From George Grant   31 March 1831

My Dear Sir

I had the pleasure of receiving your Letter, in which you kindly say you will name me to some of your Friends here; I really feel greatly indebted to you for this act of Friendship, which will be of essential Service to me, for as I am almost unknown to the People in & around Richmond, I shall have difficulty, even with introductions from the Family of my Predecessor in establishing myself in the confidence of His Patients; People do not easily allow themselves to be as it were transferred from one Medical Man to another, especially to a Stranger and I shall have on that account enough to contend with until I am better known–

I would have returned you my thanks for your kind Letter sooner, but I wished to see your Brother again & say how I found Him, & when I did see Him after receiving your Letter His situation appeared to me so doubtful & continued so for some time, that I really felt at a loss what to say to you; when I saw Him however two days ago, I was pleased to find that he had improved both in strength & in the Symptoms of his Disease, & most sincerely do I hope that the improvement will continue & be progressive.

You are of course fully informed as to his actual state of Health, & therefore I need not speak of it further than to say that with great apprehensions of the result, I am still in hopes that Organic Lesion may not have taken place in the Lungs, & that the return of mild & warm weather which will admit of a change to Hastings or elsewhere, will be effectual in restoring Him to Health; it will do more for him than Medicine. I am grieved I cannot pay him the attention I wish as I cannot often get up to Town–

I am glad to find the Insect has proved of interest; I wish I could afford any thing like a satisfactory account of its Local History, but I never could ascertain more than that it was found by a Native on a Resinous Shrubby Plant in the Island of Chiloe, which is only separated by a very narrow channel from the Main Land of Valdivia. The period of the year when found I could not learn but it was brought to me in Jan. ^y the middle of the summer there, & must have been recently found when I received it– I still consider that I have to send you Specimens of any interesting Minerals I may have, but as you may suppose I have had no time of late to look them over–

I remain |my Dear Sir |yours very faithfully |Geo: Grant