Ɛpsilon

WCP4144

Postcard (WCP4144.4162)

[1]

[6 March 1895]1

My dear Galton2

I am very sorry to hear you are still unwell — I cannot see that what you say makes any difference in what my view of your theory. "Mould" I took in the ordinary sense of meaning "shape" or "give shape to". That any "species" shd. be formed without the aid of natural selection, or that any "specific characters" in the true sense of the term, should be non-adaptive, seems to me quite impossible & even (to me) unthinkable.

A.R.W.

1
Date derived from postmark on postcard.
2
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.

Editorial information

Status: Draft transcription [Postcard (WCP4144.4162)]

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

Revision history

Transcribed by Smith, Sam [2013-08-19] Transcription checked by Catchpole, Caroline [2013-08-19] Transcription checked by Chua, Christine [2026-04-18]

Please cite as “WCP4144,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP4144