WCP1358

[1]

[in ARW’s hand] Ansd

"Kinderheim"

St. Anne’s on the Sea

Lancs. [Lancashire]

Dec 4. 1904

Dear Sir,

I have recently read, with great interest, your book "Man’s place in the Universe"¹

I am a physician and retired from active work & was a Univ. Exte [University Extension] Lecturer on Hygiene.

I possess only an elementary knowledge of astronomy and have no right to offer any criticism on the subject.

I only write to call your attention to a passage on Atmospheric Electricity in chapter XIII, in which the formation of Ammonia, is attributed solely to that agency.

I have always believed and taught [2] that manures — excreta — putrifying remains of animals &c yielded the chief supply of ammonia which washing into the soil, is acted upon by rain & its contained oxygen — Converted into nitrites & then nitrate which dissolving in the subsoil water is available for plant nutrition.

These processes are effected by what bacteriologists call — the nitrifying organisms.

The general arguments of your book have interested me very much.

Yrs sincerely | E. Drummond² [signature]

D^r. Wallace