4o6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



Bentham being nominated in his place. The usual election of council 

 and officers had taken place at the anniversary meeting only a month 

 before; and, oddly enough, for the first time among the new members 

 of that body was Charles Darwin. Other papers were also read at the 

 special meeting on July 1, but it will not have escaped your notice 

 that the whole correspondence relating to the two papers on the evolu- 

 tion of species was subsequent to June 17; indeed, the joint letter from 

 Sir Charles Lyell and myself communicating them to the society was 

 only written on June 30. 



Thus the death of Robert Brown was the direct ca^ise of the theory 

 of the origin of species being given to the world at least four months 

 earlier than Avould otherwise have been the case. 



The communications were read, as was the ciistom in those days, 

 by the secretary of ths society. Mr. Darwin himself, owing to his own 

 illness and distress, could not be present. Sir Charles Lyell and my- 

 self said a few words to emphasize the importance of the subject; but, 

 as recorded in the " Life and Letters,"* although intense interest was 

 excited, no discussion took place : " the subject was too novel and too 

 ominous for the old school to enter the lists before armoring." 



It can not fail to be noticed that all these inter-communications 

 between Mr. Darwin, Sir Charles Lyell and myself were conducted by 

 correspondence, no two of us having met in the interval between June 

 18 and July 1, when I met Lyell at the evening meeting of the Linnean 

 Society; and no fourth individual had any cognizance of our pro- 

 ceedings. 



It must also be noted that for the detailed history given above there 

 is no documentary evidence beyond what Francis Darwin has produced 

 in the " Life and Letters." There are no letters from Lyell relating 

 to it not even answers to Mr. Darwin's of June 18, 25 and 26; and 

 Sir Leonard Lyell has at my request very kindly but vainly searched 

 his uncle's correspondence for any relating to this subject beyond the 

 two above mentioned. There are none of my letters to either Lyell 

 or Darwin, nor other evidence of their having existed beyond the latter's 

 acknowledgment of the receipt of some of them; and, most surprising 

 of all, Mr. Wallace's letter and its enclosure have disappeared. Such is 

 my recollection of the day of the fiftieth anniversary of which we are 

 now celebrating, and of the fortnight that immediately preceded it. 



It remains for me to ask your forgiveness for intruding upon your 

 time and attention with the half-century old, real or fancied memories 

 of a nonogenarian as contributions to the history of the most notable 

 event in the annals of biology that had followed the appearance in 1735 

 of the " Systema Natures " of Linnaeus. 



'Vol. II., p. 126. 



