WCP7217

Letter (WCP7217.8400)

[1]

Old Orchard,1

Broadstone,

Wimborne.

April 19th. 1910

Mr. Lock Mellersh M A.

Dear Sir

The cutting you send me is a rehash of an old idea of 70 years ago! You will find it given in Miss Clerke's2 Hist[ory]. of Astronomy3 pp. 48-49, with much interesting comment. In last[?] issue of "Nature" (Ap. 14th. p. 201,) in a paragraph on a new theory on same subject , — but to me unintelligible. (see lines 10-15 of the par[agraph].

Numbers of astronomers are [2] now at work trying to get some knowledge of the Stellar system as a whole. Some interesting facts have been arrived at but there seems to be at present no agreement as to their interpretation.

Yours truly | Alfred R. Wallace [signature]

Madler4 has been dead nearly 40 years! The statements to which I have put blue marks are wrong.

A.R.W. [signature]

1
ARW lived in Old Orchard, Broadstone, Dorset, from November 1902 to November 1913. Beccaloni, G. W. 2008. Timeline of places and houses where Wallace lived. The Alfred Russel Wallace Website. <https://wallacefund.myspecies.info/wallace-timeline> [accessed 29 Jan. 2022].
2
Clerke, Agnes Mary (1842-1907). British astronomer and writer.
3
Clerke, A. M. 1885. A Popular History of Astronomy during the Nineteenth Century. Edinburgh. A. & C. Black.
4
Mädler, Johann Heinrich von (1794-1874). German astronomer. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. 2021. Johann Heinrich von Mädler. Encyclopaedia Britannica. <https://www.britannica.com/biography/Johann-Heinrich-von-Madler> [accessed 6 Feb. 2022].

Editorial information

Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP7217.8400)]

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

Revision history

Transcribed by Ghosh, Susan [2022-02-23]

Please cite as “WCP7217,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 2 May 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP7217