Volume 1

A selection of the correspondence of Linnaeus and other naturalists, from the original manuscripts / by Sir James Edward Smith.

  • Linné, Carl von, 1707-1778.
Date:
1821
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A selection of the correspondence of Linnaeus and other naturalists, from the original manuscripts / by Sir James Edward Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    very first opportunity. There is a bottle containin^^ a specimen of the new animal and three fishes, of one of which I formerly sent him the characters. There is one which he has never had before — the West India Parrot Fish. There is a small bundle containing some insects and a skin of the new animal. There is, besides these, the large packet of dried plants; under the cover of which are your specimens of the Loblolly Bay. It will give me great pleasure to see these inserted into the new Systema Naturce; and therefore I need say no more to you about dispatch. You write me that you intend to have a drawing made of the large dried specimen of the new animal, which I sent you, and presented to the Royal Society. If this method is agreeable to you, it will be perfectly so to me, as every thing that you do is. But, unless to yourself and my friend Mr. Baker, I owe very little to that Society. Whatever respect I have met with has been from the honourable men- tion which you alone have been pleased to make of me, in the papers which you have presented; and for this I now and always shall consider myself as being obliged to you alone. But this by the bye, which I hope you will forgive. Allow me now to say that you may make any use of the specimen you please, and extract what you think proper of my letter to Linnaeus, that regards its history; but I think you should publish my description along with it. I sent it open to you last year; and