Letter 1143

Blair thanks Sloane for his help, writing that he would have given up long ago if not for his encouragement. He will continue to work on his account of the elephant and is seeking subscriptions for it. He asks Sloane to hold the money paid to him to avoid any suspicion that he is trying to cheat subscribers. Patrick Blair was a botanist and surgeon whose papers were published in the Transactions. In 1715 Blair joined the Jacobite rebellion as a battle surgeon but was captured and condemned to death. He was visited by Sloane in prison in the hopes the latter might secure a pardon. Sloane was successful and the pardon arrived shortly before Blair’s scheduled execution (Anita Guerrini, Blair, Patrick (c.16801728), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/2568, accessed 31 May 2011]).