Correspondence on Biology, etc. 



To Prof. Poulton 

 Broadstone, Wimborne. November 26, 1907. 



My dear Poulton, — Many thanks for letting me see the 

 proofs.' . . . The whole reads very clearly, and I am de- 

 lighted with the way you expose the Mendelian and Muta- 

 tional absurd claims. That ought to really open the eyes 

 of the newspaper men to the fact that Natural Selection 

 and Darwinism are not only holding their ground but are 

 becoming more firmly established than ever by every fresh 

 research into the ways and workings of living nature. I 

 shall look forward to great pleasure in reading the whole 

 book. I was greatly pleased with Archdall Reid's view of 

 Mendelism in Nature.' He is a very clear and original 

 thinker. 



I see in Essay X. you use in the title the term " defensive 

 coloration." Why this instead of the usual '' protective " ? 

 Surely the whole function of such colours and markings is 

 to protect from attack — not to defend when attacked. The 

 latter is the function of stings, spines and hard coats. I 

 only mention this because using different terms may lead 

 to some misconception. 



Your illustration of mutation by throwing colours on a 

 screen, and the argument founded on it, I liked much. 

 That reminds me that H. Spencer's argument for inherit- 

 ance of acquired variations — that co-ordination of many 

 parts at once, required for adaptations, would be impos- 

 sible by chance variations of those parts — applies with a 

 hundredfold force to mutations, which are admittedly so 

 much less frequent both in their numbers and the repeti- 

 tions of them.— Yours very truly, Alfred R. Wallace. 



* Of the Introduction to " Essays on Evolution." 



* Vol. Ixxvii., p. 54, a note " On the Interpretation of Mendelian Pheno- 

 mena." 



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