WCP3977

Letter (WCP3977.3918)

[1] 1

30 Cumberland Road,

Kew.

1st.. November 1910.

My dear Meldola,2

Thanks for your postcard. Perhaps I ought to explain further what I said about Lyell3 and the Geological Society4 and Oxford5.

The opposition with which Lyell was met at the Geological Society, has [2] died (if it is even now dead) very slowly6. I have talked to many of the old generation who shook their heads gravely over "poor Lyell's fads." In the present generation the desire to go back to "the beginning["] is still very strong — and when this feeling is not dominant Lyell's services are minimised in Comparison [3] with those of Hutton7.

At Oxford unfortunately Buckland8 was succeeded by men of the old school — Phillips9 — who always "sat on the fence" and Prestwich10, Catastrophist11 to the last. Both dear old fellows, but not helpful for evolution. Nor does the present holder of the Chair12 (entre nous) — though a man of real genius — count reverence for "the falhers" [sic] among his [3] many virtues. I think that Poulton13 & Bourne14 are fully aware of the greatness reflected in Oxford by Lyell.

Ray Lankester15, who belonged to Exeter, Lyell's College, got them to put a portrait of Lyell in the Common room — He is a firm believer in Lyell.

But Oxford does not regard Lyell as Cambridge does Darwin16.

I am glad you are going to review the little book17. Hooker18 & Wallace have both written me the most charming letters. Wallace was greatly surprised to read the quotation on page 8519, of Lyell's letter to Herschel20 in 1836[.]

Yours very faithfully | J W Judd [signature]

1
"MLDW/116" is written in pencil in the bottom LH corner of the page.
2
Meldola, Raphael (1849-1915). British chemist and entomologist and close friend of ARW.
3
Lyell, Charles (1797-1875). British lawyer and the foremost geologist of his day. In his first and most famous book Principles of Geology he popularised the doctrine of uniformitarianism first proposed by James Hutton (see Endnote 7) that "the present is the key to the past", i.e. the earth was shaped entirely by slow-moving forces still in operation today, acting over a very long period of time.
4
Founded in 1807, the oldest national geological society in the world. Lyell (see Endnote 3) was President from 1835-1837, and 1849-1851 and the author (see Endnote 21) from 1886-1888.
5
Some of the most powerful supporters and opponents of Darwin's theory of evolution were geologists at the University of Oxford.
6
Although Darwin discussed evolutionary ideas with him from 1842, Lyell continued to reject evolution in each of the first nine editions of the Principles (see Endnote 3) which brought him into conflict with Darwin's supporters at the Geological Society. As a devout Christian he struggled to square evolution with his religious beliefs, however, he helped to arrange the simultaneous publication of papers by Darwin and ARW on natural selection in 1858.
7
Hutton, James (1726-1797). Scottish geologist, physician, chemical manufacturer, naturalist and experimental agriculturalist. He proposed the idea in 1788 that "from what has actually been, we have data for concluding with regard to that which is to happen thereafter", which Charles Lyell rephrased in the 1830s as "the present is the key to the past" in his theory of uniformitarianism (see Endnote 3).
8
Buckland, William (1784-1856). English theologian who became Dean of Westminster. He was also a geologist and paleontologist and Lyell's tutor at Exeter College, Oxford. Buckland interpreted the biblical account of Genesis as referring to two separate episodes of creation separated by a lengthy period, which emerged as a way to reconcile the scriptural account with discoveries in geology that suggested the earth was very old.
9
Phillips, John (1800-1874). English geologist. In 1841 he published the first global geologic time scale based on the correlation of fossils in rock strata. He succeeded Buckland (see Endnote 8) to the Readership of Geology in the University of Oxford, 1856-1874.
10
Prestwich, Joseph (1812-1896). British geologist, the son of a wealthy wine merchant, who had gained much experience of continental geology while travelling on his father's business. President of the Geological Society 1870-1872 and Chair of Geology at the University of Oxford 1874-1887.
11
In contrast to uniformitarianism advocated by Lyell and Hutton (see Endnotes 3 and 7), catastrophism was a concept that geological ages recorded a series of catastrophes followed by repopulation by a new range of species.
12
Sollas, William Johnson (1849-1936). British geologist and anthropologist, Professor of Geology at the University of Oxford 1897-1936. His studies included paleontology and petrology.
13
Poulton, Edward Bagnall (1856-1943). British evolutionary biologist, friend of ARW and lifelong advocate of natural selection.
14
Not identified.
15
Lankester, Edwin Ray (Ray Lankester) (1847-1929). British zoologist and comparative anatomist, working mostly on invertebrates. He was a fellow of Exeter College Oxford, studying under Thomas Henry Huxley.
16
Darwin, Charles Robert (1809-1882). English naturalist and writer. Originator of the theory of evolution by natural selection and author (1859) of On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. Early studies at Christ's College, Cambridge (1828-1831) encouraged his interest in natural science.
17
Judd, J. W. (1910) The Coming of Evolution: The story of a great revolution in science. Cambridge University Press.
18
Hooker, Joseph Dalton (1817-1911). British botanist and explorer, founder of geographical botany. He succeeded his father William Jackson Hooker (1785-1865) as Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew on his death and held the post for 20 years.
19
The quotation of Lyell's letter to Herschel in 1836 on page 85 of The Coming of Evolution (see Endnote 17) is introduced by the following: "Huxley and Haeckel have both borne testimony to the fact that Lyell, at the time he wrote the Principles, was firmly convinced that new species had originated by evolution from old ones. Indeed in a letter to John Herschel in 1836 he goes very far in the direction of anticipating the lines in which enquiries on the method of evolution must proceed, having even a prevision of the doctrine of mimicry, long afterwards established by Bates and others".
20
Herschel, Frederick William (1738-1822). German-born British astronomer and composer.

Editorial information

Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP3977.3918)]

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

Revision history

Transcribed by O'Dell, Sandra [2015-05-07] Transcription checked by Benny, Ruth [2015-05-07] Transcription checked by Sherwood, Danni [2020-08-10]

Please cite as “WCP3977,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 29 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP3977