Ferdinand von Mueller

1

Letter not found. The text given here is from Australische Zeitung , 9 December 1885, p. 4 (B85.12.04). The letter was introduced by the editor: ‘Eine Bitte, die wir herzlich unterstützen, sendet uns Hr. Baron von Müller in Melbourne. Der geehrte Herr schreibt uns wie folgt:’ [Baron von Mueller in Melbourne sends us a request, which we heartily support. The esteemed gentleman writes as follows:].

Würden Sie die Freundlichkeit haben, im Interesse der Chemie die Leser Ihrer schönen Zeitung aufzufordern, mir etwas von der Eucalypten-Manna zukommen zu lassen, welche man in dieser Jahreszeit zuweilen von

Eucalyptus viminolis

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ausgeschwitzt antrifft. Herr Professor Tollens hat eben die Identität der Mellitose mit der Raffinose nachgewiesen; und dieser hervorragende Gelehrte bedarf noch etwas mehr sogenannte australische Manna für bestätigende und ausgedehntere Versuche. Hier ist solche nicht so leicht erlangbar als dort bei Ihnen. Auch mehr »Lerp- aus dem Murray-Scrub würde ihm für seine zusammenhängenden Untersuchungen über sacharlne Stoffe willkommen sein.

Would you have the goodness in the interests of chemistry to ask the readers of your fine newspaper to send me some Eucalyptus manna, which in this season sometimes one finds exuded from

Eucalyptus viminolis

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.

2

Typesetter’s mistake for E. viminalis?

Professor Tollens has just established the identity of the mellitose with the raffinose and this eminent savant still needs some more so-called Australian manna for confirmative and more extensive experiments.

3

See Tollens (1885) and Tollens (1885a) for preliminary results, and Tollens (1886) for a fuller report that could not have been based on extra material from M received in response to this request as it was submitted on 22 January 1886; in the third part of the paper, ‘Ueber Meitose aus Eucalyptus Manna’, Tollens reports that the analysis was performed on a sample of 22.5 g of manna that had been in the Melbourne Technological Museum since 1867. No later publication by Tollens or his students using manna has been found.

Here it is not so easily procurable as with you there. More “lerp” from the Murray Scrub would also be acceptable to him for his connected researches on sugary substances.