From:
George Robert Waterhouse
To:
Sir John Herschel
Date:
[24 July 1860]
Source of text:
RS:HS 18.103
Summary:
On behalf of GW's wife, thanks for JH's gift of table and bedcurtains.
Contributor:
John Herschel Project
Showing 1–5 of 5 items
On behalf of GW's wife, thanks for JH's gift of table and bedcurtains.
Consulted A. C. L. G. Günther, museum ichthyologist. Answers JH's question about poisonous herring Clupea thryssa. [A. K.] Johnston's Physical Atlas attributes Ruminants article to GW, but GW wrote only Rodentia article.
Extensive discussion of comparative anatomy, taxonomy, and distribution of rodents. Encourages JH to use term Hystricidae for porcupines in JH's [Physical Geography (1861)].
Reptile genera in JH's [Physical Geography ] are consistent with those of [Edward] Forbes cited in Johnston's Physical Atlas [1854], but new genera have been discovered. Questions JH's claim that Elgin sandstone is Devonian. Notes Richard Owen's estimates on pterodactyl size, and distinct tail feathers [illustration] on recent specimen from Bavaria. Corrects JH's names for beaver genera.
Thanks for answers and for notice on Apteryx [Maerurus ?], which JH remembers watching Richard Owen inspect. Interested in W. B. Carpenter's and C. W. Thomson's ['Bathybius?]' as origin of chalk-flint. Discusses inorganic chemical allotropes. Organic allotropes may exist, serving as 'agents of vital action' and subject to a higher power.