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On the Tendency of Species to Form Varieties

Charles Darwin / Alfred Russel Wallace · 1858

The 1858 joint paper by Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace that first publicly announced the theory of natural selection.

Darwin co-authored this paper, the first public announcement of his theory of natural selection.

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Printed page 45 of the 1858 Linnean Society paper 'On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties' by Darwin and Wallace, with a covering letter from Lyell and Hooker dated London, June 30th, 1858. Text is in serif type.
Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace, 'On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties', Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society, 1858.

About this source

What it is

This is the printed paper read to the Linnean Society of London on 1 July 1858, combining writings by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace on how varieties and species form through natural selection. It was introduced by a covering letter from Charles Lyell and Joseph Hooker.

Why it matters

Wallace had independently arrived at a similar theory and sent his work to Darwin, which pushed Darwin to make his own long-held ideas public at the same time. This joint paper was the first public statement of natural selection, appearing before On the Origin of Species, and shows how scientific discovery can involve more than one person working at once.

Look closer

  • Why did Lyell and Hooker, rather than Darwin or Wallace themselves, write the covering letter?
  • What does it suggest that two naturalists reached similar conclusions independently?
  • Why might Darwin have waited years to publish ideas he had already developed?

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