“Geology in Nubibus”—A Reply to Dr. Wallace and Mr. LaTouche

Abstract

DR. WALLACE has taught us a great deal, and among those lessons is the supreme virtue in scientific controversy of courage and candour. He must forgive me therefore for answering promptly, and I hope frankly, his last letter in NATURE. In this letter he appeals from your columns to a non-scientific magazine in which he is writing, and where, like the sermon from the pulpit, what is said cannot be answered. This appeal is not to my taste, for I agree with the late Lord Tweeddale, that truth is never so free from difficulty as when the good grain has been thrashed out by the flails of controversy.