Letter 0557

Dale writes that he has not returned Sloane’s book because he feared the bad weather would spoil it. He has sent Sloane some small samples as a gift and comments that he hopes Sloane has set aside some Materia Medica for him. He asks some botanical questions and if Sloane has anything ready. If he does, Mr Smith will convey it to Dale. He hopes Sloane will deliver the enclosed to Tancred Robinson. Samuel Dale was an apothecary, botanist, and physician who contributed several articles to the Philosophical Transactions. He was John Ray’s executor and good friend, and from Dale’s letters to Sloane we learn many details of Ray’s final moments (G. S. Boulger, Dale, Samuel (bap. 1659, d. 1739), rev. Juanita Burnby, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/7016, accessed 5 July 2013]).