WCP3986

Letter (WCP3986.3927)

[1]1

Hotel du Rhin

Place Vendome[sic]

Paris.

April 12th [18]85.

Dear Mr. Meldola2

I was much pleased to see your letter in "Nature"3 and felt that I had a stalwart ally —

Mr. Wallace is a foeman worthy of the best steel. I fear I omitted to send him a copy of my paper. When I return to England I have to be chairman of the [2] Commission of enquiry into the [1 word illeg.] system which will leave me very little time to enter the lists with those who may pitch into us, but the subject will bear a lot of thrashing — and an industrious search would reveal much evidence which I have as yet had no time to look for. With regard to winter forms being as you say often lighter — I should certainly [3] expect this in all cases where a double brooded species appears in spring and autumn — The spring brood are what you would call inter forms having lived through the winter in their pupal and larval stage these are sure to find at some period of their lives enough heat to give them the necessary vitality to ensure flight & reproduction. The autumn forms if not endowed with some [4]4 heat absorbing colour might possibly come in for cold weather to their disadvantage & be almost unable to secure the continuance of the species. Thus they would stand more in need of the darker pigments than their spring emerging parents & progeny; but these cases of double broods are almost or quite unknown in Arctic or high Subarctic regions and can scarcely be claimed as affecting my argument.

Y[ou]rs. very truly | Walsingham [signature]

1
A crest with the motto "Excitari non hebescere" (To be spirited, not inactive, motto of the de Grey family) appears in the centre at the top of the page.
2
Meldola, Raphael (1849-1915). British chemist and entomologist.
3

Meldola R (1885) The colours of arctic animals Nature Vol 31 No. 805, p.505.

The letter suggests that the white colour of the undersides of animals might have been developed by selection through the physical advantage gained from protection of the vital parts by a surface of less radiative activity. The view, now accepted, that countershading confers advantage by concealment in the environment, was first described by the American, Abbott Handerson Thayer, and supported by ARW.

4
"MLDA01969" written in pencil in bottom LH corner of page.

Editorial information

Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP3986.3927)]

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

Revision history

Transcribed by O'Dell, Sandra [2015-04-30] Transcription checked by Benny, Ruth [2015-04-30] Transcription checked by Sherwood, Danni [2020-08-10]

Please cite as “WCP3986,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 1 May 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP3986