Alfred Russel Wallace 



in the careers of younger men who are endeavouring to 

 follow in your steps. 



I ask you, Dr. Wallace, to accept this Medal, struck in 

 your honour and in that of the great work inaugurated 

 tifty years ago by Mr. Darwin and yourself. 



Wallace began his reply by thanking the Council of the 

 Society for the honour they had done him, and then pro- 

 ceeded : 



Since the death of Darwin, in 1882, I have found myself 

 in the somewhat unusual position of receiving credit and 

 praise from popular writers under a complete misapprehen- 

 sion of what my share in Darwin^s work really amounted 

 to. It has been stated (not unfrequently) in the daily and 

 weekly press, that Darwin and myself discovered *^ Natural 

 Selection " simultaneously, while a more daring few have 

 declared that I was the first to discover it, and I gave 

 way to Darwin! 



In order to avoid further errors of this kind (which this 

 Celebration may possibly encourage), I think it will be well 

 to give the actual facts as simply and clearly as possible. 



The one fact that connects me with Darwin, and which, 

 I am happy to say, has never been doubted, is that the idea 

 of what is now termed ^* natural selection ^' or ** survival 

 of the fittest,'^ together with its far-reaching consequences, 

 occurred to us independently j and was first jointly announced 

 before this Society fifty years ago. 



But, what is often forgotten by the Press and the public 

 is, that the idea occurred to Darwin in 1838, nearly twenty 

 years earlier than to myself (in February, 1858) ; and that 

 during the whole of that twenty years he had been labori- 

 ously collecting evidence from the vast mass of literature 

 of biology, of horticulture, and of agriculture; as well as 

 himself carrying out ingenious experiments and original 

 observations, the extent of which is indicated by the 

 range of subjects discussed in his ^^ Origin of Species,'^ 

 and especially in that wonderful storehouse of knowledge, 

 his " Animals and Plants under Domestication,'' almost 



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