TALBOT4239

Lacock Abbey,
Chippenham
6 April 1841

Dear Trevelyan

If D^r Brown ¹ has really transmuted Carbon into Silex, &c. ² such a discovery will raise him to the first rank amongst the Chemists of the present day. I have long been predisposed towards such a theory, from the fact of organic remains of animals, medusæ &c. being found disseminated in the chalk, apparently transmuted into flintstones: and also because certain elements, as yttria, thorina glucina & many more, occur in such minute quantity that one can hardly think them independent elements created for their own sake and utility in the material world, but rather that they are accidental & isomeric varieties of other Bodies. I shall expect with much interest the publication of D^r Brown’s discoveries.

I think the best camera is Daguerre’s ³ construction if you like to import one from Paris, you can commission Ross, optician Regent S^t London ⁴ to get a good one. He got some for me. ⁵ Sir D. Brewster ⁶ spoke to me in very high terms of the lenses made by an optician in Edinburgh no doubt it was Davidson. ⁷

Yours ever truly
H. F. Talbot