To John Creed   28 February 1883

28/2/83

In my extensive travels during a long series of years through the wildernesses of Australia, dear Dr Creed, I found it safest to communicate as little as ever possible with the savages; hence I never learned enough of the habits of any tribe to answer any of the questions, submitted by you. I have however forwarded your circular1 to Mr E. Giles, who took in his many explorations much notice of the blacks, and I have no doubt, that he will send you reliable answers to several of your queries. Medical Gentlemen, practising in the far interior, ought to be in a good position to afford information in the direction wished by you.

Regardfully your

Ferd. von Mueller

M.D.2

 
1
No copy of Creed’s circular has been found either among his papers at the Mitchell Library or elsewhere. Creed (1883) reports, mostly at second-hand, various birth-control measures said to be practised by Aboriginal people across a vast area of the Australian outback, and indicates that Creed was seeking further information by means of a circular distributed ‘to all the settlers in the districts where these tribes live’.
2
The back of the sheet is endorsed in pencil 'Baron Sir Ferdinand von Mueller'.

Please cite as “FVM-83-02-28b,” 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 25 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/83-02-28b