To Joseph Hooker   25 October 1866

25/10/66

Dear Dr Hooker.

I have been suddenly called upon as a scientific traveller of Queensland to take charge of the Queensland Courts at our Exhibition,1 no special Commissioner having arrived from that Colony & this throws me entirely out of my calculations as regards time for mail business.

I wish merely to beg of you to see kindly a claim settled made by Mr Lovell Reeves heirs against me on behalf of the late Prof Harvey. Our excellent departed friend caused a number of copies of his phycologia2 to be sent to me nearly all of which I gave away to encourage the study of algae, finding it impossible to effect a sale.3 Poor Harvey said it was an entire business affair of Mr Reeves, and in doing any favors towards the interest of the publisher he should not participate in them. I thought accordingly that a small percentage might be deducted from the sum through my becoming so very extensively a purchaser myself & I settled so far the account. This percentage I am now charged after a long lapse of time and as the claim is made on our departed friends behalf I at once respond to it. If you find that Mr Reeves heirs alone make the claim, I leave it to your judgement whether the full extent of their demands should be recognized.4

Your regardful

Ferd Mueller

 
1
Intercolonial Exhibition of Australasia, Melbourne, 1866-7. See M to W. Hill, 25 October 1866.
2
Harvey (1858-63).
3
M had used the press in an attempt to stimulate sales, stating that it 'should be in the library of every educated family residing near the sea-shore' (Australasian, 4 August 1866, p. 561).
4
See M to J Hooker, 23 October 1862 and 27 November 1866.

Please cite as “FVM-66-10-25a,” in Correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller, edited by R.W. Home, Thomas A. Darragh, A.M. Lucas, Sara Maroske, D.M. Sinkora†, J.H. Voigt† and Monika Wells accessed on 27 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/66-10-25a