“ less fatt, than in Holland? Don’t you have among your nation as strong, as hearty men, as they are in Europe? Do not your horses grow better, when taken care of, and is not every natural production, in similar circumstances, generally speaking, the same with you as with us?--Systems of that kind, however, though you oppose it with irresistible arms, are sometimes not to be eradicated by arguments, and time only is able to perform a change. Did you, Sir, ever talk on that subject with Count Buffon, or any one of his Disciples? I should be very happy if you would inform me of the success of your reasonings, and whether you expect a palinodia in a future edition of the great natural Historians immortal works . . .”

Jefferson replied to this from Paris on October 13: “ Having been much engaged lately, I have been unable sooner to acknolege the receipt of your favor of Sep. 8. what you are pleased to say on the subject of my Notes is more than they deserve. the condition in which you first saw them would prove to you how hastily they had been originally written; as you may remember the numerous insertions I had made in them from time to time, when I could find a moment for turning to them from other occupations. I have never yet seen Mons ^r. de Buffon. he has been in the country all the summer. I sent him a copy of the book, & I have only heard his sentiments on one particular of it, that of the identity of the Mammoth & Elephant. as to this he retains his opinion that they are the same . . . ”

On September 28, 1785, Francis Hopkinson had acknowledged from Philadelphia the receipt of his copy: “Your Favour of the 6 ^th. July was handed to me by our mutual friend D ^r. Franklin, as also were four Vol ^s. of the Bibliotheque Oeconomique, & your Notes on Virginia for which I heartily thank you. I shall be careful to observe your Instructions in the blank Leaf of your Notes . . .”

Charles Thomson in New York had received his copy before November 2, 1785, on which day he wrote to Jefferson: “I have received your several favours of Feb ^y 8 June 21 and July 14 and also a copy of your Notes by M ^r Houdon, for which I am much obliged. It grieves me to the soul that there should be such just grounds for your apprehensions respecting the irritation that will be produced in the southern states by what you have said of slavery. However I would not have you discouraged. This is a cancer that we must get rid of. It is a blot in our character that must be wiped out. If it cannot be done by religion reason & philosophy, confident I am that it will one day be by blood. I confess I am more afraid of this than of the Algerine piracies or the jealousy entertained of us by European powers of which we hear so much of late. However I have the satisfaction to find that philosophy is gaining ground of selfishness in this respect: If this can be rooted out, & our land filled with freemen, union preserved & the spirit of liberty maintained and cherished I think in 25 or 30 years we shall have nothing to fear from the rest of the world . . .”

On April 6 of the following year, 1786, Thomson wrote to say that he had read the Notes: “. . . I read your Notes with much pleasure and intended to have troubled you with some observations on them; but they have been so much out of my hands, though entrusted to such as you would approve, that I have not had an opportunity to revise them with that attention I wished and commit my thoughts to paper . . .”

On January 10, 1786, George Wythe wrote to Jefferson from Williamsburg, expressing a hope that a parcel of books just received by him would contain a copy of the Notes: “My neighbour, Madison, just now, sent to me a pacquet, which i perceived, by the superscription, to have come from you; a favour little deserved by one who had not writen to you since you crossed the atlantic. I will not say what was the cause of this silence; but can swear, that the cause was not forgetfullness of you, nor want of good will for you. Before i opened the pacquet, observing it to contain books, i hoped to see the copy of one, with a cursory reading of which i had then lately been delighted. You will ”