WCP2974

Letter (WCP2974.2864)

[1]1

NETHERBY,

VICTORIA ROAD, S.

SOUTHSEA.

27th Dec[ember] 1909

My dear Sir

In the spring I shall publish a book which I have called "The Laws of Heredity"2. It is a longer, but I think a very much better book than "The Principles of Heredity"3 which you were good enough to like. H. H. Turner4, the Savilian Professor of Astronomy at Oxford has contributed a Diagr "Diagrammatic Representation" of some of the leading ideas, and intends, I understand, to issue a volume of his own in which the whole work is diagrammaticised. You may have heard of him as a friend [2] of Professors Weldon5 & Poulton6.

I think you may like the book with, perhaps, the exception of three chapters — two on alcohol and one on the "Relation of Mind to Body". I have, however, written very moderately, and there on alcohol, & there is not much in the chapter on the "Relation of Mind to Body". The book contains a new interpretation of "acquired characters" which I feel sure is true, & which I believe will render it impossible to maintain that they are transmitted in the future. People who should be good judges & who have read the manuscript say that I have quite destroyed the Mendelian & mutation hypotheses7. I believe I have [3]9 really; but my criticism is not merely destructive. I think I have discovered what the phenomena on which the experimental school rely actually mean.

I have a very intense belief in & reverence for the work done by you & Darwin8. It seems to me that method is all-important in scientific work & that one[?] is the only right method — the method of taking all the facts into account & carefully testing all the thinking. There is a great deal about this in the book. I believe I show conclusively that the paraded accuracy of many recent workers consists of nothing more than an ignoring of much that is known to be true. I should feel greatly delighted & honoured if it were possible for you to write an introduction — as [4] short as you pleased. It would be a matter of great pride to me. I do not think it would be necessary for you to read the whole work but only a few chapters. The rest are merely expansions of those in the "Principles". If you approved of that book you would be sure to approve of this also. I know however that you cannot now spare time & labour & shall quite understand if you tell me so. But if you should care to look at the manuscript I could send you a typed copy[.]

I hope you have many happy new years before you.

Yours very truly | G. Archdall Reid9 [signature]

1
Page numbered 111 in pencil in top RH corner and "Answ[ere]d Dec[ember]. 29 [19]09" written in ink across top LH corner of page.
2
Archdall Reid, G. (1910) The Laws of Heredity, with a diagrammatic representation by Herbert Hall Turner London, Methuen and Co. Ltd.
3
Archdall Reid, G. (1905) The Principles of Heredity, with some applications London, Chapman.
4
Turner, Herbert Hall (1861-1930). British astronomer and seismologist. He became Savilian Professor of Astronomy and Director of the Observatory at Oxford University in 1893, a post he held until his death.
5
Weldon, Walter Frank Raphael (Ralph Weldon) (1860-1906) English evolutionary biologist and founder of biometry.
6
Poulton, Edward Bagnall (1856-1943). British evolutionary biologist, friend of ARW and lifelong advocate of natural selection.
7
Gregor Johann Mendel (1822-1884). Established rules of heredity when the predominant idea was that characteristics were passed to the next generation through blending inheritance, i.e. the traits from each parent are averaged together. The independent duplication of his work by Hugo de Vries and Carl Correns in 1900 led to an understanding of heredity based on inheritance of genes, rather than previous approaches based on statistical studies of phenotype variation (biometrics). The debate between the biometricians and the Mendelians was extremely vigorous in the first two decades of the twentieth century, but the two approaches were finally combined, especially by work conducted by R. A. Fisher around 1918. The combination, in the 1930s and 1940s, of Mendelian genetics with Darwin's theory of natural selection resulted in the modern synthesis of evolutionary biology.
8
Page numbered 112 in pencil in top RH corner.
9
British Museum stamp underneath.

Editorial information

Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP2974.2864)]

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

Revision history

Transcribed by O'Dell, Sandra [2015-05-14] Transcription checked by Benny, Ruth [2015-05-14] Transcription checked by Sherwood, Danni [2020-08-10]

Please cite as “WCP2974,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 5 May 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP2974