SIGISMUND BACSTROM, M.D. 9S 



well-formed round hand ; his letters, if, as was natural from his 

 position, somewhat insistent as to his necessities, are, as will be 

 seen, interesting, and the last of them gives a vivid picture of 

 the dangers incident upon sea-travel at that period. 



In the first letter, dated June 28, 1786, and written from 

 "Mary Le Bone" where he lived when in London, Bacstrom 

 refeis to his former employment by Banks and asks for a renewal 

 of his protection. He had been six voyages as surgeon to as 

 many different merchant ships since 1779 — four to Greenland, one 

 to the Guinea Coast, and one to Jamaica. In Jamaica he was 

 obliged by illness to stay for five months, during three of which 

 he was blind ; he returned to England as surgeon to the Trelaivny, 

 a Bristol ship, and " after a long voyage full of misery, distress, 

 and sufferings, brought but 20 guineas to London." After this 

 he went twice again to Greenland, and was very nearly ship- 

 wrecked. At the time of writing he says, " I can get no voyage 

 except to Greenland, as no merchant ships carry a surgeon except 

 the Guinea men, where I suffered so much that the remembrance 

 of it makes me shudder." He then enumerates his qualifications 

 for " tutor to one or two young gentlemen or to travel with a 

 gentleman either by sea or land," or to "attend an infirm gentle- 

 man," though he does not " pretend to be an experienced 

 surgeon " ; or to assist in chemical experiments — " I do not mean 

 the Lapis Philosophorum seu potius Insanorum " — as he knows a 

 "good deal of the true theory of the science and something of the 

 practice"; and suggests that Sir Joseph might obtain for him 

 employment by the Duke of Northumberland, who " is a lover of 

 chemical philosophy"; he is also prepared " to teach his Grace 

 how to procure a more than usual encrease of fertility in vege- 

 tation by means of proper natural magnets which powerfully 

 attract the fertility (which is a nitrous acid) from above. I 

 believe I could get a little fortune with it, if it was in my power 

 to make experiments at my own expense ; the farmers would pay 

 very handsomely for the knowledge, after they had seen the truth 

 of it. I made 2 experiments on a wine tree at Paddington since 

 2 years ; last autumn the wine tree was loaded with grapes and 

 very large bunches and berries, whilst the neighbours had scarcely 

 any, and this year the wine tree is loaded again ; the same can be 

 done with corn, wheat, rye, &c. It will not succeed every year, 

 but then without this method, it will fail also, if heavy rains or 

 too great draughts should hinder the operations of nature." 



To this letter Banks sent a " friendly " reply, which Bacstrom 

 acknowledges on Aug. 21. He then thought of applying for em- 

 ployment to Count Cagliostro, who, when in Strasburg, he had 

 heard "was very kind and charitable to such as were most in need 

 of it ; besides curing the sick gratis, he generously assisted many 

 of them who were in distress. According to what I have heard, 

 the Count is a man of great learning and behaves kindly to those 

 that wish to acquire knowledge." He thinks that Cagliostro 

 "might perhaps take [him] into his service; as he does not 

 understand the English language he must be at some loss here," 



