Darwin- Wallace Celebration. 5 



as shown in later years by your enthusiasm and success in 

 gardening. It is to such men, those who have learnt the 

 ways of Nature, as Nature really is in the open, to whom 

 your doctrine of Natural Selection specially appeals, and 

 therein lies its great and lasting strength. 



Finally, you must allow me to allude to the generous 

 interest which you have always shown, and continue to show, 

 in the careers of younger men who are endeavouring to 

 follow in your footsteps. 



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

 your honour and in that of the great \vork inaugurated 

 50 years ago by Mr. Darwin and yourself. 



Dr. A. R. WALLACE replied : 



Mr. President, I beg to thank the Council of the 

 Linnean Society for the very great honour they have done 

 me, in coupling my name with that of Charles Darwin on the 

 celebration of this anniversary, and for the still greater and 

 more exceptional honour, of perpetuating my features with 

 those of my illustrious forerunner, upon the Medal you have 

 now awarded me. 



With your permission I propose to make a few remarks 

 both as to the actual relations between Darwin and myself 

 prior to July 1858, and also to some peculiarities of our re- 

 spective life-histories which brought about those relations, and 

 which will, I hope, be both novel and of some general interest. 



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 misapprehension 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 that 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 

 o give the actual tacts as simply and clearly as possible. 



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



