
          Smithsonian Institution
March 29th 1850

My Dear Dr.

Your letter of the 29th has just
been receivved and I hasten to
answer it immediately lest by
delay it may be [?] by I am
[?] to learn that the
state of the college you mention
still continues and now those
most dear to me may feel its
influence. What a shadow
is life - I have just come over
to the Institution and learn
that one of the workmen has
fallen in an adjoining room
and is now a corpse. I have
not yet learned the particulars
of the accident all the members
gone out with the body and
I have seen nothing but the
blood on the timbers. My duties
in connection with the Smithsonian
are very arduous and in some
cases very disagreeable - They require
        