From A. R. Wallace   [after 20 August 1862]1

⁠⟨⁠half a page excised⁠⟩⁠

I have only the 1st. Edition of the “Origin”— I suppose the one you kindly sent to Singapore must have reached after I left & they did not think it worth while to return it.2 I should be much pleased to have the 3rd. Edn.3

I have never considered the Ostriches to have any real connection with Mammals,4 & should imagine ⁠⟨⁠half a page excised⁠⟩⁠ difficult ⁠⟨⁠3 words excised⁠⟩⁠ of anomalous semiaquatic animals which should easily admit of modification into these three forms.—

I find myself very delicate & dread the winter, as I have been suffering here from inflamation of the pleura, & bad cough through a little exposure to night air.

I remain | My dear Mr Darwin | Yours very faithfully | Alfred R. Wallace

C. Darwin Esq.

incomplete

CD annotations

2.2 difficult … air. 3.2] ‘Malacca | ova cells | domesticated Bees’ added in margin, ink
1
Dated by the relationship to the letter to A. R. Wallace, 20 August [1862]. See also n. 3, below.
2
Wallace had returned to Britain in the spring of 1862, having been on a collecting expedition in the Malay Archipelago since 1854 (Wallace 1905). His name appears on CD’s list of presentation copies for Origin (see Correspondence vol. 8, Appendix III).
3
Wallace acknowledged receipt of a copy of the third edition of Origin in his letter to CD of 30 September 1862.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-3694,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-3694