WCP6220

Letter (WCP6220.7198)

[1]1

WYKEHAM HOUSE.

OXFORD POST & TELEGR[APH].

25 / X / 1933

Dear Mr. Wallace2,

I have looked forward for some time to the pleasure of sending you the paper I read[?] in Paris in July last year3, replying to the offensive attack of an American named McAtee4. However the reprints were delayed until a few weeks ago. In the meantime we had a discussion on the subject at the Ent[omological]. Soc[iety]. (Now Royal Ent[omological]. Soc[iety].) Lond[on].5 on [1 word illeg.] 7 last, so I am sending [2] a reprint of that as well as the other: also a letter recently sent to the Ent[omological]. Soc[iety]. I have given your address to the writer, Herr Hornung6, & have sent him a copy of the Roy[al]. Soc[iety].7Obituary. If you can help him with information other than that supplied in the R[oyal]. S[ociety]. notice, I am sure he will be most grateful. I hope that you are well & flourishing & that your sister8 also is well.

[3]9

On Sept[ember]. 30th we passed a formidable milestone in life — the marriage of a grand-daughter! She will be 21 in Jan[uary]. next & her train was held by her brother who will be 4 in Jan[uary]! In between are were 2 sisters, bridesmaids, & 2 brothers, ushers.

With kindest remembrances, | Yours sincerely, | E. B. Poulton10 [signature]

1
The page is numbered WP16/1/127 [1 of 2] in pencil in the top LH corner.
2
Wallace, William Greenell (1871-1951) Electrical engineer, second son and third child of ARW.
3
The Fifth International Congress of Entomology held in Paris, France opened on 18 July 1932.
4
McAtee, Waldo Lee (1883-1962) American ornithologist and Director of economic ornithology research in the U.S. Bureau of Biological Survey 1904-1950. The theory that selection by birds created camouflage or protective mimicry in their prey was used by Poulton to vigorously defend Darwinism at the turn of the century. McAtee, after reviewing the Biological Survey data, published an attack on the selection theory in 1912. His stomach analyses appeared to deny the protective value of colouration, arguing that birds took their prey on the basis of the abundance of the insects. The debate simmered for twenty years, only to blow up in 1932, with the publication of McAtee’s major work, based on 80,000 stomach analyses: McAtee, W. L. (1932) Effectiveness in Nature of the So-called Protective Adaptations in the Animal Kingdom, Chiefly as Illustrated by the Food Habits of Neartctic Birds, Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, Vol. 85, No. 7.This led to a long-running and at times acrimonious exchange between McAtee and Poulton, who pointed out that nothing could be concluded about preferences without the missing data on actual insect abundances.
5
The Royal Entomological Society exists to disseminate information about insects and improving communication between entomologists. The Society was founded in 1833 as the Entomological Society of London and is the successor to a number of short-lived societies dating back to 1745.
6
Hornung, Eugen (no dates or biographical details found) of Karlsruhe-am-Rhein, Germany. Four letters relating to ARW’s life from Hornung to William Greenell Wallace are in the WCP archive: WCP6365 and 6366 (1933), and WCP6367 and 6368 (1934). He was collecting material for a biography of ARW but there is no record of it having been published.
7
A learned society for Science founded in November 1660, granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II. ARW was made a Fellow in 1893.
8
Wallace, Violet Isabel (1869-1945) ARW’s daughter and sister of the recipient.
9
The page is numbered WP16/1/127 [2 of 2] in pencil in the top LH corner and the numeral "2", encircled, is written in the hand of the author in the centre at the top of the page.
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.

Editorial information

Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP6220.7198)]

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 “WCP6220,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 25 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP6220