The story of the arrival of this letter at Down, and of the swift passage of events between the date on which Darwin received it and the reading of the “joint communications” before the Linnean Society, has been often told.  But few, perhaps, have enjoyed the privilege of reading the account of this memorable proceeding as related by Sir Joseph Hooker at the celebration of the event held by the Linnean Society in 1908.

As, therefore, the correspondence (pp. 127-320) between Wallace and Darwin during a long series of years conveys many expressions of their mutual appreciation of each other’s work in connection with the origin of species, it will avoid a possible repetition of these if we take a long leap forward and give the notable speeches made by Wallace, Sir Joseph Hooker, Sir E. Ray Lankester, and others at this historical ceremony, which have not been published except in the Proceedings of the Society, now out of print.

The gathering was held on July 1, 1908, at the Institute of Civil Engineers, Great George Street, to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the joint communication made by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace to the Linnean Society, “On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties; and on the Perpetuation of Varieties and Species by Natural Means of Selection.”  The large gathering included the President, Dr. Dukinfield H. Scott, distinguished representatives of many scientific Societies and Universities, the Danish and Swedish Ministers, and a representative from the German Embassy.  Most of the members of Dr. Wallace’s and Mr. Darwin’s family were also present.[24] The President opened with some explanatory observations, and then invited Wallace to come forward in order to receive the first Darwin-Wallace Medal.  In presenting it he said: 

    Dr. Alfred Russel Wallace,—­We rejoice that we are so happy as to
    have with us to-day the survivor of the two great naturalists
    whose crowning work we are here to commemorate.

Your brilliant work in natural history and geography, and as one of the founders of the theory of Evolution by Natural Selection, is universally honoured and has often received public recognition, as in the awards of the Darwin and Royal Medals of the Royal Society, and of our Medal in 1892.

    To-day, in asking you to accept the first Darwin-Wallace Medal, we
    are offering you of your own, for it is you, equally with your
    great colleague, who created the occasion we celebrate.

There is nothing in the history of science more delightful or more noble than the story of the relations between yourself and Mr. Darwin, as told in the correspondence now so fully published—­the story of a generous rivalry in which each discoverer strives to exalt the claims of the other.  We know that Mr. Darwin wrote (April 6th, 1859):  “You cannot tell how much I admire your spirit in the manner in which you have taken all that