WCP2816

[1]

Dec. 19. 1902

Dear Dr Wallace,

I am very much obliged to you for your last letter¹ & I quite agree with you in the greater part of what you say — but I am rather inclined to think that Batorn is [2] right in many cases with regard to discontinuous variation & that the old adage " old adage "Natura nihil facit per saltum” by no means [illeg.] good.

You speak of the enormous variety of species in many genera varying every 100 miles or so to the Amazon valley in every valley [3] of the Andes & in every island of the Malay Archipelago: do you think what natural selection the determining factor in every case. Is it not allowable to believe that many of these are sudden if not which have perpetuation themselves? I dont think that you at all agree with these views, but I should very much [4] like your opinion on the matter: the great variety of widely differing species in a comparatively small area, with much the same climate & conditions serves to point to same thing more than Natural Selection — something more hap-hazard if one may be allowed to use the term.

Yours very truly | W. W. Fowler² [signature]