tant" contribution
of its size ever made to biological science!

"Mutation," as a theory, is absolutely nothing new--only the assertion
that new species originate _always_ in sports, for which the evidence
adduced is the most meagre and inconclusive of any ever set forth with
such pretentious claims! I hope you will thoroughly expose this absurd
claim.

Mendelism is something new, and within its very limited range,
important, as leading to conceptions as to the causes and laws of
heredity, but only misleading when adduced as the true origin of species
in nature, as to which it seems to me to have no part.--Yours very
truly,

ALFRED R. WALLACE.

* * * * *

TO PROF. POULTON

_Broadstone, Wimborne. November 26, 1907._

My dear Poulton,--Many thanks for letting me see the proofs.[34] ... The
whole reads very clearly, and I am delighted with the way you expose the
Mendelian and Mutational 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_.[35] 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 inheritance of acquired variations--that co-ordination of
many parts at once, required for adaptations, would be impossible 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 repetitions of them.--Yours very truly,

ALFRED R. WALLACE.

* * * * *

TO PROF. POULTON

_Broadstone, Wimborne. December 18, 1907._

My dear Poulton,--The importance of Mendelism to Evolution seems to me
to be