This address was delivered after the papers by Mr. Wallace and myself on
the Origin of Species, presently to be referred to, had been read before
the Linnean Society. When the first edition of this work was published, I
was so completely deceived, as were many others, by such expressions as
"the continuous operation of creative power," that I included Professor
Owen with other palaeontologists as being firmly convinced of the
immutability of species; but it appears ("Anat. of Vertebrates", vol. iii,
page 796) that this was on my part a preposterous error. In the last
edition of this work I inferred, and the inference still seems to me
perfectly just, from a passage beginning with the words "no doubt the type-
form," etc.(Ibid., vol. i, page xxxv), that Professor Owen admitted that
natural selection may have done something in the formation of a new
species; but this it appears (Ibid., vol. iii. page 798) is inaccurate and
without evidence. I also gave some extracts from a correspondence between
Professor Owen and the editor of the "London Review", from which it
appeared manifest to the editor as well as to myself, that Professor Owen
claimed to have promulgated the theory of natural selection before I had
done so; and I expressed my surprise and satisfaction at this announcement;
but as far as it is possible to understand certain recently published
passages (Ibid., vol. iii. page 798) I have either partially or wholly
again fallen into error. It is consolatory to me that others find
Professor Owen's controversial writings as difficult to understand and to
reconcile with each other, as I do. As far as the mere enunciation of the
principle of natural selection is concerned, it is quite immaterial whether
or not Professor Owen preceded me, for both of us, as shown in this
historical sketch, were long ago preceded by Dr. Wells and Mr. Matthews.

M. Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, in his lectures delivered in 1850 (of
which a Resume appeared in the "Revue et Mag. de Zoolog.", Jan., 1851),
briefly gives his reason for believing that specific characters "sont