Letter from Mary Cornwallis Herschel, to [John Herschel] She has nothing to trouble her other than a 'refractory fern' on brittle grass. She has been told 'cruel things' about weather conditions in Ootacamund. She gives news of Dr. Cockerill, who has called and a General of Kotagherry. Mary is doing well, having taken morphia last night. There was no English mail. She has read an article from 'The Athenaeum' on the Committee of the [London] Dialectical Society's investigations of spiritualism, which she considers to have a want of evidence and folly in its statements. She thinks Lord Lindsay shows weak-mindedness, noting his claim that Mr Home can add eleven inches to his height. 1 December [1871]