Dear Sir,

In studying your work on Variation, especially Vol II pp 252–3 and the chapter on Pangenesis I have been frequently reminded of a conversation I had some years back with D^r. Lee, the late well known minister of the Grey Friars Church in Edinburgh—¹ It introduces a thought w^h. may appear to you to bear upon your hypothesis.

We had got somehow upon the strong personal resemblance which not unfrequently developes itself between husband and wife after they have been many years married. We had discussed various possible reasons for it, as similarity of tastes, of pursuits, of circumstances &c, and at last D^r Lee said that he believed there was also a physiological reason for it viz: that in his own words: the woman frequently has a portion of the man’s blood circulating in her veins for nine months at a time” alluding of course to the period of gestation. If this were at all the true solution, the resemblance ought to be most strongly developed in couples who have had large families, and it ought to be that the woman becomes like the man and not vice versâ. I do not know if any observations have ever been made on this head, or whether matters have been found to accord with the conclusions from D^r. Lee’s suggestion. If so the case appears to me to furnish strong collateral evidence in favour of your hypothesis. At any rate I thought it worth mentioning to you—

With much respect I remain | Dear Sir | very faithfully yours | C. L. Acland