WCP6210

Letter (WCP6210.7186)

[1]1

ST. HELEN’S COTTAGE,

ST. HELENS,

ISLE OF WIGHT

4. April 1926

Dear Mr Wallace2,

I am so sorry that I could not reply at the time to your third letter at Christmas. I was completely knocked over at the time by influenza which went on to pleurisy & kept me/an invalid for quite 2 months. It played havock [sic] with my work altho[ugh]. I did my best even in bed, but it could not be more than half rate work even if that. The result is that I have ever since been trying to catch up arrears.

It is very interesting to watch the differences [2] between children. I saw it in ours3 & now am watching it again among our 12 grand children. We have 5 here now & 4 more are at Seaview4 a mile or so away. One more, now with mumps, is coming to Seaview next this week.

We are fixing a tablet in the Oxford Mus[eu]m5 outside the entrance door of the room where Huxley6 & Wilberforce7 had their encounter at the British Association in eig 18608. These things soon get forgotten unless such steps are taken to keep them in remembrance. I hope to send you my Presid[entia]l address to Ent[omological]. Soc[iety]9. [3]10 on Jan[uary]. 20 when I get my seperata. I could not be there, so it was read by the Sec[retar]y. and poor Bateson11 took the Chair as a V[ice]. P[resident]. only a week or two before he died. //

How I should have loved to discuss the subject of the address with your father. It was not on mimicry in Cuckoos’12 eggs in relation to mimicry in insects — both resemblances due to selection determined by the keen sight of birds. A lot of work has been done of late years on Cuckoos’ eggs so that the subject was ripe for the comparison with insects. [4]13The similarity astonished me.

With kindest regards & hoping that your family14 are all well & flourishing,

I am, | Yours sincerely, | E. B. Poulton15 [signature]

1
The page is numbered WP16/1/116 [1 of 2] in pencil in the top RH corner.
2
Wallace, William Greenell (1871-1951) Electrical engineer, second son and third child of ARW.
3
The author and his wife Emily Poulton (née Palmer) (1856?-1939) had five children, but at the date of the letter only two were alive: his second daughter Margaret Lucy (d. 1965) and eldest son Dr. Edward Palmer Poulton (d.1939). The author often mentions his 12 grandchildren in correspondence with William Greenell Wallace. They were frequent visitors to the Poultons’ summer residence on the Isle of Wight.
4
A small Edwardian resort located on the north-eastern corner of the Isle of Wight, overlooking the Solent.
5
The Oxford University Museum of Natural History. Henry Acland, Regius Professor of Medicine, initiated the construction of the museum between 1855 and 1860.
6
Huxley, Thomas Henry (1825-1895) English biologist (comparative anatomist), philosopher and advocate of Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection.
7
Wilberforce, Samuel (1805-1873) English bishop in the Church of England, who opposed Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, notably at the famous debate at Oxford in 1860 (see Endnote 8).
8
A significant debate in the history of evolutionary biology took place in the Oxford Museum at a meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science on 30 June 1860. Thomas Henry Huxley (see Endnote 6) was a staunch supporter of Darwin’s theories, whereas Samuel Wilberforce (see Endnote 7) advocated study of the wonders of God’s creations. Wilberforce especially criticised Darwin’s contention that humans and various species of apes share common ancestors, ending in the infamous question to Huxley of whether "it was through his grandfather or grandmother that he claimed descent from a monkey." Huxley responded that he had heard nothing from Wilberforce to prejudice Darwin's arguments, and ended with the equally famous response, that he had "no need to be ashamed of having an ape for his grandfather, but that he would be ashamed of having for an ancestor a man of restless and versatile interest who distracts the attention of his hearers from the real point at issue by eloquent digression and skilled appeals to religious prejudice."
9
The Entomological Society of London (now the Royal Entomological Society) was founded in 1833, the successor to a number of short-lived societies dating back to 1745. The author was President 1903-1904 and 1925-1926. His 1925 presidential address was published in April 1926: Poulton, E. B. (1926) The President’s Address Transactions of the Royal Entomological Society of London Vol. 73, Issue 5, pages xc-civ.
10
The page is numbered WP16/1/116 [2 of 2] in pencil in the top LH corner. The figure 2, encircled in ink is written in nthe centre at the top of the page and "PLEASE EXCUSE SMUDGES!!!" is written to the right. (Some of the writing in ink in the first 6 lines of the page, although perfectly legible, has been smudged by the writer).
11
Bateson, William (1861-1926) English geneticist, the first person to use the term genetics to describe the study of heredity and biological inheritance. He was the chief populariser of the ideas of Gregor Mendel following their rediscovery in 1900 by Hugo de Vries and Carl Correns.
12
Birds of the family Cuculidae. Many are brood parasites, laying eggs in the nests of other birds. Female parasitic cuckoos sometimes specialize and lay eggs that closely resemble the eggs of their chosen host (known as egg mimicry) to reduce rejection.
13
Annotation at the foot of the page in pencil in recipient’s hand "Times re Invisible colours & insects".
14
Wallace, Elizabeth Carr (neé Whittle) (1888-1976) wife; Wallace, Alfred John Russel (1922- ) and Wallace, Richard Russel (1924- ), sons of the recipient.
15
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.

Editorial information

Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP6210.7186)]

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 “WCP6210,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 30 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP6210