WCP6159

Letter (WCP6159.7134)

[1]1

FROM E. B. POULTON,

WYKEHAM HOUSE,

OXFORD

Dec[ember]. 6. 1915.

Dear Mr Wallace2,

Thank you very much. They are all beautiful; we have chosen the brown round one. I shall value it very highly. I think, if you agree, I will send the 2 note-books to D[octo]r Eltringham3, & ask him if he agrees to copy out for separate publication the natural history notes in them & then I can take them by hand to the Nat[ural]. Hist[ory]. Mus[eum].4 for you if you wish, as I am constantly [2] going there. My dear friend D[octo]r Meldola’s5 death was a sad blow to me. We had been like brothers for over 30 years. He/wrote to me the day before he died & it was just his usual letter. It was evidently extraordinarily sudden. I was at the funeral in the Spanish Portuguese Jewish cemetery at Golder’s Green6. It is a terrible loss to English Science, especially now.

Yes, I think there would be no difficulty in anyone interested having access to the note books at the Linnean7. [3] We constantly shew [sic] specimens in the Linnean Coll[ection]s. to non-Fellows. Certainly, I think it would be interesting to publish the matters of general interest; but we will begin if you agree with the two books for the B[ritish]. Museum, & I will let you know how Eltringham finds it. I suggest him as an able writer on mimicry & who has just now I believe time to spare.

I will enquire if anyone in Prof[essor]. Bourne’s8 Dep[artme]nt could make such a list of birds: but I rather fear that they are bett any possible man will be training or serving9. I will tell you if I find such a one; if not the Ornitholog[ical].

Dep[artme]nt of the B[ritish]. M[useum]. might find a man. With kind regards,

Yours sincerely, | E. B. Poulton10 [signature]

8. xii.15 Wrote asking Prof[essor]. E. B. P[oulton]. to hand the two notebooks to the Nat[ural]. Hist[ory]. Mus[eum]. & to present the journals to the Linnean Soc[iety] as from V[iolet] I[sabel] W[allace]11 and myself with right of access for non[-]fellows interested or studying A[lfred] R[ussel] W[allace]’s work or travels12.

1
The page is numbered WP16/1/101 in pencil at the top centre.
2
Wallace, William Greenell (1871-1951) Electrical engineer, second son and third child of ARW.
3
Eltringham, Harry (1873-1941) English histologist and lepidopterist interested in mimicry. He was Curator of Insects at the Museum in the Hope Department of Entomology, Oxford, 1924-1937.
4
The British Museum, dedicated to human history, art and culture was established in Bloomsbury, London in 1753. The first branch institution, the British Museum (Natural History) opened in South Kensington in 1881. It is now commonly referred to as the Natural History Museum.
5
Meldola, Raphael (1849-1915) British chemist and entomologist. He was Professor of Organic Chemistry in the University of London, 1912-1915, a member of many scientific societies and a long-time friend of ARW and the author.
6
Golder’s Green is in north-west London. Meldola was descended from Raphael Meldola (1754-1828), a theologian who was acting minister of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews in London in 1804.
7
A learned society founded in 1788 for the study and dissemination of taxonomy and natural history, named in honour of Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778), Swedish botanist, physician and zoologist.
8
Bourne, Gilbert Charles (1861-1933) Linacre Professor and Head of the Department of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy, University of Oxford 1906-1921.
9
World War I (1914-1918) was in progress at the date of the letter.
10
Poulton, Edward Bagnall (1856-1943) British evolutionary biologist, friend of ARW and lifelong advocate of natural selection. He did pioneering work on warning or protective colouration in animals and became Hope Professor of Zoology at the University of Oxford in 1893.
11
Wallace, Violet Isabel (1869-1945) ARW’s daughter and sister of the recipient.
12
Annotation in ink in the hand of the recipient.

Editorial information

Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP6159.7134)]

For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon

Revision history

Transcribed by O'Dell, Sandra [2018-08-15]

Please cite as “WCP6159,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 1 May 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP6159