[John Marshall, President of the Royal College of Surgeons and Professor of Anatomy at the Royal Academy.] Autograph Letter Signed to Bernard Piffard, regarding evolution, respiratory problems, an award in Dublin and Mrs Pickard’s health.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. From the Piffard papers. Marshall’s handwriting is hurried and in places difficult to decipher. 2pp, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded once. Addressed to ‘Dear Mr. Piffard’ and signed ‘John Marshall’. Piffard’s gift of ‘the Box of flowers, with [?]’ leads him to opine: ‘The Daffodils are lovely. - Why is Nature so beautiful? Can it be merely to please the Eye of Man? Surely not, for much of it, nay most of it would evolve itself, if man were to be exterminated tomorrow.’ After expressing pleasure at Piffard’s continuing good health, he discusses ‘remarks about [Sponge?]’ by the recipient, ending with the observation that the response of ‘larynx & trachea & bronchi to the action of cold air, & East Wind, remains as an individual factor, “a personal equation” the [?] would say, which [strike?] faces’. He ends by explaining that he should have been in Dublin on that day, ‘receiving the Honorary Fellowship of the Royl. Coll. of Surgeons in Ireland, - dining c. the Lord Lieutenant &c. &c.’, but that he ‘dare not risk the double journey’. In a postscript he adds that there is ‘nothing of Epilepsy or other serious trouble in Mrs. Piffard’s attacks. Irregularity of the Circulation, owing to temporary causes, will account for all.’