Details
RÉAUMUR, René Antoine Ferchault de (1683-1757). Autograph letter signed to an unidentified correspondent, Paris, 9 April 1751, 5 pages, 4to, blank, contemporary docket on verso (underlining, presumably by the recipient, lightly browned at top and bottom edges and in central vertical creases, 2nd bifolium splitting in fold, traces of former binding).
Opening by mentioning the forthcoming second edition of his work on rearing farmyard birds [Art de faire éclore et d'élever en toute saison des oiseaux domestiques, 1751], Réaumur describes in detail his somewhat unsuccessful experiment at feeding his fowl on horse chestnuts ('marons d'inde'), prepared according to his correspondent's recommendations in a treatise submitted to the Académie des Sciences in 1720, and asks for further clarification: Je desirerois que vous m'appreniez quelque circonstance dans laquelle jai manqué, parce qu'apres avoir presenté cette espece de paste a la volaille de ma Basse Cour, il n'y a eu que tres peu de poules qui en avoit voulu taster, et a peine lui avoient elles donne un ou deux coups de bec qu'elles se retireroient'. He is unable to understand how his correspondent's hens, turkeys and ducks ate the chestnuts with such avidity: 'Il faut supposer a la volaille du languedoc un autre gout qu'a celle de paris'.
Réaumur was known particularly for his etymological works, but he also carried out pioneering and successful experiments for the study of the digestive process in birds.
Opening by mentioning the forthcoming second edition of his work on rearing farmyard birds [Art de faire éclore et d'élever en toute saison des oiseaux domestiques, 1751], Réaumur describes in detail his somewhat unsuccessful experiment at feeding his fowl on horse chestnuts ('marons d'inde'), prepared according to his correspondent's recommendations in a treatise submitted to the Académie des Sciences in 1720, and asks for further clarification: Je desirerois que vous m'appreniez quelque circonstance dans laquelle jai manqué, parce qu'apres avoir presenté cette espece de paste a la volaille de ma Basse Cour, il n'y a eu que tres peu de poules qui en avoit voulu taster, et a peine lui avoient elles donne un ou deux coups de bec qu'elles se retireroient'. He is unable to understand how his correspondent's hens, turkeys and ducks ate the chestnuts with such avidity: 'Il faut supposer a la volaille du languedoc un autre gout qu'a celle de paris'.
Réaumur was known particularly for his etymological works, but he also carried out pioneering and successful experiments for the study of the digestive process in birds.
Special notice
VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price and at 15% on the buyer's premium