On June 29th Mr. Darwin wrote to me in acute distress, being
himself very ill, and scarlet fever raging in the family, to which
one infant son had succumbed on the previous day, and a daughter
was ill with diphtheria. He acknowledged the receipt of the letter
from me, adding, "I cannot think now of the subject, but soon
will: you shall hear as soon as I can think"; and on the night of
the same day he writes again, telling me that he is quite
prostrated and can do nothing but send certain papers for which I
had asked as essential for completing the prefatory statement to
the communication to the Linnean Society of Mr. Wallace's
essay....
The communications were read, as was the custom in those days, by
the Secretary to the Society. Mr. Darwin himself, owing to his
illness and distress, could not be present. Sir Charles Lyell and
myself said a few words to emphasise the importance of the
subject, but, as recorded in the "Life and Letters" (Vol. II., p.
126), although intense interest was excited, no discussion took
place: "the subject was too novel, too ominous, for the old school
to enter the lists before armouring.
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