Ɛpsilon

WCP4140

Letter (WCP4140.4158)

[1]

The Dell, Grays, Essex

March 3rd. 1876

Dear. Mr. Galton1

I return your paper signed. It is one excellent proposal.

I must take the opportunity of mentioning how immensely I was pleased & interested with your last papers in the Anthop. Journal. Your "Theory of Heredity" seems to me most ingenious & a decided improvement on Darwin’s,2 it gets over some of the great difficulties & the enormous [illeg.]ness of his Pangenesis.

Your paper on twins is [2] also wondrously suggestive.

Believe me | yours very faithfully | Alfred R. Wallace [signature]

F. Galton Esq.

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

Editorial information

Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP4140.4158)]

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

Revision history

Transcribed by Campbell, John [2012-08-15] Transcription checked by Catchpole, Caroline [2013-01-15] Transcription checked by Chua, Christine [2026-04-18]

Published letter (WCP4140.5462)

[1]1 [p. 187]

The Dell, Grays, Essex. March 3rd, 1876.

Dear Mr Galton, I return your paper signed [on a theory of the germ-plasm]. It is an excellent proposal. I must take the opportunity of mentioning how immensely I was pleased and interested with your last papers in the Anthrop. Journal. Your 'Theory of Heredity' seems to me most ingenious and a decided improvement on Darwin's, as it gets over some of the great difficulties of the cumbrousness of his Pangenesis. Your paper on Twins is also wondrously suggestive.

Believe me, Yours very faithfully, Alfred R. Wallace.

F. Galton, Esq.

1
Editor Charles H. Smith's Note: First of four letters to Francis Galton, printed in Volumes 2 (1924) and 3A (1930) of The Life, Letters and Labours of Francis Galton by Karl Pearson (the first from the former volume, the last three from the latter).

Editorial information

Status: Draft transcription [Published letter (WCP4140.5462)]

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

Revision history

Transcribed by Smith, Charles Hyde [2013-02-06] Transcription checked by Catchpole, Caroline [2013-02-08]

Please cite as “WCP4140,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP4140