by any of those striking discoveries which at once revolutionize, so to speak, the department of science on which they bear". Years later, Darwin could only recall one review; Professor Haughton of Dublin claimed that "all that was new in them was false, and what was true was old." Despite illness, Darwin pressed on with writing the "abstract" of his "big book" on Natural Selection; this condensed version was published in November 1859 as On the Origin of Species. As an influence on cybernetics In a largely overlooked passage from Wallace's essay (p.62), he says of the evolutionary principle: The action of this principle is exactly like that of the centrifugal governor of the steam engine, which checks and corrects any irregularities almost before they become evident; and in like manner no unbalanced deficiency in the animal kingdom can ever reach any conspicuous magnitude, because it would make itself felt at the very first step, by rendering existence difficult and extinction almost sure soon to follow. The cybernetician and anthropologist Gregory Bateson would observe in the 1970s that, although seeing it only as an illustration, Wallace had "probably said the most powerful thing that’d been said in the 19th century". Bateson revisited the topic in his 1979 book Mind and Nature: A Necessary Unity, and other scholars have continued to explore the connection between natural selection and systems theory. Citations References (published 1909) (The Autobiography of Charles Darwin) Retrieved on 2007-01-14 (The Autobiography of Charles Darwin) Retrieved on 2006-12-15 External links Presentation and analysis of these Wallace and Darwin texts on BibNum (for English version of the analysis, click 'à télécharger') Tendency of Species to form Varieties and on the Perpetuation of Varieties and Species by Natural Means of Selection Works by Alfred Russel Wallace Works by Charles Darwin Biology papers 1858 documents Works originally published in British magazines Works originally published in science and technology magazines