Hey everyone
I'm back again with another Mary Anning-related question...
I was recently reading a short biography of Mary Anning (Davis 2012). In the section on Anning's discovery of ink sacs in cephalopod fossils, the author quoted part of a letter from Mary Anning to William Buckland, from the 6th of February 1829.
This is the excerpt of the letter:
“Do you remember the live creatures you had put in spirits (if so my description may be acceptable). I got two more, one alive and it whenever it was touched ejected a purple fluid (this one Mr. De la Beach [sic: Beche] coveted, and has taken to some Naturalist to be described). The second I dissected at Miss Philpot's, it first had a shell this shape [sketch inserted] very like a smooth pectin only more concave, also a sac or ink bag exactly resembling the small bag (like the gizzard of a fowel [sic: fowl]...”
Would anyone know where I can find a transcript of the whole letter?
Thanks for any help!