ALEXANDER GARDEN 63 



that when Prof. G. Brown Goode, of Washing- 

 ton, D. C, saw them in 1883, he found " nearly 

 every specimen referred to by him (Garden) in 

 his letters in excellent condition, though few col- 

 lected by others were identifiable." 



Garden discovered the Amphiuma means 

 (Congo snake), and was instrumental in sending 

 the first electrical eels to Europe. He tells Ellis 

 (1775) that, owing to a very severe fever, he had 

 not been able to examine them thoroughly, but 

 their structure seemed so uncommon, he had 

 written a paper which might be read by Ellis 

 before the Royal Society {An Account of the 

 Gymnotus Electricus, 1775). 



" I desired him " (the owner of the eels) " if 

 they arrived safe, immediately to go to you, but, 

 lest they should die by the way, I desired him to 



put them into a small Kegg of rum I 



wish to hear both of the fate of my letter and of 

 these fish. I have had so very disordered a state 

 of health that I have not been able to do anything 

 in the way of procuring materials for fresh ob- 

 servations in Natural History." 



He also sent — to Linnaeus — in 1770, a descrip- 

 tion of the vermifuge Spigelia Marylandica, or 

 Indian Pink Root, telling him the account of it 

 would appear in the Essays and Observations of 

 the Edinburgh Philosophical Society and prom- 

 ising to find out whether the Chigo (" jigger ") 



