RK-117

[stamped] SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION [written] 1440 [stamped] WASHINGTON D.C.

[handwritten] November 3, 1855

My Dear Robert.

I have had before me for some time your letters of Oct. 14. and 18. and would have answered them before but that I waited to acknowlege receipt of the specimens announced as sent on the 13'. This is now three weeks since, and no signs of them and I greatly fear that the box has been lost or thrown overboard, by some snake hater. Had you not better [page torn] enquiries to be set on foot in regard to them. I shall deeply regret the loss, and not least the Franklin Marmot: perhaps you can get another one and send with plenty of provisions for him.

Whatever of turtles I should get from you would be cheerfully shared with Prof. Agassiz: to whom I am constantly forwarding specimens.

About the new snakes there certainly is no impropriety

in your giving a name to this new one nor any other you might discover. The chief merit is due to the discoverer, not the describer, and if I choose to assist you in the part where your advantages and means of comparison are less extended than mine, it makes no difference in the principle. As to the generic name, I really have not determined it. I should not be much surprised to have to make it a new genus. As soon as I get through Mammals, I shall work up the birds of the [page torn]editions and then run through the reptiles; I shall then speedily settle these various vexed questions.

I hope the alcoholics & skins will come safer and straighter than the live ones. Send the gopher by all means and all the other mammals you can scrape together: especially Auriola. Get your folks to keep saving all they can of these.

[stamped] SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION [written] 1440 [stamped] WASHINGTON D.C.

[handwritten] The fossil bone you had better not send for the present. Cant you make an outline of it showing size and general shape and send that: we can then tell whether it is worth while to forward it

I was much interested in your Catalogue. Cant you send me a few more copies. You should have had a good many printed. It is an excellent beginning for your career as the Illinois Naturalist

I regretted [page torn] hear of the loss of your insects, [page torn] have no doubt you will take better care next time. As to the insects ^{in alcohol}, dont give yourself any trouble. Send the coleoptera to me in separate vials from the grasshopper, &c. and I will get Dr LeConte to have them pinned. He will give you back a full series pinned, and give what he dont want, to a person in his occasional employ, as pay for pinning the whole lot. This will answer your purposes

perfectly, Dr. L. never expected you to pin the collection.

I was almost as much pleased to hear of the kindness of the Faculty in Chicago as you were. Dr. Frere when here last winter rather intimated some such idea, which you may be sure I encouraged to the utmost. As a practising physician you cannot perhaps expect to become wealthy, but riches always spoil a man for Natural History, and in the practise of the medical professen, you can always be assured of a competence, wh[page torn] will serve as a stand by. for your Natural History studies.

As you say however, with your hand once to the plough, there must be no looking back for several years. Every thing must give way to the business in hand, although as an occasional recreation it will be well enough to catch a bug or skin a rat. I hardly think however that it will be best to try to put through in

[stamped] SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION [written] 1440 [stamped] WASHINGTON D.C.

[handwritten] two years - It will either kill you, or your knowledge of Medicine. You are too young to undergo such a labor, and besides you will require almost the whole of the first course to learn how to study. I would be a first rate physician, if any kind: and you know that a year added to your age in studying three years instead of ten, will make people more [page torn]eady to call your talents [page torn] requisition. Do you propose to remain in Cook Co. to practise, or migrate elsewhere

Are you not a little out in some of your species as inhabiting Illinois. Is the badger found in Southern Ill. The Arelomy Monax is frequently called badger. How about Lepus americanus. I cant imagine it occurring in the Southern parts of Ill.. More likely it is the L. aquaterus a large coarse haired swamp species.