Ɛpsilon

From A. R. Wallace   15 November 1872

The Dell, Grays, Essex

Novr. 15th. 1872

Dear Darwin

I should have written earlier to thank you for your book, but was hoping to be able to read more of it before doing so.1 I have not however found time to get beyond the first 3 chapters, but that is quite sufficient to shew me how exceedingly interesting you have made the subject & how completely & admirably you have worked it out. I expect it will be one of the most popular of your works. I have just been asked to write a review of it for the “Quarterly Journal of Science”,— for which purpose I shall be in duty bound to seek out some deficiencies, however minute, so as to give my notice some flavour of criticism.2

The cuts & photos. are admirable, and my little boy & girl3 seized it at once to look at the naughty babies.

With best wishes | Believe me | Yours very faithfully | Alfred R. Wallace

Charles Darwin Esq.

P.S. I will take the opportunity of asking you if you know of any book that will give me a complete catalogue of vertebrate fossils with some indication of their affinities.4 | A.R.W.

CD annotations

Top of letter: ‘Enigmas of Life’5pencil
1
Wallace’s name appears on CD’s presentation list for Expression (Appendix V).
2
Wallace reviewed Expression in the January 1873 issue of the Quarterly Journal of Science.
4
Wallace presumably wanted a catalogue of fossils for his work on The geographical distribution of animals (Wallace 1876).
5
CD refers to William Rathbone Greg’s Enigmas of life (Greg 1872), which was published in November (Publishers’ Circular 1872).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-8627,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-8627