WCP254

[1]

Parkstone, Dorset

Sept[embe]^r. 25^th. 1894

My dear Violet¹

You must keep your experiences in detail till 'Xmas, when you can "fight your battle, o’er again." Of course Switzerland is the gem of the world & spoils one for every other country, though Mrs. Sharpe says she likes Norway better. On Friday we had an unexpected visit from D^r. and Mrs. Wigglesworth where I staid[sic] at the Lunatic Asylum near Liverpool (Rainhill). Mrs. W. is Rev[eren]^d H. H. Higgin's² daughter. D^r. W. had been nearly killed by one of the lunatics — the narrowest escape I should think any man ever [2] had. He was going his rounds, & had just seen one man & was talking to the next one, when the one just left stabbed him in the side of the throat with a piece of iron he had secreted & sharpened. It cut his jugular vein ^{carotid artery} quite in two, & he would have died in a few minutes if he had not himself pressed hard on the artery ^vein stet³ & stopped the loss of blood. The other doctors in the Asylum applied pressure so as to chequeck the loss of blood, & then sent for a first rate surgeon from Liverpool & they had to cut open his throat to get at the artery ^vein stet to tie & plug it up. Now he has no carotid artery at all! It will gradually shrink away, & all the blood is carried to the brain by other smaller arteries[3] which enlarge sufficiently. For a long time he had to be watched day & night as had the artery burst open he would have died in a few minutes unless it could be stopped. It is only six weeks since the accident, yet the wound is nearly healed and he looks quite well, though still of course weak. That seems to me a triumph of surgery and a marvel of physiology.

Mr. Clement Reid⁴ collected a lot of Alpine plants for me the last day he was up the high mountains, & packed them & left ^them at the hotel to be posted. But they forgot them for a week & they did not reach here till 102 days after they were gathered, so they were very bad [4] but I have potted them all, and it looks as if about half of them would recover. I have been writing a long critical article on some Darwinian heresies for the "Fortnightly"⁵, and am now going to write another, on "The Expressiveness of Speech"⁶, which I think will be more generally interesting. I have not heard from Mrs. Fisher⁷ since. I have now a tall stand for the telescope but not once for the last month has there been a fine night — always haze, or cloud or rain. Mars is now in a good position & the first fine night I mean to try at it. Also at the next new moon. Not heard from Will⁸ once since he returned to Newcastle 2 weeks ago.

Your affectionate Pa I Alfred R. Wallace [signature]

Tuesday⁹ Morn[in]g — Letter from Will. He is all right. ARW.