Correspondence on Biology, etc. 



sent you there, but to be opened by the Secretary of Section 

 D in case you were not there. It was about a wonderful 

 and perfectly authenticated case of a woman who dressed 

 the arm of a gamekeeper after amputation, and six or seven 

 months afterwards had a child born without the forearm 

 on the right side, exactly corresponding in form and length 

 of stump to that of the man. Photographs of the man, and 

 of the boy seven or eight years old, were taken hy the phy- 

 sician of the hospital where the man's arm was cut off, and 

 they show a most striking correspondence. These, with 

 my short paper, appear to have produced an effect, for a 

 committee of Section D has been appointed to collect evi- 

 dence on this and other matters. . . . — Yours very faith- 

 fully, Alfred E. Wallace. 



To Prof. Poulton 



Parkstone, Dorset. November 17, 1893. 



My dear Poulton, — The letter I wrote to you at Xotting- 

 ham was returned to me here (after a month), so I did not 

 think it worth while to send it to you again, though it did 

 contain my congratulations on your appointment,^ which I 

 now repeat. As you have not seen the paper I sent to the 

 British Association, I will just say that I should not have 

 noticed the subject publicly but, after a friend had given 

 me the photographs (sent with my paper), I came across 

 the following statement in the new edition of Chambers' 

 Encyclopaedia, art. Deformities (by Prof. A. Hare) : "■ In 

 an increasing proportion of cases which are carefully in- 

 vestigated, it appears that maternal impressions, the result 

 of shock or unpleasant experiences, may have a consider- 

 able influence in producing deformities in the offspring." 

 In consequence of this I sent the case which had been 



* As Hope Professor of Zoology in the University of Oxford. 



57 



