WCP4537

[1]

Parkstone, Dorset.

Jan^y.. 5^th. 1897

My dear Meldola

On the whole I like your Address very much, and think you put the case for correlation of important phys[iologica]l characters with important external characters, very well & clearly. No doubt some such correlations do exist, nevertheless I have a very strong impression that they are rare, & that they explain but a very small proportion of apparently insignificant specific characters.

There are one or two minor points on which I have some [2] critical remarks to make.

(1) In 2^nd footnote on slip 2 — last three lines. I do not understand what this means, or how it can possibly be proved. I believe that variation does occur in every possible direction (a better word than conceivable). There are really only two possible directions for any variation — excluding of course "sports" or malformation[s?] — viz. an increase or a decrease, a change to excess or ^to diminution, of any character, organ, function, or part. How can "the internal constitution of the organism" "restrict" such variation, and in what case does it so restrict it? [3] Every organ, character, function, or part, external or internal, that has ever been compared in even a score of individuals has been found to vary. Variation seems the most constant characteristic of every part of an organism. Absolute identity ^of any part in all the millions of individuals of a species, amid the enormous variability of all observed parts, seems to me quite incredible, till actually demonstrated. The passage therefore seems to me meaningless and misleading.

On slip 4. line 10, you yourself assert universal variability!

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Slip 5. — last 18 lines —

I think you here unnecessarily exaggerate the absence of evidence of physiological [4]¹ variations, and the speculative nature of the assumption. Surely there are abundance of facts among domestic animals & cultivated plants. The scent-faculty in dogs, milk-secretion in cows, tameability in many kinds, tumbling habit in pigeons, fat-production in pigs, oxen &c. Egg-laying in poultry, flavour in many vegetables & fruits &c &c. All these have been subject to selection by man, showing that they vary. Would it not be as well to quote as many such cases as possible, and omit the statement as to its being so "speculative"? Do not help the enemy to blaspheme! I have not yet got copies of my Linn[ean] paper. Will send you one when I do.

Yours very faithfully| Alfred R. Wallace [signature]