WCP4497

[1]¹

Address c/o B.W. Williams Esq. 258 Washington Street, Boston

Boston Nov^r. 14^th 1886

My dear Meldola

I have got through my four first lectures with tolerable success, & full, & very attentive audiences. I am living here at a hotel & like the American plan of hotels very much. They certainly far surpass us in hotel arrangements. I have not many lecture engagements yet, but hope they will come. I spent yesterday morning at the Mus[eum] of Comp[arative] Anatomy at Cambridge — Agassiz Museum. Alex[ander] Agassiz took me round. It is a museum! The only one worthy of the name I have ever seen. It carries out the principle I advocated

of in my paper in Macmillan’s Mag[azine] 20 years ago, of [2] small typical series in separate rooms for the public, and the bulk of the collections in drawers or cases for easy reference by students. The building is large and convenient, and exactly suited to the purpose. No architect allowed to interfere — except to carry out Agassiz own design. There are Geographical collections of each Region in separate rooms — the only thing of the kind in the world. All is carried out with admirable simplicity & economy of space & convenience.

In a separate building is the Peabody Mus[eum] of Archaeology. Equally marvellous for its collections of American Prehistoric remains. These almost surpass those of Europe in variety & interest. These two Museums are well worth a journey from Europe for any Naturalist to see.

Will you be so good as to inform me, as soon as you can, whether Higgins still carries on the Nat[ural] Hist[ory] Agency, & what is his address, or that of any trustworthy successor. The sons of Prof[essor] Denton (who died in New Guinea) have a lot of fine bird skins and a few shells from South East New Guinea, some I think rare, & there is no market for these in America.

The National Acad[emy] of Sciences with Prof[essor] Morse as President have been having a meeting here & I read them a short paper. Last night I dined in company with D^r. Holmes the "Autocrat of the Breakfast Table". — Prof[essor] Langley gave a most interesting account of an enormous extension of the heat spectrum which he traced more than 20 times as far as the red and as the whole visible spectrum! Hoping yourself and Mrs Meldola (Jun[io]r & Sen[io]r) are all quite well

I am| Yours faithfully| Alfred R. Wallace [signature]