WCP3747

Letter (WCP3747.3655)

[1]1

Waldron Edge, Duppas Hill, Croydon.

July 20th. 1878

Dear Flower2

I merely write to give you my address, in order that you may be able to send me the paper on Crania3 &c. you were so good as to promise me.

I see in the last Anthrop[ological]. Journal a valuable paper on the "Motu4" of New Guinea, with such statements as p. 672. "The Motu belong to the great Malayo Polynesian family"— and p. 473. "The hair is of a peculiarly frizzly[sic] nature"—

Yours faithfully | Alfred R. Wallace [signature]

Prof. Flower

[2] [A sketch of an upside-down whale, similar in shape to a sperm whale, appears at the top of an otherwise empty second page].

1
"STW", while handwritten, is printed instead of in ARW’s usual cursive script, indicating that this was likely a later annotation.
2
Comparative anatomist and surgeon Sir William Henry Flower, KCB, FRCS, FRS (1831 — 1899).
3
A leading contemporary authority on mammals, Flower was particularly studied in the primate brain. Flower accepted evolution, and supported T. H. Huxley ("Darwin’s Bulldog") in contradicting Richard Owen’s claim that the human brain contained structures present in no other mammal, which could have excluded them from a genus within the primates and contradicted human evolutionary theory.
4
"Motu" can refer to either the aboriginal people living at the southern coast of Papua New Guinea, or to their language (varieties of which are also called Hiri Motu or Police Motu).

Editorial information

Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP3747.3655)]

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

Revision history

Transcribed by Clerx, William [2012-08-16] Transcription checked by Catchpole, Caroline [2013-01-15]

Please cite as “WCP3747,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 28 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP3747