112 



ZOOLOGY 



The Origin 

 of Species 



Varied 

 studies in 

 later years 



posed thalf Darwin should prepare an abstract of his 

 views, and this, together with Wallace's paper, should 

 be read before the Linnaean Society of London. This 

 was done on July I, 1858. Fifty years later, the Society 

 celebrated the event in a special meeting, which Wallace 

 and Hooker attended. Wallace, when he came to write 

 his great book on evolution, called it Darwinism. 



The next year, 1859, saw the publication of Darwin's 

 book, The Origin of Species, and immediately the whole 

 civilized world was agog with discussions on evolution 

 and its relation to religious belief. Darwin found him- 

 self in a whirlwind of controversy, in which he was bit- 

 terly assailed and vigorously defended ; but he kept out 

 of the arena and quietly continued his researches. His 

 friend, T. H. Huxley, pursued a very different course. 

 A brilliant naturalist and master of English, he de- 

 lighted to battle for what he understood to be right, 

 and appeared here and there, on the platform and in 

 the press, in defense of the new theory of evolution. It 

 was very largely owing to Huxley that the new doctrine 

 became so widely understood. Ultimately Darwin's 

 victory was practically complete. Almost all living 

 naturalists, except the oldest, were converted. The 

 Church, at first bitterly hostile, became acquiescent. 

 After Darwin's death, when a statue was erected to his 

 memory in the great hall of the Natural History Mu- 

 seum, the three chief partakers in the ceremony were 

 the Prince of Wales (afterwards King Edward VII), the 

 Archbishop of Canterbury, and Professor Huxley. 



12. The last twenty years of Darwin's life, from 

 1862, were occupied by labors so varied and important 

 that it would be difficult to understand how they could 

 be undertaken by one in robust health, and it is 

 marvelous that they should have been performed by an 



