m
before I went to the East.... --Yours very faithfully,

A.R. WALLACE.

* * * * *

TO MR. CLEMENT REID

_Parkstone, Dorset. November 18, 1894._

My dear Clement Reid,-- ... The great, the grand, and long-expected, the
prophesied discovery has at last been made--Miocene or Old Pliocene Man
in India!!! Good worked flints found _in situ_ by the palaeontologist to
the Geological Survey of India! It is in a ferruginous conglomerate
lying beneath 4,000 feet of Pliocene strata and containing hippotherium,
etc. But perhaps you have seen the article in _Natural Science_
describing it, by Rupert Jones, who, very properly, accepts it! Of
course we want the bones, but we have got the flints, and they may
follow. Hurrah for the missing link! Excuse more.--Yours very
faithfully,

ALFRED R. WALLACE.

* * * * *

The next letter relates to the rising school of biologists who, in
opposition to Darwin's views, held that species might arise by what was
at the time termed "discontinuous variation."

TO PROF. MELDOLA

_February 4, 1895._

My dear Professor Meldola,--I hope to have copies of my "Evolution"
article in a few days, and will send you a couple. The article was in
print last September, but, being long, was crowded out month after
month, and only now got in by being cut in two. I think I have
demolished "discontinuous variation" as having any but the most
subordinate part in evolution of species.

Congratulations on Presidency of the Entomological Society.

A.R. WALLACE.

* * * * *

TO PROF. POULTON

_Parkstone, Dorset. March 15, 1895._

My dear Poulton,--I have now nearly finished reading Romanes, but do not
find it very convincing. There is a large amount of special pleading. On
two points only I feel myself hit. My doubt that Darwin really meant
that _all_ the individuals of a species could be similarly modified
without selection is evidently wrong, as he adduces other quotations
which I had overlooked. The other point is, that my suggested
explanation of sexual ornaments gives away my case as to the utility of
all specific characters. It certainly does as it stands, but I now
believe, and should have added, that all these ornaments, where they
differ from species to species, are also recognition characters, and as
such were rendered stable by Natural Selection from their first
appearance.

I rather do