the
result should be offered for publication to the Linnean Society.

On June 29th Mr. Darwin wrote to me in acute distress, being
himself very ill, and scarlet fever raging in the family, to which
one infant son had succumbed on the previous day, and a daughter
was ill with diphtheria. He acknowledged the receipt of the letter
from me, adding, "I cannot think now of the subject, but soon
will: you shall hear as soon as I can think"; and on the night of
the same day he writes again, telling me that he is quite
prostrated and can do nothing but send certain papers for which I
had asked as essential for completing the prefatory statement to
the communication to the Linnean Society of Mr. Wallace's
essay....

The communications were read, as was the custom in those days, by
the Secretary to the Society. Mr. Darwin himself, owing to his
illness and distress, could not be present. Sir Charles Lyell and
myself said a few words to emphasise the importance of the
subject, but, as recorded in the "Life and Letters" (Vol. II., p.
126), although intense interest was excited, no discussion took
place: "the subject was too novel, too ominous, for the old school
to enter the lists before armouring." ...

It must also be noticed that for the detailed history given above
there is no documentary evidence beyond what Francis Darwin has
produced in the "Life and Letters." There are no letters from
Lyell relating to it, not even answers to Mr. Darwin's of the
18th, 25th, and 26th of June; and Sir Leonard Lyell has at my
request very kindly but vainly searched his uncle's correspondence
for any relating to this subject beyond the two above mentioned.
There are none of my letters to either Lyell or Darwin, nor other
evidence of their having existed beyond the latter's
acknowledgment of the receipt of some of them; and, most
surprising of all, Mr. Wallace's letter and its enclosure have
disappeared. Such is my recollection of this day, the fiftieth
anniversary of which we are now celebrating, and of the fortnight
that immediately preceded it.

It remains for me to ask your forgiveness for intruding upon your
time and attention with the half-century-old real or fancied
memories of a nonagenarian as contributions to the history of the
most notable event in the annals of Biology that had fo