUSSEL WALLACE
READ ON THE 1st JULY, 1858.
From the Journal of the Society, Zoology, Vol. III. No. 9,
published 20th August, 1858. Pp. 45-62.
Darwin- Wallace Celebration.
On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties ; and on the
Perpetuation of Varieties and Species by Natural Means-
of Selection. By CHARLES DARWIN, Esq., F.R.S.r
F.L.S., & F.G.S., and ALFRED WALLACE, Esq. Com-
municated by Sir CHARLES LYELL, F.R.S., F.L.S., and
J. I). HOOKER, Esq., M.D., V.P.R.S., F.L.S., &c.
[Read July 1st, 18£8.J
London, June 30th, 1858,
MY DEAR SIR, — The accompanying papers, which we have
the honour of communicating to the Linnean 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 natu-
ralists, 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 un-
reservedly 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 Linnean 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 afterwards
communicated to Sir Charles Lyell. The first Part is devoted
* This MS. work \vas never intended for publication, and therefore was
not written with care.— C. D. 1858.
•90 Darwin- Wallace Celebration.
1o " 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 Kaces 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 for-
warded 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 favour 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, &c. ; and in adopting our present course, of
presenting it to the Linnean 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
reflection, should constitute at once a goal from which others
anay start, and that, while the scientific world is waiting for
JDancin- Wallace Celebration. 91
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,
CHARLES LYELL.
Jos. D. HOOKER.
,]. ,7. Bennett, Esq.,
Secretary of tJie Linnean Society.
I. Extract from an unpublished Work on Species, by C. DARWIN,
Esq., consisting of a portion of a Chapter entitled, " On
the Variation of Organic Beings in a state of Nature ; on
the Natural Cleans of Selection ; on the Comparison of
Domestic Races and true Species."
De Candolle, in an eloquent passage, has declared that all
nature is at war, one organism with another, or with external
nature. Seeing the contented face of nature, this may at
first well be doubted : but reflection will inevitably prove it
to be true. The war, however, is not constant, but recurrent
in a slight degree at short periods, and more severely at oc-
casional more distant periods ; and hence its effects are easily
overlooked. It is the doctrine of Malthus applied in most
cases with tenfold force. As in every climate there are
seasons, for each of its inhabitant?, of greater and less
abundance, so all annually breed ; and the moral restraint
which in some small degree checks the increase of mankind
is entirely lost. Even slow-breeding mankind has doubled
in twenty-five years ; and if he could increase his food with
greater ease, he would double in less time. But for animals
without artificial means, the amount of food for each species
must, on an average, be constant, whereas the increase of all
organisms tends to be geometrical, and in a vast majority of
cases at an enormous ratio. Suppose in a certain spot there
^ire eight pairs of birds, and that only four pairs of them
annually (including double hatches) rear only four young,
-and that these go on rearing their young at the same rate,
92 Darwin- Wallace Celebration.
then at the end of seven years (a short life, excluding violent
deaths, for any bird) there will be 2048 birds, instead of the
original sixteen. As this increase is quite impossible, we
must conclude either that birds do not rear nearly half their
young, or that the average life of a bird is, from accident, not
nearly seven years. Both checks probably concur. The
same kind of calculation applied to all plants and animals
affords results more or less striking, but in very few instances
more striking than in man.
Many practical illustrations of this rapid tendency to in-
crease are on record, among which, during peculiar seasons,
are the extraordinary numbers of certain animals ; for
instance, during the years 1826 to 1828, in La Plata, when
from drought some millions of cattle perished, the whole
country actually swarmed with mice. Now I think it cannot
be doubted that during the breeding-season all the mice (with
the exception of a few males or females in excess) ordinarily
pair, and therefore that this astounding increase during three
years must be attributed to a greater number than usual
surviving the first year, and then breeding, and so on till the
third year, when their numbers were brought down to their
usual limits on the return of wet weather. Where man has
introduced plants and animals into a new and favourable
country, there are many accounts in how surprisingly few
years the whole country has become stocked with them.
This increase would necessarily stop as soon as the country
was fully stocked ; and yet we have every reason to believe,
from what is known of wild animals, that all would pair in
the spring. In the majority of cases it is most difficult to
imagine where the checks fall — though generally, no doubt,
on the seeds, eggs, and young ; but when we remember how
impossible, even in mankind (so much better known than any
other animal), it is to infer from repeated casual observations
what the average duration of life is, or to discover the
different percentage of deaths to births in different countries,
we ought to feel no surprise at our being unable to discover
where the check falls in any animal or plant. It should
always be remembered, that in most cases the checks are
recurrent yearly in a small, regular degree, and in an extreme
degree during unusually cold, hot, dry, or wet years, according
to the constitution of the being in question. Lighten any
check in the least degree, and the geometrical powers of
increase in every organism will almost instantly increase the
average number of the favoured species. Ncature may be-
compared to a surface on which rest ten thousand sharp
Darwin- Wallace Celebration. 93
-wedges touching each other and driven inwards by incessant
blows. Fully to realize these views much reflection is
requisite. Malthus on man should be studied ; and all such
cases as those of the mice in La Plata, of the cattle and horses
when first turned out in South America, of the birds by our
calculation, &c., should be well considered. Reflect on the
enormous multiplying power inherent and annually in action
in all animals ; reflect on the countless seeds scattered by a
hundred ingenious contrivances, year after year, over the
whole face of the land ; and yet we have every reason to
suppose that the average percentage of each of the inhabitants
of a country usually remains constant. Finally, let it be borne
in mind that this average number of individuals (the external
conditions remaining the same) in each country is kept up by
recurrent struggles against other species or against external
nature (as on the borders of the Arctic regions, where the
cold checks life), and that ordinarily each individual of every
species holds its place, either by its own struggle and
capacity of acquiring nourishment in some period of its life,
from the egg upwards ; or by the struggle of its parents (in
short-lived organisms, when the main check occurs at longer
Intervals) with other individuals of the same or different
species.
But let the external conditions of a country alter. If in a
small degree, the relative proportions of the inhabitants will
in most cases simply be slightly changed ; but let the number
<of inhabitants be small, as on an island, and free access to it
from other countries be circumscribed, and let the change of
conditions continue progressing (forming new stations), in
such a case the original inhabitants must cease to be as
perfectly adapted to the changed conditions as they were
originally. It has been shown in a former part of this work,
that such changes of external conditions would, from their
acting on the reproductive system, probably cause the organi-
zation of those beings which were most affected to become, as
under domestication, plastic. Now, can it be doubted, from
the struggle each individual has to obtain subsistence, that
any minute variation in structure, habits, or instincts, adapting
that individual better to the new conditions, would tell upon
its vigour and health ? In the struggle it would have a better
diance of surviving ; and those of its offspring which inherited
the variation, be it ever so slight, would also have a better
chance. Yearly more are bred than can survive ; the smallest
grain in the balance, in the long run, must tell on which
death shall fall, and which shall survive. Let this work of
94 Darwin- Wallace Celebration.
selection on the one hand, and death on the other, go on for
a thousand generations, who will pretend to affirm that it
would produce no effect, when we remember what, in a few
years, Bakewell effected in cattle, and Western in sheep, by
this identical principle of selection ?
To give an imaginary example from changes in progress on
an island :— let the organization of a canine animal which
preyed chiefly on rabbits, but sometimes on hares, become
slightly plastic ; let these same changes cause the number of
rabbits very slowly to decrease, and the number of hares to
increase ; the effect of this would be that the fox or dog-
would be driven to try to catch more hares : his organization,
however, being slightly plastic, those individuals with the
lightest forms, longest limbs, and best eyesight, let the
difference be ever so small, would be slightly favoured, and
would tend to live longer, and to survive during that time of
the year when food was scarcest ; they would also rear more
young, which would tend to inherit these slight peculiarities.
The less fleet ones would be rigidly destroyed. I can see no
more reason to doubt that these causes in a thousand gener-
ations would produce a marked effect, and adapt the form of
the fox or dog to the catching of hares instead of rabbits, than
that greyhounds can be improved by selection and careful
breeding. So would it be with plants under similar circum-
stances. If the number of individuals of a species with
plumed seeds could be increased by greater powers of dis-
semination within its own area (that is, if the check to increase
fell chiefly on the seeds), those seeds which were provided
with ever so little more down, would in the long run be most
disseminated ; hence a greater number of seeds thus formed
would germinate, and would tend to produce plants inheriting
the slightly better-adapted down*.
Besides this natural means of selection, by which those
individuals are preserved, whether in their egg, or larval, or
mature state, which are best adapted to the place they fill in
nature, there is a second agency at work in most unisexual
animals, tending to produce the same effect, namely, the
struggle of the males for the females. These struggles are
generally decided by the law of battle, but in the case of
birds, apparently, by the charms of their song, by their beauty
or their power of courtship, as in the dancing rock- thrush of
Guiana. The most vigorous and healthy males, implying
* I can see no more difficulty in this, than in the planter improving
his varieties of the cotton plant.— C. D. 1858,
Darwin-Wallace Celebration. 95-
perfect adaptation, must generally gain the victory in their
contests. This kind of selection, however, is less rigorous
than the other; it does not require the death of the less-
successful, but gives to them fewer descendants. The struggle
falls, moreover, at a time of year when food is generally
abundant, and perhaps the effect chiefly produced would be-
the modification of the secondary sexual characters, which are
not related to the power of obtaining food, or to defence from
enemies, but to fighting with or rivalling other males. The
result of this struggle amongst the males may be compared
in some respects to that produced by those agriculturists who
pay less attention to the careful selection of all their young
animals, and more to the occasional use of a choice mate.
II. Abstract of a Letter from C. DARWIN, Esq., to Prof. ASA
GRAY, Boston, U.S., dated Down, September 5tli, 1857.
1. It is wonderful what the principle of selection by man,
that is the picking out of individuals with any desired quality,,
and breeding from them, and again picking out, can do.
Even breeders have been astounded at their own results.
They can act on differences inappreciable to an uneducated
eye. Selection has been methodically followed in Europe for
only the last half century ; but it was occasionally, and even
in some degree methodically, followed in the most ancient
times. There must have been also a kind of unconscious
selection from a remote period, namely in the preservation of
the individual animals (without any thought of their offspring)
most useful to each race of man in his particular circum-
stances. The " roguing," as nurserymen call the destroying
of varieties which depart from their type, is a kind of
selection. I am convinced that intentional and occasional
selection has been the main agent in the production of our
domestic races ; but however this may be, its great power of
modification has been indisputably shown in later times.
Selection acts only by/ the accumulation of slight or greater
variations, caused by external conditions, or by the mere fact
that in generation the child is not absolutely similar to its-
parent. Man, by this power of accumulating variations,
adapts living beings to his wants — may be said to make the-
wool of one sheep good for carpets, of another for cloth, &c.
36 Darwin-Wallace Celebration.
2. Now suppose theio were a being who did not judge by
me're external appearances, but who could study the whole
internal organization, who was never capricious, and should
go on selecting for one object during millions of generations;
who will say what he might not effect ? In nature we have
some slight variation occasionally in all parts; and I think
it can be shown that changed conditions of existence is the
main cause of the child not exactly resembling its parents ;
and in nature geology shows us what changes have taken
place, and are taking place. We have almost unlimited
time; no one but %a practical geologist can fully appreciate
ihis. Think of the Glacial period, during the whole of
which the same species at least of shells have existed ; there
must have been during this period millions on millions of
generations.
3. I think it can be shown that there is such an unerring
power at work in Natural Selection (the title of my book),
which selects exclusively for the good of each organic being.
'The elder De Candolle, W. Herbert, and Lyell have written
excellently on the struggle for life ; but even they have not
written strongly enough. Reflect that every being (even
the elephant) breeds at such a rate, that in a few years, or
at most a few centuries, the surface of the earth would not
hold the progeny of one pair. I have found it hard con-
stantly to bear in mind that the increase of every single
species is checked during some part of its life, or during
some shortly recurrent generation. Only a few of those
annually born can live to propagate their kind. What a
trifling difference must often determine which shall survive,
and which perish !
4. Now take the case o£ a country undergoing some
change. This will tend to cause some of its inhabitants to
vary slightly — not but that I believe most beings vary at all
times enough for selection to act on them. Some of its
inhabitants will be exterminated ; and the remainder will be
exposed to the mutual action of a different set of inhabitants,
which I believe to be far more important to the life of each
being than mere climate. Considering the infinitely various
methods which living beings follow to obtain food by
.struggling with other organisms, to escape danger at various
times of life, to have their eggs or seeds disseminated, &c.
&c., I cannot doubt that during millions of generations
individuals of a species will be occasionally born with some
slight variation, profitable to some part of their economy.
iSuch individuals will have a better chance of surviving, and
Darwin- Wallace Celebration. 97
of propagating their new and slightly different structure ;
and the modification may be slowly increased by the accumu-
lative action of natural selection to any profitable extent.
The variety thus formed will either coexist with, or, more
commonly, will exterminate its parent form. An organic
being, like the woodpecker or misseltoe, may thus come to
be adapted to a score of contingences — natural selection
accumulating those slight variations in all parts of its
structure, which are in any way useful to it during any part
of its life.
5. Multiform difficulties will occur to every one, With
respect to this theory. Many can, I think, be satisfactorily
answered. Natura non facit saltum answers some of the
most obvious. Tbe slowness of the change, and only a very
few individuals undergoing change at any one time, answers
others. The extreme imperfection of our geological records
answers others.
6. Another principle, which may be called the principle
of divergence, plays, I believe, an important part in the
origin of species. The same spot will support more life if
occupied by very diverse forms. We see this in the many
generic forms in a square yard of turf, and in the plants or
insects on any little uniform islet, belonging almost invariably
to as many genera and families as species. We can under-
stand the meaning of this fact amongst the higher animals,
whose habits we understand. We know that it has been
experimentally shown that a plot of land will yield a greater
weight if sown with several species and genera of grasses,
than if sown with only two or three species. Now, every
organic being, by propagating so rapidly, may be said to be
striving its utmost to increase in numbers. So it will be
with the offspring of any species after it has become
diversified into varieties, or subspecies, or true species. And
it follows, I think, from the foregoing facts, that the varying
offspring of each species will try (only few will succeed) to
seize on as many and as diverse places in the economy of
nature as possible. Each new variety or species, when
formed, will generally take the place of, and thus extermi-
nate its less well-fitted parent. This I believe to be the
origin of the classification and affinities of organic beings at
all times ; for organic beings always seem to branch and
sub-branch like the limbs of a tree from a common trunk,
the flourishing and diverging twigs destroying the less
vigorous — the dead and lost branches rudely representing
extinct genera and families.
H
gg Darwin-Wallace Celebration.
This sketch is most imperfect ; but in so short a space I
cannot make it better. Your imagination must fill up very
•wide blanks.
C. DARWIN.
III. On the Tendency of Varieties to depart indefinitely from
the Original Type. By ALFRED RUBSEL WALLACE.
One of the strongest arguments which have been adduced
to prove the original and permanent distinctness of species is,
that varieties produced in a state of domesticity are more or
less unstable, and often have a tendency, if left to themselves,
to return to the normal form of the parent species ; and this
instability is considered to be a distinctive peculiarity of all
varieties, even of those occurring among wild animals in a
state of nature, and to constitute a provision for preserving
unchanged the originally created distinct species.
In the absence or scarcity of facts and observations as to
varieties occurring among wild animals, this argument has
had great weight with naturalists, and has led to a very
general and somewhat prejudiced belief in the stability of
species. Equally general, however, is the belief in what are
called " permanent or true varieties," — races of animals
which continually propagate their like, but which differ so
slightly (although constantly) from some other race, that the
one is considered to be a variety of the other. Which is the
variety and which the original species, there is generally no
means of determining, except in those rare cases in which
the one race has been known to produce an offspring unlike
itself and resembling the other. This, however, would seem
quite incompatible with the "permanent invariability of
species," but the difficulty is overcome by assuming that
such varieties have strict limits, and can never again vary
further from the original type, although they may return to
it, which, from the analogy of the domesticated animals, is
considered to be highly probable, if not certainly proved.
It will be observed that this argument rests entirely on the
assumption, that varieties occurring in a state of nature are
in all respects analogous to or even identical with those of
domestic animals, and are governed by the same laws as
regards their permanence or further variation. But it is the
object of the present paper to show that this assumption is
altogether false, that there is a general principle in nature
which will cause many varieties to survive the parent species,
Darwin' Wallace Celebration. 99
and to give rise to successive variations departing further
and further from the original type, and which also produces,
in domesticated animals, the tendency of varieties to return
to the parent form.
The life of wild animals is a struggle for existence. The
full exertion of all their faculties and all their energies is
required to preserve their own existence and provide for that
of their infant offspring. The possibility of procuring food
during the least favourable seasons, and of escaping the
attacks of their most dangerous enemies, are the primary
conditions which determine the existence both of individuals
and of entire species. These conditions will also determine
the population of a species; and by a careful consideration of
nil the circumstances we may be enabled to comprehend,
and in some degree to explain, what at first sight appears so
inexplicable — the excessive abundance of some species, while
others closely allied to them are very rare.
The general proportion that must obtain between certain
groups of animals is readily seen. Large animals cannot be
so abundant as small ones ; the carnivora must be less
numerous than the herbivora; eagles and lions can never be
so plentiful as pigeons and antelopes ; the wild asses of the
Tartarian deserts cannot equal in numbers the horses of the
more luxuriant prairies and pampas of America. The greater
or less fecundity of an animal is often considered to be one
of the chief causes of its abundance or scarcity ; but a
consideration of the facts will show us that it really has little
or nothing to do with the matter. Even the least prolific of
animals would increase rapidly if unchecked, whereas it is
evident that the animal population of the globe must be
stationary, or perhaps, through the influence of man, de-
creasing. Fluctuations there may be ; but permanent
increase, except in restricted localities, is almost impossible.
For example, our own observation must convince us that
birds do not go on increasing every year in a geometrical
ratio, as they would do, were there not some powerful check
to their natural increase. Very few birds produce less than
two young ones each year, while many have six, eight, or
ten ; four will certainly be below the average ; and if we
suppose that each pair produce young only four times in
their life, that will also be below the average, supposing
them not to die either by violence or want of food. Yet at
this rate how tremendous would be the increase in a few
years from a single pair ! A simple calculation will show
that in fifteen years each pair of birds would have increased
H2
100 Darwin- Wallace Celebration.
to nearly ten millions ! whereas we have no reason to believe
that the number of the birds of any country increases at all
in fifteen or in one hundred and fifty years. With such
powers of increase the population must have reached its
limits, and have become stationary, in a very few years after
the origin of each species. It is evident, therefore, that
each year an immense number of birds must perish — as
many in fact as are born ; and as on the lowest calculation
the progeny are each year twice as numerous as their
parents, it follows that, whatever be the average number of
individuals existing in any given country, twice that number
must perish annually, — a striking result, but one which seems
at least highly probable, and is perhaps under rather than
over the truth. It would therefore appear that, as far as the
continuance of the species and the keeping up the average
number of individuals are concerned, large broods are
superfluous. On the average all above one become food
for hawks and kites, \\ild cats and weasels, or perish of
cold and hunger as winter comes on. This is strikingly
proved by the case of particular species; for we find that
their abundance in individuals bears no relation whatever to
their fertility in producing offspring. Perhaps the most
remarkable instance of an immense bird population is that of
the passenger pigeon of the United States, which lays only
one, or at most two eggs, and is said to rear generally but
one young one. Why is this bird so extraordinarily
abundant, while others producing two or three times as
many young are much less plentiful? The explanation is
not difficult. The food most congenial to this species, and
on which it thrives best, is abundantly distributed over a
very extensive region, offering such differences of soil and
climate, that in one part or another of the area the supply
never fails. The bird is capable of a very rapid and long-
continued flight, so that it can pass without fatigue over the
whole of the district it inhabits, and as soon as the supply of
food begins to fail in one place is able to discover a fresh
feeding-ground. This example strikingly shows us that the
procuring a constant supply of wholesome food is almost
the sole condition requisite for ensuring the rapid increase
of a given species, since neither the limited fecundity, nor
the unrestrained attacks of birds of prey and of man are
here sufficient to check it. In no other birds are these
peculiar circumstances so strikingly combined. Either their
food is more liable to failure, or they have not sufficient
power of wing to search for it over an extensive area, or
Darwin- Wallace Celebration. 101
during some season of the year it becomes \ery scarce, and
less wholesome substitutes have to be found ; and thus,
though more fertile in offspring, they can never increase
beyond the supply of food in the least favourable seasons.
Many birds can only exist by migrating, when their food
becomes scarce, to regions possessing a milder, or at least a
different climate, though, as these migrating birds are seldom
excessively abundant, it is evident that the countries they
visit are still deficient in a constant and abundant supply of
wholesome food. Those whose organization does not permit
them to migrate when their food becomes periodically scarce,
oan never attain a large population. This is probably the
reason why woodpeckers are scarce with us, while in the
tropics they are among the most abundant of solitary birds.
Thus the house sparrow is more abundant than the redbreast,
because its food is more constant and plentiful, — seeds of
grasses being preserved during the winter, and our farm-
yards and stubble-fields furnishing an almost inexhaustible
supply. Why, as a general rule, are aquatic, and especially
sea birds, very numerous in individuals ? Not because they
are more prolific than others, generally the contrary; but
because their food never fails, the sea-shores and river-banks
daily swarming with a fresh supply of small mollusca and
Crustacea. Exactly the same laws will apply to mammals.
Wild cats are prolific and have few enemies ; why then are
they never as abundant as rabbits ? The only intelligible
answer is, that their supply of food is more precarious. It
appears evident, therefore, that so long as a country remains
physically unchanged, the numbers of its animal population
•cannot materially increase. If one species does so, some
others requiring the same kind of food must diminish in
proportion. The numbers that die annually must be im-
mense ; and as the individual existence of each animal
depends upon itself, those that die must be the weakest— the
very young, the aged, and the diseased, — while those that
prolong their existence can only be the most perfect in health
and vigour — those who are best able to obtain food regularly,
and avoid their numerous enemies. It is, as we commenced
by remarking, "a struggle for existence," in which the
weakest and least perfectly organized must always succumb.
Now it is clear that what takes place among the individuals
of a species must also occur among the several allied species
of a group, — viz., that those which are best adapted to
•obtain a regular supply of food, and to defend themselves
against the attacks of their enemies and the vicissitudes of the
102 Darwin- Wallace Celebration.
seasons, must necessarily obtain and preserve a superiority
in population ; while those species which from some defect
of power or organization are the least capable of counteract-
ing the vicissitudes of food supply, &c., must diminish in
numbers, and, in extreme cases, become altogether extinct.
Between these extremes the species will present various
degrees of capacity for ensuring the means of preserving,
life ; and it is thus we account for the abundance or rarity
of species. Our ignorance will generally prevent us from
accurately tracing the effects to their causes ; but could we
become perfectly acquainted with the organization and habits
of the various species of animals, and could we measure the
capacity of each for performing the different acts necessary
to its safety and existence under all the varying circumstances-
by which it is surrounded, we might be able even to
calculate the proportionate abundance of individuals which
is the necessary result.
If now we have succeeded in establishing these two points
— 1st, that the animal population of a country is generally
stationary, being kept down by a periodical deficiency of food^
and other checks ; and, 2nd, that the comparative abundance or
scarcity of the individuals of the several species is entirely due'
to their organization and resulting habits, which, rendering it
more difficult to procure a regular supply of food and to %>rovide
for their personal safety in some cases than in others, can only
be balanced by a difference in the population which have to exist
in a given area — we shall be in a condition to proceed to the
consideration of varieties, t0 which the preceding remarks
have a direct and very important application.
Most or perhaps all the variations from the typical form o£
a species must have some definite effect, however slight, on
the habits or capacities of the individuals. Even a change of
colour might, by rendering them more or less distinguishable,,
affect their safety ; a greater or less development of hair
might modify their habits. More important changes, such
as an increase in the power or dimensions of the limbs or any
of the external organs, would more or less affect their mode
of procuring food or the range of country which they inhabit.
It is also evident that most changes would affect, either
favourably or adversely, the powers of prolonging existence.
An antelope with shorter or weaker legs must necessarily
suffer more from the attacks of the feline carnivora ; the
passenger pigeon with less powerful wings would sooner or
later be affected in its powers of procuring a regular supply
of food ; and in both cases the result must necessarily be a
Darwin- Wallace Celebration . 103
diminution of the population of the modified species. If, on
the other hand, any species should produce a variety having
slightly increased powers of preserving existence, that variety
must inevitably in time acquire a superiority in numbers.
These results must follow as surely as old age, intemperance,
or scarcity of food produce an increased mortality. In both
cases there may be many individual exceptions ; but on the
average the rule will invariably be found to hold good. All
varieties will therefore fall into two classes — those which
under the same conditions would never reach the population
of the parent species, and those which would in time obtain
and keep a numerical superiority. Now, let some alteration
of physical conditions occur in the district — a long period of
drought, a destruction of vegetation by locusts, the irruption
of some new carnivorous animal seeking " pastures new " —
any change in fact tending to render existence more difficult
to the species in question, and tasking its utmost powers to
avoid complete extermination ; it is evident that, of all the
individuals composing the species, those forming the least
numerous and most feebly organized variety would suffer
first, and, were the pressure severe, must soon become extinct.
The same causes continuing in action, the parent species
would next suffer, would gradually diminish in numbers, and
with a recurrence of similar unfavourable conditions might
also become extinct. The superior variety would then alone
remain, and on a return to favourable circumstances would
rapidly increase in numbers and occupy the place of the
extinct species and variety.
The variety would now have replaced the species, of which
it would be a more perfectly developed and more highly
organized form. It would be in all respects better adapted
to secure its safety, and to prolong its individual existence
and that of the race. Such a variety could not return to the
original form ; for that form is an inferior one, and could
never compete with it for existence. Granted, therefore, a
" tendency " to reproduce the original type of the species,
still the variety must ever remain preponderant in numbers,
and under adverse physical conditions again alone survive.
But this new, improved, and populous race might itself, in
course of time, give rise to new varieties, exhibiting several
diverging modifications of form, any of which, tending to
increase the facilities for preserving existence, must, by the
same general law, in their turn become predominant. Her*,
then, we have progression and continued divergence deduced
from the general laws which regulate the existence of animals
104 Darwin- Wallace Celebration.
in a state of nature, and from the undisputed fact that
varieties do frequently occur. It is not, however, contended
that this result would be invariable ; a change of physical
conditions in the district might at times materially modify it,
rendering the race which had been the most capable of sup-
porting existence under the former conditions now the least
so, and even causing the extinction of the newer and, for a
time, superior race, while the old or parent species and its
first inferior varieties continued to flourish. Variations in
unimportant parts might also occur, having no perceptible
effect on the life-preserving powers ; and the varieties so
furnished might run a course parallel with the parent species,
either giving rise to further variations or returning to the
former type. All we argue for is, that certain varieties have
a tendency to maintain their existence longer than the
original species, an,d this tendency must make itself felt ; for
though the doctrine of chances or averages can never be
trusted to on a limited scale, yet, if applied to high numbers,
the results come nearer to what theory demands, and, as we
approach to an infinity of examples, become strictly accurate.
Now the scale on which nature works is so vast — the numbers
of individuals and periods of time with which she deals
approach so near to infinity, that any cause, however slight,
and however liable to be veiled and counteracted by
accidental circumstances, must in the end produce its full
legitimate results.
Let us now turn to domesticated animals, and inquire how
varieties produced among them are affected by the principles
here enunciated. The essential difference in the condition of
wild and domestic animals is this, — that among the former,
their well-being and very existence depend upon the full
exercise and healthy condition of all their senses and physical
powers, whereas, among the latter, these are only partially
exercised, and in some cases are absolutely unused. A wild
animal has to search, and often to labour, for every mouthful
of food — to exercise sight, hearing, and smell in seeking it,
and in avoiding dangers, in procuring shelter from the
inclemency of the seasons, and in providing for the sub-
sistence and safety of its offspring. There is no muscle of
its body that is not called into daily and hourly activity ;
there is no sense or faculty that is not strengthened by con-
tinual exercise. The domestic animal, on the other hand,
has food provided for it, is sheltered, and often confined, to
guard it against the vicissitudes of the seasons, is carefully
secured from the attacks of its natural enemies, and seldom
Darwin-Wo.llace Celebration. 105
even rears its young without human assistance. Half of its
senses and faculties are quite useless ; and the other half are
but occasionally called into feeble exercise, while even its
muscular system is only irregularly called into action.
Now when a variety of such an animal occurs, having
increased power or capacity in any organ or sense, such in-
crease is totally useless, is never called into action, and m;iy
-even exist without the animal ever becoming aware of it. In
the wild animal, on the contrary, all its faculties and powers
being brought into full action for the necessities of existence,
any increase becomes immediately available, is strengthened
by exercise, and must even slightly modify the food, the
habits, and the whole economy of the race. It creates as it
were a new animal, one of superior powers, and which will
necessarily increase in numbers and outlive those inferior
to it.
Again, in the domesticated animal all variations have
an equal chance of continuance ; and those which would
decidedly render a wild animal unable to compete with
its fellows and continue its existence are no disadvantage
whatever in a state of domesticity. Our quickly fattening
pigs, short-legged sheep, pouter pigeons, and poodle dogs
could never have come into existence in a state of nature,
because the very first step towards such inferior forms would
have led to the rapid extinction of the race ; still less could
ihey now exist in competition with their wild allies. The
great speed but slight endurance of the race horse, the un-
wieldy strength of the ploughman's team, would both be
useless in a state of nature. If turned wild on the pampas,
such animals would probably soon become extinct, or under
favourable circumstances might each lose those extreme
qualities which would never be called into action, and in a
few generations would revert to a common type, which must
be that in. which the various powers and faculties are so
proportioned to each other as to be best adapted to procure
food and secure safety, — that in which by the full exercise
of every part of his organization the animal can alone con-
tinue to live. Domestic varieties, when turned wild, must
return to something near the type of the original wild stock,
or become altogether extinct.
We see, then, that no inferences as to varieties in a state
of nature can be deduced from the observation of those
occurring among domestic animals. The two are so much
opposed to each other in every circumstance of their existence,
that what applies to the one is almost sure not to apply
106 Darwin- Wallace Celebration.
to the other. Domestic animals are abnormal, irregular,,
artificial ; they are subject to varieties which never occur
and never can occur in a state of nature : their very exist-
ence depends altogether on human care ; so far are many of
them removed from that just proportion of faculties, that
true balance of organization, by means of which alone an.
animal left to its own resources can preserve its existence and
continue its race.
The hypothesis of Lamarck — that progressive changes in<
species have been produced by the attempts of animals to
increase the development of their own organs, and thu&
modify their structure and habits — has been repeatedly and
easily refuted by all writers on the subject of varieties and
species, and it seems to have been considered that when this
was done the whole question has been finally settled ; but the
view here developed renders such an hypothesis quite un-
necessary, by showing that similar results must be produced
by the action of principles constantly at work in nature. The
powerful retractile talons of the falcon- and the cat-tribes
have not been produced or increased by the volition of those
animals ; but among the different varieties which occurred
in the earlier and less highly organized forms of these
groups, those always survived longest wliicli had the greatest
facilities for seizing their prey. Neither did the giraffe acquire
its long neck by desiring to reach the foliage of the more-
lofty shrubs, and constantly stretching its neck for the
purpose, but because any varieties which occurred among its
antitypes with a longer neck than usual at once secured a
fresh range of pasture over the same ground as their shorter-
necked companions, and on the first scarcity of food were'
thereby enabled to outlive them. Even the peculiar colours of
many animals, especially insects, so closely resembling the
soil or the leaves or the trunks on which they habitually
reside, are explained on the same principle ; for though in
the course of ages varieties of many tints may have occurred,.
yet those races having colours lest adapted to concealment from
their enemies would inevitably survive the longest. We have
also here an acting cause to account for that balance so often
observed in nature, — a deficiency in one set of organs always
being compensated by an increased development of some-
others — powerful wings accompanying weak feet, or great
velocity making up for the absence of defensive weapons ;
for it has been shown that all varieties in which an un-
balanced deficiency occurred could not long continue their
existence. The action of this principle is exactly like that
Darwin- Wallace Celebration. 107
of the centrifugal governor of the steam engine, which checks
and corrects any irregularities almost before they become
evident ; and in like manner no unbalanced deficiency in the
animal kingdom can ever reach any conspicuous magnitude,
because it would make itself felt at the very first step, by
rendering existence difficult and extinction almost sure soon
to follow. An origin such as is here advocated will also
agree with the peculiar character of the modifications of form
and structure which obtain in organized beings — the many
lines of divergence from a central type, the increasing
efficiency and power of a particular organ through a suc-
cession of allied species, and the remarkable persistence of
unimportant parts such as colour, texture of plumage and
hair, form of horns or crests, through a series of species
differing considerably in more essential characters. It also
furnishes us with a reason for that " more specialized
structure" which Professor Owen states to be a characteristic
of recent compared with extinct forms, and which would
evidently be the result of the progressive modification of any
organ applied to a special purpose in the animal economy.
We believe we have now shown that there is a tendency
in nature to the continued progression of certain classes of
varieties further and further from the original type — a pro-
gression to which there appears no reason to assign any
definite limits — and that the same principle which produces
this result in a state of nature will also explain why domestic
varieties have a tendency to revert to the original type. This
progression, by minute steps, in various directions, but always
checked and balanced by the necessary conditions, subject to
which alone existence can be preserved, may, it is believed,
be followed out so as to agree with all the phenomena
presented by organized beings, their extinction and succession
in past ages, and all the extraordinary modifications of form,
instinct, and habits which they exhibit.
Ternate, February, 1858.
SELECTIONS
MALTHUS'S ESSAY
POPULATION,
WHICH SUGGESTED THE IDEA OF
NATURAL SELECTION.
Daricin- Wallace Celebration, 111
JSote on the passages of MALTHUS'S ' Principles of Population '
ichich suggested the idea of Natural Selection to Darwin
and myself.
By ALFRED R. WALLACE.
IN order to refresh my memory I have again looked through
Malthus's work, and I feel sure that what influenced me
was not any special passage or passages, but the cumulative
effect of chapters iii. to xii. of the first volume (and more
especially chapters iii. to viii.) occupying about 150 pages.
In these chapters are comprised very detailed accounts from
all available sources, of the various causes which keep down
the population of savage and barbarous nations, in America,
Africa, and Asia, notwithstanding that they all possess a
power of increase sufficient to produce a dense population
for any of the continents in a few centuries.
In order to give an idea, though a very imperfect one,
of the nature of the facts adduced by him, I have selected
the following passages as being fairly illustrative of the
whole. The references are to the sixth edition, London :
1826, vol. i.
CHAPTER IV.
Of the Checks to Population among the American Indians.
Pages 35-37, line 2.
"We may next turn our view to the vast continent
of America, the greatest part of which was found to be
inhabited by small independent tribes of savages, subsisting,
nearly like the natives of New Holland, on the productions
of unassisted nature. The soil was covered by an almost
universal forest, and presented few of those fruits and
esculent vegetables which grow in such profusion in the
islands of the South Sea. The produce of a most rude
and imperfect agriculture, known to some of the tribe
of hunters, was so trifling as to be considered only as a
feeble aid to the subsistence acquired by the chase. The
112 Darwin- Wallace Celebration.
inhabitants of this new world therefore might be considered
as living principally by hunting and fishing * ; and the
narrow limits to this mode of subsistence are obvious. The
supplies derived from fishing could reach only those who
were within a certain distance of the lakes, the rivers, or
the sea-shore ; and the ignorance and indolence of the
improvident savage would frequently prevent him from
extending the benefits of these supplies much beyond the
time when they were actually obtained. The great extent
of territory required for the support of the hunter has been
repeatedly stated and acknowledged f. The number of
wild animals within his reach, combined with the facility
with which they may be either killed or insnared, must
necessarily limit the number of his society. The tribes of
hunters, like beasts of prey, whom they resemble in their
mode of subsistence, will Consequently be thinly scattered
over the surface of the earth. Like beasts of prey, they
must either drive away or fly from every rival, and be
engaged in perpetual contests with each other J.
Under such circumstances, that America should be very
thinly peopled in proportion to its extent of territory, is
merely an exemplification of the obvious truth, that population
cannot increase without the food to support it. But the
interesting part of the inquiry, that part, to which I would
wish particularly to draw the attention of the reader, is,
the mode by which the population is kept down to the level
of this scanty supply. It cannot escape observation, that
an insufficient supply of food to any people does not shew
itself merely in the shape of famine, but in other more
permanent forms of distress, and in generating certain
customs, which operate sometimes with greater force in
the prevention of a rising population than in its subsequent
destruction.
Page 39, lines 5-21.
In every part of the world, one of the most general
characteristics of the savage is to despise and degrade the
female sex §. Among most of the tribes in America their
* Robertson's History of America, vol. ii. b. iv. p. 127 et sea.,
octavo edit. 1780.
t Franklin's Miscell. p. 2. J Robertson, b. iv. p. 129.
§ Robertson, b. iv. p. 103. Lettres Edif. passim. Charlevoix, Hist.
Nouv. Fr. torn. iii. p. 287. Voy. de Perouse. c. ix. p. 492, 4to. London.
Darwin- Wallace Celebration. 113
condition is so peculiarly grievous, that servitude is a name
too mild to describe their wretched state. A wife is no
better than a beast of burden. While the man passes his
days in idleness or amusement, the woman is condemned
to incessant toil. Tasks are imposed upon her without
mercy, and services are received without complacence or
gratitude *. There are some districts in America where
this state of degradation has been so severely felt, that
mothers have destroyed their female infants, to deliver
them at once from a life in which they were doomed to such
a miserable life of slavery f.
CHAPTER VIII.
On the Checks to Population in the different Parts of Africa.
Pages 158-164.
The description, which Bruce gives of some parts of
the country which he passed through on his return home,
presents a picture more dreadful even than the state of
Abyssinia, and shows how little population depends on the
birth of children, in comparison of the production of food
and those circumstances of natural and political situation
which influence this produce.
" At half past six/' Bruce says, " we arrived at Garigana,
" a village whose inhabitants had all perished with hunger
" the year before ; their wretched bones being all unburied
" and scattered upon the surface of the ground where the
"village formerly stood. We encamped among the bones
" of the dead ; no space could be found free from them." J
Of another town or village in his route he observes : —
" The strength of Teawa was 25 horse. The rest of the in-
" habitants might be 1200 naked miserable and despicable
" Arabs, like the rest of those which live in villages ....
" Such was the state of Teawa. Its consequence was only
"to remain till the Daveina Arabs should resolve to attack
" it, when its corn-tields being burnt and destroyed in a night
* Robertson, b. iv. p. 105. Lettres Edif. torn. vi. p. 329. Major
Roger's North America, p. 211. Creuxii Hist. Cauad. p. 57.
t Robertson, b. iv. p. 1
p. 110, 8vo., 10 vol., 1795.
I Bruce, vol. iv. p. 349.
114 Darwin- Wallace Celebration.
" by a multitude of horsemen, the bones o£ its inhabitants
" scattered upon the earth would be all its remains, like
" those of the miserable village of Garigana." *
"There is no water between Teawa and Beyla. Once
" Indedidema and a number of villages were supplied with
"water from wells, and had large crops of Indian corn
" sown about their possessions. The curse of that country,
"the Daveina Arabs, have destroyed Indedidema and all
" the villages about it ; filled up their wells, burnt their
"crops, and exposed all the inhabitants to die by famine/' f
Soon after leaving Sennaar, he says : " We began to
"see the effects of rain having failed. There was little
"corn sown, and that so late as to be scarcely above ground.
"It seems the rain begins later as they pass northward.
" Many people were here employed in gathering grass-seeds
" to make a very bad kind of bread. These people appear
" perfect skeletons, and no wonder, as they live upon such
"fare. Nothing increases the danger of travelling and
" prejudice against strangers more, than the scarcity of
"provisions in the country through which you are to
" pass." J
" Came to Eltic, a straggling village about half a mile
" from the Nile, in the North of a large bare plain ; all
" pasture, except the banks of the river which are
" covered with wood. We now no longer saw any corn
" sown. The people here were at the same miserable
" employment as those we had seen before, that of gathering
" grass-seeds." §
Under such circumstances of climate and political situation,
though a greater degree of foresight, industry and security,
might considerably better their condition and increase their
population, the birth of a greater number of children
without these concomitants would only aggravate their
misery, and leave their population where it was.
The same may be said of the once flourishing and populous
country of Egypt. Its present depressed state has not been
•caused by the weakening of the principle of increase, but
by the weakening of the principle of industry and foresight,
from the insecurity of property consequent on a most
tyrannical and oppressive government. The principle
of increase in Egypt at present does all that it is possible
for it to do. It keeps the population fully up to the
* Bruce, vol. iv. p. 353. t Id. p. 411.
J Id. p. 511. § Id. p. 611.
Darwin- Wallace Celebration. ] 15
level of the means of subsistence ; and, were its power ten
times greater than it really is, it could do no more.
The remains of ancient works, the vast lakes, canals,
and large conduits for water destined to keep the Nile
under control, serving as reservoirs to supply a dry year,
and as drains and outlets to prevent the superabundance
of water in wet years, sufficiently indicate to us that the
former inhabitants of Egypt by art and industry contrived
to fertilize a much greater quantity of land from the over-
flowings of their river, than is done at present ; and to
prevent, in some measure, the distresses which are now so
frequently experienced from a redundant or insufficient
inundation *.
It is said of the governor Petronius, that, effecting by
art what was denied by nature, he caused abundance to
prevail in Egypt under disadvantages of such a deficient
inundation, as had always before been accompanied by
dearth f. A flood too great is as fatal to the husbandman
as one that is deficient; and the ancients had, in consequence,
drains and outlets to spread the superfluous waters over
the thirsty sands of Lybia, and render even the desert
habitable. These works are now all out of repair, and by
ill management often produce mischief instead of good.
The causes of this neglect, and consequently of the diminished
means of subsistence, are obviously to be traced to the
extreme ignorance and brutality of the government, and
the wretched state of the people. The Mamelukes, 'in
whom the principal power resides, think only of enriching
themselves, and employ for this purpose what appears to
them to be the simplest method, that of seizing wealth
wherever it may be found, of wresting it by violence from
the possessor, and of continually imposing new and arbitrary
contributions |. Their ignorance and brutality, and the
constant state of alarm in which they live, prevent them
from having any views of enriching the country, the better
to prepare it for their plunder. No public works therefore
are to be expected from the government, and no individual
proprietor dares to undertake any improvement which might
imply the possession of capital, as it would probably be the
immediate signal of his destruction. Under such circum-
stances we cannot be surprised that the ancient works
* Bruce, vol. iii. c. xvii. p. 710.
t Voyage de Volney, torn. i. c. iii. p. 33, 8vo.
J Voyage de Volney, torn. i. c. xii. p. 170.
116 Darwin- Wallace Celebration.
are neglected, that the soil is ill cultivated, and that the
means of subsistence, and consequently the population, are
S*eatly reduced. But such is the natural fertility of the
elta from the inundations of the Nile, that even without
any capital employed upon the land, without a right ot
succession, and consequently almost without a right of
property, it still maintains a considerable population in
proportion to its extent, sufficient, if property were secure,
and industry well directed, gradually to improve and
extend the cultivation of the country and restore it to its
former state of prosperity. It may be safely pronounced
of Egypt that it is not the want of population that has
checked its industry, but the want of industry that has
checked its population.
The immediate causes which keep down the population
to the level of the present contracted means of subsistence,
are but too obvious. The peasants are allowed for their
maintenance only sufficient to keep them alive *. A
miserable sort of bread made of doura without leaven or
flavour, cold water, and raw onions make up the whole of
their diet. Meat and fat, of which they are passionately
fond, never appear but on great occasions, and among those
who are more at their ease. The habitations are huts made of
earth, where a stranger would be suffocated with the heat
and smoke ; and where the diseases generated by want of
cleanliness, by moisture, and by bad nourishment, often
visit them and commit great ravages. To these physical
evils are added a constant state of alarm, the fear of the
plunder of the Arabs, and the visits of the Mamelukes,
the spirit of revenge transmitted in families, and all the
evils of a continual civil war f.
In the year 1783 the plague was very fatal, and in 1784
and 1785 a dreadful famine reigned in Egypt, owing to a
deficiency in the inundation of the Nile. Volney draws
a frightful picture of the misery that was suffered on this
occasion. The streets of Cairo, which at first were full of
beggars, were soon cleared of all these objects, who either
perished or fled. A vast number of unfortunate wretches,
* Voyage de Volney, torn. i. c. xii. p. 172.
t Volney, torn. i. c. xii. p. 173. This sketch of the state of the
peasantry in Egypt given by Volney seems to he nearly confirmed by
all other writers on this subject ; and particularly in a" valuable paper
entitled Considerations gene"rales sur 1'Agriculture de 1'Egypte, par
L. Reynier (Me"moires sur 1'Egypte, torn. iv. p. 1).
Darwin- Wallace Celebration. 117
in order to escape death, spread themselves over all the
neighbouring countries, and the towns of Syria were
inundated with Egyptians. The streets and public places
were crowded by famished and dying skeletons. All the
most revolting modes of satisfying the cravings of hunger
were resorted to ; the most disgusting food was devoured
with eagerness ; and Volney mentions the having seen under
the walls of ancient Alexandria two miserable wretches
seated on the carcase of a camel, and disputing with the
dogs its putrid flesh. The depopulation of the two years
was estimated at one-sixth of all the inhabitants *.
It was the perusal of such statements as these, extending
over every part of the world, and very varied in their
details, that produced such a deep and permanent impression
on my mind, though the individual facts were forgotten.
When, ten or twelve years later, while thinking (as I had
thought for years) over the possible causes of the change
of species, the action of these " positive checks " to increase,
as Malthus termed them, suddenly occurred to me. I then
saw that war, plunder and massacres among men were
represented by the attacks of carnivora on herbivora, and
of the stronger upon the weaker among animals. Famine,
droughts, floods and winter's storms, would have an even
greater effect on animals than on men ; while as the former
possessed powers of increase from twice to a thousand-fold
greater than the latter, the ever-present annual destruction
must also be many times greater.
Then there flashed upon me, as it had done twenty years
before upon Darwin, the certainty, that those which, year by
year, survived this terrible destruction must be, on the
whole, those which had some little superiority enabling
them to escape each special form of death to which the
great majority succumbed — that, in the well-known formula,
the fittest would survive. Then I at once saw, that the
ever present variability of all living things would furnish
the material from which, by the mere weeding out of those
* Voy. de Volney, torn. i. c. xii. s. ii.
118 Darwin- Wallace Celebration.
less adapted to the actual conditions, the fittest alono would
continue the race. But this would only tend to the
persistence of those best adapted to the actual conditions ;
and on the old idea of the permanence and practical
unchangeability of the inorganic world, except for a few
local and unimportant catastrophes, there would be no
necessary change of species.
But along with Malthus I had read, and been even more
deeply impressed by. Sir Charles Lyell's immortal ' Principles
of Geology/ which had taught me that the inorganic \vorld —
the whole surface of the earth, its seas and lands, its
mountains and valleys, its rivers and lakes, and every detail
of its climatic conditions, were and always had been in
a continual state of slow modification. Hence it became
obvious that the forms of life must have become continually
adjusted to these changed conditions in order to survive.
The succession of fossil remains throughout the whole
geological series of rocks is the record of this change ; and
it became easy to see that the extreme slowness of these
changes was such as to allow ample opportunity for the
continuous automatic adjustment of the organic to the
inorganic world, as well as of each organism to every other
organism in the same area, by the simple processes of
"variation and survival of the fittest." Thus was the
fundamental idea of the " origin of species " logically
formulated from the consideration of a series of well-
ascertained facts.
[Received 28th August, 1908.]
PORTRAITS
OF THE
MKDALLISTS,
1st JULY, 1908.
(Pis. 4-10.)
PLATE 4.
2 J
Dr. ALFRED RUSSEL WALLACE, O.M., F.R.S.
From photograph taken by the London
Stereoscopic Company.
LINN. Soc. 1908, PL. 4-
[ 123 ]
PLATE 5.
Sir JOSEPH DALTON HOOKER, O.M., G.C.S.I., F.R.S.
From a photograph by W. J. Hawker, of Bournemouth,
the negative lent by Lady Hooker.
LINN. SOC. 19O8. PL. 5
[ 125 ]
PLATE 6.
[ 126 ]
Professor ERNST HAECKEL.
From a photograph by E. Tesch, Jena.
LINN. SOC. 19O8. PL. 6
[ 127 ]
PLATE 7.
[ 128
Professor AUGUST WEISMANN.
From a photograph by C. Rnf, Freiburg-im-Breisgau.
LINN. SOC. 1908. PL. 7
[ 129 J
PLATE 8.
[ 130 ]
Professor EDUARD STRASBURGER.
From a photograph by Joseph Schneider, Bonn.
LINN. SOC. 19O8. PL. 8
131 ]
PLATE 9.
[ 132 ]
Dr. FRANCIS GALTON, F.R.S.
From a photograph by Frederick Hollyer.
LINN. soc. 1908. PL. 9
[ 133 ]
PLATE 10.
Sir EDWIN RAY LANKESTER, K.C.B., F.R.S.
From a painting by the Hon. John Collier.
LINN. SOC. 19O8. PL. 10
INDEX.
INDEX.
Aberdeen University, address, 41 ;
delegate, 40.
Antiquaries, Society of, address, 53 ;
delegate, 53.
Astronomical Society, Royal, dele-
gate, 55.
Avebury, Lord, address by, 56; —
thanks for, 01 ; delegate, 53, 55.
Bailey, C., delegate, 54.
Baker, 0. J., delegate, 38.
Balfour, Prof. I. B., delegate, 41.
Herberts Danoinii,' Hook., shown,
11.
Bethman - Hollweg, Herr D. von,
medals received for absentees, 18.
Birmingham University, 45 ; dele-
gate, 45.
Blackman, Prof. V. H., delegate, 46.
Boulenger, G. A., delegate, 55.
Bristol, University College, address,
47 ; delegate, 46.
British Academy, address, 56;
delegate, 56.
British Association, delegate, 55.
Brown, Dr. H. T., delegate, 56.
Byrne, E. H., delegate, 56.
Cambridge Philosophical Society,
delegate, 55.
Cambridge University, letter from,
38 ; delegate, 38.
Carr, Prof. J. W., delegate, 46.
Certificates shown, 76
Chemical Society, delegate, 56.
Christ's College, Cambridge, dele-
gate, 38.
Church, Dr. A. H., delegate, 38.
Darwin, C. R., certificate for, 76 ;
letter to Asa Gray, 95 ; On the
Variation of Organic Beings, &c.,
Darwin, C. R., & A. R. Wallace, On
the Tendency of Species to form
Varieties, 89.
Darwin, Erasmus, certificate for, 76.
Darwin, Dr. F., address by, 32 ;
delegate, 38.
Denny, Prof. A., delegate, 46.
Dinner, list of guests, 62.
Dixey, Dr. F. A., insect mimicrv,
73,74,
Dixon, Prof. H. H., delegate, 42.
Dublin, R. Irish Academy, delegate,
54.
Dublin University, address, 43 ;
delegate, 42.
Durham University, delegate, 43.
Dyer, Sir W. T. Thiselton-, address
by, 35 ; delegate, 43.
Edinburgh, Royal Society, address,
64 ; delegate, 54,
138
INDEX.
Edinburgh University, address, 42 ;
delegate, 41.
Engler, Prof. A., telegram from, 3.
Entomological Society of London,
delegate, 55.
Evolution in insects, 73 ; of mam-
mals, 79.
Galton, Dr. F., medal presented to,
24; reply, 25.
Geikie, Sir A., address by, 51 ; dele-
gate, 61.
Geological Society of London, dele-
gate, 65.
Gill, Sir D., delegate, 55.
Glasgow University, delegate, 40.
Gray, Prof. Asa, letter from C. R.
Darwin to, 95.
Haeckel, Prof. E., address by, 18;
medal presented to, 16.
Harmer, Dr. S. F., delegate, 55.
Herdman, Prof. W. A., delegate, 45.
Hertford Grammar School, delegate,
38.
Hooker, Sir J. D., communication
by, 89 ; medal presented to, 11 ;
— reply, 12.
Hudleston, W. H., delegate, 54.
Insects, evolution, mimicry, &c., 73.
Jurassic vegetation, 78.
Kerr, Prof, J. G., delegate, 40.
Kinman, G. W., delegate, 38.
Lang, Prof. P. R. S., delegate, 39.
Lankester, Sir E. R., medal pre-
sented to, 26 ; — reply, 27.
Leeds University, delegate, 46.
Linn6, C. v., manuscripts and relics
shown, 75-76.
Liverpool University, address, 45 ;
delegate, 45.
Lodge, Sir Oliver, delegate, 45.
London University, address, 44 ;
delegate, 43.
Longstaff, Dr. G. B., scents in but-
terflies, 74.
Lonnberg, Prof. E., address by, 48 ;
delegate, 48.
Lyall, Sir C., communication, 89.
Malacological Society, delegate, 56.
Malthus, Rev. T. R., extracts from
his Essay on Population, 109.
Mammals in S. America, 79.
Manchester Literar}7 and Philo-
sophical Society, delegate, 54.
Manchester University, address, 44 ;
delegate, 44.
Manders, Col. N., insect variation,
74.
Marine Biological Association, dele-
gate, 56.
Medal, illustrated, plate 2.
Medallists, portraits, 121-134.
Microscopical Society, Royal, ad-
dress, 55 ; delegate 55.
Mimicry in insects, 73.
Minutes of Special General Meeting,
1st July, 1858, 81.
Morgan, Prof. C. LI., delegate, 46.
Moulton, J. C., Evolution illustrated
by insects, 73.
Newall, H. F., delegate, 55.
Nottingham University College,
delegate, 46.
Odontoglossums, natural hybrids
shown (Rolfe), 67-72.
Oxford University, delegates, 38.
Peile, Dr. J., delegate, 38.
Phillips, Prof. R. W., delegate, 45.
Plant-migration, 78.
Portraits of Medallists, 121-134.
Potter, Prof. M. C., delegate, 43.
Poulton, Prof. E. B., delegate, 38 ;
Evolution illustrated by insects,
73.
Prain, Lt.-Col. D., delegate, 40.
INDEX.
139
Reception, 65.
Rolfe, R. A., Natural hybrid Odonto-
glossums shown, 67-72.
Royal Astronomical Society, dele-
gate, 55.
Royal Irish Academy, delegate, 54.
Royal Microscopical Society, ad-
dress, 55 ; delegate, 55.
Royal Society, delegate, 51.
Royal Society of Edinburgh, address,
St. Andrews University, address.
Scharff, Dr. R. F., delegate, 54.
Schools represented, 38.
Scott, Dr. D. H., President, Address
of welcome, 1 ; addresses to Me-
dallists :— (Galton) 24 ; (Haeckel)
16 ; (Hooker) 11 ; (Lankester)
26; (Strasburger) 20; (Wallace.)
3 ; (Weismann) 17.
Seward, Prof. A. C., Jurassic Vege-
tation, 78.
Sheffield University, delegate, 46.
Shipley, A. E., delegate, 56.
Shrewsbury School, delegate, 38.
Stockholm, R. Swedish Academy of
Science, address from, 48; see pi. 3;
— by delegate, 49.
Strasburger, Prof. E., medal pre-
sented to, 20 ; — reply, 22.
Thompson, Prof. D., delegate, 54.
Thompson, Sir E. M., delegate, 56.
Universities & Schools represented,
38.
Wales, University of, delegate, 45.
Wallace, A. R., certificate for, 77 ;
medal presented to, 3 ; — reply, 5 ;
Note on extracts from Malthus,
111 ; On the Tendency of Varieties
to depart from the original type,
98.
see Darwin, C. R.
Warren, Dr. T. H., delegate, 38.
Waterhouse, C. O., delegate, 55.
Weismann, Prof. A., letter from, 20 ;
medal presented to, 17.
Weiss, Prof. F. E., delegate, 44.
Woodward, Dr. A. Smith, Evolution
of Mammals, 79.
Zoological Society of London, dele-
gate, 55.
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