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 HOOKEK 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 



