Thomas Murdoch to Faraday   2 June 1838¹

8 Portland Place 2 June 1838

My Dear Mr. Faraday

I now send you a hasty translation of the Portuguese letter - not verbo ad verbum² but sufficiently close to convey the meaning of the writer who is, I presume, a medical Man and in distressed circumstances. By his letter he seems to think that he has discovered an efficacious remedy for the cholera blah! I have met with many infallible nostrums in the course of my reading, that would cure Cancer, Hydrophobia, Plague and Cholera - but unhappily these diseases still continue to set medicine at defiance.

I know not what you wish to do with the manuscript, which, I conclude from the letter, is addressed to the Privy Council - where I fear it will not excite attention and I know that it deserves it - As the Author is a Member of some learned Society of which you also are a Member³, perhaps you may wish to send him a civil answer, acknowledging the receipt of his Letter and the MS: and as he says the answer should be in the Portuguese language, I shall feel pleasure in arranging a translation of it into that idiom. I presume that your answer will be brief and civil - for I do not expect any favourable result of the application.

Ever my Dear Sir | Believe me yours faithfully | Tho Murdoch

Michael Faraday Esq | Royal Institution | Albemarle Street

Address: To | Michael Faraday Esq | Royal Institution | Albemarle Street | Piccadilly