University of Virginia Library

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Dear Sir,—Since my last which was of the 18th of May I have
recd. your very agreeable favor of the 28th of Octobr. I began to
fear it had miscarried. Your reflections on the idle poor of
Europe,[66] form a valuable lesson to the Legislators of every

Country, and particularly of a new one. I hope you will enable
yourself before you return to America to compare with this
description of people in France the condition of the indigent
part of other communities in Europe where the like causes of
wretchedness exist in a less degree. I have no doubt but that
the misery of the lower classes will be found to abate wherever
the Government assumes a freer aspect, & the laws favor a subdivision
of property, yet I suspect that the difference will not
fully account for the comparative comfort of the mass of people
in the United States. Our limited population has probably as
large a share in producing this effect as the political advantages
which distinguish us. A certain degree of misery seems inseparable
from a high degree of populousness. If the lands in Europe
which are now dedicated to the amusement of the idle rich, were
parcelled out among the idle poor, I readily conceive the happy
revolution which would be experienced by a certain proportion
of the latter. But still would there not remain a great proportion
unrelieved? No problem in political œceconomy has appeared to
me more puzzling than that which relates to the most proper
distribution of the inhabitants of a country fully peopled.[67] Let the
lands be shared among them ever so wisely, & let them be supplied
with labourers ever so plentifully; as there must be a great
surplus of subsistence, there will also remain a great surplus of
inhabitants, a greater by far than will be employed in cloathing
both themselves & those who feed them, and in administering to
both, every other necessary & even comfort of life. What is to
be done with this surplus? Hitherto we have seen them distributed
into manufactures of superfluities, idle proprietors of
productive lands, domestics, soldiers, merchants, mariners, and a
few other less numerous classes. All these classes notwithstanding
have been found insufficient to absorb the redundant members
of a populous society; and yet a reduction of most of those
classes enters into the very reform which appears so necessary &
desirable. From a more equal partition of property, must result
a greater simplicity of manners, consequently a less consumption
of manufactured superfluities, and a less proportion of idle proprietors
& domestics. From a juster Government must result less
need of soldiers either for defence agst. dangers from without, or
disturbances from within. The number of merchants must be
inconsiderable under any modification of Society; and that of
mariners will depend more on geographical position, than on the
plan of legislation. But I forget that I am writing a letter not a
dissertation.

Things have undergone little change here since my last. The
scarcity of money the low price of Tobo. & the high price of bread
continue to be the topics of complaint. The last evil is likely to
be much increased by a sudden vicissitude in the prospects of
wheat. At the date of my last we were praying for rain. Shortly
after we had a deluge of it. From the 19th of May to the 4th of
June, we scarcely saw the sun, had almost incessant rains, and
sometimes showers, or rather torrents that threatened to sweep
away every thing. The planters pretty generally availed themselves
of the Season for getting their Tobacco into the hills. But
the farmers have nearly lost their crops of wheat. A great proportion
of the heads in this part of the country are blasted, and

in many parts it is said the fields will not be worth cutting. Our
crops of apples also which in common with all other fruits seemed
to be abundant appear to have suffered much from the wet. We
are now again suffering from the opposite extreme. We have
had no rain since the cessation of the long spell, that is since the
3d. instant, and the earth is as dry and as hard as a brick.

In an answer from the attorney to a late letter, he says "that
after great anxiety we have recd. the plan of a capitol from Mr. J.
and with some difficulty the directors have assented to conform
the bricks already laid to that model."

I have a little itch to gain a smattering in chymistry. Will you
be kind eno' to pick up some good elementary treatise for me,
with a good dictionary of moderate size, unless the chymical
volume in the encyclopedie should be judged a competent provision.
Morveau's Elements I observe are quoted with great
respect by Buffon. I wish also to get his two Boxes, called Le
necessaire chemique. They are described in the Bibliotheque
physico-economique for 1784. p. 134. where the maker in Paris is
also referred to. I project this last indulgence on the supposition
that the whole apparatus, including the contents of the Bottles
will not cost more than a couple of Louis.

I observe that in your analysis of the Revisal p. 251 of your
notes, a Bill is mentioned for consigning our roads to undertakers
instead of the present vicious plan of repairing them. No such
provision is comprized in the Road bill reported & printed. If it
be any where in existence, I wish you could put me on the means
of getting a sight of it. I conceive such a reform to be essential
& that the Legislature would adopt it, if presented in a well
digested form.

I lately sent you some particulars relating to our mole.[68] For
want of something better to fill the remainder of my paper, I will
now add the result of my examination two days ago of another of
our minor quadrupeds, I mean, a Weasel. It was a female &
came to my hands dead. Its colour corresponded with the description
given by D'Aubenton of the Belette & Roselet or Hermine

in its summer dress, excepting only that the belly &c. which in
the European animal was white, was in ours of a lightish yellow,
save only the part under the lower jaws which was white for about
1/2 an inch back from the under lip. The little brown spots near
the corners of the mouth mentioned by D'Aubenton were peninsular.
The tail was of the color of the back &c. all but the end
which was black. The ears were extremely thin, had a fold or
duplication on the lower part of the conque about 2 lines deep,
and at the margin all around were covered with a very fine
short hair or fur of the colour nearly of the back. The rest of
the ear was in a manner naked, and of a lightish color. The forefeet
were tipped & spotted with white. The hind feet were also
tipped with white, and one of them a little spotted. It had five
toes on each foot, the fifth on each being very short and at some
distance from the end of the foot. Its smell was a sort of rankish
musk, but not so strong as to be very offensive. It had no visible
teats. Its weight dimensions &c. compared with those of Buffon's
Belette & Hermine were as follows.

     

	Weasel			Belette			Hermine
	oz	pwt.	gns.	oz			oz	pwt.
Weight	2	17	13	2*			7	10	—

                       

	Inch	lines	Inch	lines	Inch	lines
Length from muzzle to root of tail	7	9	6	6	9	6
of the Trunk of the Tail	3	6	1	3	3	10
Height before	1	11	1	5	2	8
behind	2	6	1	6	3	10
distance from muzzle to lower corner of the eye		5		5		7
from upper corner of eye to the ear		4 1/2		5		7
from one corner to the other of the eye		3		2 1/4		3 1/2
length of the ear perpendicularly		4 1/2		3		4
width of ear horizontally		4
distance between the ears at bottom		10 1/2		9	1
Length of the neck	1	1 1/2		11	1	4

*The belette of this weight was but 6 in. 5 lines in length.

The weight & measure of the Weasel are English those of the Belette &
Roselet—french.

                                                 

	Weasel		Belette		Hermine
	Inch	lines	Inch	lines	Inch	lines
circumference of neck	2	5	2		2	6
of body behind forelegs	2	10	2	3	3	4
before hindlegs	3	3	2	2	3	4
of head between eyes & ears	2	9	2	6	3	3
Length of foreleg from knee to heel		10 1/2		9	1	2
from heel to the nails		9		7	1	1
of hindleg from knee to heel	1	4		11	1	10
Width of forefoot		3 1/2		3		3 1/2
of hindfoot		3 1/2
Length of nails of forefoot		2		2		3
of hindfoot		1 1/2
of hair on the body		3 1/2		3		6
at end of tail		6 1/2		short 1	3
distance between anus and vulva		3
Spleen, length of	1	3		11
width of in middle		3 1/2		4
Kidneys, long		7 1/2		5 1/2
wide		4 1/2		4
thick		3		3
Heart, long		6 1/2		4
round	1	4 1/2	1	3
Tongue, long from end to the filêt		3 1/2		2 1/2
wide		2 3/4		2

         

	number	no.	no.
Teeth	34	34	34
Ribbs	14	14	14
Vertebræ of tail	14	14 or 15	19
Palate furrows of	6	6	6

The gall bladder was empty, the membrane of the Bladder very
thin, and the two last furrows of the palate broken in the middle,
in the Weasel as noted in the Belette, and the contrary not noted
in the Hermine.

The spleen was of the same color on both sides in the Weasel.
In the Hermine it was of a reddish brown as in the weasel, on one
side, and of a very pale hue on the other. Nothing is said as to
this circumstance in the description of the Belette.

The right kidney in the Weasel was advanced a little only before
the left, as in the Belette, and not its whole length as in the
Hermine.

The attempt to examine whether the number of false ribbs in
the Weasel was 4 as in the Belette or 3 as in the Hermine, was
frustrated.

On a review of the differential characters of the Belette and the
Hermine, and a comparison of the weasel with both, it appears, 1.
that the weasel stands between the two in point of size, but much
less removed from the former than the latter, unless the individual
here examined was much under the ordinary size. Its having
no visible teats seems to be an indication that it was young. Another
probable indication was the smallness of the hindmost teeth
both in the upper & lower Jaws, those in the lower being not bigger
than the head of a small pin; & those in the upper disproportionate
to the contiguous tooth. 2. that it resembles the Hermine in
the length of the trunk of the tail, and in the blackness of its end,
—but the Belette in the number of vertebræ in the Trunk, and in
the shortness of the hair at the end of the tail. 3. That it resembles
the Hermine in the colour of its feet, and the Belette in that
of the margin of the ears. 4. that it resembles the Belette & not
the Hermine in the Relative position of the Kidneys. 5. that it
differs from the Hermine in being an inhabitant of warm climates.
Wheather it resembles the Belette in not being an inhabitant of
cold climates remains for enquiry. 6. that it differs from both
in never becoming white during the winter, if this change be well
founded with regard to the Belette. Buffon asserts that there
are instances of it, but it may be questioned whether they were
not mere albinos of the species.

The figure of the head of the Weasel when reduced to
the naked bone resembled rather that of the Belette than that
of the Hermine in the skeletons represented in Buffon. In
its entire state it resembled most the head in the cut of the Hermine
given by Buffon. Indeed the entire cut of the Hermine
was a much stronger likeness of the weasel, than the cut of the
Belette.

The result of the comparison seems to be that notwithstanding
the blackness of the end of the tail & whiteness of the feet, which
are regarded as characteristics of the Hermine contradistinguishing
it from the belette, our weasel cannot be of the former species,
and is nothing more than a variety of the latter. This

conclusion is the stronger, as the manners of our weasel correspond
more nearly with those of the Belette, than with those of
the Hermine. And if it be a just conclusion, it may possibly
make one exception to Buffon's position that no animal is common
to the two continents that cannot bear the climate where they
join; as it certainly contradicts his assertion that of the animals
common to the two continents, those of the new are in every instance
smaller than those of the old.-But he seems to have given
up this point himself. Supplemt. tom. 8, p. 329. "L'imperfection
de nature qu'el [M. P. l'auteur des recherches sur les Americains]
reproche gratuitement a l'Amerique en general, ne doit porter que
sur les animaux de la partie meridionale de ce continent, lesquels
&c."—

My next will probably be dated in Philada. or rather in N. York
to which I am called by some business of a private nature in
which I am concerned jointly with Col. Monroe. In the meantime
I remain Yrs. very affectionately