The Discovery of Natural Selection 



tions and the thought of Alfred Eussel Wallace brought me 

 a great stimulus. Through his * Malay Archipelago ' a new 

 world of scientific knowledge was unfolded before me. 

 On this occasion I feel it my duty to proclaim it with 

 gratitude.'' The Medal was then presented to Sir Francis 

 Galton, who delivered a notable speech in responding. 

 The last on this occasion to receive the Medal was Sir 

 E. Kay Lankester, who, in replying to the President's 

 graceful speech, referred to the happy relationships which 

 had existed between the contemporary men of science of 

 his own time, but with special reference to Darwin and 

 Wallace he said : 



Never was there a more beautiful example of modesty, 

 of unselfish admiration for another's work, of loyal deter- 

 mination that the other should receive the full merit of 

 his independent labours and thoughts, than was shown by 

 Charles Darwin on that occasion. . . . 



Subsequently, throughout all their arduous work and 

 varied publications upon the great doctrine which they on 

 that day unfolded to humanity . . . the same complete 

 absence of rivalry characterised these high-minded English- 

 men, even when in some outcomes of their doctrine they 

 were not in perfect agreement. ... I think I am able to 

 say that great as was the interest excited by the new 

 doctrine in the scientific world, and wild and angry as 

 was the opposition to it in some quarters, few, if any, who 

 took part in the scenes attending the birth and earlier re- 

 ception of Darwin's '^ Origin of Species " had a prevision 

 of the enormous and all -important influence which that 

 doctrine was destined to exercise upon every line of 

 human thought. ... It is in its application to the 

 problems of human society that there still remains an 

 enormous field of work and discovery for the Darwin- 

 Wallace doctrine. 



In the special branch of study which Wallace himself 

 set going — the inquiry into the local variations, races, and 

 species of insects as evidence of descent with modification, 



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