The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21).
Volume XIV. The Victorian Age, Part Two.
VIII. The Literature of Science.
§ 54. Wallace.
| For, in the spring of 1858, Alfred Russel Wallace, a traveller and explorer who made his living as a collector, was lying sick of fever at Ternate, and his thoughts turned, as Darwin’s had done years before, to the writings of Malthus, 8 of Jesus college, Cambridge. The idea of natural selection flashed across his mind. He lost no time in setting it down in writing and in sending it to Darwin by the next post. The story is too well known to repeat here with what mutual magnanimity Wallace and Darwin behaved. Each always gave the other the fullest credit of the inspiration. |
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