Letter 1353

Blair thanks Sloane for helping James Lyon, an aspiring apothecary. He is sorry that Mr Lane is an impediment to Lyon’s advancement and asks Sloane to recommend Lyon to other apothecary shops. Blair adds that he has completed his paper on elephants. 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]).