Postage

The book at reference 1, noticed less than a couple of weeks ago at reference 2, has now turned up from Texas. Formerly the property of the Green Bay branch of the library of the University of Wisconsin.

A library which still knows about this particular book, although it does not appear to hold a copy itself any more. And when I click on the open access online link offered I get the snap above. Which appears to be accurate - 'Hydatina' does indeed appear on page 147 - a small rotifer, which are known to Wikipedia today and to science since the late 17th century. But that is it; you don't get any more.

Which reminds me that Morgan, about sixty years old when he wrote the present book, seems to have amassed knowledge of an enormous number of plants and animals in that time, with only research assistants and card index files to help him. An impressive feat.

However, my present concern is postage and packing. The book came in a green plastic bag, with not much more on the outside that a label for the parcel delivery people here in the UK. Nothing about US postage, customs, tariffs or anything else. 

Now Thrift Books looks at reference 8 to be a big operation, so I can only suppose that they package up all their deliveries for the UK - or perhaps Europe - once a week or something  - and stick all the labels on that package. With the recipient just feeding the individual purchases into the delivery service here.

The address of the Dallas branch is '4445 Rock Quarry Road, Dallas 75211' and as far as I can make out from gmaps, this is the huge shed snapped above. Not like the second hand book shop of old at all - nothing like, for example, the one that used to be tucked in beside the entrance to Earlsfield Station. The building also houses something called 'Amazon STX3', so perhaps they have a good chunk of shed. All very anonymous though: no big signs in lights on the roof telling you who they are.

A Texas sized version of our own Longmead Road: sheds on one side, houses on the other.

A sample of the houses on the other side is snapped above. More mixed than those on the Longmead and with a lot more space and trees. But then, it is a very rich country with a lot of space.

Back with Thrift, inside the green bag there was an envelope containing various goodies, snapped above. I have since read in the Observer - quite a decent paper these days - at least this number was - that DoorDash of the red coupon are the people who have just paid some enormous sum for our own Deliveroo, making a fine pay day for the chap who invented it a little over ten years ago. But, oddly, not making a profit just presently, so presumably the people from the US think that they can do better. 

I shall pass these goodies on to BH as she will be better able to deal with them. 

The book itself turns out to be a perfectly decent 1961 reprint of the 1929 second printing. The paper is slightly shiny, but the print quality is good and the many line drawings have turned out well. From the days when people still wanted properly bound hardback books.

And I now know rather more about the Silliman lectures which propelled the production of this book in the first place. I am impressed by the confidence of Mrs. Silliman's family that the works of the Lord would speak for themselves: no need to indulge in crude polemics about his existence. For the man of the house, see reference 9.

Further report in due course.

PS 1: the absence of stickers on the green bag is to be contrasted with the wealth of stickers on a modest parcel - about the size of a half litre bottle of water - which I happened to be sending to Canada yesterday. They more or less seemed to cover the whole parcel. Good job that BH has neat handwriting.

PS 2: I have learned from a correspondent of a new euphemism for getting rid of people in the City. You don't get rid of people, sack them or have savage cuts. You don't even have downsizing. Instead you have RIFs, for reduction in force. So in a big company you might have RIF-1, then a few months later RIF-2 and so on. It all helps to keep the labour force on their toes. I associate to a story about Mr. Moody of reference 11, current when I was there back in the 1960s, that he would parade his men every Monday morning, then walk down the lines inviting some of them, more or less at random, to go and get their [National Insurance] cards, the then current euphemism for sacking people. That kept them on their toes too. 

PS 3: for the benefit of younger readers, National Insurance cards really were cardboard in those days, and, as I recall, folded into three parts and marked out with a year's worth of weeks. The employer put a stamp on - as in postage stamp, not as in rubber - or otherwise endorsed - each week. The employee carried his card around with him from employer to employer. But while he was in employment, it lived in the office.

References

Reference 1: The Theory of the Gene – Morgan, T. H. – 1926.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/09/some-history-of-science.html.

Reference 3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Hunt_Morgan. 

Reference 4: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/09/gemini-on-plaques.html.

Reference 5: https://www.uwgb.edu/. They do like to gush!

Reference 6: https://library.uwgb.edu/home.

Reference 7: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotifer.

Reference 8: https://www.thriftbooks.com/.

Reference 9: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horace_Silliman. Probably the right Silliman. I have not been able to work out the connection to the Philippines. Missionary work?

Reference 10: https://www.doordash.com/. Red seems to be their colour.

Reference 11: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2025/08/trolleys.html.

Reference 12: https://unitsalcohol.wordpress.com/about-the-units-of-alcohol-site/. A stumbleacross. Which looks like it might be more than an encyclopædiacal compendium of all the units in all the beers you could ever think of.