Ɛpsilon

WCP2819

Letter (WCP2819.2709)

[1]

The Daily News Office

London

April 8 1903

My dear Sir,

I cannot say how pleased I was with your kind commendation of my humble little effort to defend your theory from one of the attacks upon it. There seemed to me a singular lack of imagination in the theory advanced by Mr Maunder1 & Prof. Turner2 of a curtain of dark stars. Professor Turner's further suggestion of possible dark nebulāe seems equally untenable, for if the dark rifts were caused [2] by intervening bodies the stars left exposed would not bear a definite structural relation to them.

I am afraid I am not qualified to give an astronomical imprimatur to your forthcoming work. I am a reviewer here, have no personal knowledge of astronomers, & only such acquaintance from with the science as arises from a great natural interest in it. Otherwise I should have been delighted to read your proofs as a "labour of love".

I am, Sir, | yours faithfully | W. B. Hodgson3 [signature]

Dr. Alfred Russel Wallace

1
Maunder, Edward Walter (1851-1928). British astronomer who devoted his academic career to the study of sunspots and the solar magnetic cycle.
2
Turner, Herbert Hall (1861-1930). British astronomer and seismologist. Savilian Professor of Astronomy and Director of the Observatory at the University of Oxford 1893-1930.
3
Hodgson, W. B. (-). Author and editor of the Daily News.

Editorial information

Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP2819.2709)]

For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon

Revision history

Transcribed by O'Dell, Sandra [2015-04-09] Transcription checked by Benny, Ruth [2015-04-09] Transcription checked by Sherwood, Danni [2020-08-10] Transcription checked by Chua, Christine [2026-04-18]

Please cite as “WCP2819,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP2819