| Description | Letter, dated 1 May 1831, is addressed 'My Dear Sir', written from Bombay and signed John G. Malcolmson The address panel gives the recipient's details as Professor Owen, care of a James Malcolmsom, 9 King William St, London.
He sends half a tooth of a hippopotamus for 'the museum, if worth a place' and regrets that he has not been able to get a 'young one' for Owen or a tooth of the rhinoceros but the African merchants are obtaining them from 'wild tribes' in the interior. He notes that one huge tooth of an elephant came to Bombay and the other arrived in London from Sierra Leone. He comments on the difference in teeth originating from the Red Sea, Zanzibar and Mozambique ands asks Owen if he has an interest in this subject. Finally he reports that the west coast of India is 'beginning to prove rich in fossil bones' |
| Administrative History | John Grant Malcolmson (1802-1844), doctor and geologist, first studied mathematics, chemistry and natural history. at King's College, Aberdeen, 1816-18 and then at Edinburgh University from where he graduated in medicine in 1822. He subsequently held a series of posts with the army in India. At the time of writing this letter, he was serving with the 3rd Light Cavalry and it was also in this year that he published an article 'On a remarkable aerolite' in the Prinsep's Journal, an early indication of his interest in geology.
Source: Friends of Falconer Museum website: http://www.falconermuseum.co.uk/heads-malcomson.html (accessed November 2007) |