Description
Description: In this informative four-page autograph letter signed, Wollaston is delighted he is no longer president of the Royal Society… “I was light hearted & thoroughly happy in the certainty of release from responsibility & stately bondage…” He then goes into a lengthy description of Sir William Edward Parry’s voyage to discover a Northwest passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific. In part: “…their appearance of health very remarkable… men bore frequently a change of 100 degrees from +50 to -50… Quadrupeds to browse… 2 0r 300 miles over the ice from the Continent of America — rein-deer & musk-ox… quite remote from the savage hunters of the Continent… they were only 800 from Behring’s Straits… Parry has again brought home 18 specimens & I have just received a box with the name of Dr. Marcet on the lid, which I am requested by Parry to examine as your deputy…”
And again he references the Royal Society elections… “I have not said that our election passed off very quietly, for tho some unknown person or persons put Dr. Colchester in nomination by an anonymous circular letter… all votes intended for him were thrown away & [Sir Humphry] Davy may I believe… elected unanimously”.
Written on a folded 9″ x 14″ sheet of paper and dated “4 Dec. 1820” and addressed in Wollaston’s hand to Monsieur Marcet. Paper was folded and used as a stampless cover which has both manuscript and stamped cancellations. Item #A02004
William Hyde Wollaston (1766-1828), English scientist, was trained as a medical doctor who abandoned medicine to become a chemist and physicist. His skill was best demonstrated in his important investigations on platinum metals–discoveries of palladium and rhodium; he also developed a way to process platinum into malleable ingots. He built the first spectrometer in 1802 and coined the term bicarbonate. He also improved on John Dalton’s atomic theory. Mineralogists called upon him to determine the chemical composition of new minerals. Wollastonite was named in his honor for his contributions to crystallography. Fearful of competing interests, he was secretive about his work and, therefore, lesser known than Dalton or Humphry Davy. Wollaston was the godfather of William Blake’s son, Henry Wollaston Blake.
Dr. John Marcet (1770-1822) was popularly known as the fever doctor and was an accomplished British-Genevan chemist. He was physician at Guy’s Hospital between 1804-1819. He supported Edward Jenner in encouraging universal inoculation against smallpox. His medical publications include how to procure vaccines (with Jenner), studied the beneficial qualities of mineral water, accounts of hydrophobia, nephritis, alkali in blood, and “calculous disorders,” etc. His chemical papers were concerned with the use of nitrate as a test for arsenic, beneficial qualities of mineral water, etc.
Condition: Hastily opened wax seal has created a small loss impacting a few letters of text, otherwise very good and quite readable.
