WCP6183

Letter (WCP6183.7159)

[1]

Harlton

Cambridge

22 Oct[ober] 1903

Dear D[octo]r Wallace

I have this morning received from the publishers a copy of your new work on Man’s place in Nature [sic]1. I have read the first chapter or two and shall read through the whole book with great interest. I was greatly pleased with the physical lightness of the book. The paper appears to be really paper — & not clay.

I naturally looked at your reference to my work and am highly gratified with your approbation. But this is the first instance that any reference has been published to my theory of ocean basins[?]. Jukes-Browne2[,] when my book3 first appeared[,] approved of it generally but said he wished I had omitted that chapter. But the fact I think was that it crossed a theory of his [2] own.

I do not suppose you have even seen the paper of which I enclose a copy & ask your acceptance. I am privately rather[?] a believer in the nebulous hypothesis as I have shown in my 2nd Ed[ition]4. p[age]. 148.

Have you ever seen an address by G K Gilber[t]5 "On the moon’s face". Bull[etin]. [of the] Phil[osophical]. Soc[iety]. [of] Washington vol[ume]. 126[?] It was delivered Dec[ember]. 1892. He maintains a theory of the so-called "volcanoes" which I had already entertained seeing that they are marks of bombardment not volcanic craters at all. This would agree with the theory of the moon genesis held by G H Darwin7 who says in its original state it would have been a swarm of meteorites8.

I have brought my work on deflection of the plumb line in India to a satisfactory conclusion & it will appear (some time or another) in the Phil[osophical]. Mag[azine]9.

Believe me | very sincerely yours | Osmond Fisher10 [signature]

[3]

My memory fails me sadly. I don’t recollect half that I have written & when I read my own work often I cannot understand it. This applies to the paper I enclose.

1
Wallace, A. R. (1903) Man’s Place in the Universe: A Study of the Results of Scientific Research in Relation to the Unity or Plurality of Worlds. London, Chapman & Hall Ltd.
2
Jukes-Browne, Alfred John (1851-1914) British invertebrate palaeontologist and stratigrapher. He worked on the British Geological Survey 1883-1902.
3
Fisher, O. (1881) The Physics of the Earth’s Crust London, Macmillan & Co.
4
See Endnote 3. 2nd Edition published 1889.
5
Gilbert, Grove Karl (known as G. K. Gilbert) (1843-1918) Senior Geologist on the U. S. Geological Survey 1879-1918. In 1891 he concluded that the Meteor crater in Arizona, then referred to as Coon Butte, was the result of a volcanic steam explosion. Its true origin was only established in the mid-20th century. He also studied the moon's craters and concluded they were caused by impact events rather than volcanoes, also debated until the mid-20th century.
6
Gilbert, G. K. (1893). The Moon's face: a study of the origin of its features. Bulletin of the Philosophical Society of Washington Vol. 12, pp. 242-292.
7
Darwin, George Howard (1845-1912) English barrister, astronomer and mathematician, the second son and fifth child of Charles Darwin.
8
The most widely accepted explanation for the origin of the Moon involves a collision of two protoplanetary bodies during the early accretional period of Solar System evolution. The now discredited fission hypothesis proposed by George Howard Darwin (see Endnote 7) in the 1800s was that an ancient, rapidly spinning Earth expelled a piece of its mass.
9
Fisher, O. (1904) On deflexions of the Plumb-line in India Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science Vol VII, No. XXXVII, pp. 14-25.
10
Fisher, Osmond (1817-1914) English geologist, geophysicist and theologian. He worked on the geomorphology of Norfolk, as well as the stratigraphy and invertebrate fossils of Dorset. He published The Physics of the Earth’s Crust (1881), in which he speculated that the crust may sit on top of a liquid layer. Much of his work into continental drift was ridiculed, however his observations were based on scientific deductions rather than simple speculation.

Editorial information

Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP6183.7159)]

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Revision history

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

Please cite as “WCP6183,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 4 May 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP6183