Feb. 27., 2006 | 10:32 pm
No:: dienasgramata
One can imagine Darwins surprise and the pain of his inner conflict when, after working for 20 years on his theory, he received a package from Indonesia in 1858 containing an essay written by the young English naturalist Alfred Russell Wallace containing an outline of a theory nearly identical to his own, which Wallace indicated was devised one night during a malarial fit. Although both men are credited with the theory of natural selection, priority for the idea of natural selection -- the essence of the theory -- cannot be denied to Darwin, as he had recorded his ideas to paper in 1838 when Wallace was still a teenager. The Origin was published in 1859.