WCP4526

[1]

Parkstone, Dorset.

April 27^th. 1893

My dear Meldola

I send you a corrected proof of the concluding part of my article on Heredity &c. You will see that I have answered Spencer on co-adaptation, I think pretty completely. It is difficult to find any new points now in this subject, but on the question of individual modification by the environment, I think I have pointed out, for the first time, that facts supposed to be, somehow, in favour of the Neo-Lamarckians, [2] really afford very strong direct evidence that individually acquired characters are not inherited. (See pp. 9 — 11 of proof sent.) I shall be glad to hear if you think this argument a sound one, when you return the proof, which you can do at your leisure.

In a review of Beddard’s "Animal Colouration" in The Ark, by J. A. Allen, one of the first American Ornithologists, after much praise of the book, is the following concluding passage, which I think is rich even for an American. —

[3] "We have long been of the opinion that most of the cases of supposed ‘warning colours’, of ‘mimicry’ &c. were to be much more satisfactorily accounted for on other grounds than by the special theories that have of late proved so popular with superficial writers, and apparently so fascinating to the less discerning public, and we are glad to welcome so healthy an antidote to this wild phase of scientific lunacy as Mr Beddard’s book on Animal Coloration."(Italics mine!)

Ought we not to feel small after that!!!

Will has left Siemens this ^a month. He is going up to London on Saturday, & will, I dare say, call at your room at the College and explain. He is going to see Crookes. Everybody says business is very bad now.

I thought Romanes’ article in reply to Spencer was very well written & [4]¹ wonderfully clear for him, & I agree with most of it, except his hight estimate of Spencer’s co-adaptation argument. It is quite true that Spencer’s Biology rests entirely on Lamarckism, so far as heredity of acquired characters goes. I have been reading Weismann’s last book — "The Germ Plasm"—. It is a wonderful attempt to solve the most complex of all problems, and is almost unreadable without some practical a[c]quaintance with germs & their development.

Believe me| Yours very faithfully| Alfred R. Wallace [signature]