76 LIFE OF 



which affect the Production of Varieties, Races, and 

 Species,' contain the results of the investigations of two 

 indefatigable naturalists, Mr. Charles Darwin and Mr. 

 Alfred Wallace. 



"These gentlemen having, independently and unknown 

 to one another, conceived the same very ingenious theory 

 to account for the appearance and perpetuation of 

 varieties and of specific forms on our planet, may both 

 fairly claim the merit of being original thinkers in this 

 important line of inquiry ; but neither of them having 

 published his views, though Mr. Darwin has been re- 

 peatedly urged by us to do so, and both authors having 

 now unreservedly placed their papers in our hands, we 

 think it would best promote the interests of science that 

 a selection from them should be laid before the Linnean 

 Society. 



"Taken in the order of their dates, they consist 

 of 



" i . Extracts from a MS. work on species, by Mr. Darwin, 

 which was sketched in 1839, and copied in 1844, when 

 the copy was read by Dr. Hooker, and its contents after- 

 wards communicated to Sir Charles Lyell. The first 

 part is devoted to 'The Variation of Organic Beings 

 under Domestication and in their Natural State'; and 

 the second chapter of that part, from which we propose 

 to read to the Society the extracts referred to, is headed, 

 'On the Variation of Organic Beings in a State of 

 Nature; on the Natural Means of Selection; on the 

 Comparison of Domestic Races and true Species.' 



" 2. An abstract of a private letter addressed to Professor 

 Asa Gray, of Boston, U-S,, in October, 1857, by Mr. 



