AGASSIZ, Alexander Emanuel (1835 –1910), American scientist and engineer. Autograph letter signed to Dr.L.Watson, 1 side, 8vo with integral blank, Cambridge, Massachusetts,19 April [18]64 (?) . Thanking Watson for a collection of fish specimens, commenting upon the rarity of some, and hoping he will be successful in future explorations.

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The son of Louis Agassiz (1807-73), Alexander became an expert in marine zoology, and in 1860 joined the staff of Harvard University’s Museum of Comparative Zoology (founded by his father), to which he bestowed significant gifts from the fortune he earned from his successful mining ventures.


 

ARGYLL, Archibald Campbell, third duke of (1682–1761) politician. Autograph letter signed to an unnamed correspondent, 1 side, 8vo, with integral blank, London, March 7th, 1750/1. Sympathising that his correspondent's scheme was delayed, and enquiring about scientific experiments. "I shall be very glad to hear what you are doing and what experiments are going on. People are greatly surprised at the metal you gave me that melts in hot water, pray send me the portions of the ingredients for I have forgot them. If you want to be informed anything passing here in your way, I will make my friend Dr. Mitchel write to you."

£125

Away from his busy political life, Argyll was an enthusiastic scholar and a scientist, who set up laboratories at a number of his residences. The metal he describes in his letter was possibly an alloy of bismuth, which commonly have very low melting points. His "friend" was probably Dr. John Mitchell, a Fellow of the Royal Society (elected in 1748).
 

ARNOTT, Neil (1788-1874), physician and public health reformer. Patent application in manuscript, signed.  2 sides, folio (folded), October 1821.A Petition & Affadavit for a patent for an invention "Improvements connected with the production and Agency of heat in Furnaces, Steam, and Air Engines, Distilling, Evaporating, and Brewing Apparatus." With official signatures and embossed Tax stamp. Paper strip repair to joint of the two folio sheets, and small fold tears.

£125

The patent application N. 4615 was granted 14th November 1821, and represents Arnott's first patent. Neil Arnott was the son of William Arnott, a manufacturer and farmer, born at Arbroath, Forfarshire, Scotland. He grasduated from Marischal College, Aberdeen, in 1805, studied medicine in London, and established himself in a private practice in Brunswick Square, London in 1811. Arnott became a versatile lecturer, author, and inventor, publishing his Elements of Physics in 1827, which had gone through six editions by 1865 and which was translated into every major European language. His essay Warming and Ventilating (1838) described the principles underlying the Arnott stove, for which he subsequently received the Royal Society's Rumford medal in 1854. (ODNB)

 

BEAN, William (1787-1866) geologist and conchologist. Autograph letter signed to Edward Charlesworth Esq, 3 North Buildings, Finsbury Circus, London, 2 sides 4to, Scarborough; 3 April 1836, with integral blank bearing the address and a circular Scarborough postmarks in black and in red. Paper creased with some repairs. Regretting that he has “made no more discoveries at the Crag Bed at Bridlington, it seems to be guarded with "miser care" and I anxiously wait for some high Tides or other fortunate occurrence that may make me acquainted with more than the surface which is all that I have up to the present time examined”…. That he has “appointed Mary Bye Agent for your Geological Periodical [The Magazine of Natural History]” which he has ordered a copy of and believes “several will be taken at Scarbro'.” With much of the year engaged in municipal and “my own private concerns” he explains that “all Scientific Pursuits have been almost neglected but I hope in a little time to contribute something to your projected work ....... Any Crag Fossils you can spare will be acceptable and I shall always have great pleasure in sending you Fossils from this neighbourhood you do not possess”. Finally he asks that upon obtaining a postal frank for letters, Charlesworth sends them on the same date of the frank “for want of this precaution the Postage of your last was considerable”.

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William Bean was a pioneer in the study of Yorkshire geology and amassed an extensive collection of fossils, particularly from localities around Scarborough. He also took an active part in politics in Scarborough. He sold his collection of over 15,000 specimens in 1859, the majority of which were purchased by the British Museum and the Yorkshire Philosophical Society.

His correspondent was the geologist Edward Charlesworth (1813-1893). The eldest son of the Rev John Charlesworth, he took an early interest in the Crag fossils of East Anglia, and despite studying medicine, he returned to his passion for palaeontology, and took up his first museum appointment in 1836 in the British Museum. Charlesworth’s name came to the attention of the scientific world in the period 1835-1838 following his well publicised debate with Charles Lyell on the age and nature of the Crag formations. During this time he took over the Magazine of Natural History, a journal that Bean was a contributor to, and one that Charlesworth became able to publish in with considerable freedom.

BECHE, Sir Henry Thomas De la (1796–1855), geologist. Autograph letter signed to [Lyon] Playfair, 4 sides, 8vo, Neath, Glamorganshire, 2 Augt. 1845, sending him "through the Office of Woods" to the museum, some specimens of the New Red Sandstone marls from Aust Cliff: "I am particularly anxious to learn the composition (chemical) of these specimens of mine especially as to the iron in them - whether it is as a protoxide (as is supposed) in the blue marl, and a peroxide in the red ..... would you arrange with Reeks about the specimens - there are other important geological ---?--- about them - but I will not tell you which beforehand". In a postscript "According to present hypothesis the blue is a changed red marl, by robbing of oxygen from a vegetable ---?---  and thereby hands a tale." Two repairs to the blank paper edges (affecting one word), and an old repair on the back of a split fold.

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De la Beche was in 1832 appointed geologist to the Ordnance Trigonometrical Survey of Great Britain, in which department the Geological Survey was founded in 1835. John Phillips was appointed palaeontologist, Richard Phillips became curator–chemist, and Trenham Reeks was assistant curator. With encouragement from De la Beche, William Buckland and Sir Robert Peel, Lyon Playfair (1818-1898) was appointed chemist to the Geological Survey in 1845. Parliament in the same year moved the Geological Survey from the Ordnance to an all important independent position within the Office of Woods and Forests.ODNB.

Brande, William Thomas (1788–1866), chemist. Autograph letter signed to R.Stevens Esq, Secy. L.I., 4to, 1 side, Clarges Street [London], April 16th 1819, relating to the delivery of lectures - "I have this day been favoured with your communication, relating to the Lectures at the London Institution and am very sensible of the honor conferred upon me by the Board of Management. I shall be prepared to deliver an introductory discourse on Wednesday the 5^th of May at one." Small bits missing from corners where removed from an album.

£75

In 1812 Sir Humphry Davy resigned his professorship at the Royal Institution, and the post was offered to Brande the following year. Here he had at his disposal the best-equipped laboratory in Britain, and he began to deliver a series of lectures, many being the basis for his major publications. In 1819 he delivered the first lecture and course at the newly built London Institution, founded in imitation of the Royal Institution, to which this letter would appear to relate. (ODNB)

BUSK, George (1807–1886), naval surgeon and naturalist. Autograph letter signed to Miss Colville, 2 sides on 2 leaves, 8vo, Royal Institution, Jany 29^th 1863. Enclosing “two cards for the Cardinal and am quite ashamed at himself for not sending them before” and with the letter a carte-de-visite of Busk by Meyer Brothers 133 Regent Street, London. Corner stain on reverse of last blank leaf. PHOTO

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Written at the time that Busk developed a special interest in palaeontology and early man.

 

Foster, George Carey (1835–1919), chemist and physicist. Autograph letter signed to Miss Colvill, 3 sides on blue paper, 8vo, Page Heath, Bickley [Bromley, Kent], October 3rd [no year - 1866?], offering assistance to her uncle "to lighten Your uncle’s preparation for lecture considerably – that is if he will let us. I think it would be a very good plan to get the diagrams he arranged and I think I know a student who will be able to do this" and with a postscript "I am not F.R.S. I wish you would make me one." Paper adhering to blank rear edge, and four white spots on the paper. The letter comes with a carte-de-visite photo of Foster by Crellin (167 Regent Street, London) dated in manuscript June 1866. PHOTO

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Foster studied chemistry at University College, London, in 1852-55, and following a brief period in the chair of natural philosophy at Anderson's University in Glasgow, was in 1865 appointed professor of experimental physics at University College, London. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1869, serving two terms as its vice-president in 1891–3 and 1901–3.

 

DOCTOR'S BILL TO RAILWAY ENGINEER JOHN URPETH RASTRICK

INGLEBY, J.S. Dr. Autograph letter signed to J.U.Rastrick, 454 Charing Cross East, London, Jan 9 1839, 4to, 2 leaves, one bearing a letter and a second with two columns of accounts, with the address panel on the reverse, Birmingham postmarks and broken seal (which has torn a small blank area), docketed, 86 New Street, Birmingham, sending his account for medical consultation for Rastrick and members of his household for the period 1837-1838, with a list of numerous journeys and expenses incurred.

£35

John Urpeth Rastrick (1780-1856) was a pioneer in the development of locomotive engines and the railways, and was a noted civil engineer. In his early years he worked with Richard Trevithick and George Stephenson, and later was engineer for a number of railway lines, notably the London & Brighton line (on which he was working at the time this letter was received). Little is known about his family, so it is of some significance to find mentioned in the bill an item relating to Miss Mary R., presumably his daughter.

LETTER TO MICHAEL FARADAY

MARTIN, John (1789–1854), artist. Autograph letter signed to M. Faraday, Royal Institution, 1 side plus integral address leaf, 8vo, 30 Allsop Terrace [London], February 26th 1836, thanking him for his letter and reminding him that "When we were conversing the other evening there was some mention of laying my plan for improving the Thames upon the Library table" and saying that if this is agreeable he will send him his drawing and map when convenient. Corner repair to blank of address leaf, with remnants of edge mounting.

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An accomplished painter and engraver, Martin was also enthusiastic about urban improvement, especially in London, where water supply and sewage management were of serious concern. Martin laid a number of plans before government Select Committees on these issues including in 1832 "An Outline Plan for supplying London with water from the Thames at Teddington Lock" which is undoubtedly the scheme referred to in this letter. This plan was approved at a meeting of the Institute of British Architects at a meeting on February 29th 1836, and on March 3rd to a voluntary Committee chaired by Lord Euston (which included Faraday) who enthusiastically supported the scheme. Lengthy discussions and amendments were considered in the ensuing years, and his scheme was finally adopted after his death, solving London's water problem.

Michael Faraday (1791–1867) the famous natural philosopher and scientific adviser, was at this time Director of the Royal Institution laboratory.

PHILIP MILLER AND PETER COLLINSON

MILLER, Philip (1691–1771), horticulturist and writer. Incomplete autograph letter signed to Peter Collinson, at the Red Lyon in Grace Church Street, London, with at the foot, Collinson's autograph forwarding notes to another un-named correspondent, 1 side 4to, Chelsea Nov 7th 1746. Regarding coniferous trees and shrubs, Miller writes "….. Mr Rand that the Cones were sent to the Bishop from America [had] the different smell of the Virginia Cedars ........... which has much Stronger scent than either of these, the ----- of which is commonly sold for the tree Savin [Juniper], a large tree of this is growing at Cashioberry [Cassioberry, Hertfordshire]. The Sumack with winged leaves is an inhabitant of our gardens........ It was formerly growing at Fulham and was [in] Pluckenets collections. Mr Catesby also sends seeds of this sort over [in] 1724, when we raised several plants from it at Chelsea, which were [also] killed the same year 1728/9."

Collinson comments that "The reason P.M. takes notice of the Pines of Mr Lethieu[llier] is in the first place that he used to call them Cluster pines. In the next is - that I produced from this tree Cones of 3 different yea[r’s] growth on the same branch unshed – in opposition his notion of all being shed the first year.....Wee have raised some winged leaved Sumack from thy last seeds pray send more for it is all lost before in our garden..... Thou will find P.Millar has not understood thy Letter wch may deserve thy cordial notice – for Phil is a very worthy Man but is apt to be a little too Posit[ive]."

Right hand margin frayed (with some text loss) and repaired, plus some transparent repair tape to blank reverse. Extremely rare, combining in one item observations by England's two foremost horticulturalists/botanists of the mid 18th century.

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Philip Miller was the most distinguished and influential British gardener of the eighteenth century, under whose charge (from 1722 to 1770) the Chelsea Physic Garden of the Society of Apothecaries of London came to excel above all others in Europe. His work necessitated the continuous introduction of new plants, achieved by a wide correspondence at home and abroad. 'Mr Rand', mentioned in the letter, was the botanist Isaac Rand (1674-1743) and former director of the Chelsea Garden. 'Pluckenets' collection refers to the extensive collection of the botanist Leonard Plukenet (bap. 1642, d. 1706), which he published in four huge volumes between 1691 and 1705. 'Mr Catesby' is the naturalist Mark Catesby (1683-1749) who undertook pioneering natural history work in America (supported by Peter Collinson), sending back large quantities of biological material to his English subscribers.(ODNB)

Miller's correspondent was the botanist Peter Collinson (1694–1768), whose greatest contributions to horticulture developed through his friendship with John Bartram, the father of American botany, with whom he established a scheme whereby Bartram supplied seeds and seedlings to British patrons in return for an annual subscription. He developed close friendships with other horticulturalists and naturalists, including Philip Miller, Mark Catesby and Smart Lethieullier (1701-1760).

BIRTH OF THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION

PHILLIPS, John (1800–1874), geologist. Autograph letter signed to an unnamed correspondent, 2 sides, 4to, 10 Nov 1833, regarding reports of the British Association: "Mr. Harcourt has no doubt written to you to express the thanks of our Council on behalf of the Y P Society for the very agreeable donation of a handsomely bound copy of the Reports 1 & 2 of the British Association" adding that "the universal sentiment of our members, is entirely in harmony with my own, viz that the sooner the association can favor York with a second visit the more delightful to us will be the duty of receiving them".

He goes on to report on further reports saying he has "not heard a word from Mr. R Taylor since I sent him Mr. J Taylor’s & Lindleys Reports to commence the Volume. Neither I believe has Mr. Harcourt ............. I take for granted that the press is at work, & that the authors of their Reports have been employed in revising their labours. Mr. H sent him Henry’s Report (the 3d in plan) & I have two more ready to be forwarded besides Christie’s. He may therefore be encouraged to lose no time, or rather to press on very diligently – The last Report in our Series /Peacock’s/ will be ready instanter". Strip of paper on reverse margin from an old album mount.

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John Phillips was appointed the first Keeper of the Museum of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society (YPS) in 1825. As the right-hand man of the YPS founder William Vernon Harcourt, Phillips took a leading part in 1831 in organizing at York the first meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. Next year he was appointed its assistant secretary, an office he held for thirty years. As administrator of the Association's meetings and editor of its Reports he made many contacts usually denied to the isolated provincial, and in 1834 was elected FRS and was appointed to the chair of geology at King's College, London. (ODNB).  The first published reports appeared in 1833 as "Report of the first and second meetings of the British Association for the advancement of science : at York in 1831 and at Oxford in 1832".

The second half of the letter refers to reports being gathered for publication relating to the 3rd British Association meeting, which took place in Cambridge in 1833. References to authors in the letter include the botanist John Lindley; the experimental philosopher Samuel Hunter Christie; and the mathematician George Peacock, all of whom had delivered highly important lectures at the Cambridge meeting.

A FINE 18th CENTURY LETTER ON NATURAL HISTORY

PULTENEY, Richard (1730-1801), botanist and physician. Autograph letter signed RP to Dr. Cuming at Dorchester, Saturday night, October 12 [1782], 3 sides folio plus integral address panel with postal stamp ‘BLAND FORD’ and seal, thanking him for his letter, and sending him a miscellany of news especially on natural history matters:

‘…..I went to Town in Consequence of a note sent to me by Mr. Sellers requesting a Specimen of the Ostrea Pleuronectes.  I am sorry to say I have no under Valve to spare there are 5 to 1 of the upper to be met with in all Collections whence I conclude the fish is seldom taken alive.’  

'I saw the Account of Mr. Fosters Death in the paper the Day after I got to Town.  He died without a will so all his Collection goes to a Brother who cares not a straw for any such matters.  I found poor Da Costa lamenting his Death.  His Book I fear is not forward I suspect we shall not see it soon if ever, yet I saw perhaps 10 or 12 of the Plates all good, chiefly figured fossils.’

‘I delivered your message to Dr. Hunter ………. the Dr. in the most obliging manner showed me all the Drawers (upwards of 100) of the shells from Fothergills Museum.  I cannot describe anything they are sumptuous & as he is told by connoisseurs inferior only to the Portland Collection . They are arranged according to Linnaeus by Dr G. Fordyce & Humphreys’.

‘Dr. H. also shewd me the Copy of his great work on Coins 63 plates all the Letter press except the preface printed a magnificent quarto indeed.  I congratulate you on the pleasure you will one day receive in possessing it.  I also saw many of the Insects they have all been lately arranged by Fabricius ……… according to his own System different from Linnaeus‘s’.

‘I asked the price of the Venus Dione at Martin’s Shop a worse than that you have valued at 3/6. a good one valued at 10/6. & difficult to be got.  Da Costa says the Voluta athiopica  in good preservation cannot be had for less than 1.11.6.’

‘Sr. Jos. Banks in Lincolnshire I spent nevertheless one morning at his Room with Dr. Dryander his Librarian who is to assist in carrying on the great work I looked over about 200 of the Plates 680 already finished 900 in all intended’.

‘Editors of the Med. Reg. have sent me a Letter to ask for Corrections to the new Edition for Dorsetshire can you correct your part of the County?  Have they sent to you also?’. 

With other passing references to leading naturalists and physicians, including Sir John Pringle, William Curtis, Sir George Baker, Sir William Watson, and Maxwell Garthshore, plus a note that he has no news of Captain Cook’s medal [issued in 1784].

£1,200

 A successful physician, Richard Pulteney M.D, FRS, was also a noted historian of British Botany and an ardent promoter of Linnaeus’s work and methods. Pulteney published his most significant work A general view of the writings of Linnæus the year before this letter was written. As this letter typically suggests, Pulteney maintained a wide range of contacts in the scientific and medical world, with whom he shared an abundance of information. His correspondent and friend Dr William Cuming (1714-1788) was a physician and a noted antiquarian and topographer, with whom Pulteney corresponded regularly.

Pultney’s report of the death of Ingham Foster (1725-1782) comes 9 days after Foster’s death on October 3^rd. Foster was a London merchant, an avid collector, and a close friend of the naturalist Emanuel Mendes da Costa (1717–1791). His extensive collections which included fossils and shells were auctioned in 1783 and 1784. Pultney’s reference to Da Costa’s preparation of an illustrated book is apparently for a work that never reached the press (his last major work Historia Naturalis Testaceorum Britanniae was published in 1778).

 The ‘shells from Fothergills Museum’ were those of Dr John Fothergill (1712-1780) a Quaker physician, whose shell collection was held at the time to be second only to that of the Duchess of Portland. The collection included material collected on Cook’s first voyage. Following Fothergill's death, his collection of shells and corals was purchased in 1781 by Dr William Hunter for £1100.

Dr William Hunter formed a fabulous collection of coins which he bequeathed to the University of Glasgow. One of his biggest coin purchases took place in 1782 (the year Pultney writes) when he purchased for £2,400 the Hess collection, whose highlights were the Roman Imperial gold coins.

The reference to Dr Dryander and the preparation of plates refers to the Swedish botanist Jonas Carlsson Dryander (1748 –1810) who was from 1782 Banks’ librarian (following the death of Daniel Solander). The plates referred to are probably those engraved from the drawings of  Sydney Parkinson (1745?- 1771) who accompanied Banks on board HMS Endeavour as his botanical draughtsman. The intention was to publish these upon returning to England, but Parkinson died on the voyage home in 1771. Banks with assistance from his librarians had over 700 plates drawn up but they were never published until recently.

PUSEY, Philip (1799–1855), agriculturist. Autograph letter signed to an unnamed correspondent, 2 sides, 8vo, October 1^st [18]49, thanking him for his letter, “I don’t know whether Mr. Leonards paper will necessarily be published by the Microscopic Society: if not I should be glad if you could procure me a sight of it” on which subject he observes “The grass which has always struck me as the most rapid grower is the Italian Ryegrass. In my water-meadows it is up again five or six inches high in a few days after the sheep are removed……Last spring finding some young barley laid I mowed it and in twenty four hours it had grown an inch, the weather was hot. Probably however Mr. Leonard knows much better than I the conditions of rapid growth for his observations.”

£30

Pusey developed a high reputation as a progressive and practical farmer. In 1835-52 he was MP in Berkshire and in the 1840s was an adviser on agricultural matters to Peel and Gladstone.

 

ROLLESTON, George (1829–1881), physician and physiologist. Autograph letter signed to Dr [William] Sharpey, 1 side plus integral blank, 8vo, Oxford, Oct 5^th 1863, “I found on my return to Oxford on Saturday that the larger plates accompanying Mr. Marshall’s Paper had not been sent back to the Royal Society. I forward them this day by train and I hope no inconvenience has arisen from this delay which was owing to my absence from this place”. Rear corner of blank with adhering paper. Together with a carte-de-visite photograph by Hills & Saunders of Oxford. PHOTO

Rolleston attended the famous British Association meeting of 1860, where Darwin’s Origin of Species was debated, and, impressed with Darwinism, immediately set about studying brain development and the classification of skulls in man and animals. In 1870 he published Forms of Animal Life, a pioneering work on the systematic classification and comparison of animal structures. Greatly accomplished, he was the epitome of the university professor: informed on all subjects, an enthusiastic and influential teacher of knowledge for its own sake, and a mixture of classical scholar, academic scientist, and naturalist in the widest sense. ODNB

William Sharpey(1802–1880) was an influential and scholarly physiologist, who from 1854 to 1872 was secretary of the Royal Society.

Romanes, George John (1848–1894), evolutionary biologist. Autograph letter signed to E.F.Cooper, Leicester, 4 sides, 16mo, 18 Cornwall Terrace, Regent’s Park NW, February 14th 1884, accepting an invitation to be his guest, and modifying their arrangement to fit in another invitation to see "Mr. Romanis .... a distant relative of mine who has taken to spelling his name with an “i”; and it is because he desired to make each others acquaintance that I arranged with him to go to Wigstan before going to Leicester."

£30

Romanes laid the foundation of “comparative psychology”, postulating a similarity of cognitive processes and mechanisms between humans and animals. Without the need to earn a living, he devoted himself to the pursuit of biological research and "truth". This made Romanes a rare example of an educated Victorian whose religious beliefs were undermined by scientific reason. Throughout his adult life he was troubled, and sometimes torn, between the conclusions of his reason, which denied the possibility of knowledge of a personal and active God, and the desires of his heart, which kept open a search for Christian faith. ODNB

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