T?i HISTORICAL SKETCH. 



descended from other species, and that they become improved in 

 the course of modification. This same view was given in his 55th 

 Lecture, published in the 'Lancet' in 1834. 



In 1831 Mr. Patrick Matthew published his work on 'Naval 

 Timber and Arboriculture,' in which he gives precisely the same 

 Tiew on the origin of species as that (presently to be alluded to) 

 propounded by Mr. Wallace and myself in the ' Linnean Journal,' 

 and as that enlarged in the present volume. Unfortunately the 

 view was given by Mr. Matthew very briefly in scattered passages 

 in an Appendix to a work on a different subject, so that it remained 

 unnoticed until Mr. Matthew himself drew attention to it in the 

 'Gardener's Chronicle,' on April 7th, 1860. The differences of Mr. 

 Matthew's view from mine are not of much importance : he seems 

 to consider that the world was nearly depopulated at successive 

 periods, and then re -stocked ; and he gives as an alternative, that 

 new forms may be generated " without the presence of any mould 

 or germ of former aggregates." I am not sure that I understand 

 some passages ; but it seems that he attributes much influence to 

 the direct action of the conditions of life. He clearly saw, however, 

 the full force of the principle of natural selection. 



The celebrated geologist and naturalist, Von Buch, in his excel- 

 lent 'Description Physique des Isles Canaries' (1836, p. 147), 

 clearly expresses his belief that varieties slowly become changed 

 into permanent species, which are no longer capable of inter- 

 crossing. 



Rafinesque, in his 'New Flora of North America,' published 

 in 1836, wrote (p. 6) as follows : "All species might have been 

 varieties once, and many varieties are gradually becoming species 

 by assuming constant and peculiar characters ; " but farther on 

 (p. 18) he adds, "except the original types or ancestors of the 

 genus." 



In 1843-44 Professor Haldeman (' Boston Journal of Nat. Hist. 

 U. States,' vol. iv. p. 468) has ably given the arguments for and 

 against the hypothesis of the development and modification of 

 species : he seems to lean towards the side of change. 



The ' Vestiges of Creation ' appeared in 1844. In the tenth and 

 much improved edition(1853)the anonymous author says(p. 155): 

 " The proposition determined on after much consideration is, that 

 the several series of animated beings, from the simplest and oldest 

 ap to the highest and most recent, are, under the providence of 

 God, the results, first, of an impulse which has been imparted to 

 the forms of life, advancing them, in definite times, by generation, 

 through grades of organisation terminating in the highest dicoty- 

 ledons and vertebrata, these grades being few in number, and 

 generally marked by intervals of organic character, which we find 

 to be a practical difficulty in ascertaining affinities; second, of 



