Ferdinand von Mueller

8/10/81

The circumstance, dear Sir Joseph, that neither the Gardeners Chronicle nor any communication from Kew alludes to so sad an event as the loss of Bentham, awakens my hope, that the great systematist is spared us yet, and that Caruel's information, derived from Planchon, as very implicitly and with very emphatic expressions of sorrow communicated by letter to me,

1

T. Caruel, in a letter dated 3 August 1881  (letter not found) told M, on the authority of a letter to him from J. Planchon, that Bentham had died (Leader, 24 September 1881, p. 8). See also T. Caruel to M, 21 November 1881.

is based on some mistake. Let me hope, that he will long live to be your collaborator and to enlarge our favorite science!

2

See also M to J. Hooker, 19 September 1881 (in this edition as 81-09-19a). M was correct, Bentham had not died.

—

Poor Dr Cooke writes to me by last post, concerning his severe illness.

3

Letter not found. Mordecai Cooke appears to have suffered a series of slight strokes leading to a temporary paralysis of his arm; see English (1987), p. 200.

I have advised him

4

Letter not found.

to take a seavoyage to a healthy part of Central-America , so as to give his mind perfect rest on the ocean, to enjoy the bracing fresh sea-air with its ozonous refreshing effect and to delight in rambles after fungs in the jungles of the tropics. It is so easy now, to reach any of the Central American countries, where a special mycologist never yet explored , that such a tour for some month would not only build up again his mental working power, but give him an opportunity of doing an immensity of research in a branch of science there, but scantily as yet carried on merely mechanically as a byework by collectors. What work could an experinced mycologist like Dr Cooke do during a few month in the virgin forests of America! —

Remember the vast material, gathered by Dr Ernst merely in Caracas. You are a Physician yourself, and will agree, that only by a plan like this so valuable a life as that of your Mycologic Officer can be much prolonged, relapses being after any early resumption of arduous study-work almost inavoidable. Of Dr Cooke's private affairs I know nothing, as it was only a year or two ago, when Berkeley at his venerable age referred me to Cooke. Like most real son's of science (unless they had property by inheritage) Cooke is probably poor & may have a family to support. If financial obstacles stand in the way I will pay £10 or £20 towards his expenses, for which help he might send some of his spare specimens obtained in Central America. Others of his scientific friends would doubtless do the same, and so a few hundred £ might be got together for him.

Central America could be cheaper & quicker reached, than any other great unexplored mycologic area, and he could operate safer there than anywhere (with equal prospects) in the East.

If the enormously rich brother in law of Dr Harvey

5

Presumably Thomas Harvey Todhunter.

had given that poor friend of ours a modest independence, so that as a private man he could have lived at the Cape of Good Hope, or in any other warm part of the globe, quietly engaged in his darling studies, I feel sure his life would have been spared for many years.

The same advise, which I give concerning Cooke, I proffert to my friend Professor Keferstein, the young promising Zoologist of Goettingen, a series of years ago, but it came too late .

I suppose you met our delegate, my friend Dr Ruddall at your Medical Congress

6

James Rudall was a founding member (1879) of the Victorian Branch of the British Medical Association and represented it at the Seventh International Medical Congress, London, August 1881, during a tour of Europe and America. Rudall did not meet Hooker at the Congress; see M to J. Hooker, 31 December 1881 (in this edition as 81-12-31a).