Description:

Science
various, ca. 1755-1832
Letters & Autographs by Noted Men of Science with Great Content & Associations
Archive

A collection of three ALS and one clipped signature by notable men of science of the 18th and 19th Century. Letters are dated as early as 1755 to 1832 and filled with significant content related to the work they are well known for, together with an undated clipped signature by Benjamin Waterhouse. A fifth unrelated document misidentified as being signed by Thomas Winterbottom is included. Varying condition, with most exhibiting some wear along the folds. Please refer to images for further information.

Includes:

- British botanist Joseph Banks ALS. Three pages of a bifolium, 4.25" x 7"; "Soho Square"; June 8, 1816. A letter of reference to an unnamed recipient recommending a skilled gardener: "…I take the liberty to Recommend the bearer as a person very likely in case he be approved by you to cultivate your garden in a superior stile & to produce such fruits & flowers as few gardeners can present to their master. He has been long known to me by the extraordinary Results of his talents both as a gardener a& a farmer for he manages the small farm of his late master…Jos: Banks." The letter is window mounted to an overall size of 6.5" x 10.5".

- Scottish physiologist Malcolm Flemyng ALS to noted bookseller and publisher John Nourse. Three and a quarter pages with integral address leaf, 8" x 12.5"; Brigg in Lincolnshire; December 23, 1755. Great content letter to the noted publisher John Nourse proposing the publication of his lectures on animal oeconomy, and including an excerpt of a letter from Albrecht von Haller. He explains to Nourse that he had proposed to an acquaintance that he approach Nourse about publishing his lectures on animal oeconomy. Not hearing a response, he writes to Nourse to make the proposal directly.

He writes: "I think I know a pretty deal of U.S. state of the practice of medicine in the country of England, having practiced myself in it above 20 years & I am sure such a book as I propose to publish is really wanting; not that books already published on that subject are useless that none of those are calculated to answer the same precept and as mind is, to wit an Introduction into the Animal Oeconomy drawn up for the use of beginners in this place familiar style of Lectures, in which all along the best Authors upon this particular topick are recommended, & this connexion betwixt that & regular practice pointed out ever and anon. I shall be glad to hear from yourself your sentiments concerning this matter of London Booksellers chooses not to meddle in such a proposal…" He continues his letter making mention that Albrecht von Heller has written an appraisal of his work ("a character of me") and that he has had a correspondence with the noted physiologist for the last three years. He closes his letter with an extract of a letter from Haller and writes lengthy postscript with more details of the proposed text for the book. Signed in full, "Malcolm Flemyng." J. Nourse published Flemyng's book titled, "An Introduction to Physiology; being, A Course of Lectures upon the Most Important Parts of the Animal Oeconomy" in 1759, four years after the date of this letter.

- Cut signature, "Benj Waterhouse" on a small slip, 1.25" x 3.25" mounted to a larger sheet, 6.75" x 3.5". A scarce and desirable signature by the noted American doctor, best remembered for being the first doctor to test the smallpox vaccine in the United States.

- James Murray ALS to his patron, Henry Paget, 1st Marquess of Anglesey. Eight pages on two bifolia, 7" x 8.75"; Royal Lodge, Phoenix Park; October 21, 1832. Murray had become resident physician to Henry Paget, the lord lieutenant of Ireland a year earlier, and here writes an extensive letter explaining the nervous system as he understood it to be. Referring to an engraving of the great sympathetic nerve by Pierre-Joseph Manec, he writes: "You will see that the nerves which suffer in Tic, are but the branches, & you will trace the links of a great chain descending along the wind-pipe, & neck, connecting that link by a new one derived at each side from every single joint of the long spinal column – you will see where these offsets join, a little ball or ganglion formed, as a sort of reservoir or mediums of intermixture of the new connexion, & you will learn from ten thousand post mortem histories, & relations of accidents that if the root of any single nerve of these be injured, diseased or inflamed, harder or softer, larger or smaller, than natural, it is not at that root the sensation is felt, but at some of the more remote & more sensitive ramifications – one man hurts his back, he loses the power of using his feet or legs, another injured higher up, the nerves that supply the urinary organs are affected, & he cannot pass water, if higher still, the branches that supply the stomach & bowels suffer & that is instantly dangerous derangement of the organs of digestion, if the lateral branches that go out from the spine to the neck, be hurt, then the arms lose their sensations, or violent pains may torture the hands & fingers, so that the lesion at the roots will surely affect the branches at their extremities."

Murray continues for five more pages, expounding on current theories and treatments, and signs, "James Murray M.D." He adds in a postscript that Paget "may make any use [he] please of this paper." Although Murray is best known for his discovery of Milk of Magnesia, he was held in high regard for his knowledge of anatomy and was appointed an inspector of anatomical schools in Ireland.

A great group of letters with important content by noted men of science.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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