Ɛpsilon

WCP4509

Letter (WCP4509.4816)

[1]

Frith Hill, Godalming.

Octr. 21st. 1888

My dear Meldola1

Can you let one of your assistants or pupils get me the weight in fractions decimals of a grain of each of the enclosed 6 packages of seeds. I only want them approximately, to compare with particles of sand or volc. glass carried to great distances by the wind.

I have just today finished the draft MSS of my book.2 Now I am going to read over & correct & add, — and also [2] see what illustrations I can get for it.

Poulton3 has sent me some proofs of Weismann’s4 papers — extremely interesting, but not yet giving me any more matter than I had before, bearing on man’s question.

Yours very truly| Alfred R. Wallace [signature]

1
Meldola, Raphael (1849-1915). British chemist and entomologist.
2
Wallace, A. R. 1889. Darwinism: an exposition of the theory of natural selection with some of its applications. London & New York: Macmillan & Co.
3
Poulton, Edward Bagnall (1856-1943). British entomologist. Hope Professor of Zoology at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Jesus College.
4
Weismann, August Friedrich Leopold (1834-1914). German evolutionary biologist and founder of germ plasm theory. His work was influential in disproving the inheritance of acquired characteristics.

Editorial information

Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP4509.4816)]

For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon

Revision history

Transcribed by Lord, Annette [2012-07-20] Transcription checked by Catchpole, Caroline [2013-01-15] Transcription checked by Chua, Christine [2026-04-18]

Please cite as “WCP4509,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP4509