WCP3804

Letter (WCP3804.3721)

[1]

5 Westbourne Grove Terrace, W.1

May 22nd. 1864

My dear Dr. Hooker2

Thanks for your kind note.3 I am glad you like my little paper.4

You rather mistake my meaning which I have not expressed clearly enough, as to the systematic classification of man. I do not at all agree with Owen's system5, and only meant to intimate that, looking on man as an intellectual being only, & considering the effects that intellect [2] had produced in facing his own external characters as well as in modifying other living beings, — this was some reason to class him apart from the rest of organic nature; — as we practically do when we place the reason & moral faculties of man, as opposed to the mental faculties of the whole of the animal world.

In true zoological classification I would only give its due weight to the structural peculiarities of the skull & brain, in combination with every other physical character, and [3] as man does certainly not differ from the chimpanzee6 so much as the Chimpanzee does from the Galeopithecus7[,] the Aye-aye8 or the Lemurs9, I can only class him as forming a distinct family, of the same Order which contains them all.

I suppose the Gardens10 are looking beautiful now. I must try & get over to see them soon. My brother in law Mr. Tho[ma]s. Sims11 is a photographer & would like to take some large views in the Gardens & in the Palm & other houses. Can he have permission [4] to do so, — & is there any back road by which a cab could come in with the apparatus? If you could grant an order I should be much obliged.

Hoping Mrs. Hooker12 & your family are all quite well.

Believe me | Yours very truly | Alfred R. Wallace [signature]

J. D. Hooker. M.D.

P.S. May I beg one of your "cartes"13 in exchange — ARW.

1
The residence of ARW's sister Frances ("Fanny") Sims (née Wallace, 1812-1893) and her husband Edward Sims (1829-1960). ARW lived here from early April 1862 to March 1865.
2
Hooker, Joseph Dalton (1817-1911). British botanist and explorer. Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew (1865-1885).
3
This letter from Hooker to ARW is missing.
4
Wallace, A. R. 1864. The Origin of Human Races and the Antiquity of Man Deduced from the Theory of "Natural Selection". Journal of the Anthropological Society of London. 2: clviii-clxxxvii.
5
Owen, Richard (1804-1892). British biologist, comparative anatomist and palaeontologist. Wallace’s comment is in reference to Owen’s placing man separate from other mammals, including primates, within its own group in a zoological classification based on physical characteristics. See Rupke, N. A. 2009. Richard Owen: Biology without Darwin. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. [pp. 182-208]
6
The chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) is now classified within the family Hominidae, which includes the other "Great Apes" (gorillas, orangutans, bonobos, and humans). Chimpanzees are considered to be the closest living evolutionary relatives to humans.
7
Obsolete species name for the Sunda flying lemur (or Colugo, Galeopterus variegatus). Despite its common name, it is not a lemur and does not fly, but rather is the closest relative to primates and a arboreal glider.
8
The Aye-aye (Daubentonia madagascariensis) is a species of long-fingered lemur.
9
Lemurs (superfamily Lemuroidea) are a group of chiefly nocturnal omnivorous primates which evolved in a separate lineage from monkeys and apes. Native to the island of Madagascar, they are notable for their long tails and in some species for their characteristic leaping mode of locomotion.
10
The Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew.
11
Sims, Thomas (1826-1910). Brother-in-law of ARW; photographer.
12
Hooker (née Henslow), Frances Harriet (1825-1874). British botanist, translator and first wife of J. D. Hooker.
13
A cartes de visite, or visiting card; a small photographic portrait mounted on a card, 3½ by 2¼ inches (OED).

Editorial information

Status: Edited (but not proofed) transcription [Letter (WCP3804.3721)]

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

Revision history

Transcribed by Adams, Christina [2012-10-10] Transcription checked by Barton, Michael [2019-12-20]

Please cite as “WCP3804,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 7 May 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP3804