Journey of a book.

Recently retrieved from the Monckton House basement in INM, and added to the catalogue of the Historic Collections Library, is the following small book: An account of a contagious fever, which occurred amongst the Danish and American prisoners of war at Chatham, in the years 1813, 1814. by Sir Wm. Burnett [...], Medical Commissioner of the Royal Navy. London: Burgess and Hill... , 1831. The book itself is rather insignificant, consisting of only 52 pages and bound in dull, rather stained, violet cloth, though the interior is clean and in good condition. It has, however, taken a very roundabout path to the Historic Collections, and accumulated several small mysteries on the way. To begin with, the book is Sir William Burnett's personal presentation copy, with his inscription "from the Author" to H Parkin. While one Henry H. Parkin submitted his M.D. thesis, "Inaugural dissertation on spasmodic cholera" to the medical faculty of the University of Edinburgh in 1834, it seems more likely that the recipient was the Henry Parkin who first appears in the Navy List in 1796. He was roughly contemporary with Sir William Burnett, perhaps a few years older, and was serving as a medical officer with the Royal Marines in 1834. By 1849 he had risen to Inspector of Hospitals and Fleets. His death is reported in the Navy List for June of that year, in the section "Officers whose Deaths have been officially reported since 20th March 1849". On the title page is the stamp of the Royal Marines Infirmary Library, Woolwich. This library was founded no earlier than 1855, and was in operation until the barracks transferred to the Army in 1869. Possibly the book was given or bequeathed to one of Henry Parkin's fellow medical staff in the Marines, before being presented to the Infirmary Library. After the closure of that library in 1869 History