The Dell, Grays, Essex. November 15, 1872.
Dear Darwin,—I should have written earlier to thank you for your book,[95] but was hoping to be able to read more [pg 280]of it before doing so. I have not, however, found time to get beyond the first three chapters, but that is quite sufficient to show me how exceedingly interesting you have made the subject, and how completely and admirably you have worked it out. I expect it will be one of the most popular of your works. I have just been asked to write a review of it for the Quarterly Journal of Science, for which purpose I shall be in duty bound to seek out some deficiencies, however minute, so as to give my notice some flavour of criticism.
The cuts and photos are admirable, and my little boy and girl seized it at once to look at the naughty babies.
With best wishes, believe me yours very faithfully,
ALFRED R. WALLACE.
P.S.—I will take this opportunity of asking you if you know of any book that will give me a complete catalogue of vertebrate fossils with some indication of their affinities.—A.R.W.
Down, Beckenham, Kent. January 13, 1873.
My dear Wallace,—I have read your review with much interest, and I thank you sincerely for the very kind spirit in which it is written. I cannot say that I am convinced by your criticisms.[96] If you have ever actually observed a kitten sucking and pounding with extended toes its mother, and then seen the same kitten when a little older doing the same thing on a soft shawl, and ultimately an old cat (as I have seen), and do not admit that it is identically the same action, I am astonished.