WCP5581

[1]¹

Stockton

Dec. 4th. 1878.

Dear Alfred,

Your long delayed letter came at last a few days ago which is the first letter I have had since you have been living at Croydon, which you say you like better than Dorking. I know nothing about Croydon except that it was an important point during the proposed invasion of England and of Dorking I remember nothing except a breed of Fowls of that name.

I am glad, however, that you have a prospect, although probably remote, of being employed by the Epping Forrest Comittee, which I suppose would be a pretty good Office with a good scope for showing the science of landscape gardening on a large scale, and shall be glad to hear of your success.

I have seen the phonograph and was much pleased. Upon first hearing it you have an irresistable desire to laugh which is generally indulged in, as the reproduction of the very words and style of the speaker is repeated in rather a low but distinct nammer. It copies the voice of the singer very accurately, and the immitation [sic] of the crowing of a Cock was very good, but the most wonderful and pleasing was the duettw [sic] wher[e] one sentence was spoken and recorded and then the cylinder being set back, another sentence was recorded on the tin-foil immediately upon the other stenence, and then both would be brought out together just as two speakers at the same time with the intonation of each voice being heard. I bdo not hear of any definite use that has been put to yet, but its scope in connect with the Microphone or Telephone is evidently very great and will be brought out soon. [1 word illeg.] People are all waiting now anxiously for Edison's Electric light syst system which threatens to soon supercede gas. I hope you have no gas stock.

I am glad to get your carte but you appear to have aged very much since the last one we had 3 or 4 years ago, your certainly have a very patriarchal look, and can now very well pass for my elder brother. I believe in one of my previous letters I promised to give you my views on the mosquito in general, and having nothing else at present to write about, I will now give them.

The rise, progress, and final end of the mosquito is well worthy of invesitigation by highest scientific intellect of the age, from the fact its existance appears contrary to the eternal fitness of things, and even baffles and almost refutes the theory of natural selection, or the struggle for life and the survival of the fittest. Well might the annoyed individual exclaim "of what use are mosquitoes", whicle the moralist might answer "all things are useful in this great economy of nature", although in this particular instance it might be difficult for him to point it out. Some ingenious individual has proponded the theory that the mosquito injects into the veins of their victim quinine, as an antidote to the effects of the malarious climate in which they abound. The mosquitoes appear by their peculiar organization to be fitted to live on the blood of men and animals. They are furnished with the most efficient instrument for this purpose. They are persistent and indefatigable toward the attainment of their object, even rushing into the jaws of death in their eagerness for their prey, as I have frequently become aware of when attempting to cut in a mosquito frequented district. It would thus appear that blood was indespenable[sic] to their existence, yet it is a fact that not one out of the millions that are produced on the tule lands of this county ever attain the apparent object of its life, and even the few that happen to reach a partial banquet are most frequently annhililated by the injured individ [2] ual. How is it then that the continued reproduction of these exquisite appliances for blood sucking and the eager instinct of each indvidual are kept up when the parent instinct is never suffered to make use of them for it must be recollected that the vast multitude that appear at times like clouds floating in the evening breeze are produced in the stagnant waters of the Tules far away from the abodes of man or warm blooded animals, and that the few that may be wafted away to more congenial climes and civilized society and onethis are thus enabled partially to gratify their instincts are not likely to return to their native swamps to reproduce their kind.

It would thus appear that the race is equally as well capable of existance and reproduction without animal blood as with it, whence then the continued transmission of this hereditary instinct with the peculiar organization and form adapted for that purpose. I am aware that this is not the only instance of this kind of exception to the usual order of things especially among insects, as is the case of the honey bee which produces an offspring of a different form and instincts, varying materially from both parents, but in this case I think it cannot be claimed that two negatives make an affirmative. I have been reading an article on the new book "Scepticism in Geology" from the Edingbough[sic] Review, which apparently contains a great many very foolish and weak arguements against the geological theory and even against the facts, but still some are very clever, particularly the objection to Darwin's Sexual selection theory. Also that the final result of natural selection as to a particular organ having been extensed or improved in a particular species would naturally result in a similar extention to all the varied groups to which it would be an advantage, but I do not think so much of this argument as the great difference of climate. How is it then that the continued reproduction of these exquisite appliance for blood sucking, and the eager instinct of each individual are kept up when the parent instinct is never suffered to make use of them, for it must be recollected that vast multitude that appear at times like clouds floating in the evening breeze are produced in the stagnant waters of the Tules far away from the shades of man or warm blooked animals, and the few that may be wafted away to more congenial climes and civilized society and are this enabled partially to gratify their instincts are not likely to return to their nature swamps to reproduce their kind.

It would thus appear that the race is equally as well capable of existance and reproduction without animal blood as with it, when then the continued transmission of this hereditary instinct with the peculiar organizatuin and form adapted for that purpose. I am [empty spaces] Geographical location with the scarcity or abundance of blood and a great many other conditions would cause various modifications to become necessary.

As this will reach you about Xmas, I will now wish you all a Merry Christmas and that it will find you all in as good health as we are in.

Believe me | Your affectionate Brother | John Wallace [signature]