22 Damvin- 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 STEASBUEGER,F.M.R.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 w r orld. I had the good fortune 



O O 



to study at Jena and \vith 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 rose high in the distance, still clad in its 

 mediaeval 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. 



