Artifacts & Documents: Manuscripts

Edward Hitchcock's Letter to Benjamin Silliman, July 30, 1835

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Benjamin Silliman found this letter from Edward Hitchcock while searching for a letter from James Deane. While he did not find Deane's letter, Hitchcock's of July 30, 1835, furnished proof that Deane's letter had once existed, even if it was now lost. Silliman sent Hitchcock's letter back to him with comments added and specific passages underlined. Hitchcock's letter is in answer to one of Silliman's about the fossil footprints. Hitchcock plans to write a paper on this topic for Silliman's American Journal of Science. He will give James Deane credit for showing him the tracks but asks Silliman to publish his paper before Deane's because he can do the topic better justice than Deane (this is the section underlined by Silliman). Edward Hitchcock also accuses geologist George William Featherstonhaugh of being not only erroneous in his lead mines report, but generally egotistical and pompous as well.

The word appulse that appears on the first page is a term in astronomy referring to two celestial bodies, such as the moon, planets, and stars, that appear to be extremely close to one another, but not in conjunction. The actual distances may be enormous, and the appulse only an illusion of nearness.

At the end of the original 1835 letter, Hitchcock provides health advice for Silliman's wife. Based on his own experiences of traveling with Orra, he thinks Mrs. Silliman should accompany her husband on his upcoming Nantucket trip.

Creator:
Edward Hitchcock
Date:
July 30, 1835
Courtesy of:
Edward and Orra White Hitchcock Papers, Amherst College Archives and Special Collections, Amherst College Library