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 

 once 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, on consultation 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 joint 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 of a 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, 



