Alexander Garden is pleased to have received Linnaeus’s letter of 5 October 1761{L2983} through John Ellis; it had arrived some time in the summer of 1762. Garden is very flattered by the favourable opinion Linnaeus has expressed but stresses that it is Linnaeus who has taught him what he knows.
Garden is very busy as a doctor but will retire in a few years’ time. Then, he will devote himself entirely to natural history. In the meantime, he will do what he can and hopes for more peace to make correspondence more regular, so that he can have better feedback. He needs that.
Garden promises to pay attention to the issues raised by Linnaeus in his letter but is unable to work at some of them since he does not have the third part of Mark Catesby. A question about the suspected amphibians is answered, and Garden gives Linnaeus right in that those fishes have both gills and lungs.
The greater part of this letter is taken up by a presentation of the 27 new fish specimens sent with the letter. Garden considers some of them to be new and gives informal information about most of them, whereas the formal characters are given separately with reference to the tagged specimens.
Insects and various other specimens are also sent, but Garden has not dared to start to study the class of insects.
Garden thanks Linnaeus for the honour of having been elected a member of the Royal Society of Sciences at Uppsala [Kungliga Vetenskaps-Societeten i Uppsala]. Garden expects to receive a diploma or something similar in a near future.
Garden has had much trouble with an outbreak of smallpox in his region, and he describes how he has tried to manage that. He has slightly modified a cure practiced by a colleague of his and has been successful with inoculation and only lost two lives. He has some idea on the nature of the disease and intends to publish a report on his activities. Linnaeus will receive a copy of that in due time.
John Bartram has told Garden that he is leaving for the rivers Ohio and Mississippi and will return loaded with specimens to be taken care of. It is a pity Bartram is not too well acquainted with Linnaeus’s method of writing characters.
Garden excuses himself for the length and the language, which is English. Ellis had told him that he could use that language as well. Finally, Garden wishes Linnaeus good health and prosperity.