inferior to those that survived. In the two hours that elapsed before my ague fit was over I had thought out almost the whole of the theory, and the same evening I sketched the draft of my paper, and in the two succeeding evenings wrote it out in full, and sent it by the next post to Mr. Darwin. Up to this time the only letters I had received from him were those printed in the second volume of his _Life and Letters_ (vol. ii., pp. 95 and 108), in which he speaks of its being the twentieth year since he ‘opened his first note-book on the question how and what way do species and varieties differ from each other,’ and after referring to oceanic islands, the means of distribution of land-shells, &c., added: ‘My work, on which I have now been at work more or less for twenty years, _will not fix or settle anything_; but I hope it will aid by giving a large collection of facts, with one definite end.’ The words I have italicised, and the whole tone of his letters, led me to conclude that he had arrived at no definite view as to the origin of species, and I fully anticipated that my theory would be new to him, because it seemed to me to settle a great deal. The immediate result of my paper was that Darwin was induced at once to prepare for publication his book on the _Origin of Species_ in the condensed form in which it appeared, instead of waiting an indefinite number of years to complete a work on a much larger scale which he had partly written, but which in all probability would not have carried conviction to so many persons in so short a time. I feel much satisfaction in having thus aided in bringing about the publication of this celebrated book, and with the ample recognition by Darwin himself of my independent discovery of ‘natural selection.’ (See _Origin of Species_, 6th ed., introduction, p. 1, and Life and Letters, vol. ii, chap. iv., pp. 115–129 and 145).” [Sidenote: ORIGIN OF WALLACE’S ESSAY.] A very similar account, differing in a few unimportant details from that quoted above, was written December 3rd, 1887, by Wallace to Professor Newton, and is published in the abridged “Life and Letters of Charles Darwin” (1892; pp. 189, 190). At the conclusion Wallace says:-- “... I _had_ the idea of working it out, so far as I was able, when I returned home, not at all expecting that Darwin had so long anticipated me. I can truly say _now_, as I said many years ago, that I am glad it was so; for I have not the love of _work_, _experiment_ and _detail_ that was so pre-eminent in Darwin, and without which anything I could have written would never have convinced the world.”