A few days later a final blow was struck in the battle over the ape
question. He writes on October 15 how he has written a letter to the
"Medical Times"--his last word on the subject, summing up in most
emphatic terms:--]

I have written the letter with the greatest care, and there is nothing
coarse or violent in it. But it shall put an end to all the humbug that
has been going on...Rolleston will come out with his letter in the same
number, and the smash will be awful, but most thoroughly merited.

[These several pieces of work, struck out at different times in response
to various impulses, were now combined and re-shaped into "Man's Place
in Nature," the first book which was published by him. Thus he writes to
Sir Charles Lyell on May 5, 1862:--]

Of course I shall be delighted to discuss anything with you [Referring
to the address on "Geological Contemporaneity" delivered in 1862 at the
Geological Society.], and the more so as I mean to put the whole
question before the world in another shape in my little book, whose
title is announced as "Evidences as to Man's Place in Nature." I have
written the first two essays, the second containing the substance of my
Edinburgh Lecture. I recollect you once asked me for something to quote
on the Man question, so if you want anything in that way the MS. is at
your service.

[Lyell looked over the proofs, and the following letters are in reply to
his criticisms:--]

Ardrishaig, Loch Fyne, August 17, 1862.