Parkstone, Dorset.
May 28th. 1900
My dear Poulton
I am very sorry that I cannot sign your memorial. If it were one asking for enquiry only, I would gladly have signed it. But it makes a number several
of [sic] statements of opinion with which I wholly disagree. Par[agraph] 6 states that it is a "national duty" to make collections &c. and (5) implies that it is equally a "duty" to pay a sufficient staff to classify the thousands [2] of species of insects &c. &c. continually accumulating.
As I think that these things should be done by the exertions of naturalists themselves, & that to tax people in order to do these is unjustifiable plunder, of course I cannot sign such a statement.
Yours very truly| Alfred R. Wallace [signature]
Prof. E.B. Poulton
Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP4413.4684)]
For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon
Please cite as “WCP4413,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 30 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP4413