|
Correspondence of Charles Mohr and G. W. Clinton |
|
The
Correspondence of Charles
(Carl) Theodore Mohr (1824‑1901) and George
William Clinton (1807‑1885) 1878 [no note of receipt] Vol 12 no. 47 [K 84] Mobile, Ala., August 26th, 1878. Hon. G. W. Clinton My dear friend! Many thanks for the Buffalo Courier of 25th [?] inst.,
which bring to me the sad news of the death of Mrs. E. Atwater. With her
demise indeed a sunbeam has gone, that warmed and enjoyed the many friends
whom she ever tried to please and did give occasion, to partake in the joys
that filled her heart in her enthusiasm for all the beautiful and true in
nature. If I have not been able till since a good long time, to contribute
some thing from our flora to Your herbarium, I hope you will not think that I
have grown lazy or indifferent to the science we both love so well; I have
done some work in Botany but in a different direction; I have in the hours
after business during the first 3 to 4 months of the year worked up our
indigenous materia medica, after that I have given my time to a critical
study of the Graminea of our state, so as to enable me to make correct list
and one as full as possible of the same for a handbook of Alabama, with an
article on its forage plants and an other one on its Forrests and their
products. The very few excursions I could make have been devoted to the
efforts to get sufficient supplys of our wild grasses for analysis, according
to a request of the Agricultural Departments in Washington; I did with some
excursion trips to the islands along the shores of our coast a good chance
for the study of their intresting flora, of plants rare and new to me I have
found Eragrostis nitida, Euphorbia pilulifera, Euphorbia inaequilatera,
Leptochloa polystachya, Eleocharis melanocarpa, Sabbattia calycosa, Cyperus
dissitiflorus, and that new Panicum with its creeping tuberculous roots
[crossed out: "Ipomoea ... ... ... ...litoralis?], harsh distichous
awlshaped leaves and short pale panicle of flowers, certainly one of the most
striking species of the genus. I am sorry to see its publication connected
with so many difficulties; Prof. Vasey has the plant now for more than one
year in hand; I cannot venture to introduce the plant myself as new to
science; as I am not able to find out if it occurs and is perhaps described
from countries South of this coast, and I would not like to be found quilty
of the sin to have increased the number of spurious species. My expectations
to spend a week in botanizing on the shores of our bay and along the Gulf
shore has been destroyed by the apprehension the epidemic of yellow fever in
.. .. into the country west of us, .... all railroad communications in that
direction have been stopped by the Quarantine; and it will not do for me now to be absent
one single day from my post of duty. At present the state of health in our
city is very good, and we begin now to breath freer in the hope to be spared
from a visitation of the Scourge. Our salvation depends on the possiblities
to see our Quarantine regulation not violated. Our authorities do all they
can, money is spent lavishly to attain that object, and the Enforcement of
all the necessary hygenic measures; Should the fever break out, I am bound to
send my sons out of the city; as my oldest boy has been living in a Northern
clime for the last 2 years and by that more liable to take the disease; However, we can cherish the hope, that all will keep
well with us. ‑ I have a line of investigations on hand in connection
with others similarly engaged on a co‑operative plan to solve the
problems of finding the best formulas and method for the preparation of fluid
extracts, with a view of their introduction in the new Pharmacopia a work
that will keep me occuppied for some months yets. My health did hold out
better than many a summer before, in spite of a heat of 90 ‑ 93* during
the day and 80‑83 in the hours before midnight, which I with very few
exception spend in work at home away from the store. ‑ Please give my
best regards to Miss Wilson and remember me kindly to your esteemed Lady. ‑
In the hope that his will find you in the enjoyment of best of health, and to
have the pleasure to hear from you soon I remain very truly Your sincere friend, Carl Mohr [no note of receipt] [Eleocharis
melanocarpa, Torr. Many inclusions, words written later above the line,
indicate he reread his letter and edited it. It is known now that yellow
fever is a mosquite‑borne disease, first theorized by C. J. Finlay and
proved by a commission established in 1900 with Walter Reed and others.
Control of this disease was central to the success of the Panama Canal
construction at the turn of the 20th century. During the time of Mohr, the
fatality rate of a yellow fever outbreak was 85 percent. Quarantine was
thought to be essential to containment of this disease. Elizabeth Atwater of
Chicago, Illinois, was a correspondent of both Clinton and Mohr.] |
|
|