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- Wai lace 

 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 wa* 

 done about publishing our papers. I had actually written a 

 letter to you stating that I would not publish anything before 

 you 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 



