Reactions to On the Origin of Species one hundred million years." Copies of the second edition were advertised as ready on 24 December, in advance of official publication on 7 January 1860. The "Saturday Review" of 24 December 1859 strongly criticised the methodology of Darwin's calculations. On 3 January 1860, Darwin wrote to Hooker about it: "Some of the remarks about the lapse of years are very good, & the Reviewer gives me some good & well deserved raps,—confound it I am sorry to confess the truth. But it does not at all concern main argument." A day later, he said to Lyell "You saw I suppose
On the Origin of Species be impossible." He asked Hooker how many pages would be available, but "If the Referees were to reject it as not strictly scientific I would, perhaps publish it as pamphet." He began his "abstract of Species book" on 20 July 1858, while on holiday at Sandown, and wrote parts of it from memory, while sending the manuscripts to his friends for checking. By early October, he began to "expect my abstract will run into a small volume, which will have to be published separately." Over the same period, he continued to collect information and write large fully detailed sections of