s universal and capable of
explaining all the facts of the continuous development of species from
species, "from amoeba to man." But this, as Darwin, Weismann, Kerner,
Lloyd-Morgan, and even Huxley have seen, has nothing whatever to do with
the basic mysteries of life--growth, etc. etc. The chemists think they
have done wonders when they have produced in their laboratories certain
organic substances--always by the use of other organic products--which
life builds up within each organism, and from the few simple elements
available in air, earth, and water, innumerable structures--bone, horn,
hair, skin, blood, muscle, etc. etc.; and these are not amorphous--mere
lumps of dead matter--but organised to serve certain definite purposes
in each living organism. I have dwelt on this in my chapter on "The
Mystery of the Cell." Now I have been unable to find any attempt by any
biologist or physiologist to grapple with this problem. One and all,
they shirk it, or simply state it to be insoluble. It is here that I
state guidance and organising power are essential. My little
physiological parable or allegory (p. 296) I think sets forth the
difficulty fairly, though by no means adequately, yet not one of about
fifty reviews I have read even mentions it.

If you know of any writer of sufficient knowledge and mental power, who
has fully recognised and fairly grappled with this fundamental problem,
I should be very glad to be referred to him. I have been able to find no
approach to it. Yet I am at once howled at, or sneered at, for pointing
out the facts that such problems exist, that they are not in any way
touched by Evolution, but are far before it, and the forces, laws and
agencies involved are those of existences possessed of powers, mental
and physical, far beyond those mere mechanical, physical, or chemical
forces we see at work in nature....--Yours very truly,

ALFRED R. WALLACE.

* * * * *

SIR W.T. THISELTON-DYER TO A.R. WALLACE

_The Ferns, Witcombe, Gloucester. February 12, 1911._

Dear Mr. Wallace,-- ... You must let me correct you on one technical
point in your letter. It is no longer possible to say that chemists
effect the synthesis of organic products "by the use of other organic
substances." From what has been already effected, it cannot be doubted
that eventually every organic substance will be built up from "the few
simple elements available in air, earth and water." I think yo