In this way every part of an
animal's organism could be modified as required, and in the very process
of this modification the unmodified would die out, and thus the
_definite_ characters and the clear _isolation_ of each new species
would be explained. The more I thought over it the more I became
convinced that I had at length found the long-sought-for law of nature
that solved the problem of the origin of species. For the next hour I
thought over the deficiencies in the theories of Lamarck and of the
author of the 'Vestiges,' and I saw that my new theory supplemented
these views and obviated every important difficulty. I waited anxiously
for the termination of my fit (of fever) so that I might at once make
notes for a paper on the subject. The same evening I did this pretty
fully, and on the two succeeding evenings wrote it out carefully in
order to send it to Darwin by the next post, which would leave in a day
or two."[23]
The story of the arrival of this letter at Down, and of the swift
passage of events between the date on which Darwin received it and the
reading of the "joint communications" before the Linnean Society, has
been often told.
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