rising@utzoo.uucp (Jim Rising) (11/29/89)
I'm writing in response to a question, "When did Darwin get to know of Wallace's same thesis?" that I received via e-mail because I think that the answer is of some general interest to this group. The classical story is that Wallace wrote his essay "On the Tendency of Varieties to depart indefinitely from the original Type" in February 1858, shortly after recovering from a bout of malaria on the spice island of Ternate, and that Darwin received the manuscript (Wallace sent it to Darwin for his opinion of the idea!) on 18 June 1858. Subsequently, Wallace's essay, preceded by three dated essay of Darwin (1839, 1844, 1857) were published simultaneously on 1 July 1958, establishing joint priority for the idea (although Darwin clearly had held it at least as early as 1839). I've recently read somewhere that both accounts are slightly romantic, that Wallace really didn't write his essay on Ternate while recovering from malaria, but somewhat later, and that Darwin really received his MS somewhat earlier, and sat on it for a while before determining that he must see it published. I.e., he didn't immediately run out and do the noble thing! Don't recall where I read that and cannot vouch for its authenticity. -- Jim Rising -- Name: Jim Rising Mail: Dept. Zoology, Univ. Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 1A1 UUCP: uunet!attcan!utzoo!rising BITNET: rising@utzoo.utoronto.bitnet