Autograph letter signed to Mrs. John Paget

Bifolium. 4pp. 183 x 114 mm. A few pin-holes, small marginal tear but very good.

From English physiologist and naturalist William B. Carpenter, who "helped shape the modern life sciences in Britain (Oxford DNB) through both his writings and his work as a teacher and administrator at what is now the University of London. Carpenter performed valuable researches in marine zoology, and was directly influential in persuading the British Admiralty to sponsor the Challenger expedition, the first major scientific study of the deep oceans. Carpenter is also recognized as one of the founders of the modern theory of the adaptive unconscious--he observed that the human perceptual system and the mechanism of human thought operates almost completely outside of conscious awareness. Carpenter's correspondent was the wife of police magistrate and author John Paget.

On the death of his mother-in-law:

I feel sure that you will be sadly interested in learning that we received two days ago the unexpected intelligence of the death of Mrs. Powell, which took place quite suddely on the night of the 30th. She had been failing for some time, and seemed to suffer much from disappointment in regard to the affair of the pension, having a great wish to be independent of the assistance of her friends, and strongly desiring that her father's service to the nation should be acknowledged . . . There was not the least indication of suffering, quite the contrary . . . So that I quite believe that she must have passed from the unconsciousness of sleep into that of death. For her, and for all those who were interested for her, I am satisfied that this will be felt the most desirable termination . . .