Ɛpsilon

WCP4371

Letter (WCP4371.4611)

[1]

Parkstone, Dorset.

Septr. 10th. 1889

My dear Mr. Poulton1

I have today sent your slides by Parcel Post to Lumley Castle. I have quite done with them, having had six of them copied, which is all I require as I have so many others.

I am sorry that my carelessness as to references on small points renders me unable to tell you where I got the fact about the Cocoons of Saturnia. If not in Andrew Murray’s2 paper which no [2] doubt you have, I can only think of some papers in the papers Reports of the Rugby School Nat. Hist. Society which I had sent me about that time, & which contained some original observations on protective colouring.

T. W. Wood3 also wrote some popular papers, I think, in some of the Nat. Hist. periodicals which might have contained it, but I have none of these by me.

[3] Hoping you may find it in some of these.

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

P.S. You will have a grand shindy I expect with Romanes4 in Sect. D.

I had written a letter5 in reply to Mr. Cunningham6 in "Nature" of July 26th., but I rather expected you, or some other Weismannian to reply to it, & so did not send it. His objection seemed to me easily answered.

A.R.W.

1
Poulton, Edward Bagnall (1856-1943). British entomologist. Hope Professor of Zoology at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Jesus College.
2
Murray, Andrew Dickson (1812-1878). British lawyer, entomologist and botanist. Assistant secretary to the Royal Horticultural Society 1860-1865.
3
Wood, Thomas William. (1839-1910). British zoological draughtsman. Prepared illustrations for wood engravings reproduced in many notable publications including The Malay Archipelago.
4
Romanes, George John (1848-1894). Canadian-born British evolutionary biologist and physiologist.
5
Cunningham, Joseph Thomas (1859-1935). British marine biologist and zoologist known for his experiments on flatfish and his writings on neo-Lamarckism.
6
Wallace, A. R. 1889. Lamarck versus Weismann. Nature 40 (24 October): 619-620.

Editorial information

Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP4371.4611)]

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

Revision history

Transcribed by Lord, Annette [2012-07-16] Transcription checked by Catchpole, Caroline [2013-01-15] Transcription checked by Chua, Christine [2026-04-18]

Envelope (WCP4371.4612)

Envelope addressed to "E. B. Poulton Esq. F.R.S., c/o The Earl of Scarborough, Lumley Castle, Chester-le-Street, nr. Newcastle-on-Tyne", with stamp, postmarked "PARKSTONE | B | SP12 | 89"; postmark on back. [Envelope (WCP4371.4612)]

Please cite as “WCP4371,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP4371