The correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller: [The quantity, ¶ Of a 'red colouring matter' found during an autopsy of a patient who had died of a severe case of hydatids. A sample was analysed by C. R. Blackett and reported to be bilirubin, 'in a...

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Physical location:

86.06.00b

Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to Rudolf Virchow, 1886-06 [86.06.00b]. 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//letters/1880-9/1886/86-06-00b-final.odt>, accessed June 19, 2026

Letter not found. The text given here is from Australian medical journal , 15 June 1886, p. 253, in Springthorpe (1886), read on 2 June 1886 to a meeting of the Medical Society of Victoria. M's letter is dated to June 1886 on the assumption that M would not have delayed in acting upon his undertaking.

[The quantity,

Of a 'red colouring matter' found during an autopsy of a patient who had died of a severe case of hydatids. A sample was analysed by C. R. Blackett and reported to be bilirubin, 'in a situation where haematoidin might have been expected'. Whether bilirubin and haematoidin were identical was uncertain, and 'this case should throw some light on [their] identity or otherwise'.

weighing still some 15 grains, is sufficient for a full examination; and with that in view Baron von Mueller has kindly undertaken to forward the specimen to Virchow, at Berlin, so that German specialists may investigate for themselves.]