Alfred Russel Wallace formulated the theory of natural selection independently and simultaneously with Darwin. His letter from Ternate (February 1858), sent to Darwin, describes the mechanism with precision equivalent to the work Darwin had been developing for twenty years. The joint Darwin-Wallace communication was presented to the Linnean Society on 1 July 1858. On the Origin of Species was published in November 1859; Wallace is systematically relegated to the role of catalyst.