APPENDIX A.
Reading edition
[TWO LETTERS FROM DOCTOR CHRISTOPHER MERRETT TO SIR THOMAS BROWNE, MS. SLOANE 1830, FOL. 1 TO 3. THEY ARE BOUND UP IN INVERSE ORDER OF DATE.]
[Reply to No. 2 in the above Series.]
[Fol. 3.] Worthy Sr,—yrs of ye 14th instant I recaeved as full off learning in discovering so many very great curiosities as kindness in communicating them to mee & promising yr farther assistance. ffor which I shall always proclame by my tongue as well as by my pen, my due resentment & thanks.
The 2 funguses [guses crossed out and i inserted] yw sent ye figures off [see Note 106] are ye finest & rarest as to their figure I have ever seen or read of, & soe is yr fibula marina, far surpassing one I reacived from Cornwall much of ye same bigness, neither of which I find anywhere mentioned. The urtica marina minor Jonst. & physalus I never met with, nor have bin informed off ye canis charcharius alius Jonst. Many of ye Lupus piscis I have seen, & have bin informed by ye Kings fish monger they are taken on our coast, but was not satisfyed for some reasons off his relation soe as to enter it into my pinax, though tis said to bee peculiar to ye river Albis [= Elbe] yet I thought they might come sometimes thence to yr coasts. Trutta marina I haue and ye loligo, sepia, & polypus ye 3 sorts off ye molles have bin found on our western coasts which shall bee exactly distinguished—As for ye Salmons taken a bove London towards Richmond & nearer, & yt in great quantity some years they have all off them their lower jaw as yw observ, [see Note 92] & our fishermen [men crossed out] say they usually wear off some part off it on ye banks or els ye lower would grow into ye upper & soe starve them as they have sometimes seen—yw ask whether I haue ye mullus ruber asper, or ye piscis Octangularis Wormii. or ye sea worm longer than ye earth worms, or ye garrulus Argentor. or ye duck cal'd a May chit or ye Dor hawke. The 4 first I haue noe account off ye 2 later I know not especially by those names, wee have noe hawk by yt name [see Note 42] yr account of succinum as all ye rest will bee registered. As for ye Aquila Gesneri I never saw nor heard off any such in ye Collidge for [fol. 3 verso] this 25 years last past. Sr yw are pleased to say yw shall write more if yw know how not to bee surpurfluous—certainly what yw have hitherto done hath bin all curiosities, & I doubt not but yw have many more by you—I can direct yw noe further than yr own reason dictates to yw. Besides those mentioned in ye pinax I have 100 to add, & cannot give yw a particular off them—whatever yw write is either confirmative or additional. I doe entreat this favour off yw to inform mee fuller off those unknown things mentioned herein, & to add ye name page &c. of ye Author if mentioned by any or else to give them such a latin name for them as yw have done by ye fungi which may bee descriptive & differencing off them. Sr I hope ye publigs [sic] interest & yr own good genius will plead yr pardon desired by
yr humble servant
Chr. Merrett.
London Aug. 29. 68.
[Reply to No. 8 of the above Series.]
[Fol. 1.] Worthy Sr,—my due thanks premised I at present acquaint yw yt yw have very well named ye Rutilus & expressed fully ye cours to bee taken in ye imposition of names viz ye most obvious & most peculiar difference to ye ey or any other sens. I am farther to say yt ye icon of ye weazeling came not to my hands, pray bee pleas'd to look amongst yr papers perhaps it might bee laid by through some accident or other [I have added above] ye figures of yr anas macrolophos, & of ye mergi cristati [see Note 124] & of ye pristis yt which came from Cornwall was of ye gladius, ye name of sword fish being applied to both of them by our nation. It seemeth by yw yt ye Norwich aspredo is not ye Ceruna fluviatilis contrary to what Camden affirms, for ye rutilus mentioned in mine to yw differs toto cœlo from ye ceruna—The difference of ye Elks bill by yw signified is remarkable to distinguish it from others of its own kind. [See p. 83 supra.] The crackling teal seems [clearly crossed out] to bee ye same which Dr Charleton[130] mentions in his Onomasticon under ye name of ye cracker,& showing him yr description hee acknowledged to bee ye same, ye clangula I know noe more of than reading hath informed mee, a willock I have seen brought from Greenland where they are said exceedingly to abound, but never yt [thought?] either of them was found in England, & having [not added above] taken sufficient notice of it ye later, crave yr description off both.
And now Sr since my last only 2 things remarkable haue come to my knowledge. The one was a cake off black amber 1/6 off an inch thick & neer a palm each way. Mr. Boyle brought it to ye R. society to whom it was sent from ye Sussex shore, hee had only tryed it to its electricity & found it answer his expectation, farther tryals will be made of it. The second is a small plant found on oyster shells which when fresh did perfectly represent ye flowers off Hyacinthus botryoides, [see Note 91] but yt was somewhat longer & not so much sweld out towards its pedunculus, some of them are here inclosed. Tis doubtless a sort off vesicaria, though much different from what yw sent mee. Most off them are now shrunk & ye sides constituting ye cavity come together & appear only a transparent husk. One thing more I had to add (but scarcely dare speak it out) yt is if it would please [you added above] to let it bee done without yr charge & 2ly if it might be done without yr trouble, then I would beg off yw to set some a work to procure mee some of those rare animals &c. yw have mentioned in your seueral Letters. My intention therein is double: first to take their descriptions & furnish our colledge with them as curiosities, all being lost by ye fire this is onely wished but must not bee proposed without ye former limitation by yr too much allready obliged friend & servant
Chr. Merrett.
8th May '69.
I met this week with some persons off quality high Germans who lately saw yr son & record all good things off him.
ffor Dr Browne off Norwich.
[The reply to this letter is No. IX of the above Series.]