xT. 32.] TO JOHN TORREY. 303 
notes, as a trial. I am convinced that for lectures 
with much illustration I must have only heads and 
leading ideas written ; for others, I will write nearly in 
full. I saw Miss Lowell . . . the day before my first 
lecture, and promised to call upon her very soon if I 
sueceeded well. Meeting her the other evening at 
Professor Sparks’s, she reproved me for not keeping 
my word, I very honestly and sincerely replied that 
I had not succeeded well, and was waiting until I was 
better satisfied. Quite to my surprise, I found that 
the class, at least those she had seen, her great-nephew 
and others, were well pleased with it. I will not re- 
peat their expressions, as retailed to me by Miss 
Lowell, because I cannot but suspect that young 
Lowell may have been trying to humbug her. I feel 
I have so far acquitted myself very poorly as a lec- 
turer; but I am sustained by the firm conviction that 
I shall in the end do very well, for a common college 
class. 
TO JOHN TORREY. 
May, 1843. 
I have been speaking about the bones of the Zygo- 
don, and there is a disposition to get up a subscription 
in the Natural History Society and buy them, if still 
for sale, the price not too great, and if Dr. Wyman, 
on seeing them, recommends the purchase. Do you 
know the price? And whether they can still be seen 
in New York, at Carey’s storehouse? The Boston 
zoologists are far from praising De Kay’s Report. I 
heard Silliman on electro-magnetism the other even- 
ing (which hardly belongs to chemistry): great show 
of experiments; lauded Henry finely. He is finish- 
ing off with galvanic deflagration. Will Frémont go 
