Parkstone, Dorset.
Sept[embe]r.. 8th. 1894
My dear Poulton
I was glad to see your exposure of another American Neo-Lamarckian in Nature. It is astonishing how utterly illogical they all are! I was much pleased with your point, of the adaptations supposed to be produced by the inorganic Environment when they are related to the organic! It is I think new and very forcible. For nearly a month I have been wading through Bateson’s book & writing a criticism of it — & of Galton [2] who backs him up with his idea of "organic stability". Privately, I think Bateson’s book one of the most pretentious, and most worthless — "as a contribution to the study of the problem of Species"— I have ever met with, & this opinion will appear pretty plainly in my article, which will appear probably in the Fortnightly Review. I met Bateson when I was at Cambridge in the spring & it struck me at once that he had a high opinion of himself. Neither [3] he nor Galton appear to have any adequate conception of what Natural Selection is, or how impossible it is to escape from it. They seem to think that given a stable variation & natural selection must hide its diminished head!
Bateson’s preface, concluding reflexions [sic] &c. are often quite amusing in their cool bumptiousness! He is so cock-sure he has made a great discovery — which is the most palpable of mares’-nests!*
Yours very truly| Alfred R. Wallace [signature]
[4]1
*P.S. I allude of course to his grand argument — "environment continuous — species discontinuous —... [therefore?] variations wh[ich] produce species’ must be also discontinuous!"
(Bateson — Q.E.D.)
Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP4397.4659)]
For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon
Envelope addressed to "Prof. E. B. Poulton F.R.S., Wykeham House, Banbury Road, Oxford St, Helen Cottage, St Helens, I. of Wight", with stamp, postmarked "PARKSTONE | B | SP 8 | 94"; additional postmark on front of envelope and two postmarks on back. [Envelope (WCP4397.4660)]
[1] [p. 60]
Parkstone, Dorset
September 8, 1894.
My Dear Poulton1, — I was glad to see your exposure of another American Neo-Lanarckian in Nature.2 It is astonishing how utterly illogical they all are! I was much pleased with your point of the adaptations supposed to be produced by the inorganic environment when they are related to the organic. It is I think new and very forcible. For nearly a month I have been wading through Bateson's3 book,4 and writng a criticism of it, and of Galton5, who backs him up with his idea of "organic stability." ... Neither he nor Galton appears to have any adequate conception of what Natural Selection is, or how impossible it is to escape from [2] [p. 61] it. They seem to think that given a stable variation, Natural Selection must hide its diminished head!
Bateson's preface, concluding reflections, etc., are often quite amusing .... He is so cocksure he has made a great discovery — which is the most palpable of mare's nests. — Yours very truly,
Alfred R. Wallace.
P.S. — I allude of course to his grand argument — "environment continuous — species discontinous — therefore variations which produce species must be also discontinous"! (Bateson — Q.E.D.).
Status: Draft transcription [Published letter (WCP4397.6426)]
For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon
Please cite as “WCP4397,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 28 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP4397