Sir Hans Sloane and the Russian Academy of Sciences

SIR HANS SLOANE AND THE RUSSIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

CHRISTINE G. THOMAS

THE year that Sir Hans Sloane became president of the Royal Society marked the beginning of formal Anglo-Russian scientific relations. His predecessor Newton, at his last meeting as president before his death in March 1727, read out a letter received from the newly-founded Russian Academy of Sciences, proposing scientific co-operation between the two institutions.' In the past, the flow of scientific information had been in one direction only. The Russians, especially since the beginning of Peter the Great's programme for modernizing his Empire, had been eager to gain scientific and technical information and expertise from the West. After the founding in 1725 of the Russian Academy of Sciences (fig. i), which provided a centre for the serious scientific study of a country endowed with a wealth of unexplored material in the fields of natural history, geography, mineralogy, and ethnography, the interest ofWestern scientists was aroused, and exchange of information became reciprocal. In the early years at least, this exchange was effected mainly through correspondence between individual scholars rather than through any official exchange of publications. All the founding members of the Academy were foreigners, mostly Germans, and they kept in touch with colleagues they had known before going to Russia. The Sloane Manuscripts contain letters to Sir Hans Sloane from six members of the Russian academy written between 1721 and 1742 (see Appendix A, PP- 33-35 below), and of these correspondents, four had known or at least met him in England. The first to become acquainted with Sloane was Johann Daniel Schumacher (1690-1761) who visited England and the Continent in 1721. A native of Colmar in Alsace, Schumacher had been in Russia since 1714, where he was employed as secretary for foreign correspondence to the imperial physician and as librarian and curator of Peter the Great's collections. At the time of his visit to the West, the idea of creating a learned society or academy in Russia was already in the air, and Schumacher was instructed to cultivate the acquaintance ofWestern scientists, in some cases with the aim of persuading them to work in Russia, in others simply to establish contact and make them aware of the scientific research that was being carried out there (he was to present a newly-engraved map of the Caspian Sea to the learned society of each capital that he visited). He was also instructed to visit public and private museums in order to establish what was lacking in Peter the Great's collections and to report on how they could be enriched. While in

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o London he attended meetings of the Royal Society and obtained permission to view Sloane's collections, the magnificence of which he remarked on in his official report.^ After his return to Russia he embarked upon a long and successful career at the Academy oi Sciences, enjoying a degree of power disproportionate to his position as secretary and librarian, often to the resentment of the academicians. He was an extremely industrious man who worked hard at surviving and assiduously cultivated useful contacts—Sir Hans Sloane included. The correspondence between Sloane and Schu- macher—four letters from each, written between 1729 and 1751—is not of intrinsic interest, being limited mainly to mutual expressions of goodwill and notes of books being sent, but it is important as a record of some of the publications which were exchanged. When Schumacher visited Paris in 1721 he had invited theastronomer Joseph Nicholas De L'Isle (1688-1768) to work in Russia.^ De L'Isle eventually signed a contract with the Russian Academy in 1726 and remained there until 1747. He set up an observatory which enabled him to establish the latitude and longitude of St Petersburg and, having the vast and largely unsurveyed tracts of the Russian Empire to work on, made an invaluable contribution to science in the fields of astronomy, geography, and cartography. In 1724 De L'Isle had visited London and on that occasion Sloane and Edward Halley were deputed to escort him on a visit to the Greenwich Observatory.-^ Apart from a note written by De L'Isle in 1724 while he was still in London, one letter of 1742 survives in the Sloane collection, in which he thanks Sir Hans for a French thermometer which he has sent to him in Russia.^ A third and more significant visit of a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences occurred in 1730 when the historian Gerhard Friedrich Muller (1705 83), who had been at the Academy since its foundation, was sent to England and the Continent with various commissions. His instructions were similar to those given to Schumacher nine years earlier, though more specific, since the Academy had now been in existence for five years and its needs were well-defined. Muller was to establish links with the book trade in order to facilitate the export of Academy publications and the import of books for its library; he was to seek out high quality engravers and to find out how much their services would cost; he was to prospect both for honorary members for the Academy and for real members who would be willing to go and serve in Russia; he was also to take careful note of everything he saw and to report back to the Academy. The task of recruiting new professors for the Academy was a particularly urgent one, since the contracts of the original employees had just expired. It was also feared that the fact that several employees had left before the end of their contracts would prove a discouragement to others, and Muller had a special instruction, conveyed to him \)rally and secretly', that he should strive in every way to dissipate any evil rumours which might Trighten off others from serving the Academy'. Around the time of Muller's visit the Academy was indeed not an ideal employer. The sudden death of Peter II in 1730 and the struggle for power which preceded Anna's crowning as Empress meant that the Academy received its funding rather irregularly and the salaries of its employees were often not paid on time. The academicians also resented

23 the fact that the president, Blumentrost, had delegated most of the day-to-day running to Schumacher, who also held the purse-strings. Sir Hans Sloane was one of the eleven scientists mentioned by name in Muller's instructions as possible candidates for honorary membership. In Muller's official report he writes about Sloane at greater length and with greater warmth than about any of the other people he met on his journey:*^

Of the learned men whose acquaintance I sought, the most distinguished was Sir Hans Sloane, Baronet, Royal Physician, President of the Royal Society and the Society of Physicians. This most outstanding man showed me every kindness. I presented to him on behalf of the Academy the books and engravings I had brought and said that I had other copies for presentation to the Royal Society. I took the opportunity, when describing, at his request, the organization and state of the Academy, of telling him that the Academy also had foreign honorary members, among which it would consider it a pleasure to include so great a scholar as Mr. Sloane, if Mr. Sloane would agree. Fmally, I asked permission to examine his cabinet of antiquities and natural science and his rich library, of which I had already heard amazing things in Russia. All this was received most graciously by Sir Hans Sloane. He thanked me for the books which I gave him and named a day when I could attend a meeting of the Royal Society—its first after the end of the recess (the 22nd of October) so that I could present the books in person. He assured me that he would consider it a particular honour if the Academy accepted him as an honorary member, showed me his collections and his library, partly with the help of his assistants Mr. Cromwell Mortimer and Dr. Johann Amman ... 1 was there many times, since a lot of time is needed to examine such a wealth of riches. He also invited me to dine with him, and to his country house at Chelsea, and once to the coffee-house at which he and other members of the Royal Society usually meet on Wednesday evenings. All this gave me new opportunities of becoming acquainted with English scholars. In short. Sir Hans Sloane showed me so much kindness that everything that I saw, heard and learned when with him left me with an indelible memory of him. After Muller's departure he w as elected an honorary member of the Royal Society in December 1730.'' He took his honorary membership seriously and in June 1733 he wrote to Sir Hans Sloane giving an account of his recent research for communication to the Royal Society. He presented a manuscript on the Tangut language for publication in the Philosophical Transactions^ and promised to send further material in the future. He writes that he would have continued work on his history of Russia ^if I had not been taken off from it by the Express Commands of our Empress, in order to go on the Expedition to Kamtschatka as a Historiographer: a task which, I must own, agrees perfectly with my Genius that is more inclined to literary travels than any other study'. He says that, in preparation for the journey to Kamchatka ^ .. I have for some months past apply'd myselt to the Chalmuck: which I hope will be of no small Service to me in my lourney thro South-Siberia- for which end I have like wise bestow'd sometime on the Tangutic tongue, under the Care of certain Chalmuck Residents here'.^ Muller spent ten years in Siberia studying its history and geography and the life of its peoples. In 1737 the harsh conditions began to tell on him; he suffered from what one recent historian has described as a hypochondriac illness accompanied by heart attacks'^« and was allowed to return to St Petersburg in 1743. Unfortunately, no letters to Sloane survive from after his departure for Siberia in 1733. Another academician who wrote to Sloane about his study of the Oriental languages of the peoples of Siberia was Gottlieb Siegfried Theophil Bayer (1694-1738), Professor of Oriental Antiquities at the Academy from its foundation in 1725 until the year of his death. In four letters written to Sloane between 1731 and 1737 he also writes enthusiastically of his study of Chinese which, he considers, has 'opened a new scene of learning'. He believes that Sloane will appreciate the importance of this new field of study, being a man 'whose excellent Mind has compassed so many Parts of Learning' as to enable him 'to have an insight into the connexion all sorts ofknowledge have with each other', and thus feels moved to describe to him in considerable detail his methods for compiling a Chinese dictionary and to discuss the relative merits of two dictionaries sent to him by the Jesuit missionaries in Peking. Partly as a result of renewed trade links with China, Chinese studies were relatively well advanced in Russia. Bayer urges Sloane to encourage the study of Chinese language and literature at the Royal Society and promises that 'If any person should be found who should be excited by you to embrace this study, he may be sure of my assistance and encouragement to the utmost of my power'.^^ There was some delay in Sloane's election to the Russian Academy of Sciences. His membership was eventually proposed at a meeting of 8 February 1734,'- but since the Academy had no president at that time, his election could not be ratified. In November, after the election of Johann Albrecht Korff (1697-1766) as president, Sloane was formally accepted as the Academy's first English honorary member. His diploma, apparently an impressive document ('auf pergament von der grosse eines halben bogens in kupfer gestochen und mit der grossen academischen siegel versehen, welches in rothes wachs gedruckt ist und sich in einer silbernen kapsel befindet, die an einer aus gruner und rother seide und goldfaden geflochtenen schnur mit zwei dergleichen quasten hangt','^ was presented to him in December 1735 by the poet Antiokh Kantemir (1708-44),'"^ Russian ambassador in London from 1732-8. Sloane conveyed his thanks to Korff and wrote 'I have observed with great pleasure the advancement of knowledge amongst other great actions of the late Czar & also the present Empress to the manifesting the Glory of God in the works of the Creation & good of Mankind' and that 'I shall endeavour to answer these noble ends by endeavouring to communicate from time to time such things that come to my knowledge for forwarding these purposes, etc.''^ This was a promise he kept. Muller's invitation to Sloane to become an honorary member of the Academy had been accepted without hesitation. Less easily obtained was the agreement of Johann Amman, one of Sloane's assistants, to accept an invitation to become an acting member as Professor of Botany. Amman (1707 41) was born in Schaffhausen and studied medicine at Leiden. His main scientific interest was botany and in 1730 he was taken on by Sloane as a curator of his natural history collections. He was elected to the Royal Society in 1731, at the age of twenty-four. According to Muller, he perceived some jealousy between Amman and Sloane's other assistant Cromwell Mortimer. This led him to hope that he might entice Amman to Russia. At first Amman seemed well-disposed to accept and it was agreed that

25 Muller should send him a forma! invitation on his return to St Petersburg, but already before Muller's departure Amman had changed his mind. ^^ In 1732 he changed his mind again, allegedly as a result of a disagreement with Sloane himself.^^ Amman arrived in St Petersburg in 1733 and signed an initial four-year contract with the Academy at a salary of66o roubles a year plus 180 roubles for heating and lighting. ^^ If he had quarrelled with Sloane, then there is no evidence for this in the letters which they exchanged between 1733 and 1741. There are fourteen letters from Amman in the Sloane Manuscripts and one in the Royal Society, and sixteen from Sloane to Amman are held in the archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences. ^^ These form the bulk of Sloane's correspondence with Russia and are of outstanding interest. Amman's letters, especially, contain a wealth of information about life as an academician in Russia, about political events, about the flora and fauna of the Russian Empire and the customs of its peoples. The correspondence also tells us much about how scientific information was conveyed across national frontiers in the eighteenth century. In spite of any misgivings which Amman may have had about going to Russia, his first impressions were most favourable. In June 1733 he writes to Sloane 'Petersbourg far surpasses the Ideas I had of it in England, not only as to ye Air, & the beauty of ye buildings, but likewise as to ye manner of living: in short I find every thing better than I imagin'd . . .'^^Over the years, his feelings became more mixed. Already in the Autumn of 1733 he fell seriously ill and in a letter to Sloane of June 1734 he describes his recurrent fevers and atrocious headaches and backaches in great detail, with the detached interest and precision of a scientist.^^ As a rule he does not dwell on his own condition, though various laconic but revealing asides indicate that he was not physically or materially very comfortable in Russia and that life at the Academy was not without its difficulties and frustrations. In March 1736 he ^^ My contract with the Academy is to end next Juin. The president hath proposed at Court a new disposition & a greater summ for ye entertainment thereof. If this proposal is rejected, the Academy not being able to subsist longer on the old footing, I am resolv'd to seek an employment m the College of Physicians or to leave the country. In fact, conditions at the Academy were more stable than they had been in the first decade of its existence. It had an active president in Baron Korff, but shortage of funds was acute, mainly because it had taken on additional responsibilities not envisaged by its original statutes and therefore not allowed for in its allocation of funds. On 11 June 1736 Korff presented a note to the Senate in which he sought to justify the Academy's expansion of responsibilities and asked that its debt of 29,118 roubles 35 kopecks be liquidated. He pleaded its need to employ draughtsmen and instrument makers and to maintain a Chancellery for administration. He argued a special case for the Academy, stressing the backwardness of Russia in comparison with other centres of learning:^^ Although some would argue that Paris has an Academy, that London and Berlin have learned societies and that none of these have their own printing house nor an engraving workshop nor other skilled workmen, and so we do not need them here either; but they arc wrong in their judgement;

26 for in Paris, London and Berlin, where science and learned accomplishments have flourished for so many years, there they have printing houses, engravers and other skilled craftsmen in abundance, but here we cannot yet boast of that. If God gives his blessing in what has been begun, then perhaps in a few years time we can get rid of these labours and special expenses. In October 1736 Amman echoed the seriousness of the Academy's plight:^ Our Academy is at present in very bad circumstances. The annual fund she hath, is not enough to defray all the expenses thereof, which have been very much augmented since her fundation. A larger annual summ demanded years ago, hath not been obtained as yet: no answer if there is any hope to obtam it at last, or not at all: disordre, confusion grows upon us; & what is the worst, there is no money. By 1738 Amman had found a way of improving his personal ... I am therefore resolvM to stay here as long as things go well; & to live a more regular, easier and less melancholy live than the mine has been till now, I am likewise determined to marry. Mr. Schumacher, Librarian & lately declared Counsellor of her Imperial Majesty, whom you knew very well, while he was in England, has been so good as to promise me his daughter. My own mother and my future Father in Law have given enough to establish my self in a very handsom manner. I hope by this marriage not only to put my self in a better condition, than I was in before, but likewise to get the favour of persons, who can do me a great deal of service upon any occasion. His Highness the Due of Curland is God-Father (parrain) of my future wife, & has approved our marriage. Couns. Schumacher has a great part in the direction of the Academy. I thought it my duty to declare you my intentions, which I hope will be approved by you. At least you will see, that I did not rashly & without consideration enter upon such a design. It looked as if Amman's star was on the ascendant. The Duke of Courland was no less than Ernst Johann Biron (1690-1772), prime favourite of the Empress Anna and one of the most powerful people at court. Schumacher too had gained additional power in 1738 when he was promoted to Counsellor. Much to the resentment of the Academy personnel, he used his position to bestow privileges on his relations and in-laws,^^ including his future son-in-law Amman, whose salary was raised to 800 roubles.^'' However, Amman's increased well-being was short-lived. He married Anna Elizabeth Schumacher in August 1739,^^ but it seems that she died soon after the marriage, for in June 1740 Sloane writes Tray accept my condolance for the loss ofyour spouse'.'^ In December 1740 Sloane wrote to Amman for the last time, enquiring particularly after his health.^^ In January 1741 Amman lid^^ Concerning my health, of which you desire to be acquainted, I find it from day to day to decay. I can not bear this extremely rough & inconstant climate. The misfortunes I sufferd last year, the hardships & losses, the unsettled state of the Academy make me desirous to leave this country. I omit the irregular and mournfull sort of live, we are oblidged to lead here. A magnificent poverty- is not what I aim at. On 4 December of that year Amman died at the age of thirty-four.^2 This account of a short life dogged by ill-health and misfortune may suggest that Amman had been ill-advised to leave England for Russia. However, in spite of all the

27 hardships he experienced, his initial enthusiasm for the place was never extinguished. After five years there he wrote to Sloane 'As much as I detest this country upon several accounts, as much I like it upon others more important. It would be long & tedious to enumerate them all'.^^ He had no need to enumerate them. As well as conveying the difficulties and frustrations of life far away from home, Amman's letters to Sloane provide an abundance of evidence about the things which made life in Russia irresistible to him. In his first letter to Sloane written in 1733 he had promised 'When I am once settled I design to apply myself to ye Naturall History of this country, & if I shall find anything new for you, I shall esteem it a particular pleasure, the communicating it to you'.^ Over the next eight years he found plenty that was new to communicate to Sloane. As a scientist, he could hardly have chosen a more exciting time to be in Russia, for his stay there coincided almost exactly with one of the most ambitious and romantic scientific expeditions of all time —the Great Northern or Second Kamchatka Expedition. The main aim of the expedition, led by Bering, was to establish beyond doubt that Asia was not joined to America, to cross the sea off Kamchatka and to land in America. A second aim was to make a thorough scientific study —in the fields of botany, zoology, geography, mineralogy, climatology, astronomy, ethnography, and history —of the thousands of miles of territory which lay between St Petersburg and the coasts of Siberia and the Far Eastern Territory of the Empire. To this end, an Academy contingent, consisting initially of three professors, five students, four land-surveyors, and two artists, was attached to the party. The expedition set out from St Petersburg in 1733, the year of Amman's arrival in Russia, and Bering landed on the American mainland in 1741, the year of his death. There had been a suggestion that Amman himself should be the botanist in the party, but because of delay in issuing his invitation to Russia, he was replaced.^^ He was also invited to participate in the Orenburg Expedition, led by Ivan Kirilov, which set out in the direction of Central Asia in 1734, with the aim of building a line of fortresses along the river Kama to the south-east of Bashkiria and founding a new town on the river Iaik. Amman declined and was replaced by Heinzelmann.^^ There is in fact no evidence that Amman travelled outside the area around St Petersburg, but he corresponded with Heinzelmann (their correspondence is in the Academy archive)^' and would have had sight of reports from the Kamchatka Expedition which, after being translated into Russian at the Senate Chancellery, were then passed in their original form to the Academy of Sciences. He also had at his disposal a huge collection of specimens which had been collected by his predecessor Buxbaum between 1727 and 1729 in the region around Constantinople, in Asia Minor, near the Caspian, and in the environs of St Petersburg. In short, he was in a botanist's paradise, having the leisure to study a range of rare and previously undescribed plants from every conceivable climatic condition. His letters show that he experienced vicariously the thrill felt by the participants in the expeditions, a feeling expressed in an excerpt from one of Muller's journals, describing a journey from Tobolsk up the River Irtysh:-^« We found ourselves in a paradise of flowers mostly growing on plants as yet unknown, m a zoological garden where the rare animals of Asia had been gathered together tor us, in a museum ot

28 antique heathen tombs holding rare treasures, in a word, in a place which no-one had set out to investigate ever before. In his published works, notably Stirpium rariorum in Itnperw Rittheno sponte provientium icones et descriptwnes (St Petersburg, 1739), Amman gave scientific descriptions of these newly-discovered plants (fig. 2). In his letters to Sloane he give his initial impressions, reeling off long lists of plants that are new to him, often accompanied by lyrical descriptions. For example, 'an extremely fine Hedysarum' brought back from the

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Fig. 2. Calceolus purpureus, observed growing on the east bank of the river Irtysh by Gmelin and drawn from life by one of the artists on the second Kamchatka expedition. From Amman's Stirpium . . (St Petersburg, 1739). 1823. b. 11. Urals by Heinzelmann has 'large purple flowers, & leaves in softness and colour equal to the finest white silk'.^^ He also describes minerals: of silver sent back by the Kamchatka Expedition from the Bear Islands in Siberia he writes*"* In some pieces which were sent to the Academy, I saw the extremitys of the silver branches shooting out of the spath, in which it grows, to be angular & sharp pointed, like the Crystallus montana; other very thin & small branches between the crevisses of the spath were quinquangular, as if they were cut & polished. He also shows himself to be knowledgeable about the fauna of the country. In answer to a question from Sloane about the identification of some rabbit skins he has seen from Siberia,**' Amman describes in detail the physical appearance and behaviour of two types of rabbit, one 'found only in Dauria beyond the Lake Baikal in ye stepps & on ye sandy banks of ye rivers Onon, Ingoda, Aga, etc.', and another found 'through all Tatary from Astracan to the bay of Kamtschatka, & likewise in ye steps towards Perecop & Otchakoff'.*^ He also has much curious information to impart about the peoples of Siberia and of the southern steppe. In one letter**^ he describes the dress of a Laplander made of reindeer skin ... on ye borders, upon ye shoulder, round ye neck & every where about it was adorned with divers smaller pieces of various skins of sea-hounds, squirrells & particularly of ye breast & belly of some sea birds, which for softness & tineness of colour surpassed by much anything the Chinese can show of their silk works. On another occasion'*^he describes the religion of the Callmucks (most of whom had been converted from shamanism to Tibetan Buddhism) and explains that the Tangutan [i.e. Tibetan] language is estimed holy by all the people addicted to the religion of the Dalain Lama. All the prayers of the Callmucks, Mungals, though they understand not a word of it, ^ are sayd in this language. The Roman Catholicks observe the same politick with their latin tongue, certainly with the same design, that the common people may not understand the strange, ridiculous stuff they are teachd to address to their gods. Later in the same letter he reports on the cremation of a Callmuck high priest which he had witnessed not far from St Petersburg. The priest, Chacour Lama, one of the twelve cardinals of the Dalai Lama, had been twenty years in Tibet as superior of a very large monastery He came to St Petersburg, where Amman met him, with the Chan's envoy Aldarum Bo. Amman had cured him of'a severe scorbut' and, finding him a very learned man 'who knew pretty well the medicines of his country', had spoken to him 'of the Circulation of the Blood, & other discoverys of that nature'. Amman is scathing about the Callmucks' belief in reincarnation and expostulates Is there any nation under the sun, whereof the Priests have not endeavoured as much as they can, to impose upon the poor people, to make them believe childish & ridiculous things, with no other use hutw be in great veneration among them to govern them, & to persuade them to furnish every thing for their idle & luxurious life?

30 As well as describing natural phenomena and ethnic customs, Amman very occasionally referred to more mainstream political events and happenings at court. In March 1736 he tells of the arrival of the 'Persian Ambassador with his Elephant, sent hither as a present for her Imperial Majesty' and describes how 'they have been obliged to make boots for him and to cover him with cloath, otherwise he had been frozen to death in the most severe weather we have had . . .'.**^ In 1737 he devotes a letter to the Fire of Moscow and to a long account of the Russians' capture of Ochakov from the Turks."** Generally, however, military exploits are given far less space than the scientific matters which were of much greater interest to both Amman and Sloane. Apart from reporting to Sloane on the Kamchatka Expedition whenever he has news of its progress, Amman sends him detailed data on the measuring of temperatures in St Petersburg and in Siberia in the record cold winter of 1738'*'' and, in his last letter of 1741, tells of De L'Isle's abortive journey to Siberia to observe the passing of Mercury across the sun. In the last words he ever wrote to Sloane, continuing till the end to fulfil his promise to report everything that was new, there is a comic pathos: 'Hazy wheater & a cloudy sky have hinderd him to make the intended observation. He speaks much of the stubborn Renn-Deers he had to deal with during his journey.'**^ Amman's letters must have been one of the most important and one of the few direct means of conveying to English scientists the discoveries that were being made in Russia in the 1730S. Sloane duly reported the content of Amman's letters to the Royal Society, a practice about which Amman expressed some misgivings. He writes in 1736 'My intention in writing to you has never been that such indigested stuff should be communicated to the Royal Society'.**^ He did also send more digested stuff in the form of the Commentarii of the Academy and other publications which he thought might be of interest to Sloane. In return, Sloane sent regularly the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society and a number of books requested by Amman, sometimes for himself and sometimes for colleagues at the Academy. Sloane's letters are, on the whole, much more brief than Amman's and much less varied in subject matter. He frequently expresses his approval of and interest in the work of the Russian Academy, and occasionally asks for specific information (a single question from Sloane can set Amman's pen running on for pages and pages). He also kept Amman informed of scientific research outside Russia, telling him of such events as the French Academy's expedition of 1735 42 to Peru to measure temperatures,^** and giving him frequent accounts of plants which members of the Royal Society had found in North and South America and the West Indies. Thus, in spite of the vast distances involved and the slowness of communications, there was a lively international exchange of information. Both Sloane and Amman make comparisons and find similarities between plants which the other describes. Sloane, for example, is delighted to discover that 'the productions are many of them the same from Siberia, Kamtschatka and other provinces of Northern Europe and Asia with those of Davis's Streights and North America'.^' While they exchanged information and publications, Sloane and Amman also enthusiastically swapped dried plants and seeds. One of Amman's most cherished projects

31 and one of his most lasting achievements in Russia was the establishment of a botanical garden at the Academy. He persistently campaigned for it and contributed some of his own money to pay for it. In October 1736 he writes 'Although I have given so many proposals to the Academy of erecting a Physick garden, nothing hath been done as yet. A little spot of ground behind my lodgings is my garden & a little room is my green house.'^^ In Russian sources, the establishment of the Academy garden is normally dated to 1736," but this letter indicates that if this was so, then it must have been late in that year. Certainly, by April 1738 Amman had his large garden. He writes to Sloane of seeds that he has received from 'Samara on the river Wolga, & near Olecminskoi & Kirenskoi Ostrog on the river Lena, between Iakutsk & Irkutsk'. He continues 'I do not know as yet for the most part, what they are. But having a large garden, I can sow them all'.^He was anxious to cultivate not only Russian plants, but to try out plants from other places. In January 1739 he wrote to Sloane-^^ asking him to send

curious & rare plants as well as common to ye English gardens, ye best provided without doubt of ye whole world ... I should particularly be glad of some seeds of ye most sensitive Mimosas, which we want here very much. All sorts of bulbiferous & tuberous herbs, African succulent plants & the like, would be very acceptable ... If it is possible to send some seeds of a Mimosa in a letter, I should be extremely obliged tor them. He also begs for seeds from the Spanish West Indies and, if possible, for the seeds of the 'true Gingseng' which, he had heard, had been found in Pennsylvania. In 1739 and 1740 Sloane sent seeds from the East and West Indies and from Virginia and Carolina. By the time of Amman's death his garden was well-established. He also left a herbarium containing some 5,000 specimens.-^^ Sloane's own garden at Chelsea also benefited from the exchange of gifts, as did his museum. From time to time he would receive from Amman an extraordinary lucky dip of curiosities. A typical consignment, sent in 1736," contained ^ some dryed specimens of rare & curious plants . . a map showing the warlike expeditions of the Russian army near Asoph & in the Crim; an Alphabet of the Callmuck language; another of the Tangutan; some very curious copper oares; two kinds of Sibirian Talck; a little piece of sulphur nativum from Casan; a very tine medalion of her Imperial Majesty . . .

and another of 1739^^ contained among other things A curious Lead oar from China ... The powder of ye Alcanna with which ye Turks & Persians colour their hairs & nails ... A sort of very curious reddish sand from ye Lake Baikal . . . Y"^' with which ye Chinese Weemen paint themselves. This lay's in Comment, p. 64 ... Caschunde. This is ye Chinese chaw as you do in England Tobacco . . A very small lock made at Casan by a peasant... A Callmuck cheese ... A very tine piece of native brimstone from Samara on ye Wolga. Thus Amman made a small but exotic contribution to Sloane's collections. After Amman's death Sloane's relations with the Russian Academy all but died out. However in 1748 a last important contact was made when Johann Caspar Taubert (1717-71), another son-in-law of the ubiquitous Schumacher, was sent abroad by the

32 Academy. Most of Taubert's instructions coincided with those given to Muller in 1730 and to Schumacher before him. He too was to establish contact with scientists and learned societies and also 'to dissipate false rumours . . . about the Academy which had been put about by those who wished it ill . . .'.^^He had another important instruction: to find out whether Sloane intended to sell his collections to Parliament and, if he had not yet disposed of them, to find out what they contained, to try and obtain a printed or manuscript catalogue of them, and to get them valued by experts.^ This visit evidently had some influence on Sloane's plans. His will of October 1739 had stipulated that if Parliament was not willing to purchase his collections for ^(^20,000, then they were to be offered in turn to various other institutions. The Russian Academy of Sciences was sixth on the list. However, in 1749, the year after Taubert's visit, Sloane wrote a codicil which decreed that the Russian Academy should have first refusal after Parliament.*^' So, had Parliament not accepted his bequest, Sloane could have left in Russia an even more tangible expression of his goodwill towards the Russian Academy than that contained in the letters to his Russian correspondents.

APPENDIX A Letters consulted

Unless otherwise stated, manuscripts are in the British Library Department of Manuscripts. Letters indicated as being in the USSR Academy of Sciences Archive have been read in the Russian translation published by M. I. Radovsky in 'V IICIOKOB am A()-f)yct KMX MaxMUbrx CBflaeii', McmopuuecKuu apxue. no. 3 (1956), pp. 139-55, except in cases where a copy of the original is in the BL Dept. of MSS.

Amman to Sloane 18 June 1733 English translation Royal Society, M.3.19 12 June 1734 Latin Sloane MS. 4053, fol. 232 12 April 1735 Latin Sloane MS. 4054, fol. 32 4 September 1735 Latin Sloane MS. 4054, fol. 99 2 March 1736 English Sloane MS. 4054, fol. 188 ^ August 1736 English Sloane MS. 4054, fol. 297 6 October 1736 English Sloane MS. 4054, fol. 298 6 August 1737 English Sloane MS. 4055, fol. 155 22 April 1738 English Sloane MS. 4055, fol. 315 3 June 1738 English Sloane MS. 4055, fol. 339 20 January 1739 English Sloane MS. 4056, fol. 28 22 July 1739 English Sloane MS. 4056, fol. 109 7 November 1739 English Sloane MS. 4056, fol. 132 I July 1740 English Sloane MS. 4056, fol. 268 24 January 1741 English Sloane MS. 4056, fol. 355

33 Sloane to Amman All are in the USSR Academy .of Sciences Archive at razr. i, op. 74-a, no. 26. 26 September 1733 English 30 April 1734 English 23 July 1734 English 9 April 1735 English 26 August 1735 English 17 December 1735 English Copy in Sloane MS. 4068, fol. 281 6 May 1736 English 3 June 1737 English 2 July 1738 English 5 July 1738 English 26 July 1738 English 15 August 1738 English 3 May 1739 English 22 April 1740 English Copy in Sloane MS. 4069, fol. 40 30 June 1740 English Copy in Sloane MS. 4069, fol. 48 3 December 1740 English Bayer to Sloane 12 August 1731 Latin Sloane MS. 4026, fol. 234 II July 1733 Latin Sloane MS. 4026, fol. 236. English translation. Royal Society, B.3.36 17 August 1736 Latin Sloane MS. 4026, fol. 229. English translation. Royal Society, B.3.47 9 September 1737 Latin Sloane MS. 4026, fol. 232 Sloane to Bayer 15 April 1733 Latin Copy in Sloane MS. 4068, fol. 198 5 May 1736 Latin Copy in Sloane MS. 4068, fol. 287 7 June 1737 Latin Copy in Sloane MS. 4068, fol. 323 De L'Isle to Sloane le jeudi matin [1724] French Sloane MS. 4058, fol. 228 22 July 1742 French Sloane MS. 4057, fol. 144 [See n. 5 below.] Korff to Sloane 30 September 1735 Latin Sloane MS. 4054, fol. 105 15 October 1736 Latin Sloane MS. 4054, fol. 318 Sloane to Korff 14 September [1732?] French Copy in Sloane MS. 4069, fol. 178 Copy in Sloane MS. 4068, fol. 280 II July 1735 Latin Copy in Sloane MS. 4069, fol. 177 [1735?] English 26 May? 1738 Latin Copy in Sloane MS. 4068, fol. 346 34 Muller to Sloane 22 December 1730 French Sloane MS. 4051, fol. 148 30 June 1733 English Royal Society, M.3.20 Schumacher to Sloane II September 1729 French Sloane MS. 4050, fol. 193 I August 1730 French Sloane MS. 4051, fol. 79 14 September 1730 French Sloane MS. 4052, fol. ioi 1751 French Inserted in vol. ii of Gmelin's Flora Sihirica at the Botany Library, British Museum (Natural History) Sloane to Schumacher All in the USSR Academy of Sciences Archive at fol. 121, op. 2, no. 128. 1 May 1730 French 2 June 1731 French 20 April 1732 French June 1732 French

APPENDIX B

(/) Books mentioned in the correspondence as having heen sent to Sloane, of which his copies have been traced

AMMAN, Johannes. Stirpium rariorum in Imperio Rutheno sponte provientium icones etdescrip- tiones, etc. Petropoli^ 1739. BL, 1823.b.II. A manuscript note on the titlepage, probably in the hand of Johann Amman, reads 'For Sir Hans Sloane'.

BiXBAUM, Johannes Christianus. Plantarum minus cognitarum centuria I. (V) complectens plantas circa Byzantium & in Oriente observatas. 5pt. Petropoli, 1728 40. Botany Library, British Musuem (Natural History), vol. i only. 'Bibliotheca Sloaniana Min:i75' is written in ink on the titlepage.

ELLER, Leonhard. Mcchanica sive motus scientia analytice exposita. Peiropoli: Ex Typographia Academtae Scientiarum, 1736. 2 vols. D ^^"' 715 i-9- 'Bibhotheca Sloaniana 44:5' and '44:6' are written in ink on the titlepagcs of vols. i and ii respectively.

GMELIN, Johann Georg. Flora Sibirica sive historia plantarum Sibiriae. Petropoli, 1749-69. Botany Library, British Museum (Natural History), vols. i and ii. 'Bibliotheca Sloaniana Min 349' and '350' are wntten in ink on the titlepages of vols. i and ii respectively. Vol. ii has a letter from Schumacher tipped in.

35 Notably absent from this list are the Commentarii of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The correspondence indicates that they were sent regularly to Sloane from 1728 onwards, but copies in the British Library, the Royal Society Library, and the General Library of the British Museum (Natural History) do not appear to be the copies sent to Sloane from Russia.

[it) Books written by Sloane''s correspondents in Russia^ not mentioned in the correspondence^ of which his copies have been traced

BAYER, Gottfried Siegfried. Theophili Sigefridi Bayeri . . . Historia osrhoena et edessena, etc. Petropoliy i734- BL, 6o2.h.i8. Sloane's pressmark c.3763 is written in ink on the titlepage.

MiJLLER, Gerhard Friedrich. Eroffnung eines Vorschlages zu Verbesserung der Russischen Historic, etc. St Petersburg^ 1732. BL, 1056.b.9. (2.) Bound with Muller's Sammlung der Russischer Geschichte^ vols. 1-6. Sloane's pressmark n:iooo is written in ink on the titlepage.

(;//) Books mentioned tn the correspondence of which the British Library has copies which may be Sloane''s, although no proof of this can he found

BAYER, Gottlieb Siegfried. Theophili Sigefridi Bayeri. . . Museum Sinicum, etc. Petropolt, 1735. BL, 12910.bb.14.

BAYER, Gottlieb Siegfried. Theophili Sigefridi Bayeri . . . De horis sinicis, etc. Petropolt, 1735. BL, 532.g.26.

1 Royal Society, Journal Book Copy, vol. 13, pp. year before the second letter was written. The two letters which the index attributes to Joseph 2 n. ncKapcKiiM. Havh-a u jiumepamypa npu llempe Nicholas Delisle (Sloane MS. 4056, fois. 199, Be.iuKo.M (ClaHKifK-Tcpbypi, 1862), vol. i, p. 55-2. 206) are in a ditferent hand and are signed Delisle. 3 n. neKapcKtiii, Hcmopun 11 unepamopcKou They were ostensibly sent from Paris in 1740, a AhadeMuu HayK e fJemepeypee (CaHKTneTepGypr, time when both brothers were in Russia, and the 1870-3), vol. i, p. 127. letter of I'ebruary 1740 asks that any reply be sent 4 USSR Academy of Sciences: sctenltjic contacts care of a bookseller, M. Cailleau. These letters with Great Britain (Moscow, 1977)' P- W^. speak of a treatise entitled 'La decouverte du 5 In Edward Scott's Index to the Sloane Manu- longitude', which the author is sending to Sloane. scripts in the British Museum (London, 1904) Both brothers were accused at various times oi these two letters, which are signed simply De illicitly sending scientitic information out of L'Isle, are wrongly attributed to Louis Delisle Russia for publication in the West. It may be that of St Petersburg [i.e. Louis Delisle de la Croycre, these letters furnish evidence of this. brother of Joseph Nicholas], who died in 1741, a K). X. KoncACBHM, TlepBafl a pp 74-a, fois. 26, 27. Copy in Sloane MS. 4069, fol. 48. 3anHCOK r. 0. MiiAAcpa o cio i73O-i73irr.)\ Bonpocu ucmopuu ecmecmeomaHU/i 30 USSR Academy of Sciences Archive, razr. 1, op. u me.XHUKu, Vyp. 2(43), pp. 47-52. 74-a, no. 26, fol. 29. 7 M. n. Pa,xoBCKiiii, Ifj ucmopuu amjio-pyccKux 31 Sloane MS. 4056, fol. 355. nayuHhix cejijeu (MocKBa, AcHiiHipa,!, 1961), ;^2 n. ncKapcKHii, Ucmnpun . . ., vol. i, p. 496. p. 120. 33 Sloane MS. 4055, fol. 316. 8 This manuscript was in fact never published in 34 Royal Society, M.3.19. the Philosophical Transactions, but his 'Proposal 35 Letter from Muller to Cromwell Mortimer, for the improvement of the history of Russia' Royal Society, Letter Book Copy, vol. 20, pp. appeared in vol. xxxviii. 250-1. 9 Royal Society, M.3.20. 36 n. ricKapcKHH, UcmopuH . . ., vol. i, p. 494. 10 B. II. rpcKOB, OnepKU U3 ucmnpuu pyccKux 37 Ibid., p. 497. eeoepacpukechux uccnedosaHuu e 38 B. II. IpcKoB, Op. cit., p. 131. (MocKBa, i960), p. 132. 39 Sloane MS. 4054, fol. 188. 11 Letter of 11 July 1733. English translation in 40 Ibid., fol. 189. Royal Society, B.3.36; Latin original in Sloane 41 USSR Academy of Sciences Archive, razr. i, op. MS. 4026, fol. 286. 74-a, no. 26, fois. 16, 17. 12 npomoKOJihi 3acedaHuu Kon^epeuuuu Ihtnepamnp- 42 Sloane MS. 4056, fol. 28. CKou Anade.uuu HayK c IJ25 no iSoj eoda (C- 43 Ibid. ncTep6ypr, 1897-1900). vol. i, p. 83. 44 Sloane MS. 4054, fois. 298-9. 13 Mamepuajibi dna ucmopuu U.xtnepamopcKou AKQ- 45 Ibid., fol. 189. deMuu HayK (CaHKTneTep6ypi, 1885-1900), vol. 46 Sloane MS. 4055, fois. 155-6. vi, p i},(^- The diploma itself has not been traced. 47 Sloane MS. 4056, fol. 29. 14 Sloane MS. 4068, fol. 281. 48 Ihid, fol. 356. 15 Sloane MS. 4069, fol. 177. 49 Sloane MS. 4054, fol. 188. 16 K). X. KoncAeBHM, op. cit., p. 49. 50 USSR Academy of Sciences Archive, razr. i,op. 17 Mamepuajihi, vol. vi, p. 295. 74-a, no. 26, fois. 5, 6. 18 n. IleKapCKiiii, Ucmopun . . ., vol. i, p. 494. 51 Ibid., fois. 9, 10. Copy in Sloane MS. 4068, fol 19 Archive of the USSR Academy of Sciences, razr. 281. I, op. 74-a, no. 26. Published in Russian by 52 Sloane MS. 4054, fol. 299. M. I. Radovsky in Y HCTOKOB aHiAo-pyccKiix 53 n. rTcKapcKiiii, IJcmnpuH . . ., vol. i, p. 495. X CBfl3en\ IfcmopunecKuu apxue, no. 3 54 Sloane MS. 4055, fol. 315. ), pp. 139-55- Copies of three of these are in 55 Sloane MS. 4059, fol. 28. the Sloane Manuscripts: Sloane MSS. 4068, fol. 56 II. IIcKapcKHii, Ihmopun . . ., vol. i, p. 496. 281; 4069, fois. 40, 48. 57 Sloane MS. 4054, fol. 298. Plants sent by Amman 20 Royal Society, M.3.19. to Sloane are in the British Museum (Natural 21 Sloane MS. 4053, fol. ii,-^. History) HS. 296, fois. 68 70 and HS. 316, fois. 22 Sloane MS. 4054, fol. i8g. 49-59* with labels in Amman's hand; see J. E. 2^ K). X. KoiicACBiiM, OcHoeanue IIemep6yp^CKou Dandy, The Sloane Herharium: an annotated list AxadeMuu HayK (AcHHHrpa/X, 1977), p. 131. of the Hortt Sicci composing it, etc. (London, 24 Sloane MS. 4054, fol. 189. 1958), p. 82. 25 Sloane MS. 4055, fol. 316. The medal of the Empress Anna sent by 26 3anucKU IlMnepamopcKou AxadeMuu HayK ((laHKT- Amman is in the British Museum, Department of neTcp6ypr, 1862-94), vol. vii, Bk. i, Suppl. no. 4, Coins and Medals, registration no. M. 0829. p. 60. 58 Sloane MS. 4056, fol. 109. 27 Sloane MS. 4055, fol. 339. 59 Mamepuatbt, p. 364. 28 Sloane MS. 4056, fol. 109. 60 Ibid., p. 366. 29 USSR Academy of Sciences Archive, razr. 1, op. 61 The Wtll of Sir Hans Sloane (London, 1753).