WCP5520

[1] [p. 63]¹

Broadstone, Wimborne, England

February 22, 1905.

Dear Sir:

The chief department of Zoology that I take much interest in now, is the carrying out of experimental observations on the alleged instincts of the higher animals (as the alleged instinct of direction) and also of experiments to prove or disprove the alleged heredity of acquired characters, and similar problems. With such a large endowment as the Leland Stanford University has, I wonder some experimental farm for these purposes has not been founded. Almost every other department of biology seems now to be overdone — except also the accurate observation of animal life in the tropics, for the purpose of detecting the utility of all the special characters of the various groups of land animals.

I trust these hints may include some students with independent means to take up some of these studies.

Yours very truly, | Alfred R. Wallace