WCP1769

[1]¹

Parkstone, Dorset

Dec[embe]^r. 1st. 1889

Dear Prof[essor]. Geddes²

Many thanks for sending me your very interesting & instructive book on Sex. I have read it through with great pleasure & profit. It sets forthward very clearly the essential nature of sex, the conditions of its differentiation, and the special characteristics of the two sexes, — but all this does not seem to me to explain at all how & why sex first arose; — in fact the problem is left — as perhaps [2] you intended it to be left — as mysterious as ever.

Neither can I agree that the explanation of utility is no explanation, for unless the "survival of the fittest" is denied it is a complete one, always supposing that the very first steps in each change have some utility. But you will have many critics of your position, & I have neither time nor knowledge sufficient to follow your more detailed exposition. I hope justice [3] will be done to the labour & care you have given to summarising & coordinating the main facts on one of the most interesting & most important branches of biological study.

Believe me | Yours very truly | Alfred R. Wallace [signature]

Professor Patrick Geddes