MOQUIN-TANDON (Alfred). Autograph letter... - Lot 28 - Métayer-Mermoz Maison de Ventes aux Enchères Paris

MOQUIN-TANDON (Alfred). Autograph letter signed [to Jean-Henri Fabre]. Toulouse, January 23, 1853, 1 p. in-4, letterhead printed " Jardin des Plantes de la ville de Toulouse ". BEAUTIFUL LETTER EVOKING THE CONCHYLIOLOGY OF CORSICA PROJECTED BY FABRE. "I do not ask for better, than to be useful to you for your projected work. I address you Payraudeau. You tell me: add other works, but which ones? Do you know that I own at least 500 of them! Perhaps you'd do well to send me your manuscript as soon as it's ready. I might be able to make some observations. There's a lot to be said for the Requien catalogue. Firstly, the title is not scientific (it is called molluscs and not shells); secondly, it is inaccurate (leeches are neither shells nor molluscs). Its new species are made very slightly []. I remember, that the Planorbis Moquinianus is none other than the lævis ". Naturalist and botanist, Alfred Moquin-Tandon (1804-1863) was a professor at the Faculty of Sciences of Toulouse and director of the Plant Garden of this city. During a stay in Corsica in 1852, he met Jean-Henri Fabre and advised him to direct his research towards zoology. Back on the continent, Fabre prepared a Conchyliologie de la Corse (Conchyliology of Corsica) which was to replace the publications of Payraudeau (1826) and Requien (1848), but this work remained unpublished.