Broadstone, Wimborne
Dec[embe]r.. 18th. 1907
My dear Poulton
I have read your "Introduction" over again with much pleasure & increased admiration. There is only one place where I think your argument is a little too much elaborated — & therefore weakened. On p. XXXIX — from "The position is as follows" (l[ine] 3) down to end of par[agraph] is to me a little hard to follow, & therefore a little obscure. I should be inclined to omit it entirely — but of course it is not of much importance either way.
[2] The importance of "Mendelism" to Evolution, seems to me to be something of the same kind but very much less in degree & importance — as Galton’s fine discovery of the law of the average share each parent has in the characters of the Child — one quarter — the 4 grand parents each 1/16 & so on — That illuminates the whole problem of heredity combined with individual <div>ersity[?], in a way nothing else does. I almost wish [3] you could introduce that!
More than two years ago I wrote a paper on "Evolution and Character" — by request, as one of a small series of booklets. The series did not come off, and my article is (I think) to appear in the January issue of the Fortnightly Review. It will I dare say be attacked, because it leads — logically I believe — to an unpopular conclusion. If you have time to read it I shall be glad to know what you or any of your [4]1 Oxford friends think of it.
I am at last nearly at the end of my rather big "Spruce" book — & have to begin the trouble of getting Illustrations, Maps, &c, &c.
Yours very truly| Alfred R. Wallace [signature]
Prof. E.B. Poulton
P.S. I have been asked to write a short article on "Modern Opponents of Darwinism" — I shall therefore be glad of a proof of your "Introduction" to take a few facts from, if you can spare me one.
A.R.W. [signature]
Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP4435.4722)]
For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon
[1] [p. 86]
Broadstone, Wimborne
December 18, 1907
My dear Poulton,—The importance of Mendelism to Evolution seems to me to be something of the same kind, but very much less in degree and importance, of Galton's1 fine discovery of the law of the average share each parent has in the characters of the child—one quarter, the four grandparents each one-sixteenth, and so on. That illuminates the whole problem of heredity, combined with individual diversity, in a way nothing else does. I almost wish you could introduce that!—Yours very truly,
Alfred R. Wallace
Status: Draft transcription [Published letter (WCP4435.6454)]
For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon
Please cite as “WCP4435,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 28 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP4435