Ɛpsilon

WCP4253

Letter (WCP4253.4364)

[1]

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE

DUNDEE

Monday 21.6.86

My Dear Grandpapa,1

May & I hope to go to London on Saturday for a week. We shall go & return by boat, which is pleasant and very cheap, so we shall not see you on our way: but I hope to be in Edinburgh before long.

[2] I shall have plenty of people to see in London, & may take a run to Cambridge to see Foster.

This is our closing week & I am very busy.

The Infirmary will give me some additional work. I spent a considerable time there today, engaged chiefly in planning a new pathological room or museums.

[3] I do not quite understand or agree with what Uncle Arthur says about your eyes. Argyll Robertson is known to be weak in the mathematical questions relating to glasses, but in diseases of the eye, I shd. think he is good enough. Also I cannot see how in the world reading could do you any harm. It is not as if the retina were weak or affected. If I were you, I should [4] read more books, and less newspapers. It will be no great hardship to avoid the Scotsman a good deal nowadays. But I am absolutely convinced that Muciland would tell you that reading good clean print would do you no harm but rather good.

Alfred Russell [sic] Wallace, the naturalist was here last weak, & stayed with me. He was a great friend, & [5] fellow-worker with Darwin,2 & you will find all about him in 'Men of the Time'. He look is an old man now, but is very active. In September he is to lecture in Boston,3 as the beginning of a lecturing tour round the world. He expects to reach California by spring. He sat talking with me [6] till 1 o’clock in the morning, & then left by train at 6!

Pat Geddes4 was also here lately. He was delighted with the condition of my department.

We hear today that Roscoe5 has resigned. Carnelly our chemist. will have a good chance of [7] the Chair, but his departure will be a terrible misfortune to us.

Three valuable parcels of specimens are on their way to me; one from Naples, one from Berlin, & one from Prague.

Much love to Pam from, | Yr. very affte. grandson, | Darcy W. Thompson6[signature]

1
Gamgee, Joseph Sampson (1828-1886). Scottish veterinary surgeon. Grandfather of Thompson, D'Arcy Wentworth. See note 7.
2
Darwin, Charles Robert (1809-1882). British naturalist, geologist and author, notably of On the Origin of Species (1859).
3
ARW’s North American lecture tour spanned from October 1886 to August 1887.
4
Geddes, Patrick (1854-1932). British biologist, sociologist, geographer, philanthropist and pioneering town planner.
5
Roscoe, Henry Enfield (1833-1915). British chemist. Professor of Chemistry at Manchester in 1857-1886. First President of the Society of Chemistry Industry.
6
Thompson, D'Arcy Wentworth (1860-1948). British biologist, mathematician and classics scholar.

Editorial information

Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP4253.4364)]

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

Revision history

Transcribed by Hescock, Sawyer Dickinson [2014-07-29] Transcription checked by Benny, Ruth [2014-07-29] Transcription checked by Sherwood, Danni [2020-08-10] Transcription checked by Chua, Christine [2026-04-18]

Envelope (WCP4253.4365)

Envelope addressed to "Joseph Gamgee. Esq., 27 Alva St., Edinburgh", with stamp, postmarked "A | DUNDEE | JU 27 | 86"; "UNIVERSITY COLLEGE DUNDEE" printed on seal flap; postmark on back. [Envelope (WCP4253.4365)]

Please cite as “WCP4253,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP4253