lloiial institution of (Orrat iBritaxn. 



AVEEKLY EVENIXCI MEETING, 



Friday, January 22, 11)09. 



His Grace the Duke of Northumberlaxd, K.G. P.O. D.C.Ti. 

 Sc.D. F.R.8., President, in the Chair. 



Alfred Russel Wallace, Esq., CM. D.C.L. LL.D. F.R.S.. 



The World of Life : as Visualised and Interpreted 

 by Darwinism. 



[Abstract.] 



The lecturer began by stating that, although the theory of Darwin- 

 ism is one of the most simple of comprehension in the whole range of 

 science, there is none that is so widely and persistently misunderstood. 

 This is the more remarkable, on account of its being founded upon 

 common and universally admitted facts of nature, more or less familiar 

 to all who take any interest in living things ; and this misunderstand- 

 ing is not confined to the ignorant or unscientific,. but prevails among 

 the educated classes, and is even found among eminent students and 

 professors of various departments of biology. 



Darwinism is almost entirely based upon those external facts of 

 nature, the close observation and description of which constituted the 

 old fashioned " Naturalists," and it is the specialisation in modern 

 science that has led to the misunderstanding referred to. Those who 

 have devoted years to the almost exclusive study of anatomy, physi- 

 ology, or embryology, and that equally large class, who make the lower 

 forms of life (mostly aquatic) tlie subject of microscopical investiga- 

 tion, are naturally disposed to tliiiik that a theory which can dispense 

 with all their work (though often strikingly supported by it) cannot 

 be so important and far-reaching as it is found to be. 



Niimhers, Variety and Inter mingling of Life-forms. 



Coming to the first great group of facts upon which Darwinism 

 rests, the lecturer called attention to the great number of distinct 

 species both of vegetable and animal life found even in our own very 

 limited and rather impoverished islands, as compared with more ex- 

 tensive areas. Great Britain possessed somewhat less than 2000 

 species of flowering plants, while many equal areas on the Continent 

 of Europe have twice the number. The whole of Europe contains 

 9000 species, and the World 1P)6,000 species already described ; but 

 the total number, if the whole earth were as well known as Europe, 

 would be almost certainly more than double that number or about a 



Vol. XIX. (No. 103) 2 f 



