On 29 July at nine o’clock, Mr. Krumbhaar paid me a visit and afterward was kind enough to introduce me to Mr. Vaughan (pronounced “Wohn” [in German]), a secretary of the local learned society. Here in the building of the society, I found all kinds of literary resources combined. The atheneum is on the first floor, the library and collection of the Philosophical Society on the upper story. They have some fine works, for example, the most extensive one of all by Audubon, [others by] Catesby, Comte de Buffon, [and] Wilson, and several European ones; yet they lack very much, and this collection must be regarded as very incomplete. In another room they have displayed a collection of Mexican and Peruvian rarities, including several remarkable objects from graves, such as idols, ornaments, and the like. Here I made the acquaintance of Dr. Harlan, who was then very occupied with his cholera patients, among whom he had observed another severe case today. He owned a new variety of turtle, which he would have been glad to show me, but circumstances today were unsuitable. In no local bookstore have I been able to find any complete work on the amphibians of North America. Until my baggage arrives, I am thus completely without reference works.

I spent a very pleasant evening with Mr. Krumbhaar and his family. As he accompanied me home, there was a fire alarm. An alarm sounded from a belfry, and the bell indicated that the fire was toward the southwest. But this must have been a false alarm, since there was very intense lightning. The fire pumps here are in the best condition. Everyone immediately lends a hand, and the pumps were pulled past us at a very swift trot by sixty to eighty men who made a loud noise. The fire departments in Philadelphia are very good, the fire pumps very nice, the hoses very long and so equipped that one can always attach them to each other and in this way continue to lengthen them. Furthermore, in all the streets, the water from Fairmount immediately gushes and in such quantity that one can inundate the streets. During the night a heavy thunderstorm rumbled over Philadelphia. Thunder and lightning were severe. The air cooled off only a little, but the heavy rain had settled the dust for the following day.