72 The Presidential Address.
Mr. A. R. Wallace—whose name, I am happy to see, still
graces our list of Honorary Members—in the year 1858.
Having had the privilege of personal acquaintance with the
late Mr. Darwin, and still enjoying the friendship of Mr.
Wallace, I cannot resist the pleasure of once more detailing
the history of the birth of this theory, since this history
conveys a lesson in scientific etiquette well worthy of those
from whom the doctrine emanated. Having been struck
during the voyage of the 'Beagle' by many facts in the
distribution of animals and plants which seemed to throw
light on the origin of species, on his return to this country
Darwin in 1837 began to collect materials, and for five years
went on "accumulating and reflecting on all sorts of facts"
that appeared to have any bearing on the problem. After
this period, as he tells us, he allowed himself to speculate,
and had formulated his conclusions in 1844, but not with a
view to immediate publication. In 1858, twenty-one years
after he had first taken the question seriously in hand, he had
nearly completed his task, although he then foresaw that
many more years' work would be necessary in order to fully
elaborate his views. It is to the fortunate circumstance
that Mr. Wallace had independently arrived at similar con-
clusions that we are indebted for the accelerated publication
of the 'Origin of Species' in 1859. Mr. Wallace, who, after
spending some years in Tropical America with Mr. Bates,
had gone to the Malay Archipelago to study nature in the
Old World tropics, sent from Sarawak in 1855 his first
contribution to the theory of descent. In this paper, which
appeared in the 'Annals and Magazine of Natural History'
for September, 1855, under the title of "The Law which has
regulated the Introduction of new Species," Mr. Wallace
shows by various lines of argument that "every species has
come into existence coincident both in time and space with a
pre-existing closely allied species." In 1858 Mr. Wallace
sent from Ternate another paper, "On the tendency of
Varieties to depart indefinitely from the Original Type,"
which embodied the theory of Natural Selection. This paper
was sent to Mr. Darwin, who showed it to his friends, Dr.