WCP4136

[1]

Parkstone, Dorset.

Feb^y 6th. 1895

My dear Galton¹

If I remember rightly my letter, to which you refer, was mainly a statement of some suggested experiments which, in my opinion, would serve to test the question of the inheritance of acquired variations, and the reason I marked it private was, because it was written hastily and without that careful and leisurely consideration which would be given to a paper for publication. I had, & have, no objection to its being shown to any one interested, but only to its being in anyway made public by being printed. As to Cunningham’s² [2] suggestion, of course the thing ought to be done somehow; but Francis Darwin³ called on me the other day, & he said that there was a feeling at Cambridge that Cunningham was not a man of sufficient weight to carry it through, & that many would have nothing to say to it ^{from here—} which seems to be the case.

I think your plan would be a good one, and why should not you, Lankester,⁴ Poulton,⁵ & one or two others start it in earnest? Would Flower⁶ support it & get the Zool. Soc. to allow experiments in the Gardens? The Jodrell Laboratory [3] at Kew ought to be the very place & means of experiments with plants. How I wish Darwin⁷ had left money for such experiments instead of ^for that huge Kew Catalogue of Plants which is being made so expensive and bulky that it will be almost useless for the purpose he intended it for, & really money wasted.

Surely if the thing were made sufficiently known & its importance dwelt on, there are some few rich men who would endow a modest institution of the kind needed.

I am sorry my article⁸ on [4] Bateson’s⁹ & your views has been cut in two but it has been in the Ed. of Fortnightly’s hands— & proofs corrected— since last August, & only now got in! I told you at the time you published your finger print articles that I thought your dedication from them as to Nat. Selection & species &c. all wrong, & you will see I still hold that view & give my reasons.

I would rather you did not send my letter to Cunningham. Wait till something definite is being proposed or doing.

Yours very truly | Alfred R. Wallace [signature]

Francis Galton Esq. F.R.S.

1. Galton, Francis (1822-1911). British biostatistician, polymath and founder of eugenics. One of the key figures in 19th Century research into heredity. Half-cousin of Charles Darwin.

2. Cunningham, Joseph Thomas (1859-1935). British marine biologist and zoologist known for his experiments on flatfish and his writings on neo-Lamarckism.

3. Darwin, Francis ("Frank") (1848-1925). British botanist; 3rd son of Charles Robert and Emma Darwin.

4. Lankester, Edwin Ray ("Ray") (1847-1929). British authority zoology. Made important contributions to comparative anatomy, embryology, parasitology, and anthropology.

5. Poulton, Edward Bagnall (1856-1943). British entomologist. Hope Professor of Zoology at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Jesus College.

6. Flower, William Henry (1831-1899). British comparative anatomist and surgeon and a leading authority on mammals, and especially on the primate brain.

7. Darwin, Charles Robert (1809-1882). British naturalist, geologist and author, notably of On the Origin of Species (1859).

8. The article has not been identified.

9. Bateson, William (1861-1926). Pioneering British geneticist and supporter of the work of Gregor Mendel. One of the key figures behind the modern synthesis in evolutionary biology.