In the margin
New Haven. Sept 19, 1844. My dear sir, In searching for Dr Deane’s missing communication I stumbled upon this letter of yours which appears to have some bearing upon your present discussions. I have underscored & sidemarked the passage to which I refer. I have your late rejoinder which in # & will soon reach you. The passage which I have marked within will perhaps induce you to modify one or two of your later observations. I will write again soon being at this moment much possessed [?] going to N.Y. but Mr Dana will attend to proofs. I am to return on Monday next. I have informed Dr Deane that I have sent you this letter. Yours, B S
Amherst July 30th 1835
Dear Sir,
I know of no ‘diocese’ in science, especially in this free country. Every man has a right to go where he chooses especially if he be invited & his object be to diffuse information among the people. It may not indeed be very pleasant for a public man whose motto has been aut Caesar aut nullus to have another one so near him as to eclipse him: but if any of us feel our professional pride wounded by your too near appulse we have nothing to do but to bear it in silence since we should only make the matter worse by complaining. I know nothing about Prof Webster’s feelings on this point, but believing as I do that your peregrinations of this sort will promote the general interest in scientific subjects, I hope I rejoice in all your success: and if you should succeed well in a pecuniary aspect I know of no one who is more likely to make a good use of money than yourself. I think you will have an interesting tour to Nantucket. At any rate you will meet with
Benjamin Silliman found this letter from Edward Hitchcock while searching for a letter from James Deane. While he did not find Deane's letter, Hitchcock's of July 30, 1835, furnished proof that Deane's letter had once existed, even if it was now lost. Silliman sent Hitchcock's letter back to him with comments added and specific passages underlined. Hitchcock's letter is in answer to one of Silliman's about the fossil footprints. Hitchcock plans to write a paper on this topic for Silliman's American Journal of Science. He will give James Deane credit for showing him the tracks but asks Silliman to publish his paper before Deane's because he can do the topic better justice than Deane (this is the section underlined by Silliman). Edward Hitchcock also accuses geologist George William Featherstonhaugh of being not only erroneous in his lead mines report, but generally egotistical and pompous as well.
The word appulse that appears on the first page is a term in astronomy referring to two celestial bodies, such as the moon, planets, and stars, that appear to be extremely close to one another, but not in conjunction. The actual distances may be enormous, and the appulse only an illusion of nearness.
At the end of the original 1835 letter, Hitchcock provides health advice for Silliman's wife. Based on his own experiences of traveling with Orra, he thinks Mrs. Silliman should accompany her husband on his upcoming Nantucket trip.