72 
The Presidential Address. 
Mr. A. R. Wallace—whose name, I am happy to see, still 
graces our list of Honorary Members—in the year 1858. 
Having had the privilege of personal acquaintance with the 
late Mr. Darwin, and still enjoying the friendship of Mr. 
Wallace, I cannot resist the pleasure of once more detailing 
the history of the birth of this theory, since this history 
conveys a lesson in scientific etiquette well worthy of those 
from whom the doctrine emanated. Having been struck 
during the voyage of the ‘Beagle’ by many facts in the 
distribution of animals and plants which seemed to throw 
light on the origin of species, on his return to this country 
Darwin in 1837 began to collect materials, and for five years 
went on “accumulating and reflecting on all sorts of facts” 
that appeared to have any bearing on the problem. After 
this period, as he tells us, he allowed himself to speculate, 
and had formulated his conclusions in 1844, but not with a 
view to immediate publication. In 1858, twenty-one years 
after he had first taken the question seriously in hand , he had 
nearly completed his task, although he then foresaw that 
many more years’ work would be necessary in order to fully 
elaborate his views. It is to the fortunate circumstance 
that Mr. Wallace had independently arrived at similar con¬ 
clusions that we are indebted for the accelerated publication 
of the ‘ Origin of Species ’ in 1859. Mr. Wallace, who, after 
spending some years in Tropical America with Mr. Bates, 
had gone to the Malay Archipelago to study nature in the 
Old World tropics, sent from Sarawak in 1855 his first 
contribution to the theory of descent. In this paper, which 
appeared in the ‘ Annals and Magazine of Natural History ’ 
for September, 1855, under the title of “ The Law which has 
regulated the Introduction of new Species,” Mr. Wallace 
shows by various lines of argument that “ every species has 
come into existence coincident both in time and space with a 
pre-existing closely allied species.” In 1858 Mr. Wallace 
sent from Ternate another paper, “ On the tendency of 
Varieties to depart indefinitely from the Original Type,” 
which embodied the theory of Natural Selection. This paper 
was sent to Mr. Darwin, who showed it to his friends, Dr. 
