Ɛpsilon

WCP4400

Letter (WCP4400.4664)

[1]

Parkstone, Dorset.

March 8th. 1896

My dear Poulton1

I have just been reading with great interest your notice of Romanes’ 2"Post Darwinian Questions".3 As I see that he criticises me very fully, & in particular that he discusses again the question of the utility — or as he says mutility — of specific characters, I should like to see the book. Perhaps therefore you would kindly lend it me for a week or two & I will return it, as I should like [2] to write a short statement4 of the grounds on which I believe "all specific characters" to be or once to have been useful. The more I consider the subject the more convinced I am of the fundamental truth of this position.

I rather wonder, as I am so much discussed in the volume, that Mrs. Romanes5 did not order a copy to be sent to me.

[3] I have just sent off to the Editor of "Nature" a review of Cope’s6 new book, which, though full of facts, is about as illogical and as full of astounding omissions, misconceptions & misstatements as any book by a biologist, I have ever seen. With it I review Archdall Reid’s7 book The Present Evolution of Man,8 which is very clever & well worth reading.

Yours very truly| Alfred R. Wallace [signature]

Prof. E. B. Poulton

1
. Poulton, Edward Bagnall (1856-1943). British entomologist. Hope Professor of Zoology at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Jesus College.
2
Romanes, George John (1848-1894). Canadian-born British evolutionary biologist and physiologist.
3
Romanes, George John; Morgan, Conway Lloyd. 1896-1897. Darwin and after Darwin: an exposition of the Darwinian theory and a discussion of post-Darwinian questions. Chicago, Open Court Pub. Co. Three volumes.
4
Wallace, A. R. 1896. The problem of utility: Are specific characters always or generally useful? Journal of the Linnean Society, Zoology 25: 481-496.
5
Romanes (née Duncan), Ethel (1856-1927). Writer, religious activist, and the editor of The Life and Letters of George John Romanes (1896).
6
Cope, Edward Drinker (1840-1897). American palaeontologist and comparative anatomist.
7
Reid, George Archdall O'Brien (1860-1929). British physician, and a writer on public health and on the subject of evolution.
8
Reid, George Archdall O'Brien. 1896. The Present Evolution of Man. London: Chapman & Hall.

Editorial information

Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP4400.4664)]

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

Revision history

Transcribed by Lord, Annette [2012-07-17] Transcription checked by Catchpole, Caroline [2013-01-15] Transcription checked by Chua, Christine [2026-04-18]

Envelope (WCP4400.4665)

Envelope addressed to "Prof. E. B. Poulton F.R.S., Banbury Road, Oxford", with stamp, postmarked "PARKSTONE | A | MR 8 | 96". A note is written on front of envelope in Poulton's hand "A. R. Wallace 1896"; postmark on back. [Envelope (WCP4400.4665)]

Please cite as “WCP4400,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP4400