June 2, 1916] 



SCIENCE 



775 



Staffordshire, which will be gratefully acknowl- 



The last letter in the collection, also unpub- 

 lished, is a three-page quarto dated Derby, 

 May 29, 1787. It is addressed simply: "Dr. 

 Franklin, America," and opens in the grandil- 

 oquent style of the time, as follows : 



Dear Sir, 



Whilst I am writing to a Philosopher & a Friend, 

 I can scarcely forget that I am also writing to the 

 greatest Statesman of the present, or perhaps of 

 any century. . . . 



I can with difficulty descend to plain prose after 

 these sublime ideas, to thank you for your kind- 

 ness to my son Eobt. Darwin* in France, & to con- 

 verse with you about what may arise in philosophy, 

 which I know will make the most agreeable part 

 of my letter to you. 



Then he speaks at length of some electrical 

 experiments performed by a Mr. Bennet, " a 



Curate in my neighbourhood," who " has found 

 out a method of doubling the smallest con- 

 ceivable quantity of either plus or minus elec- 

 tricity, till it becomes perceptible to a common 

 electrometer, or increases to a spark." 



The end of the letter is interesting • and 

 worth quoting in full since it gives the history 

 of the first translation of Linnseus's botanical 

 writings into English. 



In respect to other philosophical news, I have 

 just heard from Mr. Wedgewood that Mr. Her- 

 schel has discover 'd 3 Volcanoes in the Moon now 

 burning. 



Since I had the pleasure of seeing you, I have re- 

 moved from Lichfield to Derby & have superin- 

 tended a publication of a translation of the bo- 

 tajiical works of Linnseus, viz. The System of 

 Vegetables in two volumes 8^°. & the Genera or 

 Families of Plants in 2 vol, 8^°. also. — I did this 

 with design to propogate the knowledge of Bot- 

 any. They are sold to the booksellers at 14/ the 

 System of Vegetables — the Genera will be finished 

 in a month, & will be sold to the booksellers at 

 12/ I believe, — ^but as we are to pay for advertiz- 

 ing & carriage, I expect we shall not clear more 

 than 10/ on each set. If the work had been fin- 

 ished I should have sent you it by the favor of 

 Mr. Nichlin, who is so kind as to take the care of 

 this letter. If I thought 20 sets of each were likely 



* The father of Charles Darwin. 



to be sold I would send them at 10/ a set of each, 

 that is 20/ for the four volumes. And indeed 

 would now have sent them by Mr. Nichlin, had 

 the whole been ready, as I think they would not be 

 worth reprinting in America, & perhaps 20 sets 

 would be as many as could find purchasers. 



A Line from you at your leizure, only to ac- 

 quaint me that you continue to possess a toUer- 

 able share of health would be very acceptable to, 

 dear Sr. with true esteem 



Your most obed. ser. 



E. Dakwin 



l. hussakof 



American Museum op Natural History 



SVEN MAGNUS GRONBERGER 



SvEN Magnus Gronbeeger, of the library 

 staff of the Smithsonian Institution, died at 

 Georgetown University Hospital, "Washington, 

 on April 24, after an illness of about three 

 weeks. He leaves two older brothers and a 

 nephew, resident in Stockholm, Sweden; his 

 estate he bequeathed to this nephew. 



Mr. Gronberger, who was a native of Swe- 

 den, born August 19, 1866, was graduated in 

 1884 from the gymnasium of Norrkoping, an 

 historic old city on the Baltic about seventy- 

 five miles south of Stockholm. In 1886, after 

 visiting France and England, he went to ISTew 

 York City, where he studied law and in 1907 

 came to Washington. As a student of natural 

 science he was preparing for the degree of 

 Doctor of Philosophy at George Washington 

 University, with topics zoology and geology, in 

 which subjects he had published several papers, 

 and articles in Forest and Stream. He was an 

 accomplished linguist, knowing perfectly 

 French (which was his home language as a 

 member of the nobility of Sweden, his mother 

 being a countess) and the Scandinavian 

 tongues, including some Icelandic, and being 

 versed also in English, German, Italian and 

 other European languages and literatures, be- 

 sides Latin and Greek. For a number of years 

 Mr. Gronberger made a special study of zoo- 

 logical parks as factors in the popularization 

 of natural science, especially in connection 

 with the Bronx Zoological Park of ISTew York 

 and the ISTational Zoological Park at Wash- 

 ington. He was a member of the Biological 



