In 1910, researchers from the Oswaldo Cruz Institute and the British Museum collaborated on studies of tropical diseases.

Letter from the British Museum of Natural History to Dr. Carlos Jorge Rohr of the Oswaldo Cruz Institute. Two written pages. In English. 12.3 cm x 19.1 cm. London. February 15, 1910. Good condition.

(...) I take the great liberty to ask you if it were possible for you to spare a copy of your work on ticks "Estudos sobre Ixódidas do Brasil". I really don't know when to get it here in London. I think either the Instituto od Manguinhos or the Instituto Oswaldo Cruz have published one or two short papers on ticks. Would it be too much to ask you if it were easy to get them? (...)

The Oswaldo Cruz Institute, initially called the Manguinhos Institute and now known as the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, or Fiocruz, is a leading federal institution in public health research. Located in Rio de Janeiro, it was created in 1900 by Oswaldo Cruz (1872-1917), a scientist and physician specializing in research and treatment of tropical diseases. Initially focused on the production of serums and vaccines against plague, the Institute has become the most important science and technology institution in health in Latin America, respected internationally.

The British Museum of Natural History is a British museum founded in 1753, the first national public museum in the world. From the beginning, it has granted free entry to all "studious and curious persons". The number of visitors has grown from about 5,000 per year in the 18th century to almost 6 million today. The building has a large reading room where a number of illustrious writers , philosophers and scientists worked, for example, Charles Dickens and Karl Marx.

Carlos Jorge Rohr (1888 - 1951) was a bacteriologist who worked at the Oswaldo Cruz Institute and wrote "Studies on Ixodes of Brazil," entirely compiled at the Institute with the assistance of Oswaldo Cruz himself in the bibliography, observations, and research. We still have no information about the sender of this letter, Mr. "Jerzi," who was probably a scientist working on tropical diseases at the British Museum.

Why is this document rare?

This letter is very interesting because it shows the scientific collaboration between two of the largest scientific institutions of the time, the already important role of Brazil in world research, and the difficulty that scientists had – without internet or email – in obtaining books or articles from colleagues.

This document was donated by the Glórias Collection to the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) in Rio de Janeiro in October 2014.

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