March 1885
[A second letter1 from the Baron was read, intimating that a most valuable Paper on the "Australian Fauna in all its branches" had just been written by the Hon: W. Macleay for a great forthcoming work by Professor Kirchhoff of Germany;2 but that at his (the Baron's) request Mr Macleay had given permission for the Paper to be read before & published by this Society prior to its transmission to Germany. It was resolved that the best thanks of the Society were due to Baron von Mueller for his very kind and thoughtful action on our behalf: — also that the Paper should be read, and published in our Transactions.3]
The first letter was read at the same meeting, see M to J. Agnew, March 1885 (in this edition as 85-03-00).
Macleay's essay has not been found in a work by Kirchhoff. M is most likely referring to Kirchhoff (1886-1907) which, however, never got up to a systematic treatment of 'Australia' in its coverage; the Australian fauna is dealt with only very briefly (vol. 1, pp. 859-60) within a discussion of Wallace's faunal regions.
Reading of Macleay's paper was commenced at the Society's meeting on 14 April 1885 and concluded at the following meeting, on 12 May; see Macleay (1886).
Letter not found, is an entry in the minutes of the monthly meeting of the Council of the Society, 31 March 1885.
Please cite as “FVM-85-03-00a,” 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