Document information
Physical location:
Natural History Museum, London, Archives, DF200/14, Letters 1878 L-Z, f. 379. 78.10.30Preferred Citation:
Ferdinand von Mueller to Richard Owen, 1878-10-30. R.W. Home, Thomas A. Darragh, A.M. Lucas, Sara Maroske, D.M. Sinkora, J.H. Voigt and Monika Wells (eds), Correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller, <https://vmcp.rbg.vic.gov.au/id/78-10-30>, accessed September 11, 2025
30/10/78
These lines are written to you, dear Professor Owen, from my sick-bed, on which I
have been thrown after an operation for varicous veins of the rectum.
You will therefore kindly excuse my writing with graphit-pencil; but I did not wish
to loose a monthly mail to bring under your notice an offer for sale of a splendid
collection of Coleoptera formed by a Gardener, who for many years worked under me
in the bot Garden.
1
i.e. haemorrhoids. M had had a similar operation two months earlier; see M to E. Ramsay,
22 August 1878.
2
It is on my own suggestion, that Mr French now offers these collections to the British
Museum, it being before his intention to sell it to some other less important institution
To your glorious Museum it is of course an object to secure particularly such collections,
as contain many novelties, so as to afford material for adding to the celebrated records
emanating from the British Museum.
I consider the price
cheap
, considering the
high expenses
for travelling in any part of Australia!
Should you and the trustees be able to secure this almost unique collection, then
Mr French must of course
insure
the sending and be responsible for its safe arrival
3
The collection comprised about 700 species of Longicorn beetles in 890 specimens,
for which French wanted £150, and about 3,500 specimens in other families, which French
priced at £200, in each case without the cabinets containing the collections (particulars
by Charles French, Natural History Museum, London, Archives, DF200/14, Letters 1878
L-Z, f. 379c).
Owen, in a letter to A. Günther, Keeper of Zoology, 23 December 1878, commented: 'I
have, in acknowledging receipt of enclosed, told von Mueller [letter not found] that
his letter with Mr French's statement have been refered to you with whom rests the
initiative of recommendation. You will perhaps therefore, if you think the proposition
worth entertaining, communicate to Dr Frd. von Mueller, (Melbourne Victoria) any suggestion
tending to facilitate your wishes on the subject' (Natural History Museum, Archives,
DF200/14, Letters 1878 L-Z, f. 379a).
No evidence of purchase can be found in the records of zoological accessions to the
Natural History Museum, London. The longicorn collection was later offered to the
Stuttgart natural history museum; see M to F. von Krauss, 19 March 1879. According to an interview with Charles French published in the
Leader, 22 February 1890, p. 38, his longicorn beetle collection was by then in the Leyden
Museum.
Trusting, venerable Sir, that you are in the enjoyment of perfect health & happiness,
and that a long serene evening after an eventful life of discoveries will be before
you, I remain your
Ferd. von Mueller.
Pray Remember me Kindly to Sir Charles Nicholson & Sir Henry Barkly