By the way, there is another subject which I shall introduce in my essay, viz. expression of countenance. Now, do you happen to know by any odd chance a very good-natured and acute observer in the Malay Archipelago who, you think, would make a few easy observations for me on the expression of the Malays when excited by various emotions. For in this case I would send to such person a list of queries.--I thank you for your most interesting letters, and remain yours very sincerely, CH. DARWIN. * * * * * _9 St. Mark's Crescent, N.W. March 11, 1867._ Dear Darwin,--I return your queries, but cannot answer them with any certainty. For the Malays I should say Yes to 1, 3, 8, 9, 10 and 17, and No to 12, 13 and 16; but I cannot be _certain_ in any one. But do you think these things are of much importance? I am inclined to think that if you could get good direct observations you would find some of them often differ from tribe to tribe, from island to island, and sometimes from village to village. Some no doubt may be deep-seated, and would imply organic differences; but can you tell beforehand which these are? I presume the Frenchman shrugs his shoulders whether he is of the Norman, Breton, or Gaulish stock. Would it not be a good thing to send your List of Queries to some of the Bombay and Calcutta papers? as there must be numbers of Indian judges and other officers who would be interested and would send you hosts of replies. The Australian papers and New Zealand might also publish them, and then you would have a fine basis to go on. Is your essay on Variation in Man to be a supplement to your volume on Domesticated Animals and Cultivated Plants? I would rather see your second volume on "The Struggle for Existence, etc.," for I doubt if we have a sufficiency of fair and accurate facts to do anything with man. Huxley, I believe, is at work upon it. I have been reading Murray's volume on the Geographical Distribution of Mammals. He has some good ideas here and there, but is quite unable to understand Natural Selection, and makes a most absurd mess of his criticism of your views on oceanic islands. By the bye, what an interesting volume the whole of your materials on that subject would, I am sure, make.--Yours very sincerely, ALFRED R. WALLACE. * * * * * _Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. March, 1867._