Beschreibung:

Wallace (Alfred Russel, naturalist, evolutionary theorist, and social critic, 1823-1913) 27 Autograph Letters signed and 1 Postcard signed to Clement Reid (including 1 to Mrs Reid), 2 Autograph Letters signed to Rev. James Marchant, 1 Autograph Letter signed to George Silk and 1 Autograph Letter signed to R.H. Chandler, together 77pp. and 1 side, Parkstone and Wimborne, Dorset, 1894-1904, on various palaeontological, geolgoical and natural history matters, palaeontological including: "your remarks about the snails are very interesting... . I have called on Dr. Turner & he has been here & seen the 'old boy's' bones. He says he, the boy, must have been about 9 or 10 years old. I suggested that he (Turner) should ask Pitt-Rivers if he would get the whole cranium put together as far as possible, for the Dorchester Museum, for which purpose I would give all our bones. But the great, the grand, the long expected, the prophecied discovery has at least been made - Mioscene or Old Pliocene man in India!!!!..."; climatological, including: "... will you be so good as to ascertain from the proper man if the gases in glacier water have been ascertained & get me a reference to the authority. The mere fact whether there is, or is not, more carbonic acid in glacier water than in common spring or non-glacier water will be sufficient for my purpose"; introducing Ananda Coomaraswamy (1877-1947), Ceylonese Tamil philosopher and Metaphysicist to Clement Reid as a putative assistant, "... he is decidedly clever & I think now a very pleasant young fellow... . He had just begun the S. Kensington course when his health failed. He is very careful & methodical, and I fancy he will make a good geologist... to assist in the Hampshire basin work"; orchids from Malaya: "Ridley [Henry Nicholas Ridley (1855-1956), botanist, geologist and naturalist] has sent me a large box of orchids, but so badly packed, & such poor or unhealthy plants that almost all arrived dead or smashed"; observation on a species of snake sent by Ridley, "It is sad that the 'white snake' is not new. Have they specimens sent by Ridley at the Museum, if not they may be mistaken. Anyhow if the snake is common elsewhere the peculiar habit of living in caves, climbing up the limestone walls & catching bats, is so extraordinary that I should say it is in process of becoming a new species! [subsequently found to be a new subspecies now known as Ridley's beauty snake]"; commenting on Reid's book, The Origin of the British Flora, "On p. 32 you refer to the occupation of new ground ivy by new plants & give a case or two from your own observation. Perhaps you did not remember, or may not have read, the evidence I give in my 'Island Life', in Chap. XXIII in a footnote I give facts communicated by Mitten, H.C. Watson, A. Bennett, J. Kirk &c. I give also a wonderful case in 'Darwinism' p. 37, footnote, from Mr Hanbury from China", and gently chides him for his difficulty in forming a large seed collection, stating that Kew would help; comments on Swiss geology, Isle of Skye erosion etc.; letter to George Silk a childhood friend, asking him for details about his early life; letter to R.H. Chandler on the Gulf Stream; 2 letters to Rev James Marchant (1867-1956), eugenicist, social reformer and author, on Christian spirituality etc., folds; and 2 others, an ALs from Ridley and another from Sir William Henry Flower (1831-99), zoologist and museum curator, referring to the Ridley snake, folds (34 pieces). ⁂ A very fine collection of letters from Alfred Russel Wallace mostly to Clement Reid in which they range over a number of items of mutual interest. Nearly all of the letters touch on their respective subjects in great depth and throughout Wallace treats Reid with great consideration, and is never patronising. Written in Wallace's retirement there is one reference to his book Darwinism, published in 1889, and treating of evolution by natural selection. Clement Reid (1853-1916), geologist and palaeobotan