Transcription:
1869 Near La Grange Nov 15th Dear Doctor Your first from the stinking halls of surgery found me here in the sunshine
of the sweet autumn days of our foothills I suppose that I should write now of what most concerns you - not of mountains flowers
waterfalls, not of the walks of a botanist but of the walks pathways of epi- dermics of the provinces of king- doms of fevers,
mortuary re- ports all manner of diseases sickness among the people Well let me see what can I say upon these sickly themes
which I have catalogued here The small pox came this far last year. It radiated from San Fran- cisco in all directions like
the spokes of a wheel. Fevers 1