x | OBITUARY 285 
the original type,” of which Darwin says, “If 
Wallace had my MS. sketch written out in 1842 
he could not have made a better short abstract ! 
Even his terms stand now as heads of my chapters. 
Please return me the MS., which he does not say 
he wishes me to publish, but I shall, of course, at 
ence write and offer to send it to any journal. 
So all my originality, whatever it may amount to, 
will be smashed, though my book, if ever it will 
have any value, will not be deteriorated ; as all 
the labour consists in the application of the 
theory.” (II. p. 116.) 
Thus, Darwin’s first impulse was to publish > 
Wallace’s essay without note or comment of his 
own. But,onconsultation with Lyell and Hooker, 
the latter of whom had read the sketch of 1844, 
they suggested, as an undoubtedly more equitable 
course, that extracts from the MS. of 1844 and 
from the letter to Dr. Asa Gray should be com- 
municated to the Linnean Society along with 
Wallace’s essay. The jomt communication was 
read on July 1, 1858, and published under the 
title “On the Tendency of Species to form 
Varieties ; and on the Perpetuation of Varieties 
and Species by Natural Means of Selection.” 
This was followed, on Darwin’s part, by the com- 
_ position ofa summary account of the conclusions 
to which his twenty years’ work on the species 
question had led him. It occupied him for 
thirteen months, and appeared in November, 
