Ferdinand von Mueller

1

MS removed from a file of handwriting specimens extracted many years ago from the herbarium collections; the catalogue entry for MEL 2219218, Montia australasica, fits the details of this letter (AVH, accessed 2 May 2023).

Ballaaratt

Sept. 15 1860

Sir,

I was hastily summoned some little time ago, to attend some children who were ill: I found them vomiting , purging and collapsed — pulse low: cold breath, extremities colorless. Under treatment they slowly recovered, one of them however giving evidence of delirium of a temporary kind — Next day. I asked two seperately , to shew me what they had been eating & they took me to the fields & presented me with the unopened buds of the little plant I enclose — It was in this month September, that this occurred they have done well since. Will you kindly inform me of the natural order & name it bears & if its poisonous properties are known to you.

Address

Dr Richardson Ballaaratt