opinion as to whether he could honourably claim priority, and that he proposed applying to Sir Charles Lyell for this.  I need not say that this was a relief to me, knowing as I did what Sir Charles’s answer must be.

In Vol.  II., pp. 117-18, of the “Life and Letters,” Mr. Darwin’s application to Sir Charles Lyell is given, dated June 26th, with a postscript dated June 27th.  In it he requests that the answer shall be sent to me to be forwarded to himself.  I have no recollection of reading the answer, which is not to be found either in Darwin’s or my own correspondence; it was no doubt satisfactory.

    Further action was now left in the hands of Sir Charles and
    myself, we all agreeing that, whatever action was taken, 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