WCP4566

[1]

Old Orchard,

Broadstone,

Wimborne.

Oct^r. 22nd. 1909

My dear Meldola¹

After receiving yours of Sept^r. 7th. I looked out every week for your "Review" and it has at last appeared. I have just read it, and am only sorry it was not longer & stronger! Such a book, with such pre-adts and Preface, will do great harm, by reinforcing the statements of the Mendelians & Mutationists, that Darwinism is "played out"! Such a book as Dewar & Finn’s² seems to me really disgraceful in its gross [2] misstatements of fact, and absurd attempts at explanations which are mere words.

But even in an elaborate scientific article,³ by Dr. Loeb⁴ (in the Cambridge Darwin volume)⁵ his "Conclu[d]ing "Remarks" are hardly less untrue & misleading. The first two lines contain two absolute misstatements of fact — (1) that De Vries⁶ has "discovered" that "new species" may arise by Mutation, — & (2) that "Mendel’s Law" is of wide if not universal applicability.!

The preceding article⁷ by D^r. Klebs⁸ is full of similar, though perhaps less glaring misstatements & assumptions.

[3] I have been much hindered in my work by eye-inflammation which prevented me from reading or writing during the whole month of August & part of Sept^r., and has ^which left me too weak & too full of arrears of correspondence &c. to take it up again. But now I am feeling much better, & hope very shortly to set to work steadily.

Yours very truly| Alfred R. Wallace [signature]