From A. R. Wallace 17 January 1877
Rosehill, Dorking.
Jany. 17th. 1877
My dear Darwin
Many thanks for your valuable new edition of the “Orchids” which I see contains a great deal of new matter of the greatest interest.1 I am amazed at your continuous work,—but I suppose after all these years of it, it is impossible for you to remain idle. I, on the contrary, am very idle, and feel inclined to do nothing but stroll about this beautiful country, and read all kinds of miscellaneous literature.
I have asked my friend Mr. Mott to send you the last of his remarkable papers—on Haeckel.2 But the part I hope you will read with as much interest as I have done, is that on the deposits of Carbon, & the part it has played & must be playing in Geological changes. He seems to have got the idea from some German book, but it seems to me very important, and I wonder it never occurred to Sir Charles Lyell.3 If the calculations as to the quantity of undecomposed carbon deposited are anything approaching to correctness, the results must be important.
Hoping you are in pretty good health | Believe me | Yours very faithfully | Alfred R. Wallace.
Charles Darwin Esq.
Footnotes
Bibliography
Bischof, Gustav. 1854–9. Elements of chemical and physical geology. Translated and edited by Benjamin Horatio Paul. 3 vols. London: Cavendish Society.
Mott, Albert Julius. 1876. On Haeckel’s History of creation. [Read 13 November 1876.] Proceedings of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Liverpool 31 (1876–7): 41–89.
Orchids 2d ed.: The various contrivances by which orchids are fertilised by insects. By Charles Darwin. 2d edition, revised. London: John Murray. 1877.
Summary
Thanks for new edition of Orchids.
The remarkable papers of Mott on Ernst Haeckel ["On Haeckel’s history of creation", Proc. Lit. & Philos. Soc. Liverpool 31 (1876–7): 41–89].
The part played by carbon in geological changes.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-10801
- From
- Alfred Russel Wallace
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Dorking
- Source of text
- DAR 106: B132–3
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 10801,” accessed on 19 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-10801.xml