222 



NA TURE 



[July 9, 1908 



be impossible lo overestimate, and the Society has 

 dulv recognised the importance of the occasion in the 

 commemoration whicli tooli place last week. 



A peculiarly gratifying feature of the proceedings 

 was the presence at the afternoon meeting of Dr. 

 Wallace and Sir Joseph Hooker, and the fellows of the 

 society and their guests thus had the remarkable 

 privilege of hearing an account of the great event of 

 fifty years ago from the lips of two of the principal 

 actors therein. The society is also to be congratulated 

 on the very cordial response made to their invitation by 

 the numerous universities, academies and learned 

 societies to which it was sent, the gathering being in 

 all respects a thoroughly representative one. 



The afternoon meeting was held in the large meet- 

 ing room of the Institution of Civil Engineers at West- 

 minster, and was attended by about three hundred and 

 fifty fellows and guests. The proceedings were 

 opened by the president, Dr. D. H. Scott, F.R.S., 

 who explained the purpose of the meeting and wel- 

 comed the delegates and guests in a short speech. 

 The Darwin-Wallace medal, of which we give an 

 illustration, was then presented bv the tjresident to the 

 seven representatives of biological science who hart 

 been selected for the honour, viz. Dr. Alfred Russel 

 Wallace, Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker, Prof. Ernst 

 Haecliel, Prof. Eduard Strasburger, Prof. .August 

 Weismann, Dr. 

 Francis Galton, 

 and Sir E. Ray 

 Lankester, the 

 copy given to Dr. 

 Wallace being in 

 gold and the 

 others in silver. 

 Each medallist 

 was addressed by 

 the president in 

 a n appropriate 

 speech in which 

 his claims to the 

 distinction were 

 duly set forth, and 

 all were received 

 by the audience 

 with great en- 

 thusiasm. 



Dr. Alfred Russel Wallace, in replying, spoke of the 

 actual relations between Darwin and himself, 

 and of the share which each had contributed to the 

 theory of natural selection. With characteristic 

 modesty he laid stress upon the fact that the idea had 

 occurred to Darwin nearly twenty years before it oc- 

 curred to himself. In endeavouring to explain why 

 the same solution of the problem of the origin of 

 species had occurred to both of them, he pointed out 

 that a closely similar course of events had led up to 

 the same result in each case. Both Darwin and Wal- 

 lace had the passion for collecting, and both in early 

 life had been ardent beetle-hunters. Thus they had 

 been led to take an intense interest in the mere variety 

 of living things and to seel< fof an explanation there- 

 of. Later on both become tra-vellers, collectors and 

 observers in some of the richest and most interesting 

 portions of the earth, and had forced upon their at- 

 tention all the strange phenomena of local and geo- 

 graphical distribution, with the numerous problems 

 to which they give rise. Then, finally, at the critical 

 period when their minds were freshly stored with in- 

 formation and reflection upon the problem to be 

 solved, both had their attention directed to the system 

 of positive checks expounded by Malthus in his essay 

 on population. "The effect of this," continued Dr. 

 Wallace, " was analogous to that of friction upon the 



KO. 2019, VOL. 78] 



The Darwin-Wallace Medal of the Linn an ^' 



specially-prepared match, producing that flash of in- 

 sight which led us immediately to the simple but uni- 

 versal law of the ' survival of the fittest,' as the long- 

 sought cfjcclivc. cause of the continuous modification 

 and adaptation of living things." 



Sir Joseph Hooker, in his address, dwelt upon the 

 considerations which determined Mr. Darwin to agree 

 to the proposal of his friends for the joint publication 

 of his own and Mr. ^^'allace's theories by tVie Linnean 

 .Society. He also pointed out that at the meeting Mr. 

 Darwin was unable to be present, being him- 

 self ver\- ill, and with scarlet fever and diphtheria 

 raging in his family. The meeting was the last of tin- 

 session, and was unusually late owing to the death of 

 the great botanist Robert Brown, otherwise the Dar- 

 win-Wallace paper would have had to wait for at least 

 four months, until the beginning of the next session. 

 The paper was actually read by the secretary of the ■ 

 Society. Sir Charles Lyell and Dr. Hooker said a few* 

 words to emphasise the importance of the event, but 

 although intense interest was e.xcited, no discussion 

 took place — " the subject was too novel and too 

 ominous for the old school to enter the lists before ^ 

 armouring." 



Prof. Hacckel and Prof. Weismann were unfor- 

 tunately unable to be present. The medals were re- 

 ceived on their behalf by a representative of the Ger- 



m a n Embassy, 

 and a short ad- 

 dress from Prof. 

 Haeckel was read 

 by the Zoological 

 Secretary. Prof. 

 Haeckel laid 

 stress upon the 

 importance of tlii- 

 theory of organic 

 evolution, and de- 

 scribed the foun- 

 dation by himself 

 of a new phyletic 

 museum at the 

 L'niversity o f 



Jena. 



Prof. Strasbur- 

 ger dwelt upon the 

 influence of the 

 Darwinian teaching upon his own career and that lii 

 Haeckel, and Dr. Francis Galton replied briefly to th.- 

 president's speech. Sir E. Ray Lankester addressed 

 the meeting at greater length, and struck a fresh 

 and appropriate note in emphasising the share taken 

 by Huxley in the great controversy to which 

 the Darwin-Wallace theory gave rise. He concluded 

 by expressing the opinion that at the present day 

 "not only do thp main lines of the theory of Dar- 

 win and Wallace remain unchanged, but the more it 

 is challenged by new suggestions and new hypothe-es 

 the more brilli.-mtly does the novelty, the importance, 

 and the permanent value of the work of these great 

 men to-day commemorated by us, shine forth as thr- 

 one great and epocli-making effort of human thought 

 on the subject." 



The presentation of the medals was followed by the 

 reception of the delegates of corporate bodies. Of the 

 colleges and schools connected with the early training 

 of Darwin and Wallace, Christ's College, Cambridge, 

 was represented by the master. Dr. Peile ; Shrewsbury 

 School by Mr. C. J. Baker, chief science master, and 

 Hertford Grammar School by Mr. G. W. Kinman, 

 headmaster. The other bodies represented were thf 

 University of Oxford (Dr. Warren, Prof. Poulton and 

 Dr. Church); Ihc University of Cambridge (Dr. 

 Francis Darwin); the L'niversity of St. Andrews (Prof. 



