Editorial Comment. 317 
script was shortly afterwards shown to Sir Joseph Hooker and 
others ; but Darwin continued to collect facts and to postpone 
publication. In 1858 Wallace sent him from the East Indies 
a letter not specifically intendefl for publidaiton, announcing 
the same theory of natural selection. Darwin was at first in- 
clined to publish Wallace's paper by itself, but was persuaded 
by Sir Charles Lyall and Sir Joseoh Hooker to liave read be- 
fore the Linnean Society at the same time as Wallace's paper 
an extract from his unpublished manuscript of 1844 3-nd a 
letter addressed to Asa Gray. The papers by Darwin and 
Wallace and a statement by Lyell and Hodker were read be- 
fore the Linnean Society in 1858 and subsequently published 
in the Journal of the Society. These documents, to which 
attention is called by their reproduction in the November num- 
ber of The Popular Science Monthly, are of very great in- 
terest both in themselves and in comparison wnth the full pre- 
sentation of the theory of evolution by natural selection pub- 
lished later bv Darwin and Wallace. 
THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. 
The American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, founded 
in 1743 through the instigation of Benjamin Franklin, is the 
oldest scientific society in America, and ranks among the old- 
est in the world. Its publications are found in the principcil 
libraries of this country and of Europe. Its membership em- 
braces many of the most prominent scientists of America, an<i 
represents the extended national basis on which the society is 
founded. Arrangements are being made by a c'ommittee of 
the society to enlarge the facilities "for promoting useful 
knowledge" to which the organization is devoted by the terms 
of its first circular issued by Franklin, and for widening the 
plan of publication. It is proposed to hold, in addition to the 
usual semi-monthly, an annual general meeting designed Lo 
attract members of the society from all parts of the countr}-. 
Papers read at this annual meeting will be of a more general 
scientific character, and their prompt publication will enable 
the society to be the avenue of announcement of important re- 
sults of more extended researc'h. The first annual meeting is 
to l)e held Easter week, 1902. This plan, if its results are 
