Alfred Russel Wallace 



I 



•< without the need of the protective principle. I should be 

 j grateful for an answer on this point. 



I hope that your Eastern book progresses well. — My 

 dear Wallace, yours sincerely, q Darwin. 



Sir Clifford Allbutt^s view, referred to in the following 

 letter, probably had reference to the fact that the sperm- 

 cell goes, or is carried, to the germ-cell, never vice versa. 

 In this letter Darwin gives the reason for the ^' law '^ re- 

 ferred to. Wallace has been good enough to supply the 

 following note (May 27, 1902) : ''It Avas at this time 

 that my paper on ' Protective Resemblance ' first appeared 

 in the Westminster Review, in which I adduced the greater, 

 or, rather, the more continuous, importance of the female 

 (in the lower animals) for the race, and my ' Theory of 

 Birds' Nests ' (Journal of Travel and Natural History, 

 No. 2), in which I applied this to the usually dull colours 

 of female butterflies and birds. It is to these articles, as 

 well as to my letters, that Darwin chiefly refers." 



Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E, April 30, 1868. 



My dear Wallace, — Your letter, like so many previous 

 ones, has interested me much. Dr. Allbutt's view occurred 

 to me some time ago, and I have written a short discussion 

 on it. It is, I think, a remarkable law, to which I have 

 found no exception. The foundation lies in the fact that 

 in many cases the eggs or seeds require nourishment 

 and protection by the mother-form for some time after 

 impregnation. Hence the spermatozoa and antherozoids 

 travel in the lower aquatic animals and plants to the 

 female, and pollen is borne to the female organ. As 

 organisms rise in the scale it seems natural that the 

 male should carry the spermatozoa to the females in his 

 own body. As the male is the searcher he has received 

 and gained more eager passions than the female; and, 

 very differently from you, I look at this as one great diflSL- 



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