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On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties; and on the Perpetuation of Varieties and Species by Natural Means of Selection is the title of a joint presentation of two scientific papers to the Linnean Society of London on 1 July 1858; On The Tendency of Varieties to Depart Indefinitely from the Original Type by Alfred Russel Wallace and an Extract from an unpublished Work on Species from Charles Darwin's Essay of 1844, together with an Abstract of a Letter from Darwin to Asa Gray. This was the first publication of the Darwin – Wallace theory of evolution by natural selection. Darwin was spurred to write a condensed "abstract" of his "big book" on Natural Selection, which was published in November 1859 as On the Origin of Species.
On the voyage of the ''Beagle'' the young Charles Darwin took a break between graduating and starting his career as a clergyman to study the natural history of South America, an interest he had developed at the University of Edinburgh and the University of Cambridge. Influenced by Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology, he became an able geologist as well as collecting plant and animal specimens, and fossils of gigantic extinct mammals. By the return journey, he was connecting patterns of geographical and historical distribution, and starting to doubt the stability of Species. In September 1838 he conceived his theory of natural selection as the cause of evolution, then as well as developing his career as a geologist and writer worked privately on finding evidence and answering possible objections, and showed his essay written in 1844 to his friend Joseph Dalton Hooker.[1] After turning his attention to biology and completing eight years of work on barnacles, he intensified work on his theory of species in 1854.
Alfred Russel Wallace, a naturalist working in Borneo, had a paper on the "introduction" of species published in Annals and Magazine of Natural History. This made guarded comments about evolution, and in the spring of 1856 it was noticed by Lyell who drew it to the attention of Darwin who was then working out a strategy for presenting his theory. Darwin apparently mistook Wallace's meaning, writing "nothing very new... Uses my simile of tree, [but] it seems all creation with him". However, he spelt out the details of Natural Selection to Lyell, who found the idea hard to accept but urged Darwin to publish to establish priority.[2] On 14 May 1856 Darwin began what became his draft for a book titled Natural Selection.
Wallace collected specimens and corresponded with Darwin from Borneo. In December 1857, he wrote to ask if Darwin's book would delve into human origins, to which Darwin responded that "I think I shall avoid the whole subject, as so surrounded with prejudices, though I fully admit that it is the highest & most interesting problem for the naturalist". He encouraged Wallace's theorising, saying "without speculation there is no good & original observation", adding that "I go much further than you".
Wallace wrote his paper On The Tendency of Varieties to Depart Indefinitely from the Original Type at Ternate in February 1858 and sent it to Darwin with a request to send it on to Lyell. Darwin received it on on 18 June 1858 and wrote to Lyell that "your words have come true with a vengeance,... forestalled" and "If Wallace had my MS. sketch written out in 1842, he could not have made a better short abstract!" While Wallace had not asked for publication, Darwin would, "of course, at once write and offer to send [it] to any journal" that Wallace chose. He sadly added that "all my originality, whatever it may amount to, will be smashed". Lyell's considered response to Darwin was a recommendation that they should announce their theories jointly. Darwin could point to the Essay he had shown to others earlier, "so that I could most truly say and prove that I take nothing from Wallace. I should be extremely glad now to publish a sketch of my general views in about a dozen pages or so. But I cannot persuade myself that I can do so honourably... I would far rather burn my whole book than that he or any man should think that I had behaved in a paltry spirit". He wanted Hooker to give a second opinion, but was overwrought when his baby son Charles Waring Darwin died on 28 June. When Hooker got in touch Darwin's response was "I cannot think now", and he put matters into the hands of Lyell and Hooker. They decided on a joint publication at the Linnean Society of London of Wallace's paper and an extract from Darwin's 1844 essay, together with an 1857 letter from Darwin to Asa Gray showing that the same ideas were still being developed by Darwin. A meeting had been delayed to 1 July 1858, so they handed in the papers with a covering letter on 30 June and they were read out, then printed in the Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London. Zoology 3: 46-50.
The papers were read to the Linnean Society of London on the 1 July 1858 by the secretary. Neither author was present. Darwin was attending the funeral of his son, and Wallace was still in Borneo.
The letter and papers were then printed in the Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London. Zoology 3: 46-50.
The paper consisted of a communication letter by Joseph Dalton Hooker and Charles Lyell dated 30 June 1859, giving information on the three sections of the papers. The introduction is shown below, along with the section headings:[3] <blockquote> MY DEAR SIR,—The accompanying papers, which we have the honour of communicating to the Linnean Society, and which all related to the same subject, viz. the Laws which affect the Production of Varieties, Races, and Species, contain the results of the investigations of two indefatigable naturalists, Mr. Charles Darwin and Mr. Alfred Wallace.
The gentlemen having, independently and unknown to one another, conceived the same very ingenious theory to account for the appearance and perpetuation of varieties and of specific forms on our planet, and both fairly claim the merit of being original thinkers in this important line of inquiry; but neither of them having published his views, though Mr. Darwin has for many years past been repeatedly urged by us to do so, and both authors having now unreservedly placed their papers in our hands, we think it would best promote the interests of science that a selection from them should be laid before the Linnean Society. Taken in the order of their dates, they consist of:— </blockquote>
The communication letter briefly describes the first two, and regarding Wallace's paper states that he sent to Darwin "with the expressed wish that it should be forwarded to Sir Charles Lyell, if Mr. Darwin thought it sufficiently novel and interesting. So highly did Mr. Darwin appreciate the value of the views therein set forth, that he proposed, in a letter to Sir Charles Lyell, to obtain Mr. Wallace's consent to allow the Essay to be published as soon as possible. Of this step we highly approved, provided Mr. Darwin did not withhold from the public, as he was strongly inclined to do (in favour of Mr. Wallace), the memoir which he had himself written on the same subject, and which, as before stated, one of us had perused in 1844, and the contents of which we had both of us been privy to for many years. On representing this to Mr. Darwin, he gave us permission to make what use we thought proper of his memoir, &c.; and in adopting our present course, of presenting it to the Linnean Society, we have explained to him that we are not solely considering the relative claims to priority of himself and his friend, but the interests of science generally".
Publication of the papers had little impact at the time, and the President later recalled leaving the meeting complaining that the year had not "been marked by any of those striking discoveries which at once revolutionise, so to speak, [our] department of science". However, it pressed Darwin to write an "abstract" of his "big book" on Natural Selection; this condensed version was published in November 1859 as On the Origin of Species.