DARWIN AND THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES.

EDITORS OF DAILY CRIMSON: There appeared in your columns yesterday an article, entitled "Some Interesting Facts about Darwin and the Origin of Species." The "facts" are interesting. The writer says: "When Darwin was beginning to develop his theory, he received a letter from Wallace, who was then in the Greek Archipelago." Now, Wallace was in the Malay Archipelago, and, as I shall show, Darwin was not beginning to develop his theory, but had matured it already some years back. In 1837, Darwin sketched out a MS., which he copied in 1844, when the copy was read by Dr. Hooker, who communicated it to Sir Charles Lyell. In this MS. he treated of "The Variation of Organic Beings under Domestication and in Their Natural State;" "On the Variation of Organic Beings in a State of Nature;" "On the Natural Means of Selection;" and "The Comparison of Domestic Races and Their Species."

In October, 1857, in a letter to Prof. Gray, he repeats his views, and shows that they remained unaltered.

In 1858, Wallace sent his essay to Darwin, asking him, if he saw fit, to forward it to Sir Charles Lyell for publication. Lyell and Hooker agreed to publish it only on condition that he (Darwin) would at the same time give to the public the memoirs that they had for so many years endeavored to persuade him to publish, and which they had perused as far back as 1844. The result was, that the essays of Darwin and Wallace were presented, under one title, before the Linnean Society on June 30, 1858.

The following is taken from the introduction of the fifth edition of the "Origin of Species," 1859: "My work is now nearly finished; but as it will take me many more years to complete it, and as my health is far from strong, I have more especially been induced to do this as Mr. Wallace, who is now studying the natural history of the Malay Archipelago, has arrived at almost the same general conclusions that I have on the origin of species. In 1858 he sent me a memoir on this subject with a request that I would forward it to Sir Charles Lyell, who sent it to the Linnean Society, and it is published in the third volume of the journal of that society. Sir C. Lyell and Dr. Hooker, who both knew of my work, honored me by thinking it advisable to publish, with Mr. Wallace's excellent memoirs, some brief extracts from my manuscripts."

From the above it will be seen that Darwin had put his views upon paper 19 years before he received the essay of his friend Wallace and before the letter to Dr. Gray.

The writer of the article in yesterday's CRIMSON either misrepresented the lecturer from whom he got his "facts" or else that learned gentleman was sadly in error.

See journal Linnean Society, vol. III. p. 45.

W. M. W.