Ɛpsilon

WCP4044

Letter (WCP4044.3988)

[1]

The Dell, Grays Essex,

April 15th. 1875

Dear Newton1

Many thanks for the Marsh Paper. It contains the very thing I was expecting & waiting for, — monkeys & Lemurs in N. America! The difficulties of nomenclature are however coming up again, for in this paper I find whole families & genera, referred to as apparently well known & admitted groups, which are not mentioned in Leidy’s2 summary of extinct mammalia of all N. America in 1873.

I shall be very glad of the [2] paper by the Milne Edwards,3 as it will I have no doubt confirm much that is not in his Oiseaux Fossiles de la France. I wanted to see did it, & was wondering in what Library the book wd. be very likely to be.

Did you really think I quoted G. R. G.4 as an ornithologist? Did you not see my !!! after his name? I have heard "John Gould"5 called in public "our great ornithologist,"— & he [3] is the representation of the science now most prominently before the Brit. public. I am sorry you think there will not be & that there is no need for general ornithologists. I think there is the greatest need, & I think the interest of the study of birds as a whole, taking species from specialists, but studying genera & families in all their aspects, would be so great that, we shall surely soon have some man who will go in for it. Till we do I feel convinced we shall never get a satisfactory classification.

Yours very truly | Alfred R. Wallace [signature]

[4]6 P.S. I have just been looking at Garrod’s7 Parrot paper. There are some good hints in it & I shall modify my arrangement, —but I think it is only good for hints not to be followed. I believe there are to be formed external characters corresponding to every deep seated difference of internal structure. When no such external characters can possibly be found. I hold it to be prima facie evidence that the differences of internal structure are not deep seated or important. I am not clear that even the form of the sternum may not sometimes have changed rapidly & in that case, not be of great importance! But this is hearsay.

A.R.W.

1
Newton, Alfred (1829-1907). British zoologist and ornithologist. Founding member of the British Ornithologists' Union.
2
Leidy, Joseph (1823-1891). American palaeontologist.
3
Milne-Edwards, Henri (1800-1885). French zoologist.
4
Gray, George Robert (1808-1872). British zoologist and author. Head of the British Museum’s ornithological section.
5
Gould, John (1804-1881). British ornithologist and publisher.
6
In Newton’s handwriting, “A. R. Wallace, April 15/16/75 Answered April 17/75”. The letter has not been found.
7
Garrod, Alfred Henry (1846-1879). British vertebrate zoologist. Prosector to the the Zoological Society of London.

Editorial information

Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP4044.3988)]

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

Revision history

Transcribed by Royce, Isobel [2013-07-12] Transcription checked by Catchpole, Caroline [2013-07-12] Transcription checked by Chua, Christine [2026-04-18]

Please cite as “WCP4044,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP4044