WCP3172

[1]

423 Powers Building

Rochester, New York

3^d October 1898.

My dear Mr. Wallace: —

On behalf of my associates of the "Alfred Russel Wallace Scientific Club of Rochester", I thank you most cordially for the honor which you have most graciously accorded us.

To bear such a distinguished name as yours is indeed an incentive to determined work in the field of science.

[2] It will be our earnest wish to be worthy of your great name for we Americans have been taught to reverence the name of Alfred Russel Wallace.

I may say that all the members, now fifty-two in number, are college graduates. And our laboratory and rooms are to be adorned with photographs and busts of distinguished [3] men of science.

I hope I am not asking too much if I request you to tell me what in your opinion is your best biography. We are anxious to study your noble life, and we want to go to the best view of it for our knowledge of it.

If you would kindly suggest to us any plans for scientific investigation we should be greatly pleased. Any thing coming [4] from our patron we should be sure to follow.

Many thanks for your picture. We value it highly and we shall have it framed forthwith.

I am fairly well acquainted with Mr. Albert Besant¹ of Harvard, Hants. He is a brother of W. H. H.² Besant³ of St Johns, Cambridge, the Eminent mathematician whose picture Mr Albert Besant has just sent me. I shall put it in our scientific rooms.

With highest esteem I am | yours faithfully | R. H. Arnot³ [signature]