Ɛpsilon

WCP2827

Letter (WCP2827.2717)

[1]

OBSERVATORY,

CAMBRIDGE.

26. May 1903

My dear Dr Wallace,

I am so sorry your lecture should have remained so long unanswered.

I have not published anything on the subject to which you refer, but I have no doubt that what your friend alluded to was a repeat of my lectures [2] at the Royal Institution in which I mentioned a few facts such as the following

1st that the great nebula in Orion (owing to its large extent) must receive daily about 200,000 times as much sun heat as the Earth receives in the same time[.]

2nd that it is infinitely unlikely that any appreciable portion of the sun heat can [3] escape into infinite space it is all stopped by matter.

But since I have seen "radium" I must say my notions as to the problems concerning sun heat have become quite unsettled.

I was so glad to hear from you & to read your very interesting paper[.]1

Yours truly | Robert S Ball2 [signature]

1
Wallace, A. R. 1903. Man's Place in the Universe: as indicated by the new astronomy. Fortnightly Review 73: 395-411.
2
Ball, Robert Stawell (1840-1913). Irish astronomer and mathematician.

Editorial information

Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP2827.2717)]

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

Revision history

Transcribed by O'Dell, Sandra [2015-06-01] Transcription checked by Benny, Ruth [2015-06-01] Transcription checked by Sherwood, Danni [2020-08-10] Transcription checked by Chua, Christine [2026-04-18]

Please cite as “WCP2827,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP2827