Typed letter signed by scientist Sir Oliver Lodge to H. Reinheimer 1932

LODGE, Sir Oliver (1851-1940). Typed letter signed to Hermann Reinheimer concerning symbiosis and Julian Huxley, Normanton House, Lake, near Salisbury, 21 March 1932.

Typed letter signed, one page, 175x220mm, on Lodge's Normanton House letterhead, dated 21 March 1932 and addressed at foot to H. Reinheimer Esq. Signed by Oliver Lodge in ink. Old horizontal and vertical folds, light handling and minor marks, with small traces of a paper clip near the upper edge; very good.

The physicist and pioneer of wireless communication writes to the evolutionary author Hermann Reinheimer (1872-1964) concerning symbiosis, candidly declining to write with authority on a subject outside his own field and recommending Julian Huxley in his place:

"As far as I know, all biologists accept symbiosis as a reality; but I am not a biologist, and could not write with authority. I see that Dr. Julian Huxley is favourably impressed by your work, and I suggest that he would be the best man to write a preface."

Sir Oliver Lodge was one of the leading British physicists of his generation, known particularly for his work on electromagnetism and the early development of wireless communication. Hermann Reinheimer wrote extensively on evolution, cooperation and symbiosis, including Symbiosis: A Socio-physiological Study of Evolution, published in 1920. Julian Huxley, whom Lodge recommends here, was already a prominent evolutionary biologist and would become one of the major scientific figures of the twentieth century. An interesting scientific letter linking the three scientists on the subject of symbiosis.