Parkstone, Dorset.
July 3rd. 1898
My dear Poulton1
I enclose you a sample of what seems to purport to be artificial protoplasm, with the note accompanying it. You will perhaps like to test it, or give it to someone who will. It is no use to me.
What an extraordinary book on colours of insects that is, which you have reviewed in last Nature. Some of it reads like a huge joke. I [2] should think the illustrations must be interesting, & must also often suggest utilitarian interpretations. His idea of the pattern "falling upon" the insects "when in a particular attitude" is fine: I presume the patterns are all present in the pupa, — but perhaps the undeveloped unexpanded wings are still arranged in the attitude of repose, that is, with the normal amount of overlapping.
[3] Has this ever been tested?
Believe me| yours very truly| Alfred R. Wallace [signature]
Prof. E. B. Poulton
Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP4412.4682)]
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, Oxford", with stamp, postmarked "PARKSTONE | A | JY 3 | 98". A note is written on front of envelope in Poulton's hand "A. R. Wallace July 3, 1898"; postmark on back. [Envelope (WCP4412.4683)]
Please cite as “WCP4412,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on