Ferdinand von Mueller

6/12/88

In first instance, dear Dr Reid, let me offer my best thanks for your generous felicitation at the glorious bestowal from the great forum of British science.

1

M had been awarded a Royal Medal of the Royal Society for 1888. Reid’s letter not found.

A congratulation from a rising Scientist like yourself is particularly appreciated!

2

M would have been aware that Reid claimed to have extracted a local anaesthetic, which he called ‘Drumine', from Euphorbia drummondii (Reid (1887)). For an account of his efforts to promote and commercialize the extract, and the doubts about its characteristics and effects, see R. Bailey (1977).

In reference to the constituents of the

Chrysanthemum roseum

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and allied congeners allow me to reiterate my assurance, that I should feel proud indeed if my name through your important researches should become identified also with a product or educts of these plants of great popularity; but as it is not absolutely necessary, to bestow at once a definite name on the substances, isolated by you, will you deem it best to hold for a few months over the naming? In that case, I would write by the next mail to the Chemical Society of Vienne, of which since 30 years I am an honorary member,

3

No such society has been identified of which M could have become an honorary member as early as 1858. It is also unlikely that he would have been sufficiently well known in Europe at that time to have been made an honorary member of any scientific society of this kind. M most likely made an arithmetical mistake and was referring to the Allgemeiner Österreichischer Apotheker Verein, of which he was elected an honorary member on 15 September 1868. No letter of the kind M said he would write has been found.

to let us know by return mail what is known up to the present day of the constituents of these Chrysanthemums. I feel sure some litterature concerning them is extant in S Europe. So soon as the reply comes, you might settle the nomenclature in the medical journal here, and a fuller account of the subject could be given at the Congress of 1890.

4

Second Congress of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science, held in Melbourne in January 1890. Reid did not register for the Congress. No publication on

Chrysanthemum roseum

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by Reid has been found.