WCP6224

Letter (WCP6224.7203)

[1]1

WYKEHAM HOUSE.

OXFORD POST & TELEGR[APH].

4 Dec[embe]r. 1937.

Dear Mr Wallace2,

I am so sorry to be late in replying to your letter but I have been terribly pressed with engagements since I received it. I very much hope that the fine collection will be kept together & trust that the B[ritish]. M[useum]3. will buy it; but, as you know, the number of causes which need support just now is very much agaitt against any new one.

If the B[ritish]. M[useum]. will not buy the coll[ectio]n at a reasonable price & other offers also fail to produce a good offer [sic], I think that I might get a friend [2] to buy the Darwin4 letters for Downe [sic] House5. I will, however, wait till I hear what you find.

I don’t quite understand the list of missing letters with some of them preceded by a short line (—). I remember Darwin in one of his letters writing of magnetism & migration & of how he thought at one time of experiments with a minute magnet fixed to a bird, but I do not think he ever published on the subject. I do not myself believe in it: I think the cause [1 word illeg. struck through] lies in memory of locality & the younger birds following the older & more experienced, not always of the same species. I think one of Warde Fowler’s6 observations on the migration along the S[outh]. coast very significant. He was standing on a cliff near [3]7Swanage8 & each little company as they came from the W[est]. turned N[orth]. & followed the coast N[orth]. of the I[sle]. [of] W[ight]9.; but after a time a company came and it flew due E[ast]. over the sea & he saw that the mist had cleared & the Needles were visible. When the leaders could see well they took the short route: when they could not the longer but safe route. I know there are some migrations of sea-birds which are difficult to explain on this hypothesis but here I think prevalent winds may give the guidance. Of course there is an immense deal of observation still required. Last year the experiment with storks which came to us in the I[sle]. [of] W[ight]. from Haslemere10 showed the wonderful memory of locality and of a route [4] only once traversed; for some of those which came to Bembridge11 left it & went back to England12 [sic] & then after some weeks returned to the same place.

Many thanks, I have had a very hard year but most enjoyable & we are both13 very well, although over 81. I think hard work helps us to keep going. Our son D[octo]r. Poulton of Guys14 [sic] Hospital and his daughter started on Thursday with the British Assoc[iatio]n. Delegacy going to visit India & make contact with the Indian scientific work. She is just over 17 and will enjoy it & remember it all her life I have no doubt.

With kind regards, | Yours very sincerely, | E. B. Poulton15. [signature]

1
The page is numbered WP16/1/131 [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
Museum dedicated to human history, art and culture established in Bloomsbury, London in 1753. The first branch institution, the British Museum (Natural History) opened in South Kensington in 1881.
4
Darwin, Charles Robert (1809-1882) English naturalist and geologist, jointly with ARW originator of the theory of evolution by natural selection and author of On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.
5
Down House was the former home of the English naturalist Charles Darwin (see Endnote 5) and his family, in the village of Downe, Kent. It was in this house and garden that Darwin worked on his theories of evolution by natural selection.
6
Warde Fowler, William (1847- 1921) English historian and ornithologist, and tutor at Lincoln College Oxford. He was best known for his works on ancient Roman religion.
7
The page is numbered WP16/1/131 [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.
8
A coastal town in the south east of Dorset, situated at the eastern end of the Isle of Purbeck.
9
Island located in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire and separated from mainland Great Britain by the Solent.
10
A town in Surrey, approximately 12 miles southwest of Guildford.
11
A village located on the easternmost point of the Isle of Wight.
12
The author means the mainland, rather than England (see Endnote 9).
13
Poulton, Emily (née Palmer) (1856?-1939) wife of Edward Bagnall Poulton (see Endnote 15).
14
Poulton, Edward Palmer (1883-1939) Son of Edward Bagnall Poulton (see Endnote 15) and Emily Poulton (née Palmer) (see Endnote 13). Working at Guy’s Hospital, London from 1912, his research in Physiology in relation to Medicine included diabetes, oxygen therapy, pernicious anaemia and visceral sensations.
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 (WCP6224.7203)]

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 “WCP6224,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 25 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP6224