CHAPTER III. 



Evolution 

 1859— 1863. 

 Letter 71 To A. R. Wallace. 



Down, April 6th, 1859. 



I this morning received your pleasant and friendly note of 

 November 30th. The first part of my MS. is in Murray's 

 hands to see if he likes to publish it. There is no preface, 

 but a short introduction, which must be read by every one 

 who reads my book. The second paragraph in the intro- 

 duction x I have had copied verbatim from my foul copy, and 

 you will, I hope, think that I have fairly noticed your paper 

 in the Linn. Journal? You must remember that I am now 

 publishing only an abstract, and I give no references. I shall, 

 of course, allude to your paper on distribution 3 ; and I have 

 added that I know from correspondence that your explanation 

 of your law is the same as that which I offer. You arc right, 

 that I came to the conclusion that selection was the principle 

 of change from the study of domesticated productions ; and 

 then, reading Malthus, I saw at once how to apply this 

 principle. Geographical distribution and geological relations 



1 Origin of Species, Ed. I., 1859, pp. 1 and 2. 



2 " On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties, and on the 

 Perpetuation of Varieties and Species by Natural Means of Selection." 

 By Charles Darwin and Alfred Russell Wallace. Communicated by Sir 

 Charles Lyell and J. D. Hooker. Journ. Linn. Soc.,Vo\. III., p. 45, 

 1859. (Read July 1st, 1858.) 



3 " On the Law which has regulated the Introduction of New 

 Species" (A. R. Wallace). Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., Vol. XVI., p. 184, 

 1855. The law alluded to is thus stated by Wallace: "Every species 

 has come into existence coincident both in space and time with a pre- 

 existing closely allied species" (toe. cit., p. 186). 



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