Letter 1564

Blair references Sloane’s letter dated July 15, 1709, in which he informs Blair that his work concerning the elephant has been accepted. Blair outlines the publishing process, including a table of the costs that will likely be incurred. He apologizes because the man charged with delivering his papers to Sloane took them to Petiver instead. Blair hopes his work will be published in the Philosophical Transactions. 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]).