Dear M^r. Darwin

I have this morning received your note. It would have arrived yesterday had it not been addressed to Queen Anne Street.¹

The Baly in whose memory the Medal was instituted was the Translator of Müllers Physiology. The donor of the Medal Fund is M^r. Dyster, a friend of Balys and a man much interested in physiology, though not himself a naturalist.²

The Medal bears the words “Ob physiologiam feliciter excultam”.³ It is given every other year. The last recipient was Ludwig, the previous one Bernard & the previous one Sharpey.⁴

If you feel that it w^d. be too fatiguing to attend at the College, it is not by any means indispensable that you should do so. Neither Bernard nor Ludwig were present. If you do come it will be a great pleasure to your friends. The only penalty that you would have to pay would be that of having to listen for an hour to the Harveian Orator. My neighbour D^r Pitman the Registrar of the College assures me that it could be easily arranged that you should come in at the end of the hour, in case you feel that this would be too fatiguing.⁵

It is not necessary (I again write on the authority of the Registrar) for the Medallist to say anything in acknowledgment. The Medal is presented immediately after the oration.

I may add that M^r Dyster has expressed his extreme gratification at the selection the College have made on the present occasion.

I am, Dear M^r Darwin | Yours truly | J B Sanderson