Old Orchard,
Broadstone,
Wimborne.
Novr.. 22nd. 1909
My dear Poulton
Many thanks for the copy of your most interesting new book. I have first read your excellent article on "Colour &c." in which you have brought together much interesting & fresh matter. I have also read your Appendices on the self-deluded specialists — Bateson, Punnett, De Vries, & Co., and am especially delighted that you have brought up so many fresh passages from Darwin’s letters showing how long he [2] considered and rejected their & De Vries’ special views. — But unfortunately, they & their supporters are so tremendously conceited and blatant, that the public will for long believe their confident assertions of having made the "greatest discoveries" of the Century.
I shall read the rest of your book at my leisure, as it is only now after nearly a year of interruptions through bad eyes, & various other slight illnesses, that I am just beginning again at my own [3] long neglected book.
I notice one passage (in p.45) where you say that Darwin had to maintain his views as to permanence of oceanic basins &c. against Lyell, Hooker & myself. I remember Darwin writing to me, when he sent me "The Origin" — that I should be sure to disagree with him as to "Oceanic Islands". This was founded wholly on my early paper on the "Zoological Geography of the Malay Archipelago" — written before I had seen "The Origin" was written and in which I merely adopted the general views of other writers without any [4]1 knowledge of the subject myself. From the moment I read the "Origin", I was convinced of the correctness of Darwin’s view, and a considerable portion of my work since has been in getting fresh evidence and new arguments in favour of the "Permanence of Oceanic & Cont[inenta]l Areas" and have been as much sneered at & ridiculed for it, even by geologists, as Darwin expected to be! I see, by referring to the paper, that I supported, the adverse view partly from his "Coral Reefs" (wh[ich] I had read before going to the East) & in which he advocated enormous bands of alternate elevation & depression in the Pacific, implying Continental land at some early period! It was to this unconsidered adoption of others’ views that Darwin referred when he wrote (in 1859) that he differed wholly from me on this point.
Yours very truly| Alfred R. Wallace [signature]
Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP4449.4748)]
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 "BROADSTONE | C | NO 22 | 09". Note on front of envelope in Poulton's hand: "Nov 22. 1909"; postmark on back. [Envelope (WCP4449.4749)]
Please cite as “WCP4449,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 12 May 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP4449